CHAP. I] THE UNITY OF THE EMPIRE 1459 
in The Kingdom of Canada and The Kingdom Papers! lays 
stress on what appears to him the inevitable development 
of Canada as a kingdom united to Great Britain merely by 
the tie of a common Sovereign and by cordial goodwill. 
He insists that Canada is already entitled to that position, 
and he protests against the maintenance, even in theory, of 
the power of disallowance of Canadian Acts, of the supremacy 
of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, of the retention 
in the hands of the Imperial Government of the power of 
concluding even political and extradition treaties, and of the 
fact that the issues of war and peace lie in the hands of the 
Imperial Parliament. He justly recognizes that the powers 
of disallowance and of Imperial legislation are little used, and 
he insists on the fact that for all practical purposes, though 
technically Canada is at war with any power with which the 
Mother Country is at war, nevertheless it rests with Canada 
to determine whether she will take any active part in such 
war, and that if Canada chooses to remain neutral no power 
would be likely to attack it. It is interesting to compare 
with this view the proposal made in the first report of the 
Royal Commission on Federal Union in Victoria in 1870, 
which proposed that the right of treaty-making should be 
given to the Australian Colonies, and that the Imperial 
Government should secure for them a position as neutral 
states which would not be involved in war by the action of 
Great Britain through their being under the same Crown. 
That report never resulted in any action, and the public 
opinion of the day condemned the proposal as visionary, nor 
is it likely that Australia can ever obtain the same position 
of independence which Canada de facto now enjoys, in part 
no doubt owing to its vicinity to the United States and the 
protection of the Monroe doctrine. 
Another consequence would follow from the recognition 
of the equality in all respects of the Dominions with the 
Mother Country, and one for which perhaps the Dominions 
He resents the fact that the title desired by Sir John Macdonald was 
given up in deference to American susceptibilities. For a curious argument 
from the name to the status of the Dominion, see 27 S. C. R. 461, at p. 492.