THE BRITAINS BEYOND THE SEAS.*
MR. WYATT TILBY has set himself an ambitious task, in the prosecution of which he should receive sympathy and encouragement. The famous advice to think Imperially needs to be supplemented by the even more important counsel to think historically, and the mere title of the book of which this volume is the first instalment affords a striking example of the change which has come over the conception of English history and the way in which it should be written. The author's object, as we gather from the preface, is nothing less than to trace the growth of the British Empire from its earliest beginnings down to the present day. He has made it his first principle "that no settlement of the English-speaking people overseas should be left unnoticed," and his second "that the actors in the great drama should as far as possible speak for themselves from the records they have left behind." But the course of events has forced him outside the limits of his title. He very properly decides that it is impossible to understand our Empire in India without some notice of the native . races • and of the Portuguese and Dutch explorers, or our history in America without saying something of the French and Spanish dominions that preceded, and for a long time overshadowed, the English Colonies. The story of South Africa is incomplete without the Dutch settlers, and even in Australia the aborigines played a part in the early days of the occupation which cannot be passed over. In theatrical' language, Mr. Tilby has a "full bill," and he brings to the work very considerable reading, a pleasant style, the gift of clear and orderly narration, and a sense of proportion which is too often lacking in undertakings of such magnitude. We do not much like the cross-headings that act as finger-posts to his pages ; they are too suggestive of modern journalism, and the old-fashioned inset would have served the same purpose. Nor can we regard " The Evolution of a Larger Synthesis" as a fortunate selection for the title of a chapter. The resources of the English language, we venture to think, are capable of grappling with Mr.. Tilby's idea. But in . the main point of arrangement and sub- division be leaves nothing to be desired, and he has packed, an enormous amount of well-sifted information into four. hundred
* The English People Overseas: a History. By
A. Wyatt Tilby. 3 voila:
and fifty pages, together with a liberal salting from the treasures of the English classics. The volume closes with the end of the world-struggle which lasted "from the day that Drake ventured into the charmed circle of the Indies till the day that Nelson drove the French out of Egypt and off the high seas." But the winning of Canada and the loss of the thirteen Colonies are reserved for the next part of the story, in which the real expansion of England and the rise of the self-governing dependencies are to be traced and illus- trated. If the later volumes maintain the standard of the first, the completed work should be of the utmost value to those who want the history of the Empire in moderate compass and attractive form.
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