Biitish North America, 1763 - 1867. By A. Wyatt Tilby. (Con- stable
and Co. 6s. net.)—This is the third volume of the series which bears the title of " The English People Overseas." In the first we had the story of the American Colonies up to 1763; in the second that of India up to 1828. Australasia, Britain in the Tropics, and South Africa are to be the subjects of volumes yet to come. In the book now before us two things stand out as possessing special interest : the causes which led to the quarrel between the Mother Country and the American Colonies and the development of the Canada of to-day. As to the first, it is instruc- tive to see that the real question in dispute was whether the Colonies should pay their share of the cost of national defences It seems reasonable enough that therhhould, while things to which they submitted, as the forcible exclusion of some of their products from English markets, seem wholly unreasonable. But in those days no one except stray doctrinaires here and there doubted that trade restrictions were all right. The question of contributions to national defence have again become prominent, nor are ther wanting signs of the old way of answering it. But, on the whole the attitude of all parties is far more reasonable. After all said, we are moving on. The narrative of Canadian development is even more interesting ; it is not, we may say, yet finished, but it is the duty of every citizen to make himself acquainted with it as far as it has gone, and no better help can be found than this volume gives. There is other valuable matter in it, as, for instance, an excellent summary of the War of Independence. Among the lessons which we may learn from the study not the least valuable is this, the less we have to do with tariffs the better.
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