The Caribbean Confederation. By C. S. Salmon. (Cassell and Co.)—In
this volume the author has urged, to the utmost of his power, an ideal plan, the union of the fifteen West Indian Colonies. He sketches first the history of the African race, in their home and in their land of bondage ; and then analyses their treatment and the outcome of their contact with a dominant race, summing up with the present condition of the race, dating from the abolition of slavery. Then comes a tremendous onslaught on Mr. Fronde and his work, The English in the West Indies, an onslaught which, we must confess, though fierce and angry, is yet able, and made effective with many a heavy blow and strong thrust. The point which he argues, and we think proves, is that Mr. Fronde went to the " West Indies " with a judgment already formed, and that his hurried visit did not give him time to substantiate it, though it enabled him to surround it with a setting of rare descriptive power. The writer, after demolishing Mr. Fronde, complains bitterly of the inadequacy and mismanagement of the Government, owing to a policy which prevails, unfortunately, elsewhere, that of entrusting to politicians the care of colonies unknown, unthought of, and unseen by them. Whether or not the amount of Home- rule recommended in a Caribbean Confederation would work satisfactorily, or would end in perpetual jealousies and bickerings, is doubtful ; and it is certainly not for us to say. A map and sketch of the various colonies and their trade will show some of the grounds on which the writer rests his plan and its feasibility. As a plan it is interesting, and as an expression of West Indian feeling it is instructive.
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