30 APRIL 1910, Page 54

Acts of the Privy Council : Colonial Series, Vol. II.

Edited by W. L. Grant, M.A., and James Munro, M.A. (Wyman and Sons. 108.)- We have here the proceedings of what in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries stood for the Colonial Office of to-day during the years 1680-1720. The interest of the entries is very wide, domestic matters being not unfrequently complicated with Colonial. Thus under date July '7th, 1680, we find William King, Bristol Surveyor of Customs, authorised to destroy all tobacco planted in the counties of Worcester, Gloucester, &c., and a letter to the Earl of Oxford begging him to lend a troop of horse to help. In 1604 one John Gray is paid for destroying tobacco planted near Bristol. There are other similar entries.