tand of
defence or opposition than was reasonable. For another ten years the
Canadian Pacific Railway remained, if not an issue in politics, itself
an active participant in politics. And its great weight thrown against
the Liberal party turned the scales more than once.

In every federal state the adjustment of the powers of the central and
of the local authorities gives occasion for much friction and
difference of opinion. In Canada this adjustment, though never-ending,
perhaps reached its climax in the eighties, when question after
question as to the rights of the provinces came up for discussion.

We are apt to forget how recent a development the modern federal state
is. Save for certain Latin-American countries, nominally federal, the
Dominion of Canada is the third oldest of such states; the United
States and {62} Switzerland alone are of longer standing. The
Austro-Hungarian Empire and the North German Federation were formed in
the same fateful year, 1867. There were, therefore, few models before
the framers of the constitution of Canada, and the marvel is that they
planned so wisely and so enduringly.

In determining what powers should be assigned to the Dominion and what
to the provinces, the Fathers of Confederation were led, by the
object-lesson which the Civil War in the United States afforded, to
give the central government more authority. To the Dominion they
assigned several fields of legislation which in the Republic fell to
the respective states; and the Dominion was made residuary legatee of
powers not specified. The central government, too, was given a right
of veto over all provincial laws and empowered to appoint the
lieutenant-governors of the provinces. Had Sir John Macdonald had his
way, centralization would have gone much further, for he would have
abolished the provincial governments entirely and set up a single
parliament for the whole country. Fortunately Cartier and Brown
prevented that unwieldy experiment from being tried.

Experience has shown that the central {63} government should have full
authority to deal with foreign affairs so far as they can be
differentiated, and should have a wide measure of control over commerce
and industry, which more and more are nation-wide in scope. But, this
secured, it has been found equally essential that the provinces should
be given wide power and responsibility. Fortunately Canada has only
nine provinces, as against forty-eight states