course of his official work. He began with some notes on colonial questions, worked hard at them for several months, and hoped and believed that they would be ready for the press by the end of 1899. The nine chapters of which the book was to consist were, in fact, complete at that time. But they naturally required careful examination before they could be safely entrusted to the printers, and I undertook their revision, with the help of Mr. Graham-Harrison, who had assisted Jenkyns in their preparation. Whilst this work was in progress the Act which established the Australian Commonwealth became law. It seemed impossible to ignore an event of such cardinal importance in the colonial world, but any adequate reference to it involved drastic alterations in the chapter on Selfgoverning Colonies. The perspective had been changed; the proportions allotted to different parts of the subject required shifting; details about the constitution of the Colonies which had now become States of the new Commonwealth could be more appropriately relegated to an appendix. This being so, it was considered desirable to rewrite the chapter, and this task was entrusted to Mr. J. A. Simon. For Chapter IV in its present form he is exclusively responsible, although it is partly based on the materials supplied by Sir Henry Jenkyns. In the other chapters I have made only such verbal and formal alterations as would have been made by the author, if he had had an opportunity of revising his proof sheets. Such few additions as I have made are indicated by square brackets. The title of the book had not been settled, and it was necessary to find something which would include not only Colonies and Dependencies, but Protectorates and the exercise of British Jurisdiction in foreign countries. I hope that the title eventually selected sufficiently indicates the scope of the work. C. P. ILBERT. 3 WHITEHALL GARDENS, February, 1902. 99 148 COLONIAL LAWS VALIDITY ACT, 1865 MR. SCOTT HOPE'S MEMORANDUM ON BRITISH BRITISH RULE AND JURISDICTION BEYOND THE SEAS CHAPTER I CLASSES OF TERRITORIES UNDER BRITISH JURISDICTION THE Countries or communities outside the United Kingdom, within which British jurisdiction is exercised, may be classed under three heads: (1) British possessions ; (2) British protectorates; (3) Countries or communities outside those possessions and protectorates. What is now termed a sphere of influence is a portion of a non-Christian or uncivilized country, which is the subject of diplomatic arrangements between European states, but has not yet developed into a protectorate. It comes, therefore, under the third head. Countries or communities under the first two heads are both in a sense dependencies of the United Kingdom, though some of the self-governing colonies will hardly come within the meaning of dependency as used by Sir George Cornewall Lewis 1. It is preferable, therefore, to use the popular, and to some extent technical, expressions, British possession' and 'protectorate,' rather than an expression like dependency, to which authors have hitherto attached different special meanings. JENKYNS 1 Lewis, Gov. Dep. (ed. by Lucas), p. 4, and note A. B CH. I. Classes of areas. CH. I. British possessions. Colonies. Bound aries of possessions. 'British possession' is recognized by a recent Act1 as being the technical legal term for every part of the King's dominions outside of the United Kingdom, which forms a separate community, and has a local legislature of its own, but the Act goes on to explain that where several communities, each of which has a local legislature of its own, are under a common central legislature, the expression' British possession' is to be treated as including all those communities as if they were one community. Thus a British possession may consist of a country which, if it were not part of the British dominions, would be by itself an empire with dependencies, such as British India, or of a federation of states, such as the Dominion of Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia and the Leeward Islands. 'Colony' is now a term used, both technically in Acts of Parliament and popularly, to include every British possession except the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, and British India. It thus includes not merely communities formally declared to be colonies, but those which used to be termed plantations, islands, territories, settlements, dominions, forts, or factories, and in fact, with the above exceptions, includes every community outside the United Kingdom which is part of the British dominions, whether acquired by settlement or by conquest or cession. As above pointed out, a country like Canada, which, if not under the British Crown, would be a federation of states, forms one single colony, just as does the little community of the Falkland Islands. And the self-governing colonies, the distinction of which from Crown colonies is pointed out below*, approach the position of independent states. As a general rule, the British dominions cannot be added to or diminished without the consent of the Crown. Whether 'Interpretation Act, 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c. 63), s. 18. 2 See ibi, s. 3. 3 As to the meaning and derivation of colony, see Lewis, Gov. Dep., pp. 114, 168 E, 174; Adam Smith, Bk. iii. ch. vii. part i. See pp. 7 seq., and ch. v. pp. 98, 99. |