grating carrying out along with them British customs, manners, and feelings; from similarity of language, and greater freedom and frequency of intercourse.

"III. Trade in general is supposed to benefit the two trading countries alike; but with regard to the West Indies, the gain which in common traffic would be derived by the other country, here reverts back to England, from the circumstance of the proprietors either residing there, or ultimately returning thither, and bringing all their wealth along with

them.

"IV. In a political point of view the colonies afford many advantages; by contributing to our safety as well as our prosperity; by giving an outlet in period of war to our products, which without such possessions could not be obtained; by rearing our national means of defence, and rendering that certain which otherwise would be precarious.

"I. When a country first begins to distinguish itself in commerce, the want of capital is generally the greatest difficulty. In this state of things, the temptation of high profit abroad is injurious instead of beneficial. By drawing off the funds to a distant quarter, it cramps the operations of the home trade, which at this period is much more desirable and deserving of encouragement. By degrees, as the nation by its industry and frugality becomes richer, the home trade becomes fully stocked, and a portion of the capital naturally seeks a vent in foreign traffic. Even then the trade with the adjacent countries is to be preferred to that with the more distant, as the returns are quicker, which necessarily puts in motion a greater quantity of domestic industry. In the progress of time, however, if the nation continue her frugality, all these channels of commerce are filled up, and the desideratum then becomes, not to procure, but to get a vent for capital. England has long passed this period; her monied men experience great difficulty in getting employment for their funds; and on this account, the West Indies have not only hitherto afforded great benefit, but they might be made to yield still more, if the present unhappy feelings towards them had subsided. I believe this is a distinct feature of advantage which they possess. In any foreign trade, no person would ever think of lending out money in a similar manner; the difficulty of recovering it in foreign courts of law, and the incidents to which it would be liable in case of a war, would be considerations so strong, that none would be willing to encounter the risk.

In viewing, then, the question of the eolonial trade, this part of the subject should be kept distinet; and I will only appeal to any intelligent man of business, to look to London, Liverpool, Glasgow, and Bristol, and he will see how much it has operated in favour of our mercantile prosperity.

"II. Persons leaving their own country to seek their fortunes abroad, it is obvious, will be much better customers to the parent state, than any foreign nation. The powerful influence of early prepossessions and habits, will naturally tend to cement the intercourse, and to inake the newly established settlement follow all the changes in fashion which are continually taking place. Not only the different articles of clothing, but the furniture of the houses, the equipages, and every article that ministers to the wants of men, will be imitated and introduced from the mother country. If, for example, we take the French islands of Martinique and Guadaloupe, and imagine their population to be exactly equal to that of Jamaica; and suppose their commerce was then perfectly open in the manner desired by the advocates for the free trade, the dealings with Jamaica would certainly be much greater than those with the foreign islands, from the plain obvious circumstance of having the same language, and continuing to practise a similar mode of living. This very great advantage will be found to bear in every case that can be assumed; and it certainly involves a consideration sufficiently cogent to determine a wise legislature to give a preference on all occasions to British settlements.

III. The effect produced by the residence of a large portion of the West Indian proprietors in England, though very generally noticed in a cursory manner, in different publications, has never yet been sufficiently investigated. I am of opinion, that it forms the most material feature in the whole system. Ever since we have understood the nature of what is termed adjustment of the supply to the demand, we have been taught to control many points in political economy, which before were at best somewhat problematical. Thinking men are now pretty much agreed, that an extensive consumption is the great principle from which prosperity is derived. The sentiments of Adam Smith, relative to productive and unproductive labourers, are at present regarded as not very correct. It is apparent, that it is quite out of the question for men to work, unless they can procure a market for their commodities. Whenever a manufacturer finds a sale for his wares, he

soon displays his activity in having them produced; but when they remain on his hands, he forbears further exertion, and thus a general stagnation of commerce most infallibly ensues. The truth of this being obvious to every understanding, it becomes necessary to lay down a position, the bearings of which it requires some little reflection to perceive, that any demand existing abroad for manufactures is quite useless, unless there be a corresponding consumption for the returns at home. It is only a great importing country which can be a great exporting country. The quantity of the precious metals annually required must be of exceedingly insignificant amount, being only for the wear and tear of the coin, and any additional plate used by private individuals, as the people grow richer. What is imported over and above these requisites has to be regarded as any other commodity, and consequently will be sent to that part of the world where it can be most profitably employed. Since, then, wealth is not acquired by a country hoarding up gold and silver, but rather by getting rid of them, it is pretty plain, that in the end, there must be the consumption for foreign commodities at home, or the country could not very long continue to export her manufactures. It is on this account that the residence of the rich, requiring the enjoyment of a great many foreign luxuries, contributes so much to advance a country in power. The benefit which they confer is not merely the local encouragement they give to the working classes around them; it is, perhaps, the much greater advantage of introducing more extensive articles of gratification from other countries, and consequently giving a greater stimulus to the industry of the people to produce manufactures to pay for these in return. To make this point still more clear, let it be imagined, that London were swallowed up by an earthquake; the effect this event would produce on the manufactures of Lancashire would not be only that it was a market lost to her directly, but we have to reflect on the far more important consideration that it would soon stop the exports of Liverpool to the Spanish Main or the Brazils. Say that the returns at present are in gold and silver, what, in the case we have supposed, would then be done with these? What is wanted is not the gold and silver, but it is what gold and silver will purchase. At present these precious metals go to France and to China, to purchase the wines and the teas, a great part of which is now consumed in London; but suppose this place to be out of

existence, where would then be the people to consume them as before? The effect would necessarily be, that the gold and silver must accumulate beyond the purposes of trade; and what would be the result of this accumulation? Most certainly the result would be, that it would have an immediate effect with the exchanges of other countries, and that a greater quantity of those metals would be given for labour and all the articles of life. In this situation, notwithstanding the abundance of gold and silver, the artisans would be in the greatest distress, and the manufacturers would soon discover the necessity of limiting their business, and that they could never think of exporting to the same extent as formerly, until a home mart, equal to the mighty city which had been destroyed, was once more restored. This doctrine of consumption forms indeed the most interesting inquiry in the whole range of political science. It is by this means that England has been exalted to her present pre-eminence. What, we may exclaim, led to the improvement of the steam-engine, and to the invention of the cotton machinery, those matchless specimens of the ingenuity of man? Not certainly the recreations of recluse philosophers, but the plain practical cause, that the demand for labour was greater than the supply. If we look around us, we may behold many countries which have remained stationary in industry and arts for centuries, for want of an adequate stimulus to arouse the exertions of the inhabitants; but I believe the world has never yet seen an instance, where there was an extensive home market, without gigantic strides being made to keep pace with it, and very frequently to go beyond it. I trust that by this time the reader will perceive the bearing of the observations, which I have thought proper to make, for the purpose of more fully developing the advantages which the West Indies, above all other colonies, yield to the mother coun try. It is not necessary to adduce the quantity of manufactures exported, or to draw a picture of distresses which would befall the artizans in this country, in case we were abandoned we should rather dwell on the great extent and value of our produce; the many millions it brings annually to be spent in England; and the powerful aid thus given to the most material of all considerations, the home consumption. One of the most distinguished of our opponents, in arguing against us, observed, that the returns of the exports to the West Indies overrated the quantity used

there; a considerable portion being reexported to the Spanish Main. If this were the case, I answer, so much the better; as then, so much greater was the balance of the trade, so much greater was the amount that came to be expended in England. If any person will trace this subject in all its ramifications, and carefully meditate on the benefits conferred by the distribution of our funds on the different classes in society, the demand it creates for labour, the stimulus it affords to exertion, (and, I apprehend, it will clear up many matters in his mind,) he will cease to wonder how England has become the asylum of all the useful arts, and a general pattern of industry to her neighbours. In point of fact, there can be no difference whatever, in the encouragement given to the various artificers, between a gentleman of Yorkshire who resides and spends his income in London, and a West India proprietor, who also lives there, and spends an equal amount. They both equally contribute in their expenditure to consume the various products of foreign countries, and on that account to call forth the exertions of the working classes to produce manufactures to pay for these in return. It is, therefore, quite erroneous to consider the colonial system merely in the light of an interchange of commodities between two countries. The West Indies should rather be regarded as a number of exceedingly rich provinces, from which the mother country derives all the benefits unattended with any of the disadvantages frequently resulting from such possessions. She has the benefit of the rich residing among her, and has not the disadvantage of being encumbered in making provisions for the poor; the latter class being amply provided for in their own respective places of residence. It is not requisite to enter into a detail, to point out the manner in which the income of our settlements is distributed over the different classes engaged in West India pursuits. It is only necessary to take the total amount of the imports into England, and after deducting the value of the exports, the balance is obviously clear revenue, gained to the general income of the country. I could not, I believe, present this to my readers in a more palpable manner than to suppose we took the district of England, south of the Thames, and assuming that a proposition were advanced to deprive of their incomes all the landlords of the counties of Berks, Wilts, Surrey, Kent, and Sussex. Everybody, I presume, will admit that this would be a great misfortune, and that it would produce the most sensible effect on the pros

perity of the empire; yet precisely similar, as regards the nation, would be the result, if the theory of those men who call themselves political economists were carried into effect with respect to abandoning the colonies. And it ought to be further observed, that I do not here include the benefits derived from those persons, who, having made their fortunes, have disposed of their property, and have retired to the place of their nativity, to spend the remainder of their years: this particular in itself merits careful reflection. It would be a most instructive lesson, if we were to take the history of every county in England from the time of Charles II.; to examine into the changes which have taken place in the proprietors of the land; to review the improvements and the enclosures which have been made; and then to sum up and shew how much of this had been done by the funds of the colonial trade. I do not mean by those funds the gains which might have been realized in any other traffic with foreign countries; I mean that profit which the foreign country itself would have derived; which, from the planters coming home, has reverted back to England; and which, if I may so term it, has transferred itself into every channel of business, and most powerfully augmented the national resources."

Mr M'Donnell then proceeds to a discussion as to the political advantages we derive from those colonies. We wish it were in our power to quote the whole of what he has written on this matter-but we consider even the following mere fragment as in itself complete, conclusive, and unanswerable.

“In this particular the changes which have taken place in the public mind are fully as great as those we have been examining. The celebrated navigation act, so long the boast as being the wisest in the statute-book, has lost its admirers, and by many is treated with open derision. In this instance, as in other innovations, there may be a good deal of correctness, and also, perhaps, a good deal of error. It is not my intention to consume time in examining what has been so much more fully examined but lately; I will content myself with asking one simple question-What would this country have done during the late war, had it not been for her colonies? Where would she have got a vent for her manufactures; where would she have procured her draughts of sailors; where would she have raised her resources, had it not been for

the colonial system? When her intercourse with other countries was stopped, when Buonaparte, by his Milan and Berlin decrees, had excluded her from all Europe, how would she, single-handed, have maintained the conflict, and have upborne the almost expiring liberties of the world, had it not been for the aid of those settlements she had peopled?Surely, if there be any period of history on which future generations will dwell with proud exultation, it is the late memorable struggle, when Britain presented her fearless front to her host of enemies, and, like a virtuous matron, gathering her family around her, placed her faith in her own possessions, and braved the threatened danger. We may be assured that the system which accomplished this cannot be a bad one; and he must be coldblooded indeed, who would meditate a change, on the audacious authority of a mere speculative theory.

"It may be necessary to remind the public, that they are not in possession of all the sugar-settlements in the West Indies. Many powers are now looking on with eager satisfaction at the attempts which are making to deteriorate and to ruin the possessions of the British crown. And while a mortal blow has been levelled at us, they have been watching in silent expectation of beholding our ruin, and of raising themselves to more relative importance. It is well known that several of those powers view England with envious distrust, and some, perhaps, with deadly hatred; and it would be melancholy to contemplate the issue, should there ever be a diminution of our naval preponderance. As an admirable writer has stated, the settlements of Great Britain may be regarded as the outworks of the empire, which, in case of a war, are the first attacked. They keep the enemy from our own shores; their loss will be the first symptom of our decline; and when that event arrives, we shall soon have hostilities off the coasts of Lancashire and Kent, which, under a better policy, would take place in Canada and the West Indies. This great question of maintaining distant settlements, and of preserving a nursery for seamen, is the most important that presents itself to a statesman. In deciding upon it, if we are regulated by the best of all guides, experience, we shall naturally inquire, has the system answered the purpose, or has it not? If it has answered, why hazard the change? Is it not something like the heedless recklessness of prosperity, dissatisfied with the present, and seeking after change? Although it is not very likely that Great Britain would lose her

power within a short period, yet, at the same time, it might ultimately happen. Where is now, we may ask, the enterprize of those states which, at one time, made them so prominent in maritime pursuits? Many of them are at present scarcely heard of in European history. Might not a similar fate hereafter attend England, should her legislature neglect wisely to watch over her destinies, and make the evil day as distant as possible? The rapid progress of luxury has already done much to enervate the inhabitants. It may be truly said, that if it were not for the resources of Scotland and Ireland, England would find some difficulty in raising a considerable army, whenever circumstances should demand it. The reason is apparent. The superior comforts of the latter nation render few persons willing to encounter the irksomeness of military pursuits; while, to the former, they afford a life of comparative ease. By a parity of argument in this particular, if the policy of the country did not make it imperative that the number of seamen be kept up, is it not possible that a similar result might one day take place with this class of people, and make them averse to encounter the hardships of a sea-faring life? It is well known that their wages are at present relatively beyond those of the ordinary descriptions of labour. These reflections awaken important ideas, and should make men pause before they innovate on that policy which has borne the nation victorious through her struggles, and carried her to her present pitch of prosperity.

"I have now concluded my detail of what I deem the principal benefits of the colonial system; and I have some expectation that they will satisfy the reader. I have no wish to under-rate the exertions of those in Opposition; but I must say, their views appear to me neither judicious nor comprehensive. The party who are loudest in denouncing us to the public are those persons engaged in the East India trade. That this proceeds from a not very estimable feeling of human nature, none would dispute; and with regard to the advantages which the widely extended dominions of the East yield to this country, it will not perhaps be amiss to consider them under the same four heads as those applied to the West Indies.

"I. I believe no person has ever yet produced an instance of a British merchant lending out his money on mortgage on part of their territories. The uncertainty and risk are much too great. Instances there doubtless may be of the greedy avidity of some of the servants of