The History of the Australian Colonies. By Edward Jenks, M.A.
(Cambridge University Press.)—This handy and admirable volume, which forms one of the "Cambridge Historical Series," edited by Mr. G. W. Prothero, will be found of great service to the latter-day political student. It is most desirable, especially at the present time, that Englishmen and Colonists alike should consult such a work as this of Mr. Jenks, who, unlike most of our constitutional authorities, has had the advantage of spending some years of his professional life in one of our great self-govern- ing Colonies. The book, as we have indicated, is intended for the student rather than for the casual reader, who will continue to pick up his odd bits of misinformation from the popular Press. Mr. Jenks does not furnish the reader with a mere flowing narra- tive of the rise and progress of the Australian Colonies, but, an
in his larger work, "The Government of Victoria," he treats, in the spirit of a constitutional lawyer, on such subjects as re- sponsible Government in Colonial communities, and on the relations of such communities to the mother-country. It is noticeable that though Mr. Jenks, like the late Mr. Charles Pearson, is an English Professor who has returned to this country after some years of Colonial experience, he writes with a warm and hearty appreciation of all that is best in the young demo- cratic communities where it is popularly supposed that men of learning and research are so ill-requited.
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