THE SUBSTANCE OF THE EVIDENCE ON THE PETITION Presented by the West-India
Planters
and
Merchants,
TO THE Hon. HOUSE of COMMONS, As it was introduced at the BAR, and summ'd up By Mr. GLOVER, On THURSDAY the 16th of MARCH, 1775.
LONDON, Printed: NEW-YORK, Re-printed by
H. Gaine,
in Hanover-Square.
M,DCC,LXXV.
The HUMBLE PETITION Of the PLANTERS, &c. With the SUBSTANCE of the EVIDENCE, &c.
ON the second day of February, 1775, the following Petition was presented to the House of Commons:
To the Honourable the
COMMONS
of
GREAT-BRITAIN,
in Parliament assembled.
The HUMBLE PETITION of the Planters of his Majesty's Sugar Colonies residing in GREAT-BRITAIN, and of the Merchants of London trading to the said Colonies,
SHEWETH,
THAT your Petitioners are exceedingly alarmed at an Agreement and Association, entered into by the Congress, held at the city of Philadelphia in North-America, on the 5th day of September, 1774, whereby the members thereof agreed and associated, for themselves and the inhabitants of the several provinces, (lying between Nova Scotia and Georgia) that from and after the first day of December, 1774, they would not import into British America any Melasses, Syrups, Paneles, Coffee or Pimento from the British Plantations; and that, after the 10th day of September, 1775, if the acts and the parts of Acts of the British Parliament, therein mentioned, are not repealed, they would not directly or indirectly export any merchandize or commodity whatsoever to the West-Indies.
And your Petitioners most humbly represent, that the British property or stock vested in the West-India islands amounts to upwards of thirty millions sterling: That a further property of many millions is employed in the commerce created by the said islands; a commerce comprehending Africa, the East-Indies and Europe: That the whole profits and produce of these capitals ultimately center in Great-Britain, and add to the national wealth, while the navigation necessary to all its branches establishes a strength, which wealth can neither purchase nor balance.
That the sugar plantations in the West-Indies are subject to a greater variety of contingencies, than many other species of property, from their necessary dependence on external support; and that therefore should any interruption happen in the general system of their commerce, the great national stock, thus vested and employed, must become unprofitable and precarious.
That the profits arising from the present state of the said islands, and that are likely to arise from their future improvement, in a great measure depend on a free and reciprocal intercourse between them and the several provinces of North-America, from whence they are furnished with provisions and other supplies, absolutely necessary for their support and the maintenance of their plantations: That the scarcity and high price in Great-Britain, and other parts of Europe, of those articles of indispensable necessity, which they now derive from the Middle Colonies of America, and the inadequate population in some parts of that continent, with the distance, danger, and uncertainty of the navigation, from others, forbid your petitioners to hope for a supply in any degree proportionate to their wants.
That if the first part of the said Agreement and Association for a Non-importation hath taken place, and shall be continued, the same will be highly detrimental to the Sugar Colonies; and that if the second part of the said Agreement and Association for a Nonexportation shall be carried into execution, which your Petitioners do firmly believe will happen, unless the harmony that subsisted a few years since between this kingdom and the provinces of America, to the infinite advantage of both, be restored; the islands which are supplied with most of their subsistence from thence will be reduced to the utmost distress, and the trade between all the islands and this kingdom will of course be obstructed, to the diminution of the Public Revenue, to the ruin of most of the Planters, and to the great prejudice of the Merchants: not only by the said obstruction, but also by the delay of payment of the principal and interest of an immense debt, due from the former to the latter.
Your Petitioners do therefore most humbly pray, that this Honourable House will be pleased to take into their most serious consideration that great political system of the Colonies, heretofore so very beneficial to the Mother Country and her dependencies, and adopt such measures as to them in their great wisdom shall seem meet, to prevent the evils with which your Petitioners are threatened, and to preserve the intercourse between the West-India islands and the Northern Colonies, to the general harmony and lasting benefit of the whole British empire; and that they may be heard by themselves, their Agents, or Council, in support of their Petition.
And your Petitioners, &c.
The Petitioners were referred to a Committee of the whole House, and on the 16th day of March ensuing were admitted to a hearing; which was opened in the following manner by their Agent, Mr. Glover, Merchant of the city of London.
THE SUBSTANCE OF THE EVIDENCE,
&c.
SIR,
I Appear in the behalf, and by the appointment of the Planters and Merchants concerned in the West-Indies, who have presented to this honourable House an humble Petition, setting forth the great danger to themselves, to the navigation, revenue and commerce of these kingdoms, in consequence of an Agreement and Association entered into by a meeting, held at Philadelphia, on the fifth day of September, 1774.
I bend under the weight of a subject so awful; a weight increased by my own thoughts anticipating calamities, in which every inhabitant throughout this extensive empire, more or less, may have a share: at the same time, conscious as I am, that a nation is behind me generally unfavourable to my undertaking. But above all, I am fearful of a wide difference in sentiments between this great auditory, and the inconsiderable individual at their bar.
I rest, however, upon one consolation, that whatever may be the state of your minds and of all besides; in every state, whether of dejection or elevation; in every conjuncture, whether adverse or prosperous; let me say, in all time of our tribulation, in all time of our wealth, information hath its use, knowledge is salutary; and when presented in their genuine simplicity, untainted by prejudice, passion, or party; not looking towards any one quarter in preference to another; without courting any; meaning to offend none; but soliciting the attention of all; information and knowledge in such a shape cannot be unacceptable to any assembly, and I am confident will be acceptable here.
To throw lights into the Committee is the sole object of your Petitioners, limiting themselves to the line of facts, which from their peculiar situation none can fully explain, but such as themselves. I shall ask no opinion from witnesses, and if asked from any other quarter, the answer will be, that to establish facts is their part, to judge and decide is yours: Opinion therefore might be constructive presumption in them, like an interference with the counsels and measures of the state; whereas they entertain but one expectation, that the information, delivered this day, if not in the present juncture, may be found of some utility at some future period during a portentous series of events, whose final issue is known only to him, who alone knows all things.
I proceed, Sir, upon another consolation, in thinking myself secure of one merit with the Committee; that upon the present subject the variety of matter, already lying before you, might by a variety and multitude of witnesses be prolonged, perhaps, for twenty days; and that I can pledge myself so far, as rests upon me, to dispatch the whole in less than half that number of hours. I shall call but two witnesses, from whose evidence, and from a very few papers respecting the colonies out of the large quantity, transmitted by office to the House, it shall be endeavoured to give you a clear insight into the two capital branches of Colony-trade, the West-Indian, the North-American, and the immediate dependent upon both, the African, with the relations and proportions of each towards the other, and towards the several great interests, the manufacture, commerce, navigation, revenue and land of Great-Britain.
After the examination of Mr. Walker and Mr. Ellis, the whole was summed up, as follows;
SIR,
HAVING closed the examination of witnesses, I must recur to my introductory proposition; that from the evidence at your bar, and the official papers upon your table, it shall be endeavoured to give the Committee a clear insight into the two capital branches of Colony-trade, the West-Indian, the North-American, and the immediate dependent upon both, the African; with the relations and proportions of each towards the other, and towards the several great interests, the manufacture, commerce, navigation, revenue and land of Great-Britain.
Finding my auditory so much diminished in number, I must supply the void by imagination, presenting to my view the genius of the place, the majestic genius of parliament, holding a balance to weigh the future fortunes of kingdoms, with an impartial hand ready to receive the weights peculiar to each scale; and conscious, that the welfare, perhaps the being of a whole empire depend on the turn.
I begin with investigating the general system of that empire, not only in description, but illustration by comparison.
Ancient nations were possessed of the widest dominion, not with commercial helps. To be brief, I shall confine the enquiry to one, to the Romans in their ages of purity. Cultivation of their soil, rude manufacture just adequate to their necessities, severity of manners, superiority in martial discipline, enthusiasm for the very name of Rome, and the
dulce & decorum pro patria mori
made them masters of the world. War was conducted with little expence, and the weightiest arms in the most skilful hands prevailed. Commerce flourished among others, whose affluence submitted to the steel of Rome.
What is the system now? All over Europe the same weapons, the same discipline, the same military arts are in practice; war is attended with a profusion of expence; and the deepest purse is the best assurance of success. Hence the encouragement of manufacture and trade is the pursuit of every nation in this quarter of the globe except two; who derive the treasure, which Europe wants, from distant mines with a facility, enervating their own industry, while the rest are exerting theirs, each for a share in that wealth, which the other two introduce, and can only be obtained through the commercial channel. By this Holland with a territory insufficient to nourish her inhabitants, hath in her day stood forth a bulwark against tyranny and superstition. An artificial strength, created by commerce, enabled her to make head with numerous fleets and armies against powers immensely her superiors in natural force. Above all in commercial arts and advantage is Great-Britain. Her purse, kept full by her credit, the resource of a trading nation, an annual expenditure at length of sixteen to eighteen millions recently supported so long, so extensive, and so vigorous a war. Had her purse been scanty, she never would have seen a navy, which bore little short of ninety thousand men, could never have engaged a potent ally, nor furnished such troops, as acted so efficiently, and at the same time in such different parts of the globe. Hence it is evident, her system is commercial; her strength and resources are wholly derived from trade. I allow, the first interest in rank among us is the landed, but interwoven altogether with trade. Pay no regard to a doctrine from me, but pay all to the supreme authority of the clearest luminary, this country ever produced, the great Mr. Locke. His words are these,
"The decays, that come upon, and bring to ruin any country, do constantly first fall upon the land; and though the country gentleman is not very forward to think so, yet this nevertheless is an undoubted truth; that he is more concerned in trade, and ought to take a greater care, that it be well managed and preserved, than even the merchant himself."
On the firm ground of such authority let enquiry be made, whether we should not remain content with the lot assigned us, which hath raised us so high among the modern nations, where all are in rivalry for manufacture and trade; whether we should degrade our refinements by a parallel with an unpolished and rugged race of old, and contaminate the delicacy of modern sensations with those primitive and stern principles, which imposed such a yoke on mankind as the
majestas populi Romani:
or whether, confining our speculations to the placid sphere of enjoyments with more quiet, and less hazard, than the restless pursuits of their ambition, we should not have in contemplation upon all extraordinary convulsions, how far the means of those enjoyments may be affected, that influx of wealth, the creature of commerce, which solely constitutes our envied power and rank in the present world.
To elucidate by facts a system so essential to our being, your Petitioners have appeared at this tremendous crisis; when Great-Britain and America, the parent and the child with equal irritation are menacing at least, what barely in words, what barely in thought is horror—to unsheathe the sword of parricide, and sever the dearest ties of consanguinity, of mutual aids, and general prosperity.
Your Petitioners preferr'd but one supplication to the All-merciful Being; their own reason suggested no other, than to be heard by you. He hath inclined you to hear, truth enables us to speak. Truth in its nature is healing, and productive of reflection: reflection leads to composure of mind, and strengthens in our breasts a hope, that an hour may come, when this humble application may not be found altogether ineffectual: if too for that auspicious purpose it may prove my good fortune so to collect, and combine the various evidence from your bar, and from the copied records of office upon your table, as to establish a system of the whole, and found that whole upon truth; whose efficacy upon the mind I have described before, and with some fervour of hope anticipate now.
Here, Sir, I entreat your acceptance of a clew through the seeming labyrinth of accounts. The ways indeed are all unadorned, but the least perplex'd of any to a little attention; and to make them short shall be mine.
You have before you official accounts of the exports from England to the West-Indies from Christmas 1739, to Christmas, 1773. Of these thirty-four years the first seventeen, ending at Christmas, 1756, form a period, which closes in the first year of the last war. The whole value exceeds twelve millions, and gives an annual medium of more than 700,000l. The last period of seventeen years ends at Christmas, 1773, and renders a total of more than nineteen millions, and more than 1,100,000l. at the annual medium. I only observe in this place, that the increase of the latter upon the former is in the proportion of eleven to seven; and of the value in both two thirds are British goods, and one third only foreign.
A second set of accounts contain the exports to North-America. The first seventeen years yield more than seventeen millions in the whole, and than one million at the annual medium. The last period renders more than forty millions in the whole, and largely more than 2,300,000l. at the annual medium; an increase upon the former in a proportion of twenty-three to ten, with a value in both of three fourths British goods to one fourth foreign.
The third account relates to Africa, whose commerce with England owes its existence to her colonies. The first seventeen years reach nearly to three millions, and to an annual medium something short of 180,000l. the last seventeen years nearly to eight millions, and an annual medium of 470,000l. an increase upon the first in a proportion of forty-seven to eighteen, with a value in each of two thirds British goods to one third foreign.
On this augmentation of exports to your Colonies, irrefragable proof is founded, that through whatever channels riches have flow'd among them, that influx hath made a passage from them to the Mother Country, and in the most wholesome mode; not like the dash of an oriental torrent, but in salubrious, various, placid and copious streams, refreshing and augmenting sober industry by additional employment to thousands and ten thousands of families, and lightening the burden upon rents by reducing the contribution of parishes to poverty unemployed.
But this requires a further explanation. The date of the last period is the commencement of the last war. The expenditure of public money was one source of wealth to the West-Indies. That temporary acquisition being soon exhausted by its return to England, sufficient sums were procured upon credit after the peace to cultivate new land, and improve the old, still further enlarging the consumption of our commodities there and in Africa, that from the year of the peace to Christmas, 1773, the import of sugar only to England, who without her West-Indies must purchase that immense article from foreigners, hath risen from 130,000 to 170,000 hogsheads, an augmentation in value of 800,000
l.
The public expenditure, being much larger in North America, produc'd a proportionate effect on the consumption of our manufactures through that continent. This money return'd from its peregrination to the Mother Country by 1764, or 1765 at the furthest. But, as the West-Indies had a succedaneum, so had North-America through a new opening of trade, which converted the misfortune of England into a blessing. Though I am convinc'd, that the same number of hands at least is devoted to agriculture here, and that the earth at a medium of years hath yielded the same increase; as we have been dispos'd to consume it all among ourselves, or as our presumption may impute the scarcity to Providence, restraining the fertility of our soil for ten years past, in either case we could not spare, as heretofore, our grain to the foreigner; a reduction in our exports one year with another of more than 600,000
l.
The American subjects took place of the British in markets, we could no longer supply, extended their vent from season to season, and from port to port, and by a circuition of fresh money, thus acquir'd by themselves, added fresh numbers to your manufactures, the rents of land increasing at the same time, till the amount of exports to North America for the last three years, ending at Christmas 1773, stand upon your papers at ten millions and a half, or three millions and a half at the annual medium; add 1,300,000
l.
the medium of the same three years for the West-Indies, and 700,000
l.
for Africa, and the total value of exports to the colonies, nearly in a proportion of three fourths British to one fourth foreign goods, is five millions and a half at the medium of these three years, ending at Christmas, 1773. A slight matter this to the great question before you, says the general voice without doors, and readily admitted without the ceremony of proof. This I mention by way of preparation to introduce the most material account of all; which will demonstrate, that the magnitude of five millions and a half, exported in the Colony branches, the West-Indian, North-American and African, is not to be considered as an object so striking in itself, as in comparison with the whole export of England to all countries whatsoever. The annual medium for twelve years back stands on these papers at less than fifteen millions; but as I have limited the Colony branch to 1771, 2 and 3, I shall take the general exports during that period, which renders a medium of sixteen millions. What part is the Colony branch? Five and a half is rather more, than a third. Does the magnitude appear in a stronger light by the comparison? Or hath it been admitted in this view, before it was stated? Be it so. I have something behind, perhaps enough for the keenest appetite of admission to digest.
Sir, one part of our exports to foreigners is supplied by Colony produce, tobacco, rice, sugar, &c. through Great-Britain, for a million sterling at a low estimation. Add two millions more, exported of all kinds from England to her principal Colony, Ireland, and both to the former five millions and a half; your whole Colony branch will then exceed the half of your whole export in the proportion of eight and a half to sixteen.
Thanks to the care and forecast of our forefathers one hundred and twenty years since. In the circle of antient trade, narrow in comparison with the modern, the great trading states, Carthage pre-eminent to all, suffered but little from rivalship. All in Europe are our rivals, all devoted to manufacture and traffic, as capital pursuits of policy: while we struggling with such competition, have in some instances already experienc'd its hurtful effects, and must prepare for more; we had always one consolation left, that our colony-trade, kept to ourselves by old and salutary regulations, hath been augmenting from period to period, till at present it constitutes more, than half of the whole, with a prospect of further growth, rather than diminution, unless we create our own rivals.
One more observation remains of all the most important, so far as safety to a state is a consideration above all others. Of this trade the part, which depends on the associated provinces, contributes in naval stores, in other low pric'd and bulky commodities more to the British marine, than triple the present exports in commodities of such higher value, and shipp'd so largely in foreign bottoms to the foreign market. Such was your situation.
Upon the present question I will not take that larger half before-mentioned for my ground. I will deduct the two millions to Ireland, and the odd
500,000l.
furnish'd to provinces not of the combination, though they did not receive more than
400,000l.
in value, at the medium of these three last years; when there will remain six millions out of the eight and a half: Nay, I will further reduce the six by nearly
700,000l.
to remove all suspicion of exaggeration, and to make an exact third of the sixteen; and which is the part immediately affected by the association in North-America.
From this ground see, what is put in hazard; not merely a monied profit, but our bulwark of defence, our power in offence, the arts and industry of our nation. Instead of thousands and ten thousands of Families in comfort, a navigation extensive and enlarging, the value and rents of land yearly rising, wealth abounding, and at hand for further improvements, see or foresee, that this third of our whole commerce, that sole basis of our empire, and this third in itself the best, once lost, carries with it a proportion of our national faculties, our treasure, our public revenue, and the value of land, succeeded in its fall by a multiplication of taxes to reinstate that revenue, an encreasing burden on every decreasing estate, decreasing by the reduc'd demand of its produce for the support of manufacture and manufacturers, and menac'd with a heavier calamity still, the diminution of our marine, of our seamen, of our general population, by the emigrations of useful subjects, strengthening that very country you wish to humble, and weakening this in the sight of rival powers, who wish to humble us.
Having been hitherto merely general, I must now descend to a detail, but of parts so large, that each is separately big with sufficient evils to draw the utmost stretch of your attention. I begin with those, which threaten the West Indies.
To recapitulate the heads of that material evidence, delivered by Mr. Walker and Mr. Ellis, would be tedious in me, unnecessary in itself. Leaving it therefore to its own powerful impression, I here add only in a general mode of my own, that of the inhabitants in those islands above four hundred thousand are blacks; from whose labour the immense riches there, so distinctly prov'd at your bar, are deriv'd with such immense advantage to these kingdoms. How far these multitudes, if their intercourse with North-America is stopp'd, may be exposed to famine, you have heard. One half in Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands, say one hundred thousand negroes, in value at least four millions sterling, possibly, it grieves me to say probably, may perish. The remainder must divert to provisions the culture of the produce so valuable to Great-Britain. The same must be the practice in great part through Jamaica, and the new settled acquisitions. They may feel a distress just short of destruction, but must divert for subsistence so much labour, as in proportion will shorten their rich product. In fact, why should they raise the latter, if lumber should be wanting for its package to Great-Britain. How vague, how uncertain, how nearly impracticable would be a supply of these necessaries through any new channel, I need not repeat; but shall close this head with another short general state in confirmation of Mr. Walker's most accurate detail. The gross amount of imports at an annual medium from these now unfortunate islands exceeds four millions: 190,000 casks of sugar and rum, besides many other articles, the bulky loading for such a multitude of vessels, more than authorise my assertion. Of these annual four millions the exchequer receives its portion, the navigator and merchant theirs; the rest centers with the planter; and how distributed by him? In the purchase of 1,300,000l. in our exports direct, and the largest part of 700,000l. more in circuition through Africa for a constant supply of negroes. What is left, considerable, as it may be among residents here, is applied to home-consumption, not with a sparing hand, and to investments, upholding the price of land, and the credit of public funds. At the same time they are furnishing commodities to us of such necessary use, which else must be paid for to foreigners, and with a superfluity for foreign consumption likewise. I avoid comparison; but judge from this state, how valuable a subject is the planter. All these benefits, the healthy progeny of active trade, all, or part must sleep, as in a grave, during a total, or partial stagnation.
Upon the North-American imports I shall only remark, that the most considerable part of their bulky productions is bought by the foreigner, and of the amount, consumed in Great-Britain, the Exchequer hath a capital share. Nor will I take North-America for a companion in my present melancholy walk, because she may prove the only gainer, and as a community become more sound and healthy, while every other member of the empire lies bleeding. But my heart bleeds, when, renewing my gloomy progress, I turn a view towards one kingdom, a great member, which may unhappily be distinguished above all sufferers in the present conjuncture; I mean the kingdom of Scotland: and among my honourable hearers, they, whose particular attention, I may now engage, have no cause to doubt the sincerity of my feelings. I have taken equal pains with the accounts of exports from that kingdom, as from this. The papers, I could collect, begin at Christmas 1748, and end at Christmas 1772, with two years wanting, a circumstance however, which will not in the least impede me in illustrating the progress and improvement of the North British trade. A first period shews an annual medium of about 500,000l. In a second it rises to 860,000l. In a third to 1,150,000l. and in the last for 1770, 1771 and 1772 to 1,700,000l. of which about 400,000l. is colony-export exclusive of Ireland, and the far greater part to the tobacco provinces: where many of my most worthy friends have a property lying much larger, than I chuse to conjecture. To this I add a known export of linen, exceeding 200,000l. supplied to England for American use. The whole may be little short of 700,000l, but calling it 6, I ask, if Scotland can well endure a stagnation of such a value for twelve months to come. Whether their export to Ireland of 3 to 400,000l. will be affected, and how far emigration of late so prevalent may be extended by the pressure of a new calamity, I will not forbode. Sir, I feel—Sir, those feelings forbid me to expatiate further—I chuse to drop the subject. Observing only, that the colony-export from Scotland is to their whole much in the same proportion with ours, I will now pass over to Ireland.
That kingdom takes from England and Scotland little short of 2,400,000l. annually in goods. How doth she pay for them? A large part in linen and yarn, the remainder in cash, acquired by her foreign traffic. In the printed report to this House from their linen committee it appears, that in 1771 the linen made, and brought to market for sale in that kingdom for its own use and ours, amounted to 2,150,000l. and the yarn exported to about 200,000l. This immense value, the employment of such numbers, hath its source in North-America. The flaxseed from thence not worth 40,000l. a trifle to that continent, forms the basis of Ireland, and reverts largely in manufacture from her to the original seat of growth. In reply, what is the cry of my magnanimous countrymen without doors? Dignity! Supremacy! The evil hour is advancing, not yet come; no sooner come, than felt, it may produce a discovery too late, that high-sounding words imply no food to the hungry, no raiment to the naked; and that these throughout our empire may amount to millions in number—But new channels of supply shall be found; our potency can surmount all difficulties. It is full time to begin the essay in Ireland, lest, during the experiment, emigration so constant there should change to depopulation in the Protestant quarters.
I now return to England, not a member, but the head. Her sorrows I will leave to the contemplation of that superior class, which must be the ultimate and permanent sufferer. The sage Mr. Locke would tell the country gentleman, that his visible property must re-place the loss of public revenue; that he must provide for a nation of hungry and naked, or sink into utter debility and despondency; when the sun rises no more on this once flourishing island, but to see the desertion of inhabitants, and a wretched remnant, wandering unclad and unfed in lamentation over a wilderness.
I have mentioned the revenue, and shall now be very concise upon that head. Deducting bounties and drawbacks, the neat receipt at the Exchequer from duties and excise on West-India productions I venture to set at more than 700,000l. and another receipt in the North-American branch, at just so much, as with the former may render a total of one million. To that amount the public revenue is immediately concerned. Consequential loss, for instance in the great article of tea for want of the usual supply of sugar, or in any other articles, I do not dwell upon here, but leave to reflection.
Thus far, Sir, I hope, that I have proved what was your situation, happy in receiving from your colonies all the possible advantage attainable in the nature of things. Could our forefathers, the authors of such a system, which exclusive of foreign profit could bring the numerous subjects of the same state in such dispers'd habitations over the earth, thousands and thousands of miles asunder, to a concurrence in the extirpation of idleness, in promoting the comfort, and calling forth the faculties of each other; could those venerable founders of a structure so stupendously great arise, and seeing it brought to such perfection by time and experience, yet find it within the last ten years so roughly handled in a conflict with finance; what looks would they cast on their blinded posterity, almost the whole British people, who on every start of pecuniary contribution from America have under three Administrations been openmouth'd, and are still for American taxation? Let the three Administrations have all the justification of
defendit numerus, junctaeque umbone phalanges.
But I, an unconnected man, firmly pronounce, that the consenting voice of all mankind cannot make two and two more, or less, than four; that the
Vox Populi
is not always the
Vox Dei,
and among us upon the present subject resembles the popular cry in old Jerusalem of crucify, crucify.
Yet, Sir, I likewise sincerely wish, that the gloomy aspect, I have given to our future situation, may be all nugatory, all misrepresentation, unintended, but not therefore less the result of error and blindness. Hitherto I have look'd on one side of the question only; permit me now to comtemplate the other.
It is the general acceptation, that the associated provinces will submit in consequence of the measures taken. The measures I allude to are public facts; and with some relief to my own dejection I apply them to introduce another fact incontestable and brilliant; whereon I gladly dwell for a while: it is a subject of praise, requiring but few words, because it is true. I have nam'd the Romans; we have among us a select body, whom I compare with them, as their equals at any the most distinguish'd epoch of their martial science and prowess. I will not hazard a panegyric. The grateful sensations of all our memories retain the illustrious and recent atchievements of the British military by land and sea, with a warmth, which would render the most elaborate encomium spiritless and cold. But themselves, letter'd gentlemen of England, and vers'd in history, will allow, that the peculiar superiority, deriv'd from discipline, possess'd by them in its highest excellence, is but the effect of human art; that there are left at large in human nature certain sparks, whose occasional concurrence produces operations not to be circumscrib'd, or controul'd by art or power, and hath caus'd such wonderful vicissitudes, recorded in times past, but, I hope, will make no part of our future annals. I allude to that violent agitation of the soul, enthusiasm. Such vicissitudes, not to be shunn'd by art or power, merit the most attention, when most is set upon a cast.
Many without doors have treated the existence of this uncontrollable spirit as imaginary. I did not reason with those, who either feel no enthusiasm for any thing serious, or retain just so much, as may be requisite in the eager pursuit of diversions, pleasures, or profit. I would have accompanied others more speculative through their several gradations of hope, still disappointed, and still reviving, but for one observation, which I have generally kept conceal'd, but will soon reveal to you. But for this observation I might have concurr'd with the public belief, that the capital of a province, now declared in rebellion, would have submitted on the landing of a few regiments; this failing, that other provinces from ancient jealousy and disgust would not have interfer'd, rather sought their own advantage out of that town's distress; this failing, that they never would have proceeded to the length of constituting a certain inauspicious assembly among themselves; this failing, that the members of such assembly would have disagreed, and not fram'd a single resolution. This last hope having prov'd abortive, a new one is popularly adopted, that the first intelligence of enforcing measures, at least the bare commencement of their execution will tame the most refractory spirits. I will here state the grounds of this, and all the preceding hopes; afterwards with your indulgence the ground of my original and continued doubts.
Our trading nation naturally assum'd, that the present contention would be with traders in America. The stock of a trader, whether his own, or in part, and often the greatest part a property of others, confiding in him, is personal, lodg'd in a magazine, and expos'd in seasons of commotion to instantaneous devastation. The circumstance of such property, the considerations, suggested by common prudence, by the sense of common justice to those, who have given a generous credit, rarely make room for that intrepidity, which meets force with force. Hence I admit, that the mere traffickers would have submitted at first, and will now whenever they dare. The reason, why they have not dared, is the foundation of my doubts.
I am speaking to an enlighten'd assembly, and conversant with their own annals. In those ages, the reverse of commercial, when your ancestors fill'd the ranks of men at arms, and compos'd the cavalry of England, of whom did the infantry consist? A race unknown to other kingdoms, and in the present opulence of traffic almost extinct in this, the yeomenry of England; an order of men, possessing paternal inheritance, cultivated under their own care, enough to preserve independence, and cherish the generous sentiments attendant on that condition, without superfluity for idleness, or effeminate indulgence. Of such doth North America consist. The race is reviv'd there in greater numbers, and in a greater proportion to the rest of the inhabitants; and in such the power of that continent resides. These keep the traffickers in awe. These, many hundred thousands in multitude, with enthusiasm in their hearts, with the petition, the bill of rights, and the acts of settlement, silent and obsolete in some places, but vociferous and fresh, as newly born, among them; these hot with the blood of their progenitors, the enthusiastic scourges at one period, and the revolutional expellers of tyranny at another; these, unpractis'd
in frivolous dissipation, and ruinous profusion,
standing arm'd on the spot, deliver'd down from their fathers, a property not moveable, nor expos'd to total destruction, therefore maintainable, and exciting all the spirit and vigour of defence; these under such circumstances of number, animation and manners, their lawyers and clergy blowing the trumpet, are we to encounter with a handful of men, sent three thousand miles over the ocean to seek such adversaries on their own paternal ground.
The following remark might have been trite to the honourable hearer, but may not occur to every common reader; that, if there are any seeds of talents and genius in a country, they are drawn into action and vigour by public ferments and troubles: but might have remained in times of tranquility for ever useless and unknown, perhaps at the plough, under a shed, or among the lowest class of mechanics.
—But these will not fight, says the general voice of Great-Britain. Agreed. I desire to meet my antagonists in argument upon no better ground.
That exports to the associated provinces have ceased for months is a fact. May not their non importation agreement singly be a weapon sufficiently effectual in their hands without striking a blow? Why strike without occasion?
To overset this suggestion an assertion is brought, that necessity will break the combination. I take this fresh ground to shew, that necessity in conjunction with enthusiasm may produce a directly opposite effect. I throw but a transient glance on the extraordinary stock of goods, laid in by the colonists last year, though said to be sufficient for the consumption of two. The arguments I shall use, carry their own evidence with them. Let the population in the associated provinces be three millions, as delivered into the Congress, or be reduced to two and a half white and black. At a moderate computation per head the quantity of goods, including all uses besides apparel, is not adequate to half their consumption, which I stated before to the amount of three millions sterling, without separating some considerable articles for the month. This annual supply they never did annually pay for, but always remain'd under a heavy debt to the mother country, a capital advantage to her, as shall be explain'd in its place. How is the other half of their consumption, unsupplied from hence, provided with the several articles for cloathing and other necessaries? What is introduc'd through illicit trade with the foreigner must be paid for in ready money, and is chiefly for the rich and the few. How is the multitude supplied, dispers'd over that vast continent, and at considerable distances from the sea? Sir, by the same means, and necessarily so, as are practis'd in most counties of these kingdoms. There are two kinds of manufacture; one active and systematic, collected under a superintendace, and brought to the markets of sale. The other is sedentary and domestic, obscure but large, could the small and scattered parcels be gathered up for computation, as may be made of the former from the records of public marts. The latter lies among the wives and children of rural, of rustic families; is applied to domestic use, and rarely sees a market for sale. In the same mode the American yeomenry are furnished among themselves. The domestic manufacture must in course be large for the use of such numbers; the active for sale is far from maturity among them: but necessity, urg'd against them, may extend the arts and materials, already indubitably possess'd; and enthusiasm may stamp on their home-spun all the value, all the pride of ornament.
Sir, I foresee, these differences with America will be compos'd, and how—There silence becomes me best—It will be so late, that Great-Britain must receive a wound, which no time can heal—A philosophical sense of dignity must step in under the shape of consolation.
This reflection I wish to obviate, and will state a strong question from the other side. Admitting, if I please, the practicability of the colonist supplying his wants with his own homely manufacture, improveable too by time and experience; yet will not an interruption to the vent of his own produce, and to the profits of his trade, be a loss of such magnitude, as may quickly, and with an intermediate stagnation too short for us sensibly to feel, reduce his mind to a state of humiliation? The interruption, I allow, will be a loss to individuals, large to some, small to many, and operate in degrees proportionate to situations and tempers. The trading class foresee it already, and are humbled enough to submit, if they could. Those, who keep them in awe, the multitude of small, but independent proprietors of land, may feel their part of the loss so light, as not to relax the restif spirit, which they have manifested down to this day; and may be strengthen'd by a truth too obvious, that America, as a public, must be a gainer by such interruption.
She always hath been, and is now largely indebted to the British merchants; a proof, that the neat value of her annual produce, and remittances through the circuitions of her trade hath ever been short of her purchases here. So far, as this difference reaches, whether small or large, so far, as she substitutes more of her own labour in the stead of ours for her own wants; just so much will be on a general balance a clear profit to her community, while the intercourse with ours is stopp'd; and a loss to Great-Britain irrecoverable so far, as during the melancholy interval the arts of manufacture may be better establish'd, and more extended in that continent; but if extended beyond frugal uses, the yeomenry there will sink into futile and enervating enjoyments, the source of venality and discord, and in their turn verify a celebrated axiom in politics, that discontent, murmurs, profusion and outward shew are the sure signs of a state in decay.
Sir, you have repeatedly heard before this day of the large debt from the colonists to our merchants; an uncontrovertible truth to the permanent amount of millions. Griev'd, as humanity must be, at any occurence, which puts such a property, and so many meritorious subjects in peril, or even under a temporary anxiety; yet such being the course of that trade, the effect of a voluntary conduct, public policy hath cause to rejoice, at the same time to acknowledge a high, though unsought obligation to the merchant, who by this practice holds in his hand the principal bond of colony dependence, enforces the act of navigation, and becomes in the public behalf the true guardian of that half divine law, the work of penetration and wisdom equal to the great men, who fram'd it. Illicit traffic is common to all regions and governments, nor to be avoided in any, but by a strict care not to lead into temptation. Upon the whole, no commercial regulation hath been more accurately observed, than the act of navigation, to which the American Congress most intelligibly submits, and which in their deprivation of capital privileges and liberties, enjoyed by their fellow-subjects here, comprehends their contribution for protection; an act, which hath generally been well obeyed by them, and the merchant at home hath made it their interest. A foreign correspondent might account most justly for the neat proceeds of tobacco, rice, sugar, &c. but will not give credit for a stiver more; and for that reason doth not receive such consignments even from the less scrupulous observers of the law. The British merchant on a hundred pound, neated from a consignment, readily supplies the American's wants for a hundred and twenty, thirty, how far is immaterial. This accommodation he hath not, and through long habit doth not try to have from any quarter out of Great-Britain, and therefore chuses to send his produce through her channel; nor will a few exceptions invalidate the argument: and till the awful volume of earthly vicissitudes shall disclose the fatal page, where that Omnipotent Hand, which hath lifted up and cast down the proudest dominion of old, may have written the designation of empire to the child; till then the merchant of Great-Britain will keep the child in all possible dependence on the parent.
Sir, after all, though my fellow subjects rise more and more in the flattering confidence, that the colonies will not adhere to their agreements, I do not commit myself in asserting the contrary; I do not pronounce, that they will: I only suggest, that they may; and on that supposition have attempted to shew, what England, Scotland and Ireland stake on the contest; nothing less, than a long-approved and successful system, embracing every circumstance of national stability, prosperity and lustre. For what this is put in hazard, I humbly hope, is a question too serious for casuistry; and, I humbly believe, solely to be measured by expediency and practicability under the direction of that great council, which holds the guardianship of three kingdoms, and their boundless dependencies.
Right, authority, sovereignty, dignity, supremacy are admitted to the utmost extent of their ground. Is there not another ground antecedent and original, that from the nature of mankind, there never was, nor is, and never will be a community, who after the possession of benefits, delivered down from father to son for more than a century, will be persuaded to relinquish such possession by any plea of law and right, urg'd with all the eloquence of advocates? A force superior to argument is requisite, which brings the question back to expediency and practicability.
Conceive not, Sir, that our very thoughts have presumed to interfere with the counsels or determinations of the state; but as the present subject of deliberation and measures is too pregnant with events not to run far into the future, we submissively hope, that the facts, we have produced, and the deductions from them, if not in the present hour, may prove of some utility hereafter.
You in your future deliberations will separate the frivolous from the important, the specious and the plausible from the sound and the true. You, searching the depths of human nature, will not be misled by trite and popular opinion; and, when the force of self-interest is alledged at this momentous crisis, you will discover, that interest is not the predominant ruler of mankind—I repeat, that interest is not the predominant ruler of mankind. The few indeed are under that frigid influence; but the many are governed by passion, whose train I need not arrange. Perseverance in acts of violence from one quarter, and perseverance in another to suffer, may be in both the result of passion. Passion can misinterpret words, give solidity to empty sounds, and convert shadow to substance. Passion could give weight to the cry of the church, when Sacheverell infatuated a nation, renowned above all others for solid sense, and depth of thought.
To conclude: if, Sir, in any future operation this honourable House may condescend to a moment's remembrance of us, our appearance may prove not altogether in vain. Although there is still much remaining to offer, permit us now to withdraw, unreproved, we hope, by you; but surely so by our own conscientious feelings in thus attempting our discharge of a duty to the public—Over the acts already passed and passing, I do not breathe out a word—only a parting sigh.
From
ALMON's
Parliamentary Register:
Number VI.
March
16.
THE House in Committee on the West India planters petition; which was presented on the 2d of February last, by Mr. Alderman Oliver; who said, the petitioners requested that they might be allowed to bring evidence in support of their petition.
Mr. Glover appeared as agent for the petitioners, and manager of the evidence, in support of the petition.
George Walker,
Esq
called in.
Question.
What is your situation?
Answer.
I am of Barbadoes; resided there a great many years, and have been their agent ever since I left the country.
Q. Please to inform the Committee, what you know in relation to the state of Barbadoes, the Leeward Islands, and the rest of the sugar colonies?
A. My situation having been such, as to afford me the means, I may be presumed to know something of the state of Barbadoes, of the islands in its neighbourhood, and of the sugar colonies in general. Barbadoes, and all the sugar islands, are to be considered as countries, in which a great manufacture is established. It is a manufacture of sugar and rum. Instead of being able to purchase at market the raw materials for the manufacture, they are obliged to produce the raw materials from their own soil. They ingraft the farmer upon the manufacturer; not (in the intention of furnishing the workmen with food, but) from the necessity of growing the raw material. Thus the land and labour of the country being devoted to the cultivation of the sugar-cane, the corn and provisions they raise are merely accidental; they are no more than can be raised without prejudice to the sugar-cane. To the sugarcane every thing is sacrificed, as a trifle to the principle object. In Barbadoes, I doubt whether the corn, (it is Indian corn not wheat) and the ground provisions (I mean yams, and other roots) raised in the island, are sufficient to maintain the inhabitants for three months; I am certain they will not maintain them for four months, unless the four months be those in the beginning of the year, in the season for ground provisions. The Indian corn and ground provisions cannot, by common means, be preserved for any length of time. I ought to add the uncertainty of the native products, especially of Indian corn and ground provisions: dry weather, or excess of wet weather, hurricanes, blasts, vermine, frequently diminish or destroy the hopes of the planter. The last year exhibited a melancholy example in Barbadoes, many families having been supported by public contributions. Nor is the soil in every plantation capable of producing corn, although very proper for the sugar-cane. As to the Leeward Islands, they produce neither corn nor ground provisions worth mentioning, except Tortola. Tortola was a cotton colony; cotton and corn are not inconsistent. Tortola began to make sugar within my remembrance; and there is reason to believe, the whole country is not yet engrossed by sugar-cane. From this view of the sugar colony, in the light of a manufacture, where the soil, as well as the labour, is employed in the manufacture, it follows, that such colonies must depend, in proportion to the extensiveness of the manufacture, upon other places for necessary food, for actual subsistence. The observation applies to Jamaica, and to the islands under the Granada government.
Q. From what places do the sugar colonies draw food for subsistence?
A. They are not many; Great-Britain, Ireland, North-America. From Great-Britain, the sugar colonies receive a little salted fish, pilchards from the west, herrings from the North. As to corn, they receive no wheat in grain, and a mere trifle in flour. The flour, during the three years, from 1771 to 1773, may be shewn to have been under four quarters, upon the whole to all the West Indies. It may be shewn that the beans and peas together, do not exceed thirteen thousand quarters, nor the oats nineteen thousand; and even this importation, small as it is, is owing to a particular circumstance: it is, that the Indian corn of North-America, the great supply of the West Indies, soon perishes in a hot and moist climate; and as the trade is carried on from different provinces, it is unconnected, unconcerted, dependent upon the opportunities, upon the caprices of individuals; dependent upon accidents of winds and weather: it is, therefore, in its nature irregular. A fortuitious combination, sometimes increases the irregularity to such a degree, as to reduce a particular colony to a real, though temporary distress. Beans, peas, and oats, being capable of a longer resistance against putrefaction, than the Indian corn from North America, the sugar colonies, especially the Leeward islands, who have the fewest internal resources, do therefore make some provision in these articles against that temporary distress; so delicately strained already is the string, which is now threatened with rough and unremitting violence. I purposely forbear other articles of food from Great-Britain, intended for the use of people of some condition, hams, cheese, and the like; they belong properly to the general commerce of Great-Britain with the West Indies. I confine myself at present to necessary food. Ireland furnishes a large quantity of salted beef, pork, butter, and herrings, but no grain. North America supplies all the rest, both cornand provisions. North America is truly the granary of the West Indies; from thence they draw the great quantities of flour and biscuit, for the use of one class of people, and of Indian corn for the support of all the others; for the support not of man only, but of every animal for the use of man, horses, swine, sheep, poultry. North America also furnishes the West Indies with rice. Rice, a more expensive diet, and less capable of sustaining the body under hard labour, is of a more limited consumption, but is a necessary indulgence for the young, the sick, the weakly, amongst the common people and the negroes. North America not only furnishes the West Indies with bread, but with meat, with sheep, poultry, and some live cattle; but the demand for these is infinitely short of the demand for the salted beef, pork, and fish. Salted fish (if the expression may be permitted in contrast with bread) is the meat of all the lower ranks of people in Barbadoes, and the Leeward Islands. It is the meat of all the slaves in all the West Indies. Nor is it disdained by persons of better condition. The North American navigation also furnishes the sugar colonies with salt from Turk's Islands, Sal Tortuga and Anguilla; although these islands are themselves a part of the West Indies. The testimony which some experience has enabled me to bear, you will find confirmed, Sir, by official accounts. The same accounts will distinguish the source of the principal, the great supply of corn and provisions. They will fix it precisely in the middle colonies of North America: in those colonies, who have made a publick agreement in their congress, to withold all their supplies after the tenth of next September. How far that agreement may be precipitated in its execution, may be retarded, or frustrated, it is for the wisdom of parliament to consider: but if it is persisted in, I am well founded to say, that nothing will save Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands from the dreadful consequences of absolute famine. I repeat the famine will not be prevented. The distress will fall upon them suddenly; they will be overwhelmed with it, before they can turn themselves about to look out for relief. What a scene! when rapine stimulated by hunger has broken down all fences, conf
unded the rich with the poor, and levelled the freeman with his slave! The distress will be sudden. The body of the people do not look forward to distant events; if they sh
uld to this, they will put their trust in the wisdom of parliament. Suppose them to be less confident in the wisdom of parliament, they are destitute of the means of purchasing an extraordinary stock. Suppose them possessed of the means; a very extraordinary stock is not to be found at market. There is a plain reason in the nature of the thing, which prevents any extraordinary stock at market, and which would forbid the planter from laying it in, if there was: it is, that the objects of it are perishable. In those climates the flour will not keep above six or eight weeks; the Indian corn decays in three months; and all the North American provisions are fit only for present use.
Q. If the West Indies are deprived of their usual supplies of corn and provisions from the middle colonies of North America, are there no resources by which the deficiency may be made good?
A. I will examine the resources I have heard mentioned. Great-Britain cannot increase her exportation of corn and provisions to the West Indies; for she would increase a scarcity at home already complained of: notwithstanding the assistance she largely receives herself; particularly in wheat and flour from North America. Ireland has other markets to furnish besides the West Indies; these markets will not suffer themselves to be deprived of their usual share, beyond a certain limitted degree; a degree too limitted to supply the whole West India consumption. The colonies at the southern extremity of America, the two Floridas, are not able to feed themselves; and Georgia, a small country, is said to have acceded to the congress. At the northern extremity, St. John's is in its infancy. From Nova Scotia, the West Indies receive some small supplies. As to the salted fish from Newfoundland, it is fish from New England; it is taken upon the banks by the New England people chiefly; who are to have none to send us, unless the fishery bill should operate a submission, or have no operation at all. Canada, Sir, produces not Indian corn. In the hands of Great-Britain, and under English laws, it has exported wheat;
Eighty thousand quarters.
This sentence is not in the evidence.
but the quantity is neither equal to the demand of the West Indies; nor is it prepared for the West India market; but all th
se are expedients for a distant day. In future times from all these countries, according to their several natures, a constant and regular demand will create a constant and regular supply. It is impossible; it is inconsistent with the nature of commerce, to furnish an adequate supply to a vast, an immediate, and an unexpected demand; the demand and the supply must grow up together, mutually supporting and supported by each other. One more expedient remains; it is distant like the rest: it will be effectual, but it will be ruinous; it is to change our system. We must abandon the manufacture, and apply the land and labour now approp
iated to the manufacture to the purposes of raising food. The undone remnant of the people, who shall not have fallen victims to the intermediate famine may thus provide against it for the time to come. I flatter myself, Sir, I have shewn from a deduction of facts the dependence of Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands upon North America for subsistence. I leave it to gentlemen of more intimate knowledge of the state of Jamaica, than I can pretend to, to shew that a relation of the same kind, and if not to the same extent, yet far beyond the common opinion, subsists between that great island, and the northern continent. As to Granada and its dependencies, Sir, let me only observe, that the manufacture of sugar and rum, and the cultivation of coffee in those islands, having been prosecuted with unremitting ardour, little of their labour can have been diverted to the raising of corn and provisions. Their dependence upon North America was reasonable; and I may venture to conclude it to be similar to that of their neighbours. I have been the more explicit upon this subject, the dependence of the West Indies upon North America for subsistence, as it is the calamity which presses immediately, affecting life as well as fortune; it is a distress which your humanity will conspire with your interest to prevent; and I trust that the wisdom of parliament will find the means.
Q. What is the commodity called lumber? For what purpose used, and whence procured?
A. In the West Indies, they understood by the term lumber every species of North American wood, when prepared for the use of buildings or the cooperage. It includes the deal, the pine, the cypress, the cedar, the white oak, the red oak, and others; and comes in the shape of beams, joists, planks, boards, shingles, staves, and in logs. Buildings where great strength is required, and which are exposed to wind and weather, demand timber of a texture more solid, and of a quality less subject to decay in those climates; it is distinguished by the name of hard wood; mahogany is of that tribe. Such, as far as my experience extends, grow only between the tropicks; the price is high, three and four shillings sterling the cubick foot; employed from the call of necessity, the comsumption is limited. For every other purpose of the carpenter and of the cooper, it is the lumber of North America that is used. It is a pleasure to me, Sir, to spare the patience of the committee a detail of conjectural calculations. I understand that there is some official paper which will inform you precisely. The part which is furnished by the middle colonies of North America is out of all proportion to the others. Without lumber to repair the buildings they run immediately to decay. And without lumber for the proper packages for sugar, and to contain rum, they cannot be sold at market, they cannot even be kept at home.
Q. Are there not places, besides the middle colonies of North America, from whence may be drawn a supply of lumber, in some degree proportionate to the wants of the West Indies?
A. I will examine. The first resource may be in the colony itself: but Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands are altogether destitute of wood. The gentlemen of Jamaica will inform you how unequal their country is to its own demands. Remains the government of Granada. And here I beg leave to state a fact. Ready-made houses of North American lumber have been exported from Barbadoes to the islands under the government of Granada. These islands have plenty of wood; and this wood is of a more durable nature than lumber: but an anxiety for the staple manufacture superseded this consideration; and the labour of the slaves instead of being turned to the providing of materials for the carpenter, was reserved for the cultivation of the sugar cane.
Although the sugar colonies may find no resources from their soil, they may find it in their market at home. Lumber is a commodity not so perishable as corn and provisions. A stock of it might be laid in. This certainly is an expedient. It will be attempted by the provident and the wealthy;—the combined description includes not a multitude in any country,—and the attempt will greatly enhance the price. But it is practicable only to a certain point. It must be confined to the quantity at market. If an unusual quantity should be imported, as is probable, supposing no sinister events to prohibit, the planter has no fund to pay for it. I speak of the great body of planters in general. They are not able to provide for the expences of two or more crops out of the profits of one crop. It is well if every crop can bear up against its own particular load. Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof. Before I proceed to external resources, I beg leave, Sir, to repeat what I have said before, upon the subject of a new channel for the supply of corn and provisions. I said it was inconsistent with the nature of commerce to furnish an adequate supply to a vast, an unexpected, and an immediate demand: that the demand and the supply must grow up together, mutually supporting and supported by each other. This principle destroys the prospect of a timely and effectual assistance from any quarter whatsoever. Not content with the operation of the general principle, I will examine the particular resources. I will only say of the two Floridas, that the population is feeble in the extreme. Georgia sends some lumber; but Georgia is said to have acceded to the congress. What has been said of the Floridas, with respect to population, is applicable to St. John's, and in some measure to Nova Scotia. Nor does Nova Scotia export any materials proper for casks to contain rum. In Canada the population is not adequate to the new enterprize, without neglecting points of greater importance in their system. I say of greater importance. Because the West India market is now open to them; an exchange of West India commodities is desirable; and notwithstanding, Canada exports not lumber to the West Indies. In truth, there is a mass of objections, which nothing but a length of time can overcome. Supported by large capitals, or long credit, Canada must first combine several commercial objects, so as to furnish an assortment of cargoes. They must have proper artificers, as well as people. They must provide a navigation equal to the bulky commodity, equal to it under the accumulated difficulties of a great distance, and the dangers and delays of a river covered or choaked with ice for more than half the year. If there is little or no resource to be found in America, let the West Indies, in search of lumber, turn their eyes to Europe. I pass over Great-Britain and Ireland, because they both import vast quantities of lumber. No inconsiderable part of it is drawn from the middle colonies of North America. But it is to be found in Europe, of every sort and in every shape. The demand of the West Indies has been shewn to be vast. It will be immediate. The tenth of September is advancing very fast, and the demand will be unexpected; unexpected, in the opinion of every person who hopes that lenient measures may be adopted; unexpected, in the opinion of every person who, without reasoning farther, depends upon the wisdom of parliament, to extricate the West Indies, and in them the whole empire, from danger. A domestic event, unexpected in Great-Britain, will not be presumed in foreign countries. Nor Germany, nor Norway, nor the Baltick, will risk an extensive operation in commerce, upon the speculative idea of a continuance of a most unnatural quarrel. I will however suppose for a moment, that Germany provides a more plentiful stock of staves; that Norway and the Baltick pay the like attention to their deals. I pray it may be understood that the freight of bulky goods trenches deeply into their value. The freight of lumber from North America to the West Indies, a short safe passage, is a moiety of the goods shipped. The double voyage, first to Great-Britain, and then to the West Indies, takes away at the same rate for distant and hazardous voyages, an half of that moiety, leaving only a quarter part to the original shipper. At what an enormous price then must this lumber come to the hands of the consumer? By a suspension of the acts of navigation, it may indeed be carried to the West Indies, disincumbered of the intolerable burden of a double voyage; yet add the original price, much higher than in America; add the increase in this price from the increase in the demand from Great Britain, Ireland, and the West Indies; the remedy itself is only the lesser evil.
Q. What other species of commodities from the middle colonies are interchanged with the West Indies?
A. Besides the absolute dependence of the West Indies upon North America, for subsistance and for lumber, there are supplies less consequential, but very useful, and even necessary in some respect to the West Indies; which are all furnished by the confederating colonies. The articles are train-oil for many lamps in the sugar-works, horses for the saddle and for draft, tallow, leather, tobacco, pitch, tar, turpentine, iron, sloop and boattimbers, and some others. As to ships, I refer them to the head of the navigation created by the commerce of the West Indies.
Q. What commodities do the sugar colonies give in exchange to North America?
A. They did give a part of all their products in exchange: but the middle colonies have refused to take melasses, syrups, paneels, coffee, and pimento, since the first of last December. The principal exchange is of sugar and rum. The sugar is generally supposed to amount to twenty-five thousand hogsheads directly, besides fifteen thousand hogsheads in the shape of refined sugar from England. As to rum, the dependence of all the islands, except Jamaica, is as great upon the middle colonies of North America for the consumption of their rum, as it is for subsistance and for lumber. Jamaica sends about eleven thousand puncheons to London, which stocks the market at the present price. Lower the price, the method is plain and easy, the consumption increases in proportion. Nor will the revenue suffer. How far the expedient may save Jamaica in this momentous article of their manufacture, I leave to be explained by gentlemen more intimately acquainted with that island. The rum of Barbadoes, the Leeward islands, and the government of Granada, does not come to England, except in small portions. It goes in part to Ireland; and all the rest, the great quantity, is distributed chiefly amongst the middle colonies of North America, agreeable to the law of reciprocal exchange. The agreement of those colonies, which is to take place the tenth of next September, extends in words, only to the witholding of all supplies. But it must effect a total suspension of commerce. They will not send their vessels in ballast, to purchase with gold and silver the goods they have been accustomed to receive in exchange for the products of their own soil and industry. It is an idea repugnant to every principle of commerce: it is more; it is repugnant to the spirit which now inflames those colonies. Sir, I have shewn, I trust, the absolute dependence of the sugar colonies upon the middle colonies of America, in three essential points;
viz.
For corn and provisions for subsistance: for lumber and other necessaries for the maintenances of their plantations: and lastly, for the consumption of their produce of all kinds, greatly of sugar, but principally of rum. This doctrine of the dependence of sugar colonies upon North America is confirmed by an authority, which will not be disputed. The act of parliament of the sixth of George the second, chapter the thirteenth, was made upon this occasion. The British sugar-colonies complained of the great increase of the French sugar-colonies, and demonstrated the increase to have been owing principally to the support which the French sugar-colonies received from the middle provinces of North America, in exchange for sugar and melasses. Perhaps it is beside my present purpose to remark the manner in which the administration of those days adjusted the great dispute. Sir, they contrived to please both sides. To the islands, they gave the letter of the law; and the continent they indulged in the breach of it. The fact is all I want. It shews that even the French sugar-colonies do depend, in no small degree, upon North America. Nor are the Danes in the islands, nor the Dutch in the southern continent, an exception. Such is the force of that principle, which considers a sugar plantation, as a manufactory obliged to raise its own materials. If, in the course of events during this unhappy dispute, the foreign colonies should be deprived of their resources from America, it is not my province to examine whether the distress will be looked upon with indifference: but it becomes me to hope, that Great-Britain will never suffer her own to be ruined for want of the accustomed and accessary supplies from North America.
Q. What is the kind of property in the West India islands? And can you estimate the value thereof?
A. The nature of the property vested in the West Indies will appear by the estimate of its value. I shall calculate in sterling money of Great-Britain. To begin with Barbadoes. It stands first on the map. This island contains one hundred and eight or six thousand acres. The land is almost intirely under cultivation; but I will reckon only upon the hundred thousand. From a knowledge of a multitude of appraisements made upon oath, by freeholders of the vicinity, upon occasions of deaths, or of extents for the payment of debts: from many actual sales: I state that thirty pounds an acre is a reasonable valuation. I include with the land all the dwelling-houses in the country, the sugar-works and the young crops. I throw in the cattle, the plantation, and houshold furniture. This article, the land, amounts to three millions. The negroes, by a poll-tax, in which the whole number is certainly not included, are seventy-five thousand; cheap at forty pounds each, they make a second sum of three millions. I throw in the two towns, whose rents amount to forty thousands pounds a year, as a casting weight to make good the aggregate sum of six millions. Taking Barbadoes as a standard, by which to measure all the rest of the sugar colonies, I observe that the sugar exported from Barbadoes to all parts, at a medium of many years (it is a calculation formed upon the receipts of the duty of four and an half per cent.) is about fifteen thousand common hogsheads a year. Now the sugar imported into Great-Britain alone, from all the sugar colonies, amounted in the year seventy-three to one hundred and seventy-thousand hogsheads, allowing ten hundred weight of sugar to a hogshead. The import of seventy-four is more. I will suppose the produce of Barbadoes to be as one in ten. If a part of the Barbadoes sugar is clayed, if its muscovado is properest for common use, yet there are clayed sugars from other islands; the muscovado of several, especially of St. Kitt's, is fitter for the refiner. Besides, twenty thousand such hogsheads are deducted, and a greater number of common hogsheads, I mean the exports to North America, are omitted, before the proportion of one in ten is stated. If Barbadoes yields ginger, cotton and alloes, the other colonies add to the same products, coffee, pimento and other articles. The capital of Barbadoes then being six millions, and its produce as one in ten of the produce of all the West Indies, it is fair to conclude, at the same proportion, the capital of the whole to be sixty millions: a conclusion which amply warrants the petition in declaring it to be upwards of thirty millions. I take nothing in the estimate for the value of the future increase of Jamaica and the new settled islands.
Q. Can you make any estimate of the value of West India property owned by persons who live in England? and of the amount of the debt due to this kingdom from the West Indies?
A. Of the millions vested in the West Indies, many are the property of persons residing in England, and not a few are united and consolidated with the landed property of this kingdom. It is difficult to ascertain the total. I have endeavoured at a calculation for Barbadoes, and am below the mark in stating it at one million four hundred thousand pounds. In the other islands, for obvious reasons, the proportion is greater than in Barbadoes. The most eminent merchants will tell you, that they have hardly any body to correspond with in St. Christopher's, except the overseers of plantations. Resuming Barbadoes as a rule to measure with, the proportion is fourteen millions. It is a more difficult and a less pleasing task to investigate the millions due to the merchants and others in this kingdom, upon the security of West India plantations. I can form no particular estimate. The sum in general is immense. The sugar-trade, from its infancy, by reason of the small capitals of the first planters, and the great cost of a sugar manufacture, must have been the creatures of credit. It was raised to the present pitch by the wealth of the merchant supporting the industry of the planter. Neither is it necessary to be exact in the value of the property of the English residents, nor of the debt to the English merchants and others. For the sugar colonies are really no other than a British manufacture, established at the distance of three and four thousand miles for reasons of convenience. And the dependence of this manufacture is the same as if it was situated in the heart of the kingdom. I do not retract the idea of its dependence upon North America. In such a case, it can be suggested only in theory, Great-Britain must draw from North America the supplies without which her manufacture, wheresoever it is situated, is incapable of subsisting.
Q. What are the advantages of the sugar colonies to Great-Britain? and what to the revenue thereof?
A. I desire, Sir, I may consider them as a British manufacture, whose capital is sixty millions. The advantage is not that the profits all ultimately centre here: it is, that it creates, in the course of attaining those profits a commerce and a navigation, in which multitudes of your people, and millions of your money are employed. It is, that the support which the sugar colonies receive in one shape, they give in another. In proportion to their dependence upon North America, and upon Ireland, they enable North America and Ireland to trade with Great-Britain. By their dependence upon Great-Britain for hands to push the cultivation of the sugar-cane, they uphold the trade of Great-Britain to Africa.
The medium of fourteen years from 1756 to 1773, is 469, 237 l. Imports from Africa 49, 858 l.
A trade which in the pursuit of negroes, as the principal, if not the sole intention of the adventurer, brings home ivory and gold as secondary objects. In proportion as the sugar colonies consume, or cause to be consumed amongst their neighbours, Asiatic commodities, they increase the trade of the English East India Company. In this light I see the India goods, which are carried to the coast of Guinea. In proportion as the West Indies use the wines of the African islands, and as they use the products of Europe, so far they add to the trade of Great-Britain with the African islands, and with the rest of Europe. Without taking in any of the circuitous channels, the direct exports to the West Indies will appear, by official accounts, to be of immense value,
Medium of exports for fourteen years from Christmas 1756, to Christmas 1773, is 1, 145, 735 l.
will shew the wealth gradually earned by the hand of labour and of skill, which the sugar colonies are daily adding to the national stock. I hardly dare venture to place in this light the salaries and profits of the officers appointed by government for the superintendence of the West Indies. As to revenue, the nett receipt I understand to exceed seven hundred thousand pounds.
Q. In case the usual intercourse between North-America and the sugar colonies, should be interrupted, what would be the prejudice to Great-Britain, and to the revenue thereof?
A. The advantages arising from, and dependant upon the usual intercourse, must cease with the interruption. I will not add, that the nation is to pay in money to the foreigners, the large sum for West-India commodities, for which the British manufactures, and the profits of a circuitous commerce, are now given in exchange. The observation would be fallacious. The decrease in the consumption of West-India commodities will surely keep pace with the decay of the manufactures and commerce the West-India supported. The revenue will lessen in proportion to the diminished consumption, nor will the loss stop at the West-India commodities. The revenue from tea, without the accustomed plenty of sugar, without the profits of the sugar trade, and of the commerce created by the sugar trade, will sink into insignificance; the interruption will be felt severely in every branch of revenue; for it will be felt severely in every branch of trade which contributes by consumption to the revenue; and in trade, as in the human body, nothing suffers singly by itself; there is a consent of parts in the system of both, and the partial evil grows into universal mischief. Of all the branches of commerce which will suffer immediately, or indirectly, from the interruption of the usual intercourse, the most important is the navigation. By investigating its value, we estimate the loss. It is equal to the bulky products, and still more bulky supplies of a stock in trade of sixty millions: it is co-extensive with the commerce created by that trade, comprehending the navigation to Africa, and making no inconsiderable part of that of England to the East Indies, and to the rest of Europe. It establishes, as is asserted in the petition, a strength, which wealth can neither purchase nor balance. Sir, I will add, it is a strength which is so justly a favourite with the nation, that nothing but some unhappy mistake can deprive it of the national protection and support.
Mr.
Innes
asked, How many white people are there in Barbadoes?
Question objected to.
Withdrew.
Called in.
Q. What is the common food of the negroes in the Leeward Islands?
A. In all the islands it is salt fish (as I said before) and Indian corn. I entered into those points particularly before.
Q. Whether the islands will not be supplied equally well, notwithstanding the Newfoundland fishery from New-England should be stopped?
A. That is a matter of opinion. I came here as an evidence of facts, which I hope will influence the opinions of the House, but not to obtrude my own. My opinion is, that they will not have the usual supply, because there will not be the usual quantity taken, and fewer people to carry it to them.
Q. What proportion of land in the Leeward Islands, being applied to the raising provision, would supply the negroes with provisions, on an estate of 200 hogsheads, for instance?
A. The native products of the islands are very uncertain; all so, but Guinea corn; therefore much more land must be applied to this purpose than would be necessary to raise the supply for the regular constant consumption. They must provide against accidents, such as hurricanes, excess of wet weather, or of dry weather, the climate being very uncertain; it is therefore impossible to answer this question precisely: but this I can say, that if they were obliged to raise their own food, that their food must be then their principal object, and sugar only a secondary object; it would be but the trifle, which provisions are now.
Q. If the planters could not be supplied from North-America, would they not have a share of fresh provisions from Great-Britain and Ireland, to answer their wants?
A. They must have more than a share; they must have a full proportion for their whole subsistence, and England cannot afford it; it would occasion a scarcity at home.
Q. Would not the merchants here send out cargoes of provisions to the West-Indies?
A. I answered that question, and most of the others before, by obviating them in my evidence. I have said, and repeat, that Great-Britain cannot increase her exports of provisions to the West-Indies, without increasing a scarcity already complained of at home.
Q. What quantity of flour is allowed to the white people on an estate of 200 hogsheads?
A. No regular allowance. They have rice, biscuit, as they may want, in proportion as a variety of things, which are provided for them by the plantation, falls short or abounds.
Q. Whether deal boards would not do in the room of staves for packing sugar?
A. The Portuguese pack in chests; but they are not made of deal boards, but of strong plank. We must make a total alteration in our shipping, our tradesmen, and many circumstances, if we were to pack our sugar in chests.
Q. Whether there are not many packs of staves shipped to the West-Indies from London, both for rum and sugar?
A. I have known some for sugar; but it has been found necessary to mix them with many new staves from North-America. Our staves, like our cloths, wear out by use; many of them are broken in the voyage, and the rest are seldom fit for much.
Q. I mean new staves.
A. I never knew any sent, (supposing the words to have been new casks) but as packages for goods exported to the West-Indies; this is sometimes done, and the casks so made as to be used afterwards for sugar and rum; but this is done merely to save particular packages for the goods; nor even in that case is it always thought an advantage.
Q. I mean staves sent on purpose.
A. I cannot answer that, but by saying, I never knew an instance of it. I know staves are brought from the West-Indies to London, upon a prospect of advantage; but I never knew them sent from hence to the West-Indies.
Q. How are the French islands supplied with lumber, bread, flour, &c.
A. I cannot give a precise answer to that question. I have said they receive great supplies from North-America. I have mentioned before, that the French, Dutch, and Danes, in their sugar colonies, depend in a great measure on North-America; but I do not know the particulars precisely.
Q. Whether he does not know, that the French carry on ten times the trade with North-America that the English do?
A. I do not know the extent of the French trade; I am not well enough acquainted with it, so as at this time to be able to state propositions. I have said, there is a certain degree of dependence of the French islands on North-America.
Q. Whether, if the Americans were prevented from trading with the French islands, it would be advantageous to Great-Britain?
A. A speculative opinion is asked; I speak only to facts.
Withdrew.
John Ellis,
Esq
called in.
Q. What is your situation?
A. I am a planter of Jamaica, have resided in that island at different periods from 1754 to 1773.
Q. Inform the committee what you know of the present state of Jamaica in general, and of her dependence in particular on North-America, in regard to the reciprocal exchange of commodities between them.
A. The island of Jamaica being of great extent, the several parts of which differ from each other, from a variety of circumstances attending their respective situations, it is impossible to give any one general answer, that is not liable to many exceptions. The island contains nearly four million of acres, of which I compute 160,000 acres to be planted in sugar canes, and I suppose a little above double that quantity of land is kept as a necessary appendage to the sugar estates, and employed in pasturage and grounds allotted to the negroes for provisions, and in furnishing timbers, fire-wood, lime, &c. the whole of which makes 500,000 acres. In other settlements, such as piemento, cotton, coffee, ginger, and penland for breeding cattle, and in provision plantations in the neighbourhood of the towns, I reckon as much more. The remaining three million consists of a great wilderness, chiefly mountainous, in which it may be presumed there are many intermediate tracts capable of cultivation, but which from difficulty of access, and the little prospect of profit adequate to the stock requisite for their settlement, continue in their present state: for however rich any lands may be in themselves, yet if the circumstances attending their cultivation, are such as to render it probable that the capital to be employed will not produce an adequate return, it cannot be supposed that any prudent person will adventure therein. In so large a tract the soil is various, and adapted to the production of different commodities; the climate and seasons also differ greatly. On the south side, at the extremities of the island, the parishes of Westmoreland and St. Thomas are seasonable, or supplied with refreshing showers, and the manurable lands are chiefly employed in the growth of the cane. The intermediate parishes near the sea, being St. David, Port Royal, St. Andrew, St. Catherine, St. Dorathy Vere, and St. Elizabeth, are subject to dry weather, insomuch that particular spots only are employed in the cultivation of sugar. The flat lands are chiefly appropriated to the purposes of raising cattle, and the mountanious lands, in the vicinity of Spanish Town and Kingston, besides producing coffee, ginger, and a little piemento, afford a partial supply of provisions, such as plantains, roots and Indian corn. The inland parishes of the south side, St. John's, St. Thomas in the vale, and some part of Clarendon, being more seasonable, raise, I believe, in plentiful years, a sufficiency of the above provisions for their own support, and sometimes furnish relief to the neighbouring parishes. The several parishes on the north side, are fertile and in general seasonable; excepting on some parts of the sea coast, where I have known the drought so excessive, as it was particularly in the year 1770, and the calls of distress so loud, that neither the back lands nor the neighbouring parishes could afford sufficient relief, and had it not been for supplies from North-America, many thousand negroes must have perished for want. On the whole, tho' the island of Jamaica has, in respect of internal supplies, greatly the advantage over Barbadoes and the other British sugar islands; yet from the circumstances of drought and gusts of wind which happen frequently, and are particularly destructive to the plantain trees which yield the chief support of the negroes, her dependence on North-America in point of provisions, is very great, and cannot, I think, be lessened in any considerable degree, without diminishing the growth of the staple commodities of sugar and rum; for besides those articles which chiefly constitute or supply the place of bread, such as flour, rice, corn, and pease, she receives from America great quantities of salted fish; which with herrings from Europe, serve the negroes as meat. I confine myself in this state to matters of mere subsistence for our negroe slaves, without taking into the estimate the great quantities of pork and other salted provisions imported from America for the use of the white inhabitants. In regard to lumber, for that species which is called staves and heading, and of which we make the packages for our sugar and rum, the dependence which Jamaica has on North-America may be judged of from this circumstance. The island at present yields about 80,000 hogsheads of sugar, and about 30,000 puncheons of rum for exportation. Now I am positive that not 3000 of the casks necessary to contain this great quantity of produce, are made from Jamaica wood; a few puncheons indeed are imported from England, and also some few Hambro' staves, the puncheons being packages of goods sent out; but all the rest we receive from the middle colonies of North America and from Georgia. With regard to the other species of lumber, such as scantling, boards, and shingles for houses, the different towns are chiefly built with these articles from North-America; as are also the buildings of most of the settlements on the sea coast. The interior parts of the country, being in the neighbourhood of large woods, supply themselves from the growth of the country, or at least I think ought so to do.
To conclude, the supplies annually imported into Jamaica, chiefly from the associated provinces of North America, consisting of pitch, tar, turpentine, lamp oil, boards, joists, plank, hogshead and puncheon staves, shingles, &c horses, and a great variety of provisions, such as flour, Indian corn, biscuit, beef, pork, salted fish of different kinds, and rice, amount by the most exact calculation I am able to make, to upwards of 150,000 l. sterling, in payment of which the Americans receive sugar, rum, coffee, ginger, and other articles of Jamaica produce. The North Americans have of late years imported also considerable quantities of cash, which, with their cargoes, they lay out in the purchase of the above articles.
Q. In so vast a space as three millions of acres of unsettled land, do you not apprehend there are great many tracts capable of cultivation, and of producing provisions, and many other articles of those supplies, which at present are furnished from North America?
A. Doubtless there are; but the planter must necessarily, and will irremediably suffer before those lands can be prepared for cultivation, and yield them a sufficient supply. He will even suffer by his dependence on the wisdom and interposition of parliament; not perceiving, till it is too late, the absolute necessity of converting his distant lands, if he has any, into provision settlements, before the calamities attending distress and want, will overtake him. I speak now in regard to provisions only; a failure in which may be attended with the most alarming consequences, from rebellions of the slaves. As to lumber, those plantations which are situated near considerable tracts of wood-land, may doubtless, at all times, obtain a partial supply, though very few species of wood are fit for the purposes of making staves for sugar casks; as to casks for rum, the island affords no proper wood: but I know not how the other estates are to be furnished, except from America. And after all, supposing the island had resources within herself, and could, in time, actually supply both lumber and provision in sufficient quantity, it must be remembered that seven-eights of the planters are already deeply in debt to Great-Britain, and cannot support the expence of great land carriage, which must unavoidably attend the cutting their own wood, and bringing it to their estates; neither can they obtain credit to make new settlements for the purposes of raising provisions. It follows, therefore, and the fact really is, however fortunate a few individuals may be in respect to the situation of their estates, that the planters in general cannot submit to the necessity of cutting their own lumber, and of raising greater quantities of provisions than the island at present affords, without neglecting, in a proportionate degree, the staple articles of sugar and rum; and I need not point out to the committee, how greatly the trade, revenues and navigation of this country will suffer, by a diminution in the growth and manufacture of these commodities.
Q. What do you apprehend will be the consequence to Jamaica, in case the supply of provisions from North America is interrupted?
A. I have partly answered that question before. Those plantations which have not good provision grounds for their negroes, will soon be in a starving condition; and even those which have, must suffer greatly; for the negroes are a very thoughtless improvident people: they do not look forward to provide against those evils which too frequently happen; such as droughts which destroy their ground provisions, and gusts of wind which throw down their plantation trees. Those who are in want will steal; when they can no longer steal, and hunger presses, they will take by force. What further consequence may arise, I dread to think of.
Q. Are there not places, besides the middle colonies of North America, from whence may be drawn a supply of lumber?
A. I apprehend not. Georgia, indeed, furnishes at present, in small quantities, scantling and boards for building, and some few staves. How far that province is capable of increasing the export of these articles, I cannot say; but it must surely be many years before it equals that of all the confederated colonies together. As to Canada, and the two Floridas, the population at the extremities of the continent, is too feeble to promise any great supply from thence. The navigation from Canada is obstructed many months in the year by the ice; but however this may be, these countries do not afford any supply at present; and I believe it is contrary to the known principles of commerce, to expect that any country can yield an adequate supply to a great, an immediate, and unexpected demand.
Q. What do you compute the value of the property in that island?
A. Twenty four millions sterling. I shall not take up the time of the committee, by a long tedious calculation. In every well appointed property the value of negroes constitute a third of the capital. By a well appointed property, I mean a property where the master is competent to the furnishing it with a sufficient stock of negroes and cattle, and every necessary appendage. In such properties, the value of negroes constitute a third of the capital: but the greater part of the properties in the island, from the inability of the planters, have not a due proportion of negroes, and in such the value of the negroes does not exceed one-fourth of the capital. I shall, however, make my calculation upon a supposition, that all the properties in the island are sufficiently stocked with negroes, and that the value of negroes therefore constitute one-third part of the general capital of the island. Now the number of negroes in the island of Jamaica exceed 200,000; however I shall estimate them only at 200,000, and I shall value them only at the same rate with the African cargoes; of them I have lately seen several sales, and they average for each negroe from 40 l. to 45 l. but I will put them only at 40 l. and I shall rate the negroes of the island, who are seasoned to the country, are civilized, and have acquired arts, at the same value with the savages newly imported from Africa; 200,000 negroes, therefore, at the rate of 40 l. each, amount to eight millions, and the negroes constituting one-third of the general capital, the whole capital of the island amounts to twenty-four millions.
Mr. Glover having finished with this evidence, some questions were asked by Mr.
Innes
relative to particular articles of provision, and in what quantities they were furnished to the negroes by their masters; in answer to which Mr. Ellis asserted, that the dependence of the island upon foreign provisions was so very great, that if the masters did not attend to, and supply the wants of their slaves, many thousands of them must perish.
Withdrew.
FINIS.