deed it is more true of the United States races, than of any other in the World that their first best Country ever is at home.

They will live friendly or fight with any people for profits sake. Long before I heard of this proposal of General Santa Aña's the impression was gaining strength in my mind that some intrigue was ripening at Washington (on the Potomac) for I had good reason to believe that there had been personal Communications between General Almonte, General Hamilton, Mr. Tyler and Mr. Calhoun, during last Autumn. Revolving the probable subject of that intercourse in my mind, it has sometimes occurred to me (and there is nothing in this proposal to disturb the surmize) that a formal and temporary reannexation of Texas to Mexico might be one of the proposed devices, and thereupon after some decent length of time, a renewal of General Jackson's Negociation for the purchase of Texas from Mexico.

That might be a convenient mode enough of adjusting United States Claims on Mexico, without any transfer of funds, and perhaps it might be made more palatable to Mexico by proposing to pay a few more Million than General Jackson had offered. The Mexicans would perhaps be instructed by such advisers that this course would save appearances, and give them a handsome Salvage out of what was lost to them for ever, and their own aversion to have a Neighbour with a liberal Commercial policy would possibly help at the scheme. You are a much better judge of the probability of these speculations than myself, but entertaining no doubt at all of the answers of the Cabinet at Washington on the subject, I have thought it convenient to submit them to you. Considering the shape that this Matter has now assumed, (from the point of view that I regard it, and with such means and opportunities of forming a judgment as are within my reach) I cannot help thinking that Her Majesty's Government would regard a renewal of this futile Contest, always pregnant with more risk of inconvenient complication with the United States than there are any safe means of estimating, With great dissatisfaction General Santa Aña has now proposed a concession of all practical hold over the Country, and it will scarcely be agreeable to Her Majesty's Government to learn that a struggle has been reopened for a matter of form.

On the other hand you will know much better than I, how the

intelligence would be received in London that affairs here had been adjusted upon General Santa Aña's present scheme; a scheme effectually breaking up existing arrangements, and leaving behind the certainty of renewed and more serious complications. By late papers from England I observe that Her Majesty's and the French Governments have recently joined in a Note to the Republic of Monte Video, and Buenos Ayres saying in effect, that they might suit their own convenience about making a peace, but that it was necessary they should keep the peace. And I hope you will pardon me for expressing the wish that you may now think yourself in a situation to request the Mexican Government to suspend hostilities, and recommend me to say the like to this Government for such a length of time as might enable you to learn the pleasure of Her Majesty's Government upon this turn of affairs.

In my mind it is a scheme amounting, in few words, to nothing less than a swamping of this Country's Independence. And all the military and other arrangements, present and prospective, depending upon it, for the better convenience of the United States. They would be what General Houston calls the "beneficiaries" of such a solution. It is of course impossible that General Santa Aña can have any such thought or purpose as this last, but with deference, it seems hard to reconcile his entire earnestness in these proposals with any moderate degree of knowledge of character of these people, or of the circumstances connected with their situation

In every way that I regard this subject, looking at it from here, (but your point of view and experience will at once enable you to arrest any misconception into which I have fallen) it certainly seems to me important that there should be a complete pause, till you can receive Notice of the views of Her Majesty's Government. After the present turn of affairs shall be known in that quarter

We learn here that the two Texian Men of War are to get to Sea immediately from New Orleans, but the President privately assured me that the Commodore had orders to give up the Command of the Squadron for repeated disobedience of Instructions, and for a most unwarrantable interference in the affairs of Yucatan and Mexico. He shewed me his Messages to Congress upon

that subject, and they were strongly averse to the least interference of this Country in that struggle.

I have to make an excuse for my hard hand writing, but bad as it always is, I write with some considerable discomfort from sickness, in the hot room of a Houston Boarding House which is a manner of existence that I would not wish to my worst unfriends, and I have had bitter. The Steam Boat is to leave for New Orleans tomorrow, and having no time or convenience to write a despatch from here.-I shall take the liberty of enclosing a copy of this letter to Mr. Addington. I should add that the President wished the Communication to you to be made in a private form.

His Excellency Richard Packenham, Esqr.
Copy.

C. E.

Charles Elliot.

[Endorsed] In letter from Captain Elliot of April 15. 1843.

REVIEWS AND NOTICES

American Colonial Government, 1696-1765. A Study of the British Board of Trade in its Relation to the American ColoniesPolitical, Industrial, Administrative. By Oliver Morton Dickerson, Ph. D. (Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company. 1912. Pp. 366.)

The Relations of Pennsylvania with the British Government, 16961765. By Winfred Trexler Root, Ph. D. (New York: Publications of the University of Pennsylvania, D. Appleton and Company, Agents, 1912. Pp. iv, 396.)

It is only within the last twenty years that scholars have begun to study the American colonies as parts of a great empire and to examine from that point of view their relations to the economic and administrative system of Great Britain. In this field Osgood, Andrews, and Beer have been the pioneers, but most of their work has been confined to the seventeenth century. The highly important period from the establishment of the Board of Trade in 1696 to the Revolution has been traversed only by the occasional monograph and yet awaits comprehensive treatment. The two books here reviewed are the most important recent contributions to this hitherto neglected division of the subject.

In his American Colonial Government Professor Dickerson gives us the first adequate account of that very important subject, the British Board of Trade, which has been neglected hitherto largely because its importance has not been fully appreciated. Here at last is presented a careful and somewhat detailed account of the organization, nature, and personnel of the Board, its relations to the other organs of the British government, and its relations to the colonies.

The chief duties of the Board were the care and fostering of English trade in general and the supervision of colonial administration to that end. But it was never able to fulfill all the purposes of its creation. Subordinated on the one side to the Privy Council, on the other to the secretary of state for the southern department and excluded from direct control over the enforcement of the Acts of Trade, after a few years of efficiency it passed

from the control of the Crown to that of the Parliamentary chiefs, fell into the hands of Whig spoilsmen-of whom Newcastle as secretary of state for the southern department exercised the most. "pernicious interference"-and sank gradually into such a condition of helplessness that its only function was to gather occasional information. Indeed, one is led to believe that, if Professor Dickerson's view be correct, Newcastle was more responsible than any other man for the conditions which brought about the revolt of the colonies-so lax had become the administration and control of imperial interests, and so many new powers had the colonial assemblies been allowed to assume. During the presidency of the energetic and ambitious Halifax, 1748-1761, there was not only a revival of the original powers of the Board but an extension of them. But the mischief had already been done; the colonies were already beyond the control of the administrative organs of the imperial government. The problems were passed up to Parliament with what results we know.

The reader is likely to feel that the space given to such a topic as the personnel of the Board could have been reduced without serious loss and more given with profit to the explanation of the rise of the assemblies and the weakening of the colonial executive; but the author probably felt that the excellent work of Professor Evarts B. Greene in this field had made an extended discussion of those subjects less necessary. Though sometimes too brief, the account of the Board's efforts to retain imperial control over the colonial judiciary, to bolster up the waning powers of the royal governor, and to lop off by the weapon of royal disallowance the unconstitutional extensions of the powers of the assemblies is very illuminating. Likewise clear is the story of how the work of the Board was hampered by wretched means of communication, of how the frequent wars and the urgent need of supplies placed the governors at the mercy of the assemblies, and of the failure of the ministers to bring Parliament to the support of the royal officials.

Professor Dickerson has seemingly exhausted the sources of the subject, the chief of which are the manuscript records of the Board of Trade itself. If one is inclined to criticise the proportion of the book, he must, nevertheless, praise the clarity of style and treatment. The title, however, is entirely too broad,-the subtitle is a more accurate indication of the contents of the book.