APPENDIX TO CHAP. IV. OF BOOK VI.

HIS work having (1799) reached a third edition, it

is with infinite satisfaction the author has an opportunity, in this place, of presenting to his readers the 12th article of the treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation between his Britannic majesty and the United States of America, concluded at London the 19th of November 1794, and finally ratified by the American house of representatives on the 30th of April 1796. What effect the author's arguments in the preceding chapter produced on this occasion, he presumes not to say. That some of the facts which he stated had a very considerable influence on the minds of his majesty's ministers, he has been assured from high authority; and indeed it were injurious to the character of those ministers to suppose that they had not. The 12th article is expressed in the words following: "XII. His majesty consents, that it shall and may be law"ful, during the time hereinafter limited, for the citizens "of the United States to carry to any of his majesty's “islands and ports in the West Indies from the United "States, in their own vessels, not being above the burthen "of seventy tons, any goods or merchandises, being of "the growth, manufacture, or produce of the said States, "which it is or may be lawful to carry to the said islands "or ports from the said States in British vessels; and that "the said American vessels shall be subject there to no

"other or higher tonnage duties or charges than shall be payable by British vessels in the ports of the United "States; and that the cargoes of the said American vesseis "shall be subject there to no other or higher duties or charges than shall be payable on the like articles if im"ported there from the said States in British vessels.

"And his majesty also consents, that it shall be lawful "for the said American citizens to purchase, load, and carry 66 away in their said vessels, to the United States, from the "said islands and ports, all such articles, being of the "growth, manufacture, or produce of the said islands, as

may now by law be carried from thence to the said States "in British vessels, and subject only to the same duties and "charges on exportation to which British vessels and their cargoes are or shall be subject in similar circumstances.

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"Provided always, that the said American vessels do "carry and land their cargoes in the United States only; "it being expressly agreed and declared, that, during the "continuance of this article, the United States will prohibit "and restrain the carrying any melasses, sugar, coffee, co

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coa, or cotton, in American vessels, either from his ma'jesty's islands or from the United States, to any part of "the world, except the United States, reasonable sea stores "excepted.

"Provided also, that it shall and may be lawful, during "the same period, for British vessels to import from the "said islands into the United States, and to export from "the United States to the said islands, all articles what"ever, being of the growth, produce, or manufacture of "the said islands, or of the United States respectively, "which now may by the laws of the said States be so im"ported and exported; and that the cargoes of the said

"British vessels shall be subject to no other or higher du"ties or charges, than shall be payable on the same articles "if so imported or exported in American vessels.

"It is agreed that this article, and every matter and thing "therein contained, shall continue to be in force during "the continuance of the war in which his majesty is now "engaged; and also for two years from and after the day "of the signature of the preliminary or other articles of 66 peace by which the same may be terminated.

"And it is further agreed, that at the expiration of the "said term, the two contracting parties will endeavour "further to regulate their commerce in this respect, ac"cording to the situation in which his majesty may then "find himself with respect to the West Indies, and with a "view to such arrangements as may best conduce to the "mutual advantage and extension of commerce."

CHAPTER V.

Charges brought against the Planters introductory of Opinions and Doctrines the Design of which is to prove, that the Settlement of the British Plantations was improvident and unwise.-Testimony of the InspectorGeneral on this Subject, and Animadversions thereon. -Erroneous Idea concerning a distinct Interest between Great Britain and her Sugar Islands.-The National Income and the Profits of Individuals arising from those Islands considered separately.-Opinions of Postlethwaite and Child.-Whether the Duties on West Indian Commodities imported fall on the Consumer, and in what Cases?-Drawbacks and Bounties: Explanation of those Terms, and their Origin and Propriety traced and demonstrated. Of the Monopoly-compact; its Nature and Origin.-Restrictions on the Colonists enumerated; and the Benefits resulting therefrom to the Mother Country pointed out and illustrated.-Advantages which would accrue to the Planter, the Revenue, and the Public, from permitting the Inhabitants of the West Indies to refine their raw Sugar for the British Consumption.-Unjust Clamours raised in Great Britain on any temporary Advance of the West Indian Staples.-Project of establishing Sugar Plantations in the East Indies under the Protection of Government considered.-Remonstrance which might be offered against this and other Measures.-Conclusion.

A

FTER so copious a display as hath been given of the prodigiously increased value of these important islands, during the space of a century and

a half, which have nearly elapsed since their first settlement, it may be supposed that the conduct of Great Britain towards them (notwithstanding the proceedings on which I have presumed to animadvert in the foregoing chapter) has generally been founded in kindness and liberality; and that the murmurs and complaints which have sometimes proceeded from the planters, when new and heavy duties have been laid on their staples, have been equally ungrateful and unjust; the fastidious peevishness of opulent folly, and surfeited prosperity.

Charges to this effect have indeed been frequently urged against the planters of the West Indies, with a spirit of bitterness and rancour, which inclines one to think, that a small degree of envy (excited, perhaps, by the splendid appearance of a few opulent individuals among them resident in Great Britain) is blended in the accusation. They would therefore have remained unnoticed by me, were they not, on frequent occasions, introductory of doctrines and opinions as extraordinary in their nature, as dangerous in their tendency; for, supported as they are by persons of ability and influence, they cannot fail, if adopted by ministers, and carried from the national councils into measures, to widen our recent wounds, and make a general massacre of our whole system of colonization.

Of these doctrines and opinions, so far as they concern the British plantations in the West Indies, the following is a fair abstract and abridgment: