СНАР. V.

Charges brought against the Planters introductory of Opinions and Doctrines the Defign of which is to prove, that the Settlement of the British Plantations was improvident and unwife.-Testimony of the Infpector General on this Subject, and Animadverfions thereon.-Erroneous Idea concerning a diftinct Intereft between Great Britain and her Sugar Ilands.-The National Income and the Profits of Individuals arifing from thofe lands. confidered feparately.-Opinions of Postlethwaite and Child.-Whether the Duties on West Indian Commodities imported fall on the Confumer, and in what Cafes ?-Drawbacks and Bounties: Explanation of thofe Terms, and their Origin and Propriety traced and demonftrated.-Of the Monopoly-compact; its Nature and Origin.-Reftrictions on the Colonifts enumerated; and the Benefits refulting therefrom to the Mother Country pointed out and illuftrated.-Advantages which would accrue to the Planter, the Revenue, and the Public, from permitting the Inhabitants of the Weft Indies to refine their raw Sugar for the British Confumption.-Unjuft Clamours raised in Great Britain on any temporary Advance of the West Indian Staples.-Project of establishing Sugar Plantations in the East Indies under the Protec tion of Government confidered.-Remonftrance which might be offered against this and other Meafures. Conclufion.

AFTER fo copious a difplay as hath been given CHAP.

of the prodigioufly increafed value of thefe im- V. portant iflands, during the fpace of a century

and

BOOK and a half, which have nearly elapfed fince their VI. first fettlement, it may be fuppofed that the

condu& of Great Britain towards them (notwithstanding the proceedings on which I have. prefumed to animadvert in the foregoing chapter) has generally been founded in kindness and liberality; and that the murmurs and complaints which have fometimes proceeded from the planters, when new and heavy duties have been laid on their staples, have been equally ungrateful and unjuft; the faftidious peevifhnefs of opulent folly, and furfeited profperity.

Charges to this effect have indeed been frequently urged against the planters of the Weft Indies, with a fpirit of bitternefs and rancour, which inclines one to think, that a fmall degree of envy (excited, perhaps, by the fplendid appearance of a few opulent individuals among them refident in Great Britain) is blended in the accufation. They would therefore have remained unnoticed by me, were they not, on frequent occafions, introductory of doctrines and opinions as extraordinary in their nature, as dangerous in their tendency; for, fupported as they are by perfons of ability and influence, they cannot fail, if adopted by minifters, and carried from the national councils into meafures, to widen our recent wounds, and make a general maffacre of our whole fyftem of colonization.

Of thefe doctrines and opinions, fo far as they concern the British plantations in the Weft Indies, the following is a fair abftract and abridgment:

First, That the fugar islands have been fettled by British capitals which might have been employed to greater advantage at home, in carrying on and extending the manufactures, the commerce, and agriculture of Great Britain.

Secondly,

V.

Secondly, That the money expended upon CHA P. Weft Indian eftates, is in general far from yielding a profitable return to the nation, inafmuch as even a good crop does not leave the owner fo much as fix per cent. on his capital, after pay ment of expences.

Thirdly, That the duties on Weft Indian commodities fall altogether on the confumer.

Fourthly, That the feveral prohibitory laws which have been made, tending to force the confumption of British West Indian produce upon the inhabitants of Great Britain, have vefted in the planters a complete monopoly of the British market, at the coft, and to the manifeft injury, of the British confumer, who might otherwife purchase fugars, &c. from the foreign iflands, 20 or 30 per cent. cheaper than in thofe of Great Britain.

Fifthly, That from this great difparity of price between British and foreign fugars, the former cannot be made an object of export from Great Britain, by any other means than by granting drawbacks and bounties out of the Exchequer; the British exporter being otherwife unable to ftand the competition of prices in the foreign marketa policy, which is pronounced to be dangerous and deftructive.

The inference which is drawn from thefe premifes is plainly this; that, confidering the expence of protecting them in war, the fettlement of fugar plantations in the Weft Indies was improvident and unwife; and that their further extenfion and improvement would not promote the general interefts of the British empire.

It is probable that thefe, and finilar notions of the fame tendency, but of more extenive application, were originally diffeminated with no other

BOOK view, than, by depreciating the value and imVI. portance of all colonial fettlements, to reconcile the nation to thofe rafh and inconfiderate proceedings, which terminated in the lofs of America. They have had their day; and, like other fpeculations and endeavours as vain and ineffectual, might have been configned, without injury, to oblivion. It is therefore with a confiderable degree of furprife, that in the courfe of a late investigation by a committee of the houfe of commons, I perceive an attempt has been made to revive and establish most of them, by a perfon, whofe public fituation, as inspector general of the exports and imports of Great Britain, may be fuppofed to give great weight to his opinions *. Of the value of this office, as affording an inexhauftible source of important and accurate information in the various branches of the British commerce, I have spoken, I hope, with due refpect, in former parts of this work; but in mere fpeculative points, not clearly founded on matters of fact, the opinions of the officer himself, whoever he may be, carry no further degree of authority than in proportion to the weight of reasoning which accompanies them. Of this nature are the feveral theorems before flated. They are matters of opinion only; in fome refpects incapable of proof (as the first propofition for inftance) and in others, where proof is attempted, they generate conclufions widely different from thofe which are drawn from the facts adduced in their fupport. As, however, the manifeft aim of fuch doctrines is to

* See the evidence of Thomas Irving, Efquire, before a felect committee of the houfe of commons, appointed to examine witneffes on the flave trade, reported 7th April, 1791, from whence I have extracted most of the doctrines animadverted upon in the text, and chiefly in his own words.

induce

V.

induce the legislature to adopt measures that in CHAP. their confequences may check and impede the further progrefs of the colonifts in a line of cultivation, in which, under the exprefs encouragement of government, they have already embarked their fortunes, and applied their faculties, it becomes neceffary, in a work of this kind, to confider them with fome degree of

attention.

It might indeed be alledged, and with great truth, that nothing can more clearly expofe the nakedness of that doctrine which affects to confider the fugar iflands as unprofitable to the nation, than a plain and fimple difplay of the productions which they furnish, the market which they create for our manufactures, and the shipping to which they give employment. And fuch a difplay hath already been exhibited in the preceding chapters: but, unfortunately, there prevail many popular prejudices againft the colonies, which are difficult to remove, because they are founded not in reafon but felfifhnefs. Opinions thus entrenched, are only to be encountered by recalling to the public attention, fuch established principles and facts as, being built on experience, neither fophiftry can perplex, nor felf-interest elude.

In most of the late fpeculative fyftems that I have feen, which have treated of the British colonies, there appears this great and fundamental error, that their interefts in general are confidered as diftinct from, and in fome refpects opposed to, the general interefts of the empire. We fpeak of them indeed as our colonies, and of their inhabitants as our subjects; but in our dealings, we are apt to regard them with a fpirit of rivalry or jealoufy, as an unconnected or hoftile people,

whofe