REVIEWS 5 57
material is large, and, of course, is supplemented by his own personal observation. For these reasons anything which he writes ought to be of value, especially as there is so much loose and inaccurate discussion on these subjects in the newspaper and periodical press.
The volume on Tropical Colonization he justly calls an " Introduc- tion to the Study of the Subject." The author does not attempt an exhaustive study of any field of colonization or of any phase of it. He makes history merely incidental, and devotes a half-dozen chapters to a descriptive treatment of political and economic conditions which characterize European colonies in general. A final chapter contains some comments on the problems which confront the United States in the East and West Indies.
The treatment of " Trade and the Flag " is a somewhat careful analy- sis of facts relating to British and French commerce in particular. The conclusion is that trade does not necessarily follow the flag, but that possession of a given territory protects trade as against adverse posses- sion by a nation with a restrictive commercial system.
Three chapters are assigned to the labor question in the tropics. This question comes next in importance after the establishment of social order, and on its wise solution, after all, depends the success or failure of European tropical control. The same labor maxims which may be commonplace in temperate regions b}^ no means apply to the tropics. The conditions are fundamentally different, and one who would do more than merely follow precedents will resolutely seek entirely new methods. Mr. Ireland's discussion of the Dutch policy in Java is very fair. The results of that policy were certainly extra- ordinary, and are an interesting commentary on some theories of land- tenure.
A verv useful working bibliography closes the book. In its thirty- three pages are enumerated enough of the innumerable works on European colonies for the ordinary reader's purposes. Of course, the scholar must go much farther.
Mr. Ireland has made a good beginning. It is to be hoped that he will follow it up. Colonization is one of the greatest facts of mod- ern history — one of the most potent forces of modern life. In order to understand what is going on under our eyes the world throughout, we need a vast deal of study in lines quite unfamiliar to the most of our people. Gladstone and Louis Philippe and Bismarck are names which have a meaning to most of us. How many have a clear idea of the significance of Van den Bosch and Kaufmann and Sir Henry Parkes,
