12. THE THEORY OF THE EXTENSION OF ENGLISH STATUTES TO THE PLANTATIONS ^ By St. George Leakin Sioussat ^ THE rapid expansion, in recent years, of the territory belonging to the United States, and the judicial deter- mination, in the Insular Cases, of the relation of subject peo- ples to the American Republic have revived a question as old as the Constitution itself. This latest phase, involving pos- sessions disconnected and far removed, makes us readier than before to examine the experience of other colonizing powers, especially of that British Empire from which the thirteen colonies separated themselves by the Revolution. At the pres- ent writing, moreover, the modern constitution of that empire is being subjected to fresh scrutiny and review, through the pressure of economic problems whose solution involves to the foundation the relation of Great Britain and her dependen- cies. But since, in the logic of history, the present has grown out of the past, a study which carries us back to the first building of that imperial system, and to the time when we were part of it, seems to be not unseasonable. Therefore, as our last chapter was local in its point of view, this is to be imperial in its outlook; and, leaving as beyond our proper field all considerations of economic relations, we shall inquire
- These passages are extracted from an essay on «' The English Stat-
utes in Maryland," Johns Hopkins University Studies in History and Political Science, 1903, volume XXI., being c. II., pp. 17-30.
- Professor of History and Economics in the University of the South,
since 1904. A. B. Johns Hopkins University 1896, Ph. D. 1899 ; Instruc- tor in History in Smith College, 1899-1904. Other Publications: Highway Regulation in Maryland, 1899; Balti- more (Historic Towns of the Southern States), 1900; Economics and Politics in Maryland 1730-1750 (Johns Hopkins Studies), 1903; Vir- ginia and the English Commercial System (American Historical Asso- ciation, vol. I.), 1905. 410
