g FEDERAL POLITY
split up into two or more unite with the definite object
of forming a federal union among them. This actually
happened in the case of Canada:in the year 1867 when the
Union of Canada was split into two provinces (the province
of Quebec and the province of Ontario) and the British
North America Act was passed establishing' a federal gov-
ernment in that Colony.* And the process has got to bo the
same if it is decided to establish a federation in British
India. So that the tendency that creates or may create a
federation is not only aggregative but also disruptive in i!,s
natui'e according as the centripetal or centrifugal for cos ure
stronger.
Federation is, therefore, the creation of a sacral con-
tract to which the federating states are parties. By ontoring1
into this contract the parties definitely loso u part of
their independence, but in return they got the benefits
which attend such a combination. Thus " the name of
Federal Government may, in this wider sense, bo applied to
any union of component members, where the dogroo of
union between the members surpasses that of mere nllianco,
however intimate, and where the degree of independence
possessed by each member surpasses anything which can
fairly come under the head of merely municipal froedom/'J
It should, however, be mentioned that under a federal
form of Government the central, the more properly speak-
ing the national, Government co-exists with the various
Governments of the states that compose the federation*
*The following words in the Bcsolution passed by South African Capo
House of Assembly are interesting in this connection. u And an it may IKS
expedient that the Colony should be divided into three or more Provincial
Governments for the management of their domestic affairs, formod into u,
Federative Union under a general Government for the iminiyrnmtmt. of affairs
affecting the interest and relations oC the United Colony,., „" IleHolutloa
appointing a Commission of Inquiry, passed on 0 June, 1871, Hew ton* * TJio
Unification of South Africa,' Vol. 1, p, 12.
freeman,{History of federal QtoYsrnmentS)* Vol. I, p. 8,