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CHAPTER VIII. CONFEDERATIONS. § 2O6. ANOTHER form of governments having a composite struc- kinds ture and of great importance can be comprised of confederation. under the term confederations, or federal gov- ernments. There is a difficulty in drawing a line between this class of governments, and unions which are less close and have little or no central authority able to control the members. An agreement between two neighboring states — \ve will suppose them for the present to be small communi- ties — may relate to a particular action, as a resistance to a common neighbor of greater power than belongs to either of them, or to a number of actions of the same kind, such as continued intercourse, like buying and selling in each other's markets, and crossing each other's territories, which rest on the faith of treaties. Agreements of the first of these descrip- tions cease when the action which they contemplate ceases ; those of the other class are made either for a term of years, or have no limitation. Or, again, there may be leagues of two or more such states for purposes of mutual defence intended for all time, with a specification of the duties which are to be performed when the casus fcederis arises. This league takes from the freewill of each, in a certain contingency, the power of acting as it otherwise might, but the parties may be in other respects entirely separate from one another, The agreement is then of the international sort. They may not even give and receive the rights of commercial intercourse. Here, then, as yet there is no federal government, although