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BIBLIOGRAPHIE COLONIALE
between them therefore are the principal source of official material for the history of the colony. In the main they consist of the regular official despatches passing backwards and forwards between the Governor and his superiors at home, but they contain also an immense amount of evidential material in the nature of exhibits forwarded by the Governor or by petitioners in support of their cases. The regular annual reports in reply to stereotyped questions addressed to the Governor by the Board of Trade under the old empire are unfortunately usually disappointing and their statistics generally unreliable. There is a similar series of material in the Governor's despatches in the case of every colony, but it is inadvisable to confine attention to it alone. For almost every colony other materials exist in series. Continuing with Jamaica as one example, C. 0. 139 contains between 1661 and 1900 one hundred and eight volumes of Acts of the Legislature. Until 1856 they are in MS., but after that date they are printed. Complementary to the Acts are the Sessional Papers of the Legislature (C. 0. 140), two hundred and four volumes between 1661 and 1889, emanating both from the Council and Assembly. These include the Journals of both Houses, but not as a rule any reports of debates. These must be sought in the collection of newspapers (C. O. 142) twelve volumes between 1830 and 1854. The Gazettes (C. O. 141, forty eight volumes between 1794 and 1885) do not contain news but governmental announcements. C. O. 142 also includes seventeen volumes of Shipping Returns between 1680 and 1818 which are of some historical valus in connection with trade. The last section of series C. O. 142 contains fifty volumes of Statistical Returns between 1821 and 1870. that are naturally of only very specialised intĂŤrest. The categories thus described for. one typical colony are to be found in relation to almost all the colonies whether they still form part of the Empire like Jamaica or Ceylon, or do not, like Massachusetts or Minorea. Even when a colony has only been in British hands for short periods like Martinique, some papers in respect of its occupation are usually to be found under its appropriate