LONGMANS, GREEN & CO. London, Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras LEONARD SCOTT PUBLICATION COMPANY, New York 1923 No. 485. A Sidelight on Reparations Climatic Changes and Light Reading of the Stuarts The Office of Lord Lieutenant Central Europe and Czecho- The New Moslem World JULY, 1923 No. 485 THE IMPERIAL CONSTITUTION AND THE IMPERIAL CONFERENCE 1. A Short History of the British Commonwealth. By RAMSAY MUIR. George Philip & Son. 1920-22. 2. British Colonial Policy in the Twentieth Century. By H. E. EGERTON. Methuen. 1922. 3. The Development of the British Empire. By HOWARD ROBINSON. Constable. 1923. 4. The Constitution of Canada. By W. P. M. KENNEDY, Litt. D. Humphrey Milford. 1922. 5. Canadian Constitutional Studies. By Sir ROBERT LAIRD BORDEN. AN N essential factor in the fascination of the study of the development of the British Empire is the organic vitality of the process of imperial evolution, which makes the past a living factor in the problems of the present, and forces us in planning the future ever and again to revert to the lessons of history. The report of Lord Durham on his mission to Canada was written over eighty-four years ago; it played a part of the highest importance in the growth of the imperial system, and as such has a secure place in British history. But it has a more immediate interest for the present day, in that, by itself and through the criticisms which it evoked from Lord John Russell, it raises a problem which yet remains unsolved, and from which the Imperial Conference of 1921 precipitately recoiled: that of the possibility of combining the autonomy of the parts with the unity of the whole of the Empire. Lord John Russell had doubtless many VOL. 238. NO. 485. All rights reserved. A |