652 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [parr 1v
other hand, it has been held by the High Court of the Com-
monwealth! that the powers conferred on Governors by
the Fugitive Offenders Act, 1881, are still conferred upon the
Governors of the states, and that the Legislature and the
Executive of the Commonwealth are only a central body
in the sense in which it excludes subordinate bodies when
the Legislature of the Commonwealth has power to legislate,
and perhaps only when it has done so. It is perfectly true
that the provinces retain many powers and a wide sphere of
operations, and they can often be regarded as illustrating
the principles of the law affecting responsible government,
but their position is one of infinitely greater theoretic in-
feriority to the Dominion than that of the States of the
Commonwealth ; it is another matter whether the practical
difference is so great as the theoretical 2
In the constitution of the Senate of the Dominion it was
contemplated providing some protection for the interests
of the provinces as such. Accordingly the Dominion was
divided into three sections, Ontario, Quebec, and the
Maritime Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, each
with twenty-four members. It was added also that the
number should be left the same if Prince Edward Island
were added, but increased if the Colony of Newfoundland
came into federation. Then the Imperial Act of 1871
authorized the addition of members for the new provinces,
and there are now in all eighty-seven members, including
four each for Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, and
three for British Columbia, the territories outside the
provincial area not being represented in the Senate. In
the case of the House of Commons the plan adopted was
to fix the number at sixty-five for Quebec and then to fix
! McKelvey v. Meagher, 4 C. L. R. 265,
* The Canadian Government often refuses to forward provincial repre-
sentations to the Imperial Government. Thus the desire of British
Columbia in 1907-8 for an Imperial Commission to inquire as to Asiatic
immigration was never sent home for consideration. On the other hand,
the resolutions of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly of February 1894 as
to the abolition of the Upper House were sent home without comment
(cf. House of Assembly Journals, 1894, App. No. 17).
