as furnished none for the reversal of that process. It is
only necessary to consider the reasons which, in various degrees,
influenced the several groups of independent Colonies in North America,
Australia, and South Africa to unite under a single government, whether
federal or unitary, thus wholly or partially surrendering the "Home
Rule" previously enjoyed by them, in order to see how close is the
parallel. The weak and scattered North American Colonies were at a
serious disadvantage in all political and commercial negotiations with
their powerful neighbour, the United States, a fact very clearly
emphasised by the termination of Lord Elgin's reciprocity treaty in
1864. None of them was in a position to deal with the vast territories
of the North-West, undeveloped by the Hudson's Bay Company, and in
imminent danger of American occupation. A common trade policy, a common
railway policy, and a common banking system were essential to a rapid
development of their great resources, and only a common government could
provide them. In Australia the chief factor in bringing about federation
was the weakness and want of influence of the separate Colonies in
dealing with problems of defence and external policy, impressed upon
them by German and French colonial expansion in the Pacific, and by the
growth of Japan. In South Africa, on the other hand, the factors were
mainly internal. The constant friction over railway and customs
agreements, continually on the verge of breaking down, embittered the
relations of the different Colonies and maintained an atmosphere of
uncertainty discouraging to commercial enterprise. Four different
governments dealt with a labour supply mainly required in one colony.
Four agricultural departments dealt with locusts and cattle plagues,
which knew no political boundaries, and which could only be stamped out
by the most prompt and determined action. Four systems of law and four
organisations for defence secured, as Lord Selborne pointed out in a
striking Memorandum (Blue Book Cd. 3564) a minimum of return for a
maximum of expense. A native rising in Natal warned South Africans that
the mistake of a single Colony might at any moment set the whole of
South Africa ablaze with rebellion. In the absence of larger issues
local politics in each Colony turned almost exclusively on the racial
feud. A comprehensive union alone could bring commercial stability and
progressive development, mitigate race hatred, and p