( 260 ) 

 THE BRITISH COLONIES.' 



OF the importance of her colonial possessions to the British em- 

 pire, there cannot be two opinions. It is true that Great Britain, 

 considered merely in its geographical extent, contains in itself the 

 elements of much moral greatness ; but it is an equally admitted, 

 because undeniable fact, that but for our colonial possessions, this 

 country could never have acquired that influence, and importance, 

 and glory in the eyes of the world which have, by the universal 

 consent of other nations, been conceded to her. Our colonies are, in 

 a great measure, the sources of our riches and of our power ; and just 

 in proportion as they, through misgovernment or other causes, are 

 suffered to decline, will the reputation of this country diminish and 

 its wealth disappear. 



We doubt if the value and importance of our colonies be suffi- 

 ciently appreciated by the great body of our legislators. Judging 

 from many of the measures which Parliament has lately passed, with 

 regard to our distant possessions, as well as the language which has 

 been made use of by many of the senators when referring to them, 

 one would certainly be justified in concluding that there are many 

 of our legislators so deplorably ignorant of the elements of the na- 

 tional greatness, as to look on our colonies as so many excrescences, 

 rather than as essential parts of the body politic. 



It is high time, if not for their own, at least for the community's 

 sake, that these superficially informed politicians should be unde- 

 ceived. And we do not know any more likely means of improving 

 their legislative vision than an attentive perusal of Mr. Montgomery 

 Martin's work on the colonies. That work is now only in the course 

 of publication ; but if the remaining three volumes are equal to the 

 two which have already appeared, we hesitate not to say that they 

 will not only afford the most ample and complete account of the 

 British colonies hitherto published, but that, without any formal or 

 intended effort for that purpose, they will at the same time clearly 

 unfold the incalculable importance of those colonies to the mother 

 country. 



Mr. Martin's first volume is chiefly devoted to the East India pos- 

 sessions : his second exclusively treats of our West India colonies. On 

 both the Indies a great deal has already been written. We have 

 " histories," te tours," journeys," " residences," " recollections," and 

 we know not what else, in the greatest abundance, on each of the 

 Indies. Still no work has hitherto been written on either which was 

 at once ample and correct in its details. We have risen from the 

 perusal of each as ignorant on many points as when we sat down. 

 It were too much to say that Mr. Martin has left nothing further to 

 communicate, either as respects his volume on our Eastern posses- 



* History of the British Colonies. Vols. I. and II. East and West Indies. 

 By Robert Montgomery Martin, Esq., F.P.S. James Cochrane and Co. 



