There is a strict analogy
for that proceeding in the North America Act of 1867, which created the
Dominion of Canada. That Act joined together three provinces at first,
but left the door open for other provinces to come in. They have since
come in, one by one--all except the island of Newfoundland--until the
great federation of States which we now know as the Canadian Dominion
has been gradually built up.[44]
What follows from all this? Surely that a Home Rule Bill for Ireland
must be so framed as to render it a possible basis of a federal
Constitution in the near future. But if the Irish members were entirely
excluded from the British Parliament, as in 1886, then we should be
turning our backs on Federalism. The only analogy to such a
Constitution would be that of Austria-Hungary, where two countries are
united in one Government, but work through two Parliaments. Lord Morley
tells us that Mr. Parnell was very anxious to imitate in the 1886 Bill
the ingenious machinery of "Delegations," by which the relations of the
Austrian and Hungarian Parliaments combine for common affairs.[45]
There is much to be said for that machinery in Austria-Hungary,
strongly binding together two countries which must otherwise have
inevitably drifted asunder.
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