Lord Jersey assumed office on the 15th of January 1891, and a few weeks afterwards the conference to consider the question of federating the Australian colonies was held at Sydney, and the great strike, which at one time had threatened to paralyse the trade of the colony, came to an end.
There was also an early attempt to federate the South African colonies, and an act was passed for that purpose (South African Act 1877), but it expired on the 18th of August 1882, without having been brought into effect by the sovereign in council; in 1908, however, the Closer Union movement (see Sout13 Africa) ripened, and in 1909 a federating Act was successfully passed.
On that date the delegates reassembled in Sydney, and debated the bill in the light of the suggestions made by the legislatures of the federating colonies.
Under the auspices of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious he initiated a scheme for federating into one great order, with himself as abbot general, all the monasteries of Charles's empire, and for enforcing throughout a rigid uniformity in observance.
About 519 the resistance of Plataea to the federating policy of Thebes led to the interference of Athens on behalf of the former; on this occasion, and again in 507, the Athenians defeated the Boeotian levy.
