CONTENTS. The Growing Powers of the President Labor Conditions in Switzerland The Superintendent from the Primary Teacher's Point of View, "Tabloid Journalism": Its Causes and Effects The Boer War: a Study in Comparative Prediction The Nations in Competition at the Close of the Century The Preliminary Report of the Isthmian Canal Commission ALDACE F. WALKER 131 The Radical Movement in the Democratic Party Bonds of Foreign Governments as American Investments, The Lighting of Railway Cars The Negative Side of Modern Athletics Events of the Dramatic Season A New Class of Labor in the South Sheep and the Forests How London was Saved The Spoiled Parent The Latest Stage of Library Development. The Negro and Our New Possessions Some Chinese Traits. . The Forum MARCH, 1901. BRITISH RULE IN THE DOMINION OF CANADA. I PROPOSE in the present paper to review, as succinctly as possible, the constitutional position of Canada within the British Empire. In other words, I shall attempt to explain, not in legal but in popular form, the exact nature of the relations between the parent State and her great dependency, and the delicate machinery by which the supremacy of the imperial State has been made, in the course of half a century, to work harmoniously with the complete system of self-government which already places Canada in the influential position of a semi-independent nation. It is now a historical fact that the misunderstandings which severed the old Thirteen Colonies from Great Britain more than a century ago, and even precipitated insignificant revolts in the old Canadian provinces sixty years later, have been entirely removed under the influence of a judicious policy which confers on Canadians a system of responsible or local free government, in the fullest sense of the phrase, and gives her at the same time a position of real weight in imperial councils. As a logical sequence of this wise condition of things, the Canadian provinces are no longer a source of irritation and danger to the parent State; but, possessing full independence in all matters of local concern, they are now among the chief sources of England's pride and greatness. The Canadian Confederation has now been governed for more than three decades by an imperial statute known as The British North America Act of 1867. This fundamental law of the Dominion sets forth its territorial divisions, defines the nature of the executive author Copyright, 1900, by The Forum Publishing Company. |