Selected Speeches and Documents in British Colonial Policy, 1763- 1917.
Edited by A. B. Keith. 2 vols. (H. Milford. 4s. net.)— These two little volumes in the "World's Classics " contain a well-chosen series of speeches and documents illustrating the growth of responsible government in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa ; the nature of Dominion rights in regard to foreign affairs ; and Imperial and Dominion opinions on Imperial unity. It begins with the Royal Proclamation of 1703 extending English law to Quebec ; the Quebec Act of 1774, which reversed that Proclamation, restored French law, and gave complete toleration to Roman Catholics ; and the celebrated judgment of Lord Mansfield in " Campbell v. Hall," which decided that the Crown, having once granted legislative institutions to a Colony, could not of its own volition undo the grant—though the Jamaican Assembly in 1866 voluntarily surrendered its powors to the Crown. The selection ends with Sir Wilfrid Laurier's fine speech of 1914, supporting the proposal to send a Canadian Army to our help, with the Paris economic resolutions of 1916, and with some of the chief speeches at the Imperial War Conference of last year. It is an excellent book, well edited and well indexed, which should be widely read.
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