no manufactures, no means of supplying either their real or artificial wants, every individual article required by these islands, for use or show, is imported from Britain. From the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, a West-India planter is clothed by the manufactures of Great Britain and Ireland. Five hundred thousand negroes are constantly clad by the clothiers of Yorkshire and Wiltshire; not a button or a shoe, a pocket-handkerchief or a hat, are obtained elsewhere than in Great Britain. She supplies alike the utensils of domestic life and the implements of husbandry; the ash coppices of Sussex fall to bind the casks, and six millions of hoops are annually split in the service of the planter. The very provision for the negroes in the colonies, so far as the mother country dares undertake the supply, is the produce of the British soil. The sailing of a West-India convoy is an epoch in the diary of every shop and warehouse throughout the kingdom. Besides, all these investments are in that description of merchandize, the export of which is most beneficial to the State; every thing ready for use; every possible degree of labour bestowed upon it of which it is susceptible."

But, what is of still greater importance, the continuance of this lucrative traffic is infinitely more secure in regard to the West Indies than to America. America is not only a separate state, but a country of provisions. She contemplates the period when she may add the gains of manufacture to those of

agriculture; and, with these views of policy, she spares no pains to increase her population. She already makes no scruple of holding out a non-importation act, as the alternative of not complying with her demands. Our West-India colonies, on the other hand, are not only subject to our control, but incapable, from inherent causes, of dispensing with the importation of manufactured goods. The only pursuit which can there be followed with advantage is the cultivation of the soil. Our manufacturers are assured, therefore, not only of the present advantages of a profitable commerce with these islands, but of bequeathing the same benefits to their posterity.

"In whatever degree (says Mr. Bosanquet*) possession is valuable, in the same degree must the continuance of that possession be advantageous. And to commerce, nationally considered, this reasoning has a particularly strong application. The employment in manufacture which commerce has encouraged, ceases with the loss of that branch of it which furnished the encouragement.-Nor is the inconvenience of the loss to be measured by the extent of inconvenience which might have ensued from the want of original possession. Population, though it readily expands, does not reduce itself to the lessened demand for labour, but through the severe medium of penury, distress, and want."

Thoughts on Commerce and Colonies, page 33.

The justice of these arguments is unquestionable; and no addition is wanted to give energy to the , language which conveys them. We have seen that the West-India trade is equally valuable from the nature of its commodities, and from the assurance of its permanency.-Let us proceed to consider the amount of its yearly exports. If we turn to Sir William Young's record of official documents, we shall find * that our manufacturers regularly ship goods to the amount of six millions, and that our mer, chants, insurers, and ship-owners, derive about two millions more from the same source, making an an nual return of eight millions sterling! With the exception of America, what other country buys so largely of the produce of our industry? India, proverbially a source of wealth to the various nations which have successively trafficked with it, seldom takes a half, and in ordinary seasons not a third part of this amount. And when we consider that the immense value we have mentioned consists in goods wrought up to the last stage of manufacture, to how many hundreds of thousands must this inva luable branch of our commerce afford subsistence!

It was formerly a popular although a very erro neous notion, that national riches could not otherwise be realized than by importing them from abroad. Hence it was inferred, that foreign trade, meaning

* Page 100.

+ Sir W. Young, page 101.

Bosanquet on the Colonies, page 53,

trade with countries independent of the British crown, was most profitable both to individuals and to the country. But the actual experience of merchants coincides with the dictates of reason, to prove that domestic trade is the more lucrative of the two. In domestic trade, "both ends are British *"-the collective produce of our industry centres within ourselves. The nation is both invigo rated by the habit of industry, and enriched by its operation. Our intercourse with the West Indies

is foreign only in name all the produce appertains to British subjects, and all remains in Britain t."

But, of all descriptions of traffic, that kind is assuredly most valuable to a maritime state, which adds to the profits of domestic trade the advantage of training and maintaining seamen. This brings me to the second division of this chapter, namely,

II. The Value of the West-India Trade, as a Nursery of Seamen.

If we consult the official documents laid before the House of Commons, we shall find, by the latest return, that the West-India trade employed, in 1804, 837 sail of shipping, (236,580 tons) and 17,680 seament. We, as well as the rest of Europe, are accustomed to look upon our trade with

* Bosanquet on the Colonies, page 41.

+ Ibid.

Sir W. Young, page 94.

India and China as the source no less of naval strength than of opulence; yet these countries, the riches of which have been celebrated for three thousand years, do not occupy one-half of the seamen, nor one-third of the tonnage employed in the WestIndia trade. Besides, the China, and even the India ships, require, for building and repair, the large oak timber necessary for ships of the line; the scarcity of which is such, that the Admiralty were, some time ago, obliged to stipulate with the Directors, that the Company should forbear building for two years.

The West-India ships are of a size particularly adapted to the training of seamen; they are sufficiently large to be used as armed ships in case of emergency; and, in their building and repairs, they require only that kind of timber which can be spared from the royal dock-yards. The WestIndia navigation (says Sir William Young*) from five to eight weeks, or five months out and home, has the advantage over more distant voyages, by returning the crews, at certain periods within the year, for national service, if required."

If it be objected that the West-India climate is unfavourable to the health of our seamen, I answer, that this complaint may be entirely obviated by a stedfast adherence to a judicious arrangement of convoys. Were our fleets to sail, as they ought,

* West-India Common Place Book, page 35.