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As to the legislative power of the Crown in Colonies which are not self-governing , see further British Rule and Jurisdiction beyond the Seas , p. 95 . They forbade the existence of a common coinage ; they allowed any one canton to protect the financial interest of its citizens against competition by the inhabitants of every other canton . But it is idle to pretend that Ireland has ever desired federalism in the sense in which it was desired by the colonies which originally formed the United States , or by the inhabitants of what are now the provinces of the Canadian Dominion . War has its lessons which may be more impressive than the lessons , valuable as they always are , of peace . " The other set of rules consist of conventions , understandings , habits , or practices which , though they may regulate the conduct of the several members of the sovereign power , of the Ministry , or of other officials , are not in reality laws at all since they are not enforced by the Courts . Its object is to call attention to the fact that the rules which make up constitutional law , as the term is used in England , include two sets of principles or maxims of a totally distinct character . But , when every admission which the most ardent of Imperialists can ask for , is made of the benefits conferred in every quarter of the world upon the inhabitants of different countries , by the existence of England 's Imperial power , it is quite possible for a calm observer to doubt whether the so-called federalisation of the British Empire is an object which ought to be aimed at by the statesmen either of England or of the Dominions . To an Englishman who still holds , as was universally held by every English statesman till at the very earliest 1880 , that the union between England and Scotland was the wisest and most fortunate among the achievements of British statesmanship , there is great difficulty in understanding the new belief that the federalisation of the United Kingdom will confer benefit upon any of the inhabitants of Great Britain.106 A candid critic may be able to account for the existence of a political creed which he does not affect to share .