A history of the tariff relations of the Australian colonies Volume 6-9

by Albert Ernest Jenks

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1916 ... much more ample, his insight and critical faculty were so much greater that he has entirely superseded all who wrote before him. Since his day nothing new on this subject has been written. Perhaps one reason is to be found in the fact that the student hardly expects to find out anything new about so important a subject. But an even more probable reason is to be found in the prevalent feeling that Gardiner made the period of the early Stuarts peculiarly his own; that he not only superseded all who had written before, but that for all time to come those who follow can be only gleaners in his field. Such a conception betrays a misunderstanding of the real intention of Gardiner's work. What he really did was to give a general survey of what may be called, when we consider the great number of important events that are crowded into it, a long period. For most periods such a work has followed, and been based upon, particular studies. Gardiner had no such help; he was practically a pioneer in the field.1 As such, the only way that he could possibly cover the ground was by attempting nothing more than to tell what happened. Such a treatment ought to encourage rather than discourage further investigation. It is but the starting point for the student who wishes to find out the why and wherefore of some particular problem. With only the material that Gardiner had it would be possible for the student, who wished to make an exhaustive study of the Petition of Right, to tell much more than Gardiner told. But on the other hand it would be ridiculous for any student of to-day to think that in the forty years which have elapsed since Gardiner wrote those particular chapters of his history, no new material had been found. Through additions to the British Museum and even more...

176 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2012