in autumn and in winter, and to return in April, May, and July, we should hear of no sickness among their crews. Besides, it has been customary to station perma nently, a part of our navy in the West Indies, The crews of these ships are exposed to all the hazards of the climate, without the benefits which the crews of merchantmen possess, in a speedy removal to a cooler atmosphere, Can we conceive a more favourable opportunity of seasoning seamen for permanent service in that climate, than is afforded by the temporary residence of the crews of merchant-vessels? A residence sufficiently short to avoid any danger from the first visit, and sufficiently long to adapt the constitution to a second visit and a longer stay. But the value of the West-India trade to our navigation is not to be determined by the mere number which it employs. The prospects it offers both to the officer and the seaman, induce many to go to sea who would have otherwise never embraced the profession. To enter into the West-India service, is the general object of ambition. The seaman finds there the highest wages; and he who deserves to rise above the rank of seaman will find it the field of speedy promotion. Another, and a most important advantage of the West-India colonies is the number of seamen they support in our fisheries. Fish is there the principal article of food, and the consumption of herrings caught at home, and of cod caught at Newfoundland, is immense If we add these seamen to the number permanently employed in the trade, we shall not over-rate the total at 25,000. The amount of freight, out and home, paid yearly to the ship-owners, by the West-India trade, amounts to the sum of three millions and a half*. The East-India trade is certainly less popular, and, in the opinion of many, less advantageous to the country, by being confined to the metropolis. But the benefits of the West-India trade are diffused over every quarter of the empire. Every merchant, every ship-owner, may share in its advantages; and not only in London, but in all our principal sea-ports, the example of those engaged in it stimulates the adventurous youth to dedicate themselves to a sea life. The opinion I have expressed of the importance of this trade to British navigation is recorded in repeated acts of the legislature. No sooner did the value of the colonies become understood (1651) than all foreign ships were prohibited + from trading to them. After the Restoration, it was enacted, that the ships trading to these colonies should not only * See Sir William Young, pages 87 and 100, + Sir William Young, page 152. be navigated by British seamen, but should likewise be British built; and it was not till 1780, that Irish shipping was admitted to this privilege. - In 1789, when the colonists complained of the monopoly, and demanded leave to export their sugar to foreign parts of Europe, the monopoly* was taken off as far as regarded the produce, but enforced in respect to the shipping the colonists being allowed to send their produce elsewhere than to Britain, but through no other medium than that of British-built ships, navigated according to law. This wise concession was continued by successive acts for thirty years. And so lately as the termination of the American war, the export of all colonial produce was opened to the United States; but the same important condition was still stipulated, namely, that this export should take place only in British ships. I might go on to multiply arguments, and to adduce example upon example, of the jealousy of the British legislature in regard to the exclusive possession of the West-India navigation; but what additional weight can the industry of a writer, or even the authority of the British senate, give to a cause which rests its claim for protection upon the incontrovertible fact, that the West-India colonies employ (including the fisheries) above a thousand sail of shipping, and twenty-five thousand seamen ! • Sir W. Young, page 82. 3. Importance of the West Indies as a source of public revenue. Since On a reference to the official returns in Sir William Young's Common-place Book (pages 86, 87, and 88), it will be found that the value of our yearly imports from the West Indies amounts, on an average, to seventeen millions sterling. Of this sum, no less than five millions are paid at once into the public treasury*. Of the remaining twelve millions, eight go in payment of the British manufactures exported+, while the other four are appropriated to the homeward freight and the mercantile charges. 1798, a very small proportion of this ample fund of seventeen millions has remained to the planter. If, however, he received no income, he was enabled, until lately, to pay the interest of his borrowed capital. Although he thus laboured without reward, he had the satisfaction of at least preventing the farther accumulation of his debt. But, at present, of the seventeen millions imported into this country, not a single shilling goes to those by whose industry the whole is produced. The result of the labour and of the capital of the planter is entirely paid away in duties and charges. Of the cruelty of this unexampled situation we shall treat more at length Sir W. Young p. 86. The duty on sugar is three millions; that on rum one million and a half; and the lesser commodities pay the additional half million. Sir W. Young, page 100. in the next Chapter-our present object is the value of the West-India colonies, as a source of public revenue. We have seen that they pay annually five millions. of direct taxes, and twelve millions more to the navigation and manufactures of Great Britain. Now, although it will be readily felt that money cannot be more beneficially bestowed than on our navigation and manufactures, it is worth while, in this season of public burdens, to consider how large a proportion of these twelve millions finds its way into the public coffers. If we reflect on the endless ramifications of our taxes, pervading every rank, and reaching not only all the luxuries, all the comforts, but many of the necessaries of life-if we consider the rapidity with which capital is circulated, and that every exchange in this endless variety pays its tax to government, we may safely infer, that the indirect is equal to the direct contribution-that is, that out of the twelve millions paid to individuals from the WestIndia trade, five millions annually find their way, by various channels, into the public treasury. Whoever has attentively studied the interminable operation of our taxes, will deem this no exaggerated statement. And if any refuse their assent to the justice of this proportion, let them form to themselves an estimate of the indirect taxation on WestIndia imports, and, adding to this estimate the taxes (direct and indirect) on British exports to the West Indies, let them determine whether I am not justi |