As far greater interest is now being taken in Empire
history, we may hope that there will be many readers to welcome the Select Documents on British Colonial Policy, 1830-1860, edited by Mr. Kenneth G. Bell and Mr. W. P. Merrell (Clar- endon Press, 25s.). This admirable collection, taken ' from Blue-books, public archives, and private papers, such as those of Earl Grey, shows how earnestly administrators and poll- ticians, here and in the colonies, strove to solve the new problems that arose in the Reform. era, when our fiscal policy was being changed and the colonies were rapidly growing in population and wealth. Self-government, colonization, trans- portation, commercial policy, slavery, and native policy are the main heads under which the documents are arranged. The attentive reader will, we think, be impressed by the evident desire of the much-abused Colonial Office to deal fairly with the colonies, and to study their interests, even if the mother country were inconvenienced by the action taken. More than once we see that the Colonial Office, taking a long view, benefited the colonies in spite of themselves. One instance is that of the Crown lands in New South Wales. If the colonists of the 'forties had had their way, the lands would have been sold at absurdly low prices and all the ultimate . profit would have gone to a few shrewd speculators. Sir George Gipps, the Governor, had tbe courage and wisdom to refuse to sell, in spite of the local Council, and his despatch of 1844, giving his reasons, is one of the most instructive documents in this valuable hook.
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