Gerald Berkeley Hurst

The Old Colonial System Gerald Berkeley Hurst

English Public Opinion after the Restoration, and it seemed natural to follow the colonising ideals of that period into a subsequent age of more self-conscious empire. I found an additional incentive in courses of lectures on the rise of Greater Britain and kindred topics, which I have given during the last few years in various parts of Lancashire and Cheshire in connection with the University Extension scheme of the Manchester University. One feature, which has characterised every audience with whom I have come in contact, is a complete misunderstanding of the old colonial system. That system was in truth marked by many faults in theory and practice, and in the ensuing pages, it will, I trust, be seen how unfitted it was to sustain a great empire without radical amendment. Yet it is wrong to regard the policy under which Greater Britain evolved, and for which most English statesmen from Cromwell to Chatham strained every effort, as selfish fatuity, unworthy of the race. In the United States, this superficial view is no longer deemed a necessary tenet for the patriotic, and the circumstances under which the War of Independence arose have been approached in a truly scientific spirit, but in our own country, a traditional Whiggism still permeates most popular histories. The genesis of the present volume lies in my desire to treat the question in a more impartial manner, and in my concern at the exasperating prevalence of this misconception of imperial history.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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