Short history of British colonial policy

S INCE its first appearance in 1807 the late Professor Egerton's Short History of British Colonial Policy has passed through eight editions, and it may be said to have established itself as something of a classic in its field. When a ninth edition was required, and my advice was sought, it appeared clear to me that a mere reprint of the book or the annexing only of a new bibliography would do serious injustice to a pioneer work of sound historical scholarship which still, thirty-five years after its publication, holds an honoured place. In the second edition, published in 1908, Professor Egerton made some slight additions and alterations in the text, and to the fourth, appearing in 1914, he added a few titles in the bibliography. But otherwise the book stood as it had been written in 1897, before the beginning of the momentous changes in the British Empire that have marked the last generation. Much of the later part of the book was devoted rather to political and constitutional discussion than to history, and subsequent happenings have made most of these arguments entirely out of date. When I was asked to undertake the preparation of the new edition, I determined. therefore to prune away all but the purely historical parts, which give to the work its lasting value. In these I have endeavoured to make no alterations and they stand as the author wrote them; but I had to carry the story down to its culmination in the unification of South Africa and the rise of the Imperial Conference. For this I was able to borrow Professor Egerton's own method of treatment from his British Colonial Policy in the Twentieth Century, published in 1922, and thus to preserve the book, as far as possible, as the work of a single hand. I have striven to reduce my own additions to the text to mi but I have entirely re-written the appendices in order to increase their value to present-day students of Colonial History.