Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/684

 560 ADMINISTRATION OP THE COLONIES IN 1787. 1787 commonly known as the Board of Trada By two Orders-in-Council made in 1786, a new Committee was appointed, and its establish- ment placed on a definite footing. The business formerly trans- acted at the Plantation Branch of the Home Office was transferred to that Committee, which continued to administer colonial affairs till 1794, when the oflSce of Secretary of State for War was created, owing to the pressure of business arising from the war of the Secretao- French Revolution. Lord Melville, the first Secretary for War, (SloniL*" did duty as Secretary for the Colonies also. The active functions of the Committee of Council appointed in 1786 appear to have ceased, so far as the plantations were concerned, immediately on the appointment of the Secretary for War and Colonies. This Board of Committee, known as the Board of Trade, is now chiefly occupied in the discharge of those duties which its title imports; as a committee of Council for Plantations, it acts simply as the referee of the Colonial Office. Secretarj' '^^^ *^^ departments — ^War and Colonies — remained united forCoiouies. m^^y 1854, when the war with Russia suggested the expediency of separating them.* The Colonial Office List for 1887 (p. 9) gives a concise sketch of the changes which have taken place in the history of the Colonial department ; and also a list of the various Ministers who have presided over it. Office of The office of Secretary to the Sovereign dates at least from Secretary. ^^^ reign of Henry III. There was one principal Secretary only (who was already called Secretary of State) down to 1539, when a second was appointed. From 1708 to 1746 a third secretary- ship existed, dealing exclusively with Scotland. Colonial In 1768 a Secretary of State for the American or Colonial department, department was appointed, in addition to the two principal Secretaries of State then existing ; but this office was abolished in 1782 by statute 22 Geo. Ill, cap. 82. In 1782 the duties of the two principal Secretaries of State were divided into Home and Foreign, the affairs of Ireland and the colonies devolving on the Home department : those of Office for the colonies being placed in the charge of a separate branch of Plantations, ^j^^ Department called the Office for Plantations, managed by a separate Under Secretary. At its commencement in 1793, the affairs of the French War were managed by the Home department ; but in 1794 a principal Secretary for War was appointed, and the business of the colonies Digitized by Google
 * MUIb, Colonial ConstitutioDs, pp. 4-13.