FACULTY PUBLICATIONS

The Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, Commonly Known as the Board of Trade, 1748-1782, by Arthur Herbert Basye. Yale University Press, New Haven, 1925.

In Professor Basye's recently published volume we have a minute and painstaking study of the development and institutional characteristics of the British Board of Trade from 1748, when the Earl of Halifax took his seat as president, to 1782, when the body was abolished. The years in question constituted a period of profound significance in the history of the British imperial system; and while the study is not intended primarily as a contribution to American colonial history, it is this aspect of the subject which will probably be of most interest to readers on this side of the Atlantic. The Board of Trade and Plantations was created in 1696 for the purpose of developing the colonies in the interests of the mother country. As time went on, the body devoted less attention to matters of trade and relatively more to the consideration of administrative questions relating to the "plantations." The functions of the Board were largely advisory and it exercised no real authority. As a result of its somewhat anomalous position, its history was marked by many vicissitudes, especially between 1748-1782. Its relations with the ministerial departments were vague and became the occasion for much, misunderstanding and working at cross purposes. The history of these relations constitutes the main thread of the discussion, although there is much additional information concerning the membership of the Board, its functions in theory and practice, and its methods of transacting business.

Since the Board dealt largely with questions of colonial administration, many interesting sidelights are thrown upon the circumstances which led to the American Reolution. In this connection, Professor Basye's volume successfully meets one of the severest tests of a wellconstructed historical monograph. The facts submitted are of such a character that the reader cannot escape drawing certain very significant conclusions. In other words, the facts suggest their own interpretations. One is impressed by the ineffectiveness of the imperial administrative machinery, by delays in the transaction of important business, by the failure of the Board, in many instances, to grasp the essentials of vital questions of policy, and by its unfortunate lack of power, even in those instances where it did show a flash of genius in its grasp of important problems. One feels that British politicians and statesmen were infinitely more concerned with problems of place and preferment than with the welfare of the provinces overseas. The efforts of a conscientious and painstaking president were usually thwarted in a maze of party and factional politics. The evidence presented reveals only too clearly the attitude of mind in which a succession of British ministries heaped up blunders which led to war with the colonies. Professor C. M. Andrews, in discussing this subject, recently observed, "Ministers were not true statesmen; they had no policies,, no future hopes, no spirit of advance, no gifts of foresight or prophecy." The present volume contains ample evidence for such a conclusion.

In short, it is in such careful and painstaking institutional studies as the one before us that we find a basis for those generalizations which may be regarded as the ultimate purpose of history. The final chapter mentions a number of new problems suggested by the author's researches among the vast collections of documents in the British Museum and the Public Record Office in London. It is to.be hoped that Professor Basye may some day find it possible to make new contributions in the field in which he has already done such useful work.

"Problems in Education at Dartmouth" by President Ernest Martin Hopkins appears in the issue of the Boston Everting Transcript for January 13, 1926. "Scholastic Colonies, Address Delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Dartmouth \Alumni Association of Boston January 30, 1926" by President Ernest Martin Hopkins has been published in pamphlet form.

"Studies in Rhetoric and Public Speaking in Honor of James Albert Winans by Pupils and Colleagues" has been published by the Century Company as a volume of 299 pages. The edition was limited to 400 numbered copies. The dedication of this volume to Professor Winans, now on the Dartmouth faculty reads: "To James Albert Winans upon his completion of a quarter of a century of teaching, during which period, by his work in college class rooms, by his writings, and by his personal qualities, he has exercised a benificent leadership in the field of academic instruction in public speaking, this book is offered by his pupils and colleagues." This volume contains eleven papers by former pupils of Professor Winans, one of which is "A Psychological View of Argumentation" by Professor W. E. Utterback of the Dartmouth faculty. The presentation of the book to Professor Winans was made at the annual dinner of the National Association of Teachers of Speech at its convention held at the Hotel McAlpin, New York City during the Christmas recess.

The November-December number of the American Review contains an article by A. C. White "Literary Infanticide", a review of James Steven's Paul Bunyan.

The New York Herald Tribune Books for November 29, 1925 contains a review by Professor Malcolm Willey of "Means of Social Control" by Frederick E. Lumley.