falls on the consumer." But how can the WestIndia planters command the market, if they are forced to sell for 77s. what costs them 96s.? Or how can the consumer be said to pay the increased tax, when, at every successive increase, the price to the consumer has fallen? Yet, in defiance of these incontrovertible truths, is sugar taxed with 3s. additional as soon as it reaches 77s.; when, on the avowed principles of government, this tax should not have begun to operate until the price rose to 96s. The culture of sugar is certainly not of equal importance with that of corn; but, whether with reference to our national power, or to the habits and comforts of the people, sugar stands next to corn, and ranks far before all other objects of culture. Now if in any article of British produce, however inferior to sugar as a national object, a tax had been imposed, to take place when that article should sell for 77s. although it was evident that the grower could not afford it for less than 96s. would not remonstrances have been re-echoed from one end of the kingdom to the other? Yet such is the distress of the WestIndia body, that this hardship, grievous as it is, is scarcely mentioned, for it is lost amidst a crowd of greater evils.

It would be an obvious waste of argument to show the great rise in the price of almost every commodity in this country during the last fifteen years of war and taxes. And, it will be readily admitted, that he who; like the West-India planter,

manufactures nothing at home, but pays the price of finished workmanship on every article, must have suffered beyond others in the general enhancement. In Great Britain, the progressive rise of income has nearly kept pace with the rise of prices. The rent of land, and the wages of labour, have increased at least one-third since the beginning of the last war. But, in the West Indies, while the cost of every requisite article has been doubled, the fund for the purchase of these articles has been, for nine years, in a course of rapid depreciation!

It will naturally be asked, how it has been pos sible that the West-India planters should continue to exist under the destructive operation of these accumulated evils? Certainly, no other branch of trade could have supported a similar pressure; and, great as the misery now is in the colonies, the wonder is, that they should not, ere now, have been involved in utter ruin. It is to be considered, however, that the properties of the British West-India planters are not acquisitions of recent date. Many of them exhibit the gradual result of the industry of a hundred years. It would be difficult to compute the extent of British capital which has been applied, at different times, to the cultivation of the West Indies; but the expensive nature of a sugar estate is, of itself, a demonstration that the original settler must have had a capital, either in property or in loan. To the intrinsic value of the land there were superadded the fruits of the labour of several

successive generations. West-India properties accordingly became, in course of time, highly valu able. This value was in no respect the result of a fortunate combination of accidents; for the idea of making a rapid fortune in the West Indies exists only in the imagination of the youthful adventurer, who has never visited them-this value was the legitimate recompence of persevering exertion.Without, therefore, having ever been the scene of immoderate profits to the planters, these colonies presented, ten years ago, a numerous and opulent body. of proprietors, whose estates were a record of the industry of their ancestors. The merchants at home, formed a body equally respectable. The British West-India merchant is properly the agent only of the planters, and seldom is himself the proprietor of West-India estates. But this agency requires a large capital, and every house of extensive business must either originally have possessed, or subsequently acquired, the command of money. This acquisition, in some instances, arose from a gradual accumulation of profits, but much oftener from investing in the West-India trade fortunes brought from India, or realized at home. The magnitude of the capital required to conduct a West-India business would appear incredible to those who are unacquainted with it, and form their ideas from other branches of trade. All these circumstances concur to prove the former opulence of the West-India body, and to explain how they have been enabled to endure the unparalleled pressure of late years. Notwithstand

ing, however, all the aids of industrious habits, and of extensive capital, the West Indies are at present filled with melancholy scenes. The young planter, who, ten years ago, undertook, with the fairest prospects, the improvement of an estate, has wasted his time and his labour in a fruitless struggle. The established planter, who inherited a valuable patrimony, sees it waste away in progressive decay. The merchant in Britain, after straining every nerve to relieve his correspondents, and after lending sum after sum to redeem a previous advance (already enormous), finds that the time is now come when he can continue to advance no longer, and must leave his fortune to its fate.

Observations on the Price of Rum.

Of the whole quantity of rum made in our West* India colonies, only one-third part is sent to Britain*. An equal or rather larger quantity is bartered with the Americans, in exchange for provisions and lumber; and the remainder is consumed in the West Indies, amongst the inhabitants and on board the shipping.

The depreciation of rum has been nearly equal to that of sugar, the proceeds of a puncheon being at

* Sir W. Young, p. 64.

present only one-third of what they were some years ago*. Notwithstanding this melancholy fact, it is but very lately that Government has extended a protecting hand to the produce of our own Colonies against the produce of France in the consumption of our navy. In 1805, only 250,000 gallons of rum were bought by the Victualling-Office, while the quantity of brandy purchased amounted to no less than 625,000 gallons.† Now, independently of the preference due to our own Colonies, it is evident that the expense of the conveyance of rum from so distant a quarter as the West Indies, at war freight and insurance, must much exceed the expense of bringing brandy from Bourdeaux through the cheap medium of neutral flags. Accordingly, the duties on brandy for private use have lately been raised so as effectually to counterbalance the advantage of its easy conveyance. But as no duties are payable on what is used by Government, the planter reaped no advantage from this circumstance in the competition for the supply of the navy. On an urgent representation, however, from the West-India merchants, the Victualling-Office has been directed to take rum in preference, provided it be tendered within one shilling per gallon of the price of brandy.

There is great fear, however, that the intention of this politic measure will be defeated by the inadequacy of the allowance. One shilling per gallon is not equal ↑ Concessions to America, p. 11.

* Sir W. Young, page 64.

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