This first volume of a projected four-volume set details the impressive record of eight hundred years of English (later British) imperial rule. The editors have assembled the earliest documentary evidence necessary for a fundamental understanding of the priorities, devices, and frustrations in the British imperial experience. The documents balance the ideas, policies, and actions emanating from England with those evolving in the various colonies. This juxtaposition emphasizes the similarity of the problems experienced by the individual colonies. The documents also illustrate the relationship between constitutional developments and ideas in Britain, in individual colonies, and in the empire as a whole.

This volume--the fifth in a series providing key documents for the constitutional history of the British Empire and Commonwealth from the twelfth century to the twentieth--deals with those dependencies of the Crown where for various reasons it was considered premature to concede fully representative, let alone responsible, government, and also with Ireland where the union with Britain made in 1800 was coming under increasing strain. It covers the years from 1840 to 1900, in parallel with the companion volume IV which dealt with the four main settler colonies. The documents in this volume illustrate the ways in which Britain attempted to devise forms of government it was thought would be, at least in the short term, more suitable for dependencies which had few British settlers who might successfully operate a representative system--and where the majority of indigenous peoples needed protection against such a minority. There was, however, a desire that such colonies should be as self-governing and self-sufficient as possible, but a commitment to trusteeship operated against any rule-of-thumb concession of the sort of constitutions granted contemporaneously to settler colonies. The first section of this volume focuses on British imperial authority and the means whereby it attempted to exercise supervision over the scattered parts of the dependent empire (the so-called British settlements; protectorates under extra-territorial jurisdiction; the use of chartered companies). India is the subject of the second section: documents are here included illustrating the transfer of power from a chartered company back to the Crown and the hesitant moves toward quasi-representation on the Indian councils. A third section is concerned with the collapse of the old representative system in the West Indian colonies and the experiment with a responsive government in Jamaica. The fourth section shows what happened to the original Crown colonies and to new ones acquired in this period, together with adjacent spheres of influence and protectorates. There is then a section dealing with a group of special cases--the Ionian Islands, Cyprus, and Egypt, while the final section deals with the unique problems of Ireland and the attempts made to devolve a measure of internal self-government on John Bull's other Island to appease growing nationalist and inter-sectarian tensions.

As the previous volumes in this series have shown, Britain's system of unfederal government had, by 1840, passed a cultural crossroads. There had been a parting of the ways in which the old representative system that had provided rule for colonies (including those in America and the Caribbean) in earlier centuries was being superseded. In this fourth volume Madden and Fieldhouse focus on those colonies in North America, Australasia, and South Africa where British subjects had settled in considerable numbers, and where the restrictions of the old system had been outgrown and representative and responsible government was developing toward full self-government. This fourth volume illustrates the larger themes in the evolution of self-government in these colonies. The book examines the theme of self-government through four separate sections. Section I approaches the issue from the British viewpoint, surveying diverse concepts of the empire, the changes in imperial institutions, and attitudes toward trade, defense, and legal uniformity. Section II examines the evolution of, and later developments in, responsible government in these settled colonies, and Section III looks at the extension of self-government beyond the confines of internal domestic affairs. Finally, Section IV concentrates on the experiments in federal government among the contiguous groupings of colonies in North America, Australasia, and South Africa. The book also includes a preface with background and historical data, a note on primary and secondary sources, a listing of Secretaries of State from 1839 to 1903, and a comprehensive index. As with all the books in this series, this volume will be an important reference sourcefor courses in British history as well as in the history of colonization. It will also be a valuable addition to university, research, and public libraries.

This collection of documents presents an enlightening picture of the colonial government of the British Commonwealth during the Second British Empire. Using numerous original documents, with preference given to those not previously published or readily available, the editors have delineated the major themes of the period from 1763 to 1840.