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BIBLIOGRAPHIE COLONIALE
1730. This publication along with the Acts of the Privy Council,. Colonial affords an admirable opportunity of observing what a general unity of administration there was in the colonies of the old Empire. The greatest bulk of the records of the Empire before 1783 is connected with the colonies on the Continent of America and they form the essential source for the history of what are now the United States in the Colonial period and to describe them lies beyond our present purpose. It may be mentioned, however, that the best introduction to work in them may be found in Professor Charles M. Andrews' scholarly list or Guide to Materials for the History of the United States to 1783 in British Archives (published by the Carnegie Institution). This work not only describes the principal items in each series of documents, but explains also the working of the governmental institutions that produced them. It is, therefore, an indispensable source of reference for students of the history of the Old Empire. They are also advised to consult the elaborate bibliographies attached to Vol. i. of the Cambridge History of the British Empire. — The West Indian papers to 1783 form an integral part of the later series described below. In 1782 the old Board of Trade and Plantations was abolished and its work entrusted to a Committee of the Privy Council while the functions of the Secretary of State in relation to the colonies were included with those of the Secretary of State for the Home Department. The colonial papers, however, were kept separate and the Home Office documents contain little colonial material save in relation to the transportation of convicts. With the outbreak of the war with Revolutionary France a third Secretaryship of State was established and entrusted with the management of affairs relating to war and the colonies. This accounts for the association of military and colonial papers during the war period, but the colonial files were generally kept separate and after the peace they greatly exceeded the business done on the War Office side. With the Crimean War the two offices were separated and a new Secretaryship of State for War established. Thence forward the