The account of the constitution of the Federal Council for
Australia, received by this mail, is far more full than the sketches by telegraph. In the Bill forwarded to the Colonial Office for submission to Parliament, the Council is authorised to appoint and pay any officers it may find necessary, all its expenditure being defrayed in the first instance by the colony
in which it is incurred, and afterwards by a contribution from all the Colonies. The regulations of the Council override all local laws, and its representations upon matters of general Australasian interest will be made to the Home Government direct. The area of power allowed to the Council is, moreover, larger than was reported, as it will control all foreign policy in the Pacific, all defences, and practically all immigration, patent laws, copyright laws, "and any other matter of general Australasian interest with respect to which the Legislatures of the several Colonies can legislate within their own limits, and as to which it is deemed desirable that there should be a law of general application." There is, however, a check placed upon the Council of which we have as yet heard nothing. The acts of the Council upon most subjects will not be binding upon Colonial; which have not invited those acts, or which have not subse- quently agreed to accept them. That provision will prove a source of weakness, and we imagine that either the whole Bill will be redrawn in the Colonial Office, or that a power of extend- ing its own functions, with the assent of a majority of the Colonies, will be vested in the Council.
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