The origin of these evils is to be found in the mistaken policy of the country during last war. The desolation of St. Domingo, and the insurrections in Grenada and St. Vincent's, by abridging the importation, had carried sugar, in 1797 and 1798, to a price which made the nation believe that we could continue to mo nopolize the supply of Europe. An attempt was therefore made to oblige foreigners to pay a part of the duty, instead of drawing the whole back, as formerly, on exportation. This impolitic regulation paved the way to the im portation of sugar by neutrals, into the continental markets; and the extended cultivation of the Spanish, as well as of the French colonies, provides, these rivals with ample cargoes. They can transport the produce of America to Europe, during war, at half the expense of the British merchants, both in freight and insurance. And even when we are willing to make a great sacrifice, and to sell our produce on the continent as low as neutrals, our access to this market is thwarted by the prohibitory decrees of France. Yet, while we are thus impeded in our foreign intercourse, along the whole line of coast, from Memel to Trieste, and confined, almost solely,

to our own consumption, we are obliged to import annually a quantity of sugar, nearly double the extent of that consumption. Every charge must continue to be paid with the same rigour as if the traffic were productive; and the result of this accumulation of evils is, that of the price paid for sugar by the public, not one farthing goes as profit to the planter. What industry can support these discouragements, or what capital can withstand such a complication of burdens?

The question, therefore, is reduced to thisthe country must either essentially amend the condition of the persons engaged in the WestIndia trade, or renounce that trade for ever.

The inquiry, on which we are about to enter, is interesting to every, class of subjects in the empire, and to none more than to those who think themselves unconnected with the fate of the West Indies. A number of gentlemen of landed property are said to entertain these sentiments. But this can proceed only from imperfect views of the subject, for we are justified in anticipating that, on a maturc examination, the English landholder will

find his interest to be closely interwoven with that of our colonies. He will perceive, that they not only supply a great part of that navy which guards his property from French invasion, but that they defray a surprising proportion of the public burdens-burdens which, in the event of the ruin of these colonies, must fall, with double pressure, on the landed interest of Great Britain.

The object of the following pages is to lay before the country a candid statement,

1. Of the importance of the West-India
trade, as a national object;

2. Of the ruinous condition of this trade
under the present circumstances, and
of the consequences of its loss to the
Country.I shall afterwards submit,
3. Observations on the means of relief;
accompanied with some remarks on the
effects of peace on this valuable traffic,
as well as on the general commerce of
the kingdom.

The investigation of such a subject can obviously have no reference to the existing differ

ences between political parties. The question is strictly national. The great considerations - which it involves are common to every party, and to every class of subjects in Great Britain; for these considerations are, the preservation of our revenue, the prosperity of our manufactures, the support of our navy. The reader of the following pages will be offended by no invective, and deceived by no misrepresentation. He will meet with proofs deduced from official documents, and with arguments not constructed on visionary theories, but on the basis, unfortunately too authentic, of actual experience. The Author has no personal interest in the cause which he pleads, and he differs in several respects from the views attributed to those whose hardships he calls upon his countrymen to alleviate. He joins his individual voice to the national approbation of the abolition of the slave-trade, a measure which it is to be hoped is not only indelibly recorded in the Acts of the British Legislature, but about to communicate its beneficent influence to the councils of every maritime power. But it is one thing to annihilate this odious traffic, and another to deny to the industrious planter the reward of his labour. There cannot be a greater

error than to class together, as indiscriminate advocates of the slave-trade, the cultivators, who, without desiring any foreign supply, increases, by humane attention, the number of his domesticated negroes, and the slave-factor, who was wont to calculate his profits by the amount of his fresh importations. The sense of the planters on this great question may be considered to have been correctly expressed by a highly respectable member of the House of Commons, who, in the various discussions which the subject has undergone, has urged no claim except that of compensation to certain individuals, unconnected with the traffic itself, but liable to suffer injury in their patrimonial properties by its abolition.

In the prosecution of his researches, the Author has been much aided by Sir William Young's West-India Common-Place Book, and Mr. Bosanquet's Pamphlets on the State of our Colonies. The one affords a valuable collection of documents, accompanied by judicious observations-the other abounds with sound and liberal views. In the former, we perceive how much information may be attained by the national representative, who will collect and