"Since the loss of the American colonies in 1783, the history of Westminster and Colonial Parliaments has been something of a lost child in the British-Atlantic past. This collection of papers examines the evolution of colonial legislatures in the thirteen American colonies, Quebec and the British West Indies, and the part played by Westminster in overseeing their growth and constitutional development. A more global view is taken of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English-speaking Atlantic world and parliamentary and legislative concerns are brought out of their parochial confinement. This is a special book issue published as part of the Parliamentary History journal, volume 14 part 1."--BOOK JACKET.