The Colonial Year - Book for 1892. By A. J. R. Trendell,
C.M.G. (Sampson Low, Marston, and Co.)-.This bulky compilation, of nearly eight hundred pages, attempts to give in narrative form the history and present condition of the British Colonies and Protectorates. It contains a mane of useful information as to their resources, commerce, and government ; but the information would be much more accessible, and the volume more useful as a book of reference, if the description of each Colony was divided into sections, and marked of by head-lines, as in such publica- tions as the "Statesman's Year-Book," and the "Colonial Office List." The introduction to the present edition is written by Mr. J. Henniker Heaton, and consists of a plea for Imperial Penny Postage, a proposal in which, in his opinion, "are perchance bound up the prosperity of commerce, the happi- ness of countless millions, and the safety of the Empire." The arguments in favour of the scheme are strongly urged in a series of letters written during the last two years to Lord Salisbury, Lord Knutsford, and Mr. Goschen. Leave not having been obtained to publish the replies of these Ministers, the reader is left to guess why this reform was not adopted by the late Govern- ment; but Mr. Heaton complains in his last letter that they had raised no definite objection to his scheme, but only mys- teriously "hinted at objections raised by the Post Office authori- ties." He evidently thinks that, if only these objections were openly declared, they could be easily met and demolished.
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