Columbia 
 
 tntbeCitptflftoJtork 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 SELIGMAN LIBRARY OF ECONOMICS 
 
CLAIMS 
 
 BRITISH WEST INDIA COLONISTS 
 
 TO THE RIGHT OF OBTAINING 
 
 NECESSARY SUPPLIES FROM AMERICA, 
 
 THE NECESSARY MEANS 
 
 LORD SHEFFIELD’S STRICTURES. 
 
 BY G. W. JORDAN, ESQ. F.R.S, 
 
 1804. 
 
THE 
 
 CLAIMS 
 
 THE BRITISH WEST INDIA COLONISTS. 
 
 The British Colonists of the West Indies are 
 considerably obliged to your Lordship for di¬ 
 recting the attention of the public towards 
 them. They are anxious that the discussion 
 should be undertaken which your Lordship has 
 provoked. A fair occasion is now given them 
 of distinctly stating, for general information, 
 what those regulations are for conducting the 
 intercourse of the Islands with America, which 
 they solicit as essential to their comfortable and 
 profitable existence, and which they recom-, 
 mend to the adoption of his Majesty’s Govern¬ 
 ment, as consistent with the spirit and principles 
 b of 
 
of the navigation and colonial systems of Great 
 Britain. This statement is rendered necessary 
 by the asperity of your Lordship’s remarks, and 
 is made in the hope, that what is proposed will 
 be favourably entertained, carefully considered r 
 and-duly adopted. An unrestricted intercourse 
 with America is not, as your Lordship sup¬ 
 poses, expected or desired. No intercourse is 
 proposed, no intercourse is contemplated, but 
 such as may accord with the policy of our 
 colonial regulations aud establishments, and 
 shall be in circumstances and in consequences 
 salutary and beneficial to the naval and com¬ 
 mercial interests of the empire. 
 
 Your Lordship’s strictures are not, however, 
 merely prospective and prohibitory of what 
 may be proposed by the friends of the Colonies, 
 they respect and they criminate measures which 
 have been adopted by Government, and have 
 had their effect. They impute to his Majesty’s 
 Ministers in the past what they object to the 
 Colonists concerning the future. The defence 
 of both', therefore, is the same. The discussion 
 is of. the 1 same principles, and may therefore 
 embrace 
 
embrace both cases, for the mutual purposes of 
 respective'illustration and confirmation. 
 
 Of the Navigation Act of Great Britain 
 every subject of Great Britain thinks with the 
 highest reverence and estimation, of its right¬ 
 ful policy and approved wisdom no question 
 can exist ( |-it is the most excellent ot all the 
 commercial regulations of England; it is the 
 principal source of our naval strength, as is 
 our naval strength of our political safety; it is 
 the palladium of the empire. 
 
 Of the necessity of inviolably maintaining 
 the navigation and colonial systems of Great 
 Britain, there is, my Lord, but one opinion. 
 What constitutes these systems, however, may 
 not be so obvious or so generally understood. 
 A system commercial, economical, or political, 
 consists of a collection of rules, formed and 
 arranged for the purpose of attaining certain 
 objects of benefit, profit, convenience, or ne¬ 
 cessity. A systeft-.. means not any particular 
 one or part of those rules, but the whole com- 
 . biaed and considered, with a view to the ends 
 and objects proposed. The Navigation Act, 
 
 ' b 2 my 
 
my Lord,- is not the navigation system of Great 
 Britain, though it is a very considerable and 
 very essential part of it. 
 
 The rules that constitute a system are not, 
 of course, rules of strict and positive obligation 
 alone; rules of provision or exception are fre¬ 
 quently and necessarily admitted. Those rules, 
 with these their exceptions bound up together, 
 all operating and conspiring to the same general 
 purposes of good, constitute a whole, or a 
 system, which can only then be considered 
 perfect, when it comprizes and comprehends, 
 at once, all these different and dependant 
 parts. 
 
 . Every system pf positive institution has been 
 created and formed with certain views and inten¬ 
 tions. The attainment of these objects is the 
 only principle to which any regulations owe 
 their existence* By this principle alone the ad¬ 
 mission of new regulations is to be sanctioned. 
 This principle imperiously demands the adop¬ 
 tion of all regulations, which in their operation, 
 estimated by a consideration of their total 
 effects 
 
5 
 
 effects and consequences, can contribute to¬ 
 wards the attainment of the general ends. 
 
 After having established certain general re¬ 
 gulations for particular purposes, to make the 
 existence of these regulations a pretence for 
 rejecting all others, although conspiring to the 
 same end, whether by means which simply 
 concur with, or even by means which may 
 partially differ from those that are in use, is 
 to act against the principles that produced and 
 support ali regulations whatever, against all 
 principles of political prudence, is to sacrifice 
 the end to the means. 
 
 Every system is to be considered with rela¬ 
 tion to its objects. Whilst these arc carefully 
 contemplated and effectually pursued, the rules 
 may be varied indefinitely, the system may 
 remain. The Navigation System of Great 
 Britain is preserved, the Navigation Laws as a 
 system are maintained, notwithstanding any 
 temporary or permanent changes made in them, 
 for the purpose of more completely and effec¬ 
 tually attaining their objects and ends. 
 b 3 
 
 The 
 
6 
 
 The Navigation Laws Are tales of prudential 
 institution and political establishment, not of 
 absolute and natural necessity. They are, 
 therefore, liable to be altered and abrogated 
 by the operation of principles paramount to 
 those of their existence. A general famine, or 
 proispect of famine, in Great Britain, would re¬ 
 peal the Navigation and all other Acts that 
 would restrain the importation of provisions, 
 and would open the ports to supplies from 
 every part of the world by every species of 
 conveyance. This would, indeed, be the con-, 
 . sequence of accidental occurrences, but it 
 proves that the Navigation Laws exist not in¬ 
 dependently of circumstances; that the Na¬ 
 vigation Laws are not of that unbending stuff, 
 of that Medish and Persian character, that they 
 may not be changed, of that, highly prero- 
 gatived nature, that they can do no wrong, 
 They are, therefore, liable to be enforced, sus¬ 
 pended, changed, and, in the extreme case, 
 repealed, or they might be productive of the 
 greatest injury, and contribute to one of the 
 greatest 
 
T- 
 
 greatest calamities to which the societies of 
 men are exposed. ■ . 
 
 The principal objects of the Navigation Laws 
 are two: named in the order of their natural 
 existence, they are commercial prosperity and 
 national security. Ranged in the order of their 
 political importance, they are national security 
 and commercial prosperity. That to the great 
 object of national security inferior considera¬ 
 tions should yield, must be admitted. That 
 trading and manufacturing interests may and 
 should be occasionally sacrificed for this pur¬ 
 pose, is conceded. But surely it will not be 
 contended, that the navigation itself should 
 be sacrificed to the navigation system—This, 
 however, is done, whenever any commercial or 
 manufacturing interests are sacoficed to an ex¬ 
 tent, and under circumstances, the whole effect 
 of which is to diminish navigation. 
 
 The Navigation Laws, as they impede and 
 restrain, may certainly, as Mr. Gentz has ob¬ 
 served, be considered as commercially injurious; 
 but I entirely agree with your Lordship, that 
 b 4 by 
 
8 
 
 by a reflex operation, they promote the com¬ 
 mercial prosperity of the empire in a manner 
 that considerably more than compensates and 
 countervails their direct effects of limiting and 
 restraining. But where it is proposed by 
 simple and obvious means, to increase the 
 navigation, though by a modification of the 
 navigation system, there can exist no doubt 
 concerning the expediency and propriety of 
 the measure. 
 
 The regulations of a system may obstruct 
 or defeat the attainment of its objects. 
 Here then the letter is opposed to the spirit 
 of the institution, and fhould be amended. 
 That this is sometimes the case with the 
 Navigation Act, has been- observed and 
 admitted by |very high authority. 
 
 The navigation and cojonial systems are 
 founded in limitation, restraint, and exclusion, 
 certainly according to strict right, for the 
 wisest purposes, and with the happiest effects. 
 Yet as these establishments abrogate natural 
 rights, prohibit the exercise of natural pow ers, 
 and 
 
9 
 
 and prevent the enjoyment of natural benefits, 
 it is the duty, aud should' tye, the -first care- of 
 those to whom the superintendance of these 
 institutions' is committed, to' provide that they 
 shall not unnecessarily trench upon indepen¬ 
 dence, exertion and happiness, and certainly 
 not be 'extended to or continued in counter- 
 operation to their ends and objects. 
 
 - There is nothing more admirable in the 
 history of British institutions, than' that pru¬ 
 dence which continually provides that gene¬ 
 ral. principle shall be countervailed by prac¬ 
 tical observation, and that regulation shall 
 be adjusted by experience. This wisdom has 
 given existence to and will preserve our'ge¬ 
 neral system of rights, privileges and prero¬ 
 gative, the wonder of the world, an obje& 
 for imitation, but for imitation only by those 
 who can understand it, not only in the whole, 
 but in its parts, not only in.its principles, but 
 in its exceptions. Experience in polity, as ex¬ 
 periment in philosophy, seem to be almost 
 exclusively British. 
 
 Every 
 
Every suspension of the Navigation Laws 
 is not a violation of the navigation system. 
 
 A suspension, limited as to time, confined 
 as to place, or circumscribed by circumstances; 
 a suspension, required by exigencies, and jus¬ 
 tified by a reference to the principles and ob¬ 
 jects of the navigation system itself, is ra¬ 
 ther to be esteemed as a modification than 
 an invasion of that system, and may even 
 be considered and adopted as- an improve¬ 
 ment. 
 
 The calls of necessity, the claims of hu¬ 
 manity, and the demands of justice may, and 
 frequently do, require it. 
 
 When I hear your Lordship, in opposition, 
 to all these principles of sound judgment, ob- 1 
 ject, in the most unqualified manner, to the 
 suspension of. any >part of the Navigation 
 Laws, you appear to me to have excluded, at 
 the moment, all consideration of the nature, 
 principles and ends; not only of these, but 
 of all human laws whatsoever. 
 
 That . 
 
11 
 
 That permanency and unchangeableness of 
 the Navigation and Colonial Laws, however, 
 which you contend. for has never belonged 
 to them; that fixity of regulation which re¬ 
 jects all adjustment, to exigencies, and con¬ 
 ditions and circumstances,. ought not, ac¬ 
 cording to principle, and does not, in fact, 
 exist. Changes of this sort have been re¬ 
 peatedly made, and must repeatedly be de¬ 
 manded; and notwithstanding such changes, 
 the system has existed, has been maintained, 
 has been inviolably maintained, since this 
 very principle of change prudentiallv and ne¬ 
 cessarily makes a part of the system. The 
 number and variety of the Colonial Laws 
 themselves prove this. The 12th Car. II. 
 c. 18. is called the Navigation Act, but that 
 great body of principles which we intend by 
 the use of the term Navigation Act, is de¬ 
 rived from this, joined to other Afts of the 
 same Charles, and of William III. In every 
 succeeding reign, Colonial Laws have been 
 enacted, with views and objects so various, 
 that any account of them runs out into an 
 extensive 
 
12 ' 
 
 extensive specification and enumeration. In 
 almost every succeeding reign, certainly since 
 the time of Queen Anne, some one or other 
 of (hose very principles has been subjected 
 to repeal, to suspension, ;o limitation, or mo¬ 
 dification, and yet the systems remain. They 
 remain the»efore, and will continue to remain, 
 notwithstanding'any future changes which the 
 same policy may prompt, or similar occasions 
 may demand. 
 
 The foregoing propositions cannot in their 
 terms be questioned. They contain the prin¬ 
 ciples by which the navigation and colonial 
 systems, and all their parts may be examined 
 and estimated. Preliminarily established, they 
 will remain as rules of reference for the de¬ 
 cision of those points, in the discussion of 
 which, by a necessity which I regret, and 
 with the highest respect, on my part, for your 
 Lordship’s rank and talents, we stand op- 
 
 The 
 
13 
 
 The three principal subjects of your Lord- 
 ship’s strictures, are the Dutch Property Acts, 
 the repeal of the American countervailing 
 duties, and the West India intercourse with 
 America. Each of these in - order, and the 
 Dutch Property Acts in the first place will 
 he considered. ' ; 
 
 If to receive into hospitable protection the 
 persons and properties of friends and allies 
 escaped from approaching danger, if to admit 
 into port, ships and cargoes, which .otherwise 
 might be occupied and employed by the-pub- 
 ■ lie enemy, be right, prudent, and wise, the 
 Dutch Property Acts passed for'these pur? 
 poses, may be justified by these principles. 
 Of the particular provisions of these; laws now 
 expired, to state more-than may be-necessary, 
 to meet your Lordship’s objections, , would re¬ 
 quire time and attention better-reserved^ for 
 other subjects. •• . . ‘ i 
 
 , The Dutch Property Acts- carry in them- 
 selves, and announce, their own- justifica¬ 
 tion. 
 
14 
 
 tion. They were demanded by the peculiar 
 exigencies of the times, and dictated by the 
 special circumstances' of the commerce of 
 Europe and of the United Provinces; they 
 were declaredly necessary for the public good, 
 and their avowed objects were the safety 
 and preservation of the property of fellow 
 subjects, and of partners of the war. From 
 motives of common humanity they opened 
 an asylum in this kingdom for the persons 
 of our friends of the United Provinces. Up¬ 
 on principles of approved policy, they opened 
 the harbours of the kingdom for the recep¬ 
 tion of the ships and cargoes of countrymen 
 and allies taken or saved from the common 
 enemy. Measures of this sort cannot with 
 more propriety be called or considered as vio¬ 
 lations of our Navigation Laws, than may 
 all acts, recoguised by law, of, taking and 
 bringing, the vessels and . goods of enemies 
 into the ports of. this kingdom, where, under 
 other circumstances, they cannot come. They 
 are all. but exceptions established, or occa¬ 
 sional to existing regulations, and are recoin- 
 3 mended 
 
15 
 
 mended and approved as such, by the prin¬ 
 ciples which support the rules themselves, 
 by the principles before developed and ex¬ 
 plained. 
 
 Your Lordship objects to these Acts, that 
 “ they afforded great advantages to foreign 
 “ ships over British, in permitting goods to 
 “ be stored, which they did ; not allow to 
 “ British vessels.” This objection surely is very 
 unnecessarily taken and very weakly supported ; 
 the warehousing of the . goods in question, was 
 at first permitted from the necessity of the case, 
 and the urgency of the occasion. By order 
 in council it was directed to be done until 
 Parliament should consider of the measure, and 
 provide for the disposal of the property. It 
 was afterwards continued.-from, convenience 
 and propriety. When the goods were taken 
 out of the warehouses, they were, by, parlia¬ 
 ment, subjected to the laws and duties of. the 
 customs and excise, or were re-exported, 
 and no regulations less . exceptionable could 
 possibly have been devised. 
 
 The 
 
16 
 
 The great advantages thus complained of, 
 consisted in the partial accommodation thus 
 conceded to temporary distress, attended in¬ 
 deed with a loss to Government of interest 
 money too trifling to be' respected, but with 
 no real injury to the British merchant, 
 whose actual condition was neither changed 
 nor affected by the conveniences afforded-to 
 others, 
 
 : That these Acts greatly increased the 
 quantity'of foreign tonnage employed in our 
 carrying traxle, and were calculated • to esta- 
 blish that trade in the hands of - the Ameri¬ 
 cans'at the conclusion of the Avar, are-ob¬ 
 servations of your Lordship, not better found¬ 
 ed than the preceding objection. - Any ship 
 belonging either to persons who, having in¬ 
 habited the United Provinces before the 19 th 
 of January, 1795,- should come to reside in 
 this kingdom, and take the oatlis of = alle¬ 
 giance and ownership-prescribed by the A6t, 
 or to British subjects Avholly by ‘ purchase, 
 from or jointly with these, was permitted 
 - ; ' 1 ' upon 
 
Vt 
 
 upon special order. by his Majesty in Coun¬ 
 cil, to be registered for, and used in the fo¬ 
 reign European trade. The vessels thus incor¬ 
 porated with the shipping of the kingdom, 
 cannot with propriety be described as foreign 
 tonnage, nor objected to as such, more reason¬ 
 ably than ran enemy’s captured vessels, which 
 although not British built, are yet, under an 
 exception established even by the Acts of Na¬ 
 vigation, classed and considered as British ships, 
 Of the other vessels bringing in Dutch pro¬ 
 perty, and not thus incorporated into our na¬ 
 vigation, or of American vessels,- the em¬ 
 ployment in our carrying trade defends upon 
 other circumstances. The state of British 
 shipping at the conclusion of the war, was 
 a consequence of the war itself, which had 
 put into our possession the colonies and ship¬ 
 ping of some of the most considerable ma¬ 
 ritime states of Europe. When these colo¬ 
 nies were restored to their former possessors, 
 whilst the shipping remained with us, and. 
 ■when our own navy had discharged many 
 thousands of seamen from the public service, 
 c it 
 
18 
 
 it was to be expected that, for some time 
 at least, our mariners would want employ¬ 
 ment, and that property in shipping would 
 experience a depreciation in value. To these 
 evils time alone could afford a remedy. These 
 circumstances of private inconvenience seem¬ 
 ed, however, to hold out a promise of pub¬ 
 lic benefit, and the reasonable hope remain¬ 
 ed, that the lowness of freights,' arising from 
 the number of unemployed vessels and sai¬ 
 lors, would enable us to recover, in time of 
 peace, any balance of shipping and tonnage 
 which might, during the war, have turned 
 against us or been lost, in our / intercourse 
 with neutral nations. 
 
 It cannot, my Lord, be reasonably con¬ 
 tended, that the removal of impediments to the 
 admission of these vessels, or any tiling done 
 by these acts, amounted to a violation of the 
 navigation or commercial systems of the em¬ 
 pire. How Far even a suspension, strictly con¬ 
 sidered, of the Navigation Laws took place, 
 may be. a subject of questionable import. All 
 the 
 
19 
 
 the Navigation Laws were preserved in ex* 
 istence, and in full force. They were, indeed, 
 restrained and limited in their application; but 
 this limitation amounted not to suspension, 
 general or partial, since these acts never ceased 
 for a moment to exist and to operate. But 
 admitting that this limitation of operation was, 
 as to the objects affected,. a partial suspension, 
 of this suspension, reprobated merely as such 
 by your Lordship, the injury remains to be 
 proved; the expediency and propriety of the 
 general measure are most unquestionably esta¬ 
 blished. 
 
 In the introduction and execution of these 
 regulations,, the greatest caution and intelli¬ 
 gence were displayed by Government. A first 
 order in council, carefully limited, is of ne¬ 
 cessity extended by a. second order. The first 
 act for effectuating, these orders leaves unli- : 
 mited power in his Majesty and Parliament to 
 suspend or renew, to repeal, or alter them. 
 The second act, passed within ten weeks after 
 the first, limits the operation of these orders, 
 c 2 and 
 
-20 
 
 and acts to a period of six months. ' Two fol¬ 
 lowing acts successively’ extend these pro¬ 
 visions to short periods of time; and when at 
 last peace intervenes, these periods' are hot 
 suffered to expire by lapse, but by another act 
 are positively shortened and reduced. 
 
 ; It is impossible, my Lord, to avoid remark¬ 
 ing upon the manner in which all your state¬ 
 ments on this subject' are formed. You de¬ 
 scribe these acts 1 as “ very much extending the 
 principles of neutral bottoms,” as “affording 
 great advantages to foreign ships over British,” 
 and “ as suffering all goods to be imported in 
 neutral shipsbut these representations are by 
 no means fairly made. They are expressed in 
 general terms,! in order that they may influence, 
 mislead, and prejudice, and may yet retain the 
 power of being defended by .the very generality, 
 of the terms themselves. You affirm, that theie 
 was “ not even a pretence for these laws,- but 
 such as referred to temporary circumstances.” 
 But, my Lord, ' temporary circumstances may 
 well justify-temporary measures. That they 
 - .; were 
 
21 . 
 
 were not so highly objectionable at the jane- 
 ture, you admit, and hasten to conclude the 
 hostile apology thus offered for them by repro- ; 
 bating the time of their continuance, and re¬ 
 sisting their establishment as a precedent. All 
 this is unnecessary. The same principle of 
 taking from, or securing against, a public 
 enemy, will always open the ports of this 
 kingdom to ships and cargoes of every descrip 
 tion. 
 
 The repeal of the American countervailing 
 duties succeeds in the next .place to engage 
 your Lordship’s attention, and to incur repre¬ 
 hension. 
 
 By the 11th and I5th articles of the treaty 
 between Great Britain and America it was ex¬ 
 pressly stipulated, that there should be, under 
 the limitations therein specified, reciprocal and 
 perfect liberty of navigation and commerce be¬ 
 tween the two countries, and that the vessels 
 and goods of both should, in their respective 
 ports, be subjected only to the same duties and 
 c 3 restrictions 
 
restrictions to which the vessels and goods of 
 Other countries were subjected. In conse¬ 
 quence, however, Of existing circumstances, a 
 right was at the same time reserved to the 
 British Government to lay duties on the im¬ 
 portation of goods from the United States in 
 American vessels, adequate tri countervail the 
 duties then existing and payable on the,im¬ 
 portation, of European and Asiatic goods into 
 the United States in British or American vessels, 
 and also a duty of tonnage on American vessels 
 entering the British ports in Europe, to equalize 
 the duty of tonnage then existing on British 
 vessels entering the ports of America. Great 
 Britain accordingly raised her duties of customs 
 ten per cent, on American articles, and im¬ 
 posed a tonnage duty of two shillings on Ame¬ 
 rican vessels. 
 
 The existence of these duties, on both sides, 
 was not altogether agreeable to that perfect 
 liberty of navigation and commerce stipulated 
 for, nor consistent with that other admitted 
 principle of reciprocal regulation* which sub¬ 
 jected 
 
23 
 
 jected the vessels and goods of both countries, 
 in their respective ports, to no higher duties' 
 than those of other nations. Their effects on 
 both sides were oppressive and hostile to com 1 * 
 merce. Through the influence of the worst ol 
 passions, fear and jealousy, a system of mu¬ 
 tual inconvenience and injury was adopted by 
 both nations. Both Governments encumbered 
 and impeded activity and industry, with no 
 other view than that of reciprocally and equally 
 distressing them. I refer not here to causes 
 which might inculpate or justify this or that 
 Government; I consider their effects alone. 
 Both Governments plundered the subjects of 
 each other, or in consequence, and in fact their 
 own subjects, through the pockets of those, 
 by Duties, imposed for no other purpose than 
 that of diminishing or extinguishing exertion 
 and enterprize, by creating and equalizing dif¬ 
 ficulties and restrictions. 
 
 Such'a state of things was neither honourable 
 nor beneficial to either party. It was not to 
 be endured either as a matter of civil regula- 
 c 4 tion, 
 
24 
 
 lion, or as a subject of reasonable reflection, 
 anid it was inconsistent with the avowed prin¬ 
 ciples of the treaty of commerce. When, at 
 length, by lapse of time and decline of passion, 
 it came to be made a subject of prudential con¬ 
 sideration, there could exist only one opinion 
 of what was proper to be done on the occasion. 
 The general principles admitted and established 
 by the letter of the treaty, and whose operation 
 had been thus unwisely and injuriously sus¬ 
 pended! were reverted to ; and it was agreed, 
 that the duties in question should be abolished 
 on both sides, Great Britain and America being 
 thus made to stand in the same state of relation 
 towards each other which exists between Great 
 Britain and other foreign nations. 
 
 The repeal of these duties is fully justified 
 in its principles. It did not involve any ques¬ 
 tion of regulation affecting the Navigation Act. 
 It simply placed America on the same footing 
 with other nations. In the place of a complex, 
 it substituted a simple system. It removed a 
 complex system of mutual imposition, which 
 being 
 
25 
 
 being reciprocally balanced on both sides, was 
 as none, c-r was equally injurious to both na¬ 
 tions. Without infringing on our navigation 
 regulations, it tended considerably to benefit 
 our commercial and manufacturing interests. 
 The annual value of British exports to America 
 had exceeded six millions. The. inequality in 
 the respective amounts of British and American 
 tonnage had not been prevented by the ex¬ 
 istence of the countervailing duties, and was 
 to be referred to other causes and remedies. The 
 repeal was wise, as unfettering general commerce 
 on both sides, and settling it on the most favour¬ 
 able establishment of reciprocal and perfect 
 liberty, in a manner consistent with, and con.• 
 forniable to the general regulations of both 
 countries towards the most favoured nations. 
 
 That there could be no objection to placing 
 the Americans on the footing of the most fa¬ 
 voured nations, is distinctly admitted .by your 
 Lordship. This' admission, mingled, .ungra-' 
 ciously indeed with charges of crooked policy 
 and irrelevant exceptions, comes as the result 
 and 
 
and deliberate conclusion of all your Lordship’s 
 observations. To effect this, however, it was 
 necessary to remove duties which other nations 
 did not pay. This was one principal object of 
 the repeal of those duties. This admission puts 
 an end to all question on the subject, and 
 coupled with the well-founded observation, 
 that the Navigation Act' was not affected by 
 the repeal, leaves it matter of curious admira¬ 
 tion that you should object to it at all, or 
 object to it, and class it among violations of 
 our navigation system. 
 
 The relative increase of the American, com¬ 
 pared with the British tonnage employed in 
 the commerce.between Great Britain and Ame¬ 
 rica, may indeed give rise to serious reflections, 
 and deserves attentive consideration. 
 
 If in the course of trade with any nation, 
 carried on under and within the provisions of 
 the .Navigation Act, .the balance of tonnage 
 against this country should at any time become 
 considerable, it would certainly be a. good 
 2 ground 
 
27 
 
 ground of patriotic enquiry, or national in¬ 
 vestigation, to discover the causes, and apply 
 the remedies. The causes might be discovered 
 to be contingent or accidental, or temporary. 
 The remedies might be various, and of delicate 
 application. The enquiry in itself would, how¬ 
 ever, be right, and would be rightly persisted 
 in; but it is extremely incorrect and improper 
 to confound circumstances which exist under, 
 and independently of the controul of a statute 
 or a system, with charges against ministers and 
 West India colonists of actual or intentional 
 violation of that very act, and of that same 
 system. 
 
 There are certainly circumstances in the 
 situation and condition of America which 
 render her, less than any other power, an ob¬ 
 ject of national or commercial jealousy. Her 
 distance as a Trans-atlantic state leaves us less 
 to fear from her general aggrandizement. The 
 state of her navy employed in commerce, not 
 formed for war, carrying neither hostility, nor 
 the fears and dangers of hostility, takes off, as 
 to 
 
28 . 
 
 to herself at least, all those arguments which, 
 on the grounds of safety, urge , the sacrifice of 
 landed, manufacturing, and trading interests, 
 to the creation of ships and the education of 
 sailors, and demand the exertion of a self- 
 denying prudence to limit the relative increase 
 of a rival or a foe. 
 
 In all questions, therefore, concerning Ame¬ 
 rican intercourse with, any part of the British 
 dominions, the general result of benefit ob¬ 
 tained to the landed, trading, and manufactur¬ 
 ing interests of the kingdom, is the great ob¬ 
 ject of consideration, divested of European, 
 .anxieties and petty jealousies. 
 
 Upon the statements referred to by your 
 Lordship of relative British and American 
 tonnage, I have only this observation to make, 
 that of the two periods assumed, the first im¬ 
 mediately precedes the commencement, and 
 the latter the conclusion, of the. last war, at an 
 interval of seven years,, during which it was to 
 b.e expected that the; tonnage of a belligerent 
 and 
 
and of a neutral would; considerably be di¬ 
 minished and increased respectively. Upon 
 this observation also,, but for recent events, I 
 should have engrafted this, expectation; that 
 the peace would restore our tonnage to what 
 it had been before in time of peace; that our 
 discharged vessels and seamen would have 
 found employment in' those branches of trade 
 from which, during the unnatural state of war, 
 they had been partially excluded; and that our 
 freights would shortly: have rivalled those , of 
 America, and of all the.world, in.cheapness and 
 accommodation. 
 
 I cannot but perceive, my Lord, in all your 
 observations, a jealousy, not well concealed, 
 of America and American prosperity. Your 
 formal disavowal of its influence is a proof of 
 the existence of this sentiment. America is 
 the burthen of your complaint. ' You object to 
 the Dutch property acts, that‘they established 
 the carrying trade in .the hands of the Ame¬ 
 ricans; you reprobate the repeal of the counter¬ 
 vailing duties intended to place the Americans 
 
so 
 
 on the same footing with other nations; of 
 American tonnage, not a tenth, not a fifteenth 
 of which, in time of peace, is employed in the 
 British .intercourse, the augmentation and its 
 causes are invidiously stated; an alarm is ex¬ 
 cited for the future fate of Jamaica against 
 American principles of territorial acquisition; 
 and the admittance of American shipping into 
 the West India ports, is represented as tending 
 to render the islands totally dependent on Amer 
 rica. Against these, the suggestions of ancient 
 animosity I must, however, be permitted to 
 protest, and to deprecate the admission of. all 
 prejudices, whether of original or of recent 
 growth, into the discussion of the West India 
 question. 
 
 I now proceed, my Lord, to that which, if 
 not the sole, is certainly the principal object 
 of your strictures. The claims of the West 
 India colonists engage, almost exclusively, 
 forty-one of your sixty-five pages, and ten of 
 your eleven heads of general recapitulation. 
 
 You 
 
SI 
 
 You charge the . colonists with claiming an 
 unrestricted intercourse with America. Against 
 this charge they are to be defended. Against 
 this charge they will be defended, by shewing 
 that they never expected or desired, that they 
 never proposed or solicited, that they do not 
 now solicit, an unrestricted intercourse with 
 America; that a free trade with America has 
 never been, at any time, conceded to the claims 
 of the colonists or of the United States, or 
 ever contemplated by Government; and that at 
 this moment the colonists do not, in fact, so¬ 
 licit any intercourse at all. All- that, they do 
 claim, all that they propose, is simply to 
 be allowed the necessary means for effectually 
 carrying on the limited and established inter¬ 
 course already existing. 
 
 At the commencement of those hostilities 
 which separated the United States from .Great 
 Britain, the British islands of the . West Indies 
 were supplied with articles of the first necessity 
 from the provinces of the continent of North 
 America. Thesesupplies were depended upon, 
 and 
 
and deemed necessary for the existence of the 
 colonists of the islands. They consisted prin- 
 . cipally of articles of lumber, live stock, and 
 provisions of various sorts, the produce of 
 North America. They were paid for in pro¬ 
 duce of the islands, and they were carried by 
 a species of navigation scarcely exceeding, in 
 equipment and expence, the most simple drog- 
 herage. 
 
 This intercourse. was suspended by those 
 hostilities.. Of this suspension the effects were 
 the most grievous and afflicting that countries 
 can experience, and they were aggravated:, by , 
 natural calamities. Various and severe dis¬ 
 tresses, the combined consequences of the war, 
 ef drought and of hurricane, were experienced 
 in all the islands, and were patiently borne, 
 under the expe&ation that they would eiid 
 with the order of things which had produced 
 them. 
 
 That .expectation surely.deserved not censure 
 which restrained, .during a lapse of many years, 
 amidst 
 
33 
 
 amidst severe deprivations,' claimed at length 
 the renewal of an intercourse which seemed 
 Only suspended by events, and which no ca¬ 
 tastrophe, it was considered, could permanently 
 and entirely intercept and destroy. This ex¬ 
 pectation was not unnatural. It was not un¬ 
 reasonable, since something like the old order 
 of things was even contemplated by his Ma¬ 
 jesty’s Government. 
 
 The utmost, however, which, even at the 
 time of the separation of the United States 
 from Great Britain, was by any person desired 
 or expected, was, that the American intercourse 
 with the West Indies, would be restored to what 
 it had previously and actually been. This 
 amounted to no more than the usual supply 
 of necessaries in American shipping, confined 
 to its accustomed limits between the islands 
 and the continent, ami restricted to articles 
 of produce as it had always been. It extended 
 not to the carriage of West India produce to 
 England, to Europe, to every part of the world, 
 to an abandonment of the general European 
 carrying trade of the islands, which the Ame- 
 d rican 
 
34 
 
 rican provinces had never undertaken or pos¬ 
 sessed. Had this been suggested to the West 
 India colonist, he would have reprobated it. 
 Had it been objected to him as a consequence 
 of his claims, he would diave .strenuously dis¬ 
 claimed the purpose, and been most, anxious 
 in providing against and .preventing it. . Un¬ 
 restricted intercourse, therefore, .was nevei] ex¬ 
 pected or desired. . . , 
 
 The necessity of an interctitirsfe of Some sort 
 between the West India Islands and the United 
 States was on all sides admitted. Whether it 
 could effectually be maintained by British'ship¬ 
 ping or not was the principal subject of dis¬ 
 cussion. It was at last decided, that it could 
 be carried on by means of British colonial 
 shipping, by circuitous voyages froin Europe, 
 and by the assistance of the remaining Ame- 
 rican continental colonies of Great Britain/ and 
 that, therefore, the navigation should be 
 confined to British shipping exclusively. This 
 measure your Lordship defended at that time 
 upon these particular grounds, and accordingly 
 ' . .the 
 
35 
 
 fciie West India intercourse with the United 
 States was primarily, by, provisional orders in 
 council, and finally'by act of parliament, con* 
 fined to British-built ships duly navigated, car¬ 
 rying on one side certain enumerated articles 
 of American produce,, such as the,.united.-king¬ 
 dom Gould not furnish, . and on the: other-side, 
 enumerated, articles ,o'f West India produce,, in 
 exchange dr -payment for those.., According 
 to ;this act, th&:28,th of. Geo, IIL.ic.ifi. British 
 'subjects,' in British-built ships,' were.sallowled 
 to import into the islands from the United States 
 tobacco, naval stores,and lumber;; .hories, 
 cattle, and live stock; bread, biscuit, flour, 
 potatoes, and grain of any sort, the produce of 
 the United States, and to export to the United 
 States, from the islands, any goods which may 
 be exported to any foreign European state, and 
 also sugar, molasses, coffee, cocoa-nuts, ginger, 
 and pimento, bond being given for landing the 
 same in the United States. 
 
 It is never to be forgotten, that these .ar¬ 
 rangements, as far as they .respected the ex- 
 d 2 elusive 
 
elusive use of British shipping, were adopted 
 and defended upon what was considered as 
 a well grounded expectation, that by sup¬ 
 plies of shipping and produce from the re¬ 
 maining British colonies in North America, 
 by the employment of British shipping from 
 Europe, in a circuitous voyage, and by the 
 establishment of appropriate shipping of the 
 Islands themselves, there would be no want 
 of the adequate means of carriage in this 
 intercourse. This expectation has failed. Na¬ 
 tural condition and circumstances have for¬ 
 bidden, and the remaining British colonies of 
 North America have not furnished shipping 
 to the navigation, or supplies to the neces¬ 
 sities of the Islands. Deviation from the di¬ 
 rect voyage between Great Britain and the 
 West Indies, for the purpose of going to 
 America, where the owners and shippers of 
 vessels and goods cannot superintend and di¬ 
 rect their own concerns must either be en¬ 
 cumbered with embarrassing connexions, or 
 exposed, to the dangers of confidence, and 
 does not therefore recommend itself to mer¬ 
 cantile 
 
37 
 
 cantile men. The natural habits also of that 
 trade which is established, and that which 
 would be engrafted, are too dissimilar to be 
 united. 
 
 The West India Islands want the ad¬ 
 vantages and conveniences necessary for 
 establishing a domestic shipping. Efforts 
 have been made, but they have been oc¬ 
 casional, and the supplies obtained, by 
 them expensive, burthensome, and inadequate. 
 For information as to the amount of the. do¬ 
 mestic shipping of the Islands thus created 
 and employed, I must refer your Lordship to 
 official documents. It may be proper to 
 enquire not merely into the number, but into 
 the' description also of vessels and mariners 
 thus employed, and to estimate how much the 
 navigation and safety of the empire depends, 
 upon the maintenance of colonial sloops and 
 schooners, and brigs, manned with a motley 
 crew- of various colours and conditions, 
 partly composed of slaves, and of negroes un¬ 
 wisely withdrawn from agriculture, who can- 
 D 3 not 
 
38 
 
 not be taken out of the. possession of ' their 
 masters, and add nothing to naval strength, 
 and :J the security expected from it. Yet let 
 it be ever remembered, that the encouragement 
 and support of this domestic shipping, dis 
 tinguished from the great body of colonial 
 shipping employed between Great Britain and 
 the colonies, whose sailors are always at com¬ 
 mand, and which with reason may be esti¬ 
 mated highly in a political, as well as a com¬ 
 mercial vim is the principal object and sole 
 effect .of .the extension of the colonial prin¬ 
 ciple of exclusion to, and the rejection of the 
 .navigation principle of ships of the country in 
 the West India intercourse with America. 
 
 Under these permanent regulations the. trade 
 has remained since the passing of the act in 
 1788, during an interval of sixteen years, 
 ten of which have been passed in a state of 
 war, adding, whilst it lasted, to those difficul¬ 
 ties which rendered the- employment of Bri¬ 
 tish vessels impracticable. The peculiarly dis¬ 
 tressing .circumstances of a state of war, and 
 .unavoidable necessity during peace, from the 
 i insufficiency 
 
insufficiency of colonial shipping, have re¬ 
 peatedly and occasionally opened the West 
 India ports to American shipping, and the 
 measure has been approved of, and the con¬ 
 sequences indemnified against by acts of par¬ 
 liament, which during the continuance of 
 war at least, should be annual and' of 
 course. 
 
 Under these regulations thus tempered by 
 occasional expedients, the West India colo¬ 
 nists have existed, and therefore acquiesce. 
 They admit the rightful policy and approved 
 wisdom of the Navigation Act, and of the 
 navigation and colonial systems of Great 
 Britain. They never have solicited, they do 
 not now solicit unrestricted intercourse with 
 America, or any intercourse inconsistent with 
 these, and this declaration they verify by the 
 following extracted resolutions and report from 
 the minutes of their recorded proceedings. 
 
 At a general meeting of West India 
 Planters 
 
40 
 
 Planters and Merchants, held at the. London 
 Tavern, London, February 15, 1803, amongst 
 other resolutions of the day, it was resolved, 
 That the standing Committee be instructed to 
 persevere in their efforts to obtain for the 
 West India colonies an intercourse with Ame¬ 
 rica, upon principles of due and liberal re¬ 
 gard to the maritime and commercial interests 
 of the mother country, and in no respect de¬ 
 viating from the monopoly she claimi, ex¬ 
 cepting where the profitable existence of the 
 colonies demands such deviation, 
 
 In a conference with the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, on the 15tb of the following March, 
 on this, amongst other subjects of application 
 and discussion, the Minister, desiring to know 
 to what extent it was proposed to open the 
 American intercourse, the Committee in at¬ 
 tendance answered; That the colonists demand¬ 
 ed only such an intercourse, as by furnishing 
 them in the cheapest manner with some sorts of 
 provisions, lumber and cattle, might render their 
 intercourse 
 
41 
 
 intercourse with tlie mother country, still more 
 advantageous, since all their efforts as agri¬ 
 culturists or as manufacturers, must depend 
 on their being supplied with sustenance, raw 1 
 materials, and means of labour, and with 
 packages to send their produce into Great 
 Britain,. and that in the opinion of the de¬ 
 putation, these objects might be accomplished, 
 if vessels of a size, unfitted for crossing the 
 Atlantic, might be permitted to bring the ar¬ 
 ticles. in question to the West Indies, and to 
 take back the bare value of. such cargoes, in 
 sugar, coffee, cr any other produce of the 
 colonies. The Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 expressed himself favourably as to the fair¬ 
 ness, and moderation of this proposal, but 
 declined as at . that time to enter into the 
 discussion. . • 
 
 • Your Lordship not only expressly charges 
 the. West India colonists with claiming un¬ 
 restricted intercourse with America, but you 
 impute 
 
4S 
 
 impute to them also, the obtaining in con¬ 
 junction with the Americans, what you call 
 the mischievous concession of the American 
 Treaty, that American vessels not exceeding 
 seventy tons, should enjoy a free trade to 
 the West India ports. Mischievous indeed 
 would be that concession^ which should al¬ 
 low a free trade with the West India ports, 
 to American vessels of any description.— 
 Your Lordship is warranted neither in the 
 imputation nor the statement. By the twelfth 
 Article of the American Treaty, American 
 vessels of not more than seventy tons bur¬ 
 then were allowed according to the principles 
 of the above restricted intercourse, to carry 
 certain enumerated articles on both sides, 
 without being subjected, in the British ports, 
 to higher duties than British vessels, on these 
 express conditions, that British vessels should, in 
 American pdrts, be subject to only the same 
 duties as American vessels, and that West 
 India produce should not be carried from the 
 Islands, or from any part of the United States 
 / to 
 
43 
 
 to any part of the world, except the United 
 States, reasonable sea stores only excepted, 
 and with this express limitation, that those ar¬ 
 rangements should continue only until two 
 years after a peace. This is what your Lord- 
 ship has been pleased to call a free trade. 
 This circumstantial exposition is a sufficient 
 answer to your Lordship’s unqualified state¬ 
 ment. Of this measure, thus truly understood, 
 the justification and approbation, result from the 
 existing case of exigency, a state of war, 
 by the duration of which it was limited, and 
 from the caution used to preserve entire to 
 Great Britain the proper European carrying 
 trade of the Islands, 
 
 By this Article of the Treaty, America was 
 bound not only not to carry to Europe Bri¬ 
 tish West India produce, but no West In¬ 
 dia produce of any sort, or of any growth. 
 How far the British and American negoci-' 
 ators were justified respectively in proposing 
 and admitting such a restriction on the ge¬ 
 neral commerce of Ameiica, can only.be in¬ 
 ferred 
 
44 
 
 ferred from existing circumstances. — That 
 America would, under any circumstances, 
 accede to such a condition, seems of very- 
 doubtful expectation, and British prudence 
 would have beeu sufficiently exercised in 
 providing by agreement, or rather by cau¬ 
 tionary arrangements of her own, that British 
 West India produce alone should not be 
 carried by the Americans to Europe. This 
 provision would have been less obnoxious in 
 terms, and equal in effect, even if all the 
 West India colonies, as seemed likely to be 
 the case at that time, had been in British 
 possession, and this would have been well 
 effected by small vessels that could not crossihe 
 Atlantic, by limiting the intercourse to ex¬ 
 change of cargo for cargo, or value in supply 
 for value in _ produce, or by other meaus 
 which might have been devisedr But, there 
 is nothing, in this or in that arrangement 
 which can justify the application to it of the 
 term free trade, and support the argument 
 couched there-under, and imputation raised 
 and attached thereto of important and 
 mischievous concession. 
 
 The 
 
45 
 
 The West India Colonists, therefore, Hot 
 only never obtained, they never have claim¬ 
 ed or solicited unrestricted intercourse or 
 a free trade with America, and they do not, 
 in fa&, at this moment, claim or solicit any 
 intercourse at all. A limited intercourse with 
 America is by law already established. They 
 solicit only the necessary means of carrying 
 on this established intercourse, and they con¬ 
 ceive themselves intitled to the use of these 
 means, upou the very same principles which 
 have entitled them to the intercourse itself, 
 and which justify and support all political 
 claims and rights whatsoever. 
 
 These details constitute a complete refuta¬ 
 tion of your Lordship’s strictures, on what 
 you call the unreasonable conduct “ of some 
 “ West India merchants and planters, whom 
 “ you accuse of joining in the unreasonable 
 u claims advanced by the Americans.^—You 
 “ insist that the demands of a few interested 
 “ or speculative men are not to be listened 
 “ to; and you charge some of the West In- 
 “ dia/ 
 
46 
 
 “ dia merchants with having, more than 
 “ once, and that with every management 
 ‘‘and clamour, laboured-to accomplish their 
 “ views of an unrestricted intercourse, with 
 “ America.” These remarks and imputations, 
 offensive and injurious in themselves, are un¬ 
 supported by facts, unfounded in terms, -and 
 disproved by the simplest statements,; and 
 the most obvious references. Their existence, 
 however, -has, created the necessity of meet¬ 
 ing; them, with opposing observations,, and 
 countervailing expositions, which may happily 
 resist the; influence of opinions thus publicly 
 exhibited, concerning measures of political 
 regulation, neither carefully considered, nor 
 correctly understood. This is not, however, 
 all that the occasion demands. The colo¬ 
 nists are called .upon, not only to defend 
 themselves against existing charges which 
 may be refuted, but to secure themselves, 
 as much as may be, against the exhibition 
 pf others as unfounded as the past, by dis¬ 
 tinctly stating, and clearly vindicating their 
 claims. 
 
 The 
 
47 
 
 The British colonists of the West Indies 
 claim the right of obtaining from America 
 all supplies of articles of the first necessity,, 
 which cannot elsewhere be had, and of em¬ 
 ploying all; the means necessary for effec¬ 
 tually obtaining those supplies, under a li¬ 
 mited and duly regulated intercourse. 
 
 They claim this right of supply upon .prin¬ 
 ciples, paramount to all other principles of 
 regulation, for their own immediate safety and 
 preservation, from general necessity, and for the 
 public good. They claim this right upon the 
 grounds of expediency, as promoting the at¬ 
 tainment of the very objects proposed by the 
 colonial principle which it controuls, as be- 
 nefitting the colonial establishments, and ac¬ 
 tually increasing the colonial trade, and co¬ 
 lonial navigation of Great Britain.. 
 
 They claim the necessary means of ob¬ 
 taining, as essential to the exercise of the 
 right of supply, as not injurious to the em¬ 
 pire, either in the manner, or to the extent 
 apprehended, 
 
48 
 
 apprehended, as producing, by the benefits it 
 imparts, compensations in kind, more than 
 equivalent to any conjectural losses that may 
 be foreboded, and as agreeable to the naviga¬ 
 tion principles of Great Britain, although op¬ 
 posed to the colonial. 
 
 They claim these supplies and these means 
 in an intercourse which shall be so regulated, 
 as to guard against all the evils which the 
 most cautious and anxious jealousy may di¬ 
 vine, and shall preserve to Great Britain en¬ 
 tire, all the objects and benefits of her colo¬ 
 nial ' establishments and policy. 
 
 All discussions of these claims there¬ 
 fore, branch into three divisions; consi¬ 
 derations respecting the articles of supply, 
 considerations respecting the means for ob¬ 
 taining them, and considerations respecting 
 the regulations for conducting - the inter- 
 • course in which they are to be ob¬ 
 tained. 
 
 The 
 
49 
 
 The general national objects of coloniza¬ 
 tion are of three kinds, from which result 
 certain claims or rights on the part of the 
 parent state, which may very properly be 
 called, the rights of import, of export, and 
 of carriage. 
 
 The right of colonial import or supply 
 extends exclusively to all articles of manufac¬ 
 ture, commerce, or produce which the parent 
 sta.e can furnish to the markets of the colo- - 
 nies. The right of colonial export includes 
 , all articles of colonial produce to the markets 
 of the parent state. The right of carriage 
 or of navigation is exercised in transporting 
 these articles between the parent state and 
 colonies. In consideration of these claims 
 and rights, demanded and enforced on the 
 part, of the parent state, the colonies claim 
 the right of exclusively supplying all articles 
 of colonial produce, which they can adequately 
 furnish to the markets of the parent state, 
 and it is to be lamented, that this last right 
 has been, in fact, so little respected, whilst 
 the others have been strictly enforced and 
 . f e preserved. 
 
so 
 
 preserved. All these rights on both sides 
 may be included under the general denomina¬ 
 tion of a monopoly of markets and of na¬ 
 vigation. It is convenient to consider, those 
 Of the'parent state under three divisions; the 
 monopoly of colonial supply or imports 
 from the parent state, the monopoly of co¬ 
 lonial produce or exports to the parent 
 state, and the monopoly of the navigation 
 or carriage of these colonial imports ,and 
 exports. 
 
 The colonial import or supply can only 
 be of things which the parent state can 
 possibly and beneficially, in sufficient quan¬ 
 tities, and at adequate prices furnish. If 
 this cannot be effected, and if the articles 
 are of the first necessity, they must be 
 obtained elsewhere. The exclusive right of 
 import or supply from the parent state becomes 
 limited , by the power, and must in so far be 
 abandoned. 
 
 The payment for; supply, or import, is 
 , obviously 
 
obviously and necessarily effected by means 
 of colonial produce. "Whenever, therefore, 
 the power, and with it the right of supply, 
 shall fail, so far also must fail with it the 
 right of produce-export to the parent state, 
 of the commodities applied to pay for the 
 supply elsewhere obtained. 
 
 These principles have been admitted, and 
 acted upon by Great Britain, in forming 
 the regulations of her colonial system. She 
 has found it impracticable to supply from 
 herself, the West India colonies with certain 
 articles which they cannot exist without, and 
 •she has allowed them to be received from 
 •America, and paid for by produce. A.dis¬ 
 
 tinction has thus been created between British 
 colonial supply or import, and American, 
 between colonial produce-returns or exports 
 to Britain and to America. The colonial supply 
 or import from, and the colonial produce- 
 returns or exports to Great Britain, are, by 
 every exertion of means, and application of 
 power, to be retained and preserved to Great 
 Eg Britain. 
 
52 
 
 Britain. The American supply, and the produce- 
 returns to America for supply, Great Britain 
 has formally given up. The only question, 
 therefore, which remains, respects the carriage 
 of this American supply, and of the produce- 
 returns to be given in exchange or payment 
 for it; and this also is to be determined by 
 the same principles of necessity or expediency 
 which have justified the former concessions. 
 
 The first part, therefore, of the claim of the 
 British colonists, as to the right of obtaining sup¬ 
 plies-from America, has been allowed of and ac¬ 
 quiesced in by Great Britain, and a particular 
 enumeration.of the necessary articles made and 
 declared by. act of parliament. The right of em- 
 iploying all the necessary means of obtaining those 
 supplies,, respects either the mode of payment 
 or the mode of carriage. . The right of paying 
 for by means of colonial produce, as well as 
 the right of obtaining supplies, has also.been 
 generally recognized and admitted; but the 
 adopted mode of carriage confined, exclusively 
 to British. shipping, although. by law esta- 
 blished, 
 
53 
 
 blished, has been constantly combated with 
 complaint and objection, and. has, in practice, 
 and from necessity, been continually and re-; 
 peatedly varied and departed from by the em-: 
 ployment of American vessels. 
 
 There are two great, principles which regu¬ 
 late, the one the colonial establishments, the 
 other, the commercial communications of Great 
 Britain with foreign nations. By the one, all 
 direct communication of the colonies with other 
 countries is prohibited; by the other, all in¬ 
 tercourse with foreign countries is confined to 
 British shipping, and shipping of the country. 
 When from necessity the colonial principle is 
 partially abandoned, and a limited intercourse 
 of the colonies with any foreign country is per¬ 
 mitted, it would seem reasonable to expect that 
 the other principle should be resorted to and 
 adopted, which regulates the communications 
 of other parts of the empire with foreign na¬ 
 tions. According to this principle, the Ame¬ 
 rican intercourse should be opened to British 
 and American shipping jointly. 
 
 e 8 The 
 
0 
 
 The propriety of this regulation is further 
 Confirmed by experience. Such has always 
 bein' the actual state of things, and the co¬ 
 lonies and the empire have prospered under it. 
 It is demanded by the same necessity which 
 has opened the intercourse with the United 
 States. It is demanded by the same respect 
 for the ’ rights of other nations, by which, in 
 other circumstances* it has been established. 
 If, in this case, the colonial principle and the 
 navigation principle stand equally opposed to 
 each other* necessity, propriety, arid approved 
 utility, support the latter. Great Britain has 
 declared in favour of the former, as far as it 
 excludes from the colonies the adinission of 
 American shipping. The colonists claim the 
 adoption of the latter. Great Britain stands 
 Upon the original colonial principle, although 
 never before' applied as between these coun¬ 
 tries; The colonists, upon actual precedent 
 establishment, and practice, upon the utility 
 and necessity of the measure, and upon the 
 propriety and efficacy of regulations which they 
 have prepared, and propose for the purpose of 
 : meeting 
 
55\ 
 
 meeting objections raised, and obviating in¬ 
 conveniences apprehended from the new order, 
 of things, which has changed provinces of the 
 empire into independent states. 
 
 So far are the colonists then from asking for 
 unrestricted or any unwarrantable intercourse 
 with America, that what, they claim Has 
 been granted, as to the intercourse; as to the 
 effectual means of maintaining it, part of what 
 they require has been conceded, the other part 
 has remained a question not decided against 
 them, by a tentative experience during twenty 
 years of the means ineffectually adopted for the 
 same purpose. The present question is not 
 about intercourse, limited or unlimited; the 
 only question is about the admission into tlie 
 intercourse already established of American 
 jointly with British shipping, which, among 
 the effectual means of maintaining that inter¬ 
 course, the colonists claim, propose, and de¬ 
 fend upon the principles before detailed, which 
 are now to be separately considered and dis¬ 
 cussed. 
 
 E 4 
 
 The 
 
,56 
 
 - The colonists propose the employment of 
 American vessels jointly with British, because 
 British shipping alone, after twenty years trial, 
 have not been able to carry on the intercourse 
 beneficially in time of peace, adequately in time 
 of calamity, or actually in time of war. 
 
 They claim this right as due by virtue of 
 ancient establishment, use, and practice. They 
 claim it-as appurtenant ; to the property they 
 possess, as essentially necessary to the com¬ 
 plete perception of its profits, as naturally at¬ 
 tached to it,. and always used with it. To this 
 prescriptive right, unquestionably established, 
 some respect is certainly due. 
 
 ■ They propose the permanent employment of 
 American vessels, on the grounds of utility, as 
 •being better than the occasional and frequent 
 admission, which cannot be subjected to re¬ 
 gulation, upon,which the planter cannot cal¬ 
 culate with full, assurance, and which is to be 
 exercised under circumstances, under which it 
 ought not to exist. . 
 
 The 
 
57 
 
 The British West India colonists claim the 
 constant admission into the American, inter¬ 
 course of American vessels, jointly with British, 
 upon the plea of necessity, and the failure 
 of all other expedients to remedy that ne¬ 
 cessity. 
 
 There is not a fact at this day more com¬ 
 pletely and incontrovertibly established than 
 this, that British shipping cannot at all times 
 furnish the West India Islands with sufficient 
 supplies of. the articles necessarv’for their pro¬ 
 fitable, comfortable, or actual existence. 
 The islands are occasionally exposed to the 
 horrors of famine, ar.d the miseries of other 
 deprivations, from the want of regular sup¬ 
 plies, from the consequences of drought, or 
 of hurricane, and from the impediments of' 
 war. That these evils are to be remedied by 
 any and by every means, is a position against 
 which no question can be permitted. Great 
 Britain, in her distresses, opens her ports to 
 ships of all the world/ and of every description. 
 In extreme cases, the islands would do the 
 same; 
 
S9, 
 
 same; but to whom could they open their 
 ports? They might call the ships of all the 
 world, but would they come? Partial relief 
 might, in a particularly urgent case, be ob¬ 
 tained from the neighbouring islands; but to 
 America alone, for complete assistance in ex¬ 
 treme or in ordinary distress, can recourse 
 effectually be had, 
 
 , Cases of extreme distress aTe of uncertain 
 recurrence. Cases of ordinary distress are 
 frequent, and may exist in the course of a 
 year, may arise in the course of three months. 
 The state of war is a case of continued ex¬ 
 igency. To meet these cases of various ne¬ 
 cessity, no fixed regulations have been con¬ 
 trived or adopted, and it. has been left to the 
 discretion of the executive of the islands to 
 admit or. exclude American shipping, according 
 to its own sense of the propriety of the mea¬ 
 sure. This discretion also.is to be exercised 
 under personal penalties and dangers, which 
 require the indemnification .of an act of parlia¬ 
 ment to avert and protect against. ■ Thieexer- 
 2 cise 
 
59 
 
 ciseof this discretion is to be justified, and its 
 justification subjected, it may be, to the Stric - 
 tum of a zeal not always considerate and cor¬ 
 rect, or to the suspicions of a jealousy aggra¬ 
 vated by a certain knowledge of the temptations 
 to which human nature is subjected amidst un¬ 
 natural deprivations, and therefore not readily' 
 disposed to admit the moral or political con¬ 
 dition of things that would excuse. I know 
 the case to have occurred, when during the 
 continuance of war, and whilst Great Britain, 
 in extreme distress, had opened her ports to all 
 ships, and paid bounties upon all species of com 
 and grain, and upon Indian corn amongst the 
 rest, drawing thus from the colonies all means 
 ©f'supply, instead of sending them any, that 
 letters of the strictest and harshest tenor were 
 received by the chief of a colony respecting the 
 admission of American vessels, and holding out 
 in prospect the dangers annually indemnified 
 against, although the colony was at that very 
 time in a state of the greatest distress, and 
 many whites and negroes had actually perished 
 of famine, or of diseases which famine had pro¬ 
 voked. 
 
voked. At this very period,' 'supplies of flour, 
 embarked in this kingdom for the colonies, 
 were by order actually relanded and re¬ 
 tained. 
 
 That only, by the employment, occasional or 
 constant,, of American shipping, jointly with 
 British, the British islands can be secured 
 against the worst of evils, cannot be denied. 
 The only, question, therefore, is, whether it be, 
 more adviseable constantly to employ, upon 
 generally approved principles of regulation, or 
 occasionally only, as at present, to permit the 
 admission of American vessels. 
 
 The, question of, occasional admission also 
 subdivides itself into two parts. Whether this 
 admission shall be left, as heretofore, to the 
 discretion of the executive power, or be sub¬ 
 jected to the operation of positive laws, varying 
 according to some fixed- rule or criterion of 
 necessity or demand, to be measured and ascer¬ 
 tained by the prices of the markets, as is done 
 in other countries and on other Occasions. The 
 difficulties 
 
61 
 
 difficulties of practically regulating the ad¬ 
 mission by the prices of articles in the market, 
 seem to be considerable, but perhaps not in¬ 
 surmountable. If to discretion is still to be 
 left the power of occasional admission, that 
 discretion should be unfettered by legal im¬ 
 pediments. It should be left, by. its proper 
 motives to justify itself, to his Majesty’s Go¬ 
 vernment, as in all other matters of general 
 policy, and the provisions of the annual In¬ 
 demnification Act of the last war should be 
 rendered permanent and fixed. 
 
 The state of war, as a case of particular 
 exigency, requires particular provisions; as a 
 case of, continued exigency, it requires the 
 establishment 'of continued and co-existent 
 regulations, and yet this case also is left to be 
 provided for by the exercise of occasional dis¬ 
 cretion. 
 
 It has happened, during a war in which 
 Great Britain not- only held the greatest part 
 . of the West . India colonies in possession, but 
 
 was 
 
•was completely mistress of the seas, that the 
 constant necessity of admitting American ves¬ 
 sels into all her possessions seemed to super¬ 
 sede the exercise of any discretion, and to ren¬ 
 der the American intercourse with the West 
 Indies, during that time at least, continued. 
 What would be the case, if her naval power 
 was at. all equalized in those seas, it is not, 
 therefore, difficult to conjecture; and how she 
 could in time of war preserve a trade with 
 neutral nations, not permitted in time of peace, 
 contrary to those principles of neutral policy 
 which she herself has been so strenuous in 
 maintaining, deserves to be considered. 
 
 But, when the periods of extinguished and 
 reuewed hostility are compared with those of 
 peace, and proportioned according to past ex¬ 
 perience, and when that proportion is found to 
 be at this very moment increasing, when to 
 this period of continued exigency the fre¬ 
 quently recurring periods are added of tem- 
 •porary necessity, the whole time during which 
 the admission of American vessels is demanded 
 
by the colonies, becomes so considerable, that 
 it would unquestionably be more prudent to 
 permit the trade constantly, in order to subject 
 the means of carriage to some proper principles 
 of restriction, than to leave it to be occasionally 
 opened, as it necessarily must be, to any species 
 of carriage which may offer, under any circum¬ 
 stances, and to open it in time of peace, that it 
 may not be liable to hostile objection or in¬ 
 terruption in time of war. 
 
 Upon these facts and these reflections, thus 
 naturally and obviously introducing and power¬ 
 fully recommending the constant and duly re¬ 
 gulated use of American vessels, jointly with 
 British as a system, combined with the other 
 general principles before detailed, is grounded 
 that proposition of the West India colonists, 
 which claims their admission into the supply 
 trade as among the necessary means of effec¬ 
 tually carrying it on. 
 
 The consequences of this admission respect 
 either the ^British carrying trade between the 
 islands 
 
/ 64 
 
 islands and Europe, or that between the islands 
 and America. By virtue of the regulations 
 hereinafter detailed, . itwill be prevented 
 from interfering directly -with the great carry¬ 
 ing trade between Britain and the islands, 
 and will in its consequences be found to in¬ 
 crease it. 
 
 In the.American intercourse with the is. 
 lands, the only object and effect of exclud¬ 
 ing American vessels from the islands, is 
 to promote and encourage the domestic co¬ 
 lonial shipping of the islands. . All expecta¬ 
 tions of bringing any other British shipping 
 into the intercourse, must now, after trial, be 
 . abandoned. The attempt to establish and 
 maintain this domestic shipping, as being with¬ 
 out means, is unnatural, and therefore attended 
 with considerable difficulties. . The want of 
 arsenals, of dock-yards, of materials, and of 
 artificers, forbids it; and it is equally unsafe 
 to commit arsenals and artificers beyond the 
 ^ central and vital parts of the empire, from 
 which they may be lopped off and dismem¬ 
 bered.. The species of American vessels for¬ 
 merly 
 
6 5 
 
 nierly recommended for employment in the 
 trade,'shews at once the nature; extent, and 
 importance of the navigation. ■ The safety and 
 supply of the West India Islands, are not to 
 be put in competition with the maintenance 
 of their own droghers. 
 
 The mariners educated in this intercourse 
 are not like those of the British carrying trade 
 between Europe and the Islands habituated to 
 ships of larger size, and to the hardships of a 
 northern climate, they are not always at com¬ 
 mand like these as your Lordship observes, 
 nor may they, like them, be added on emer¬ 
 gency to the naval force of the kingdom.— 
 Unfitted for general service, they cannot be 
 easily separated from the commerce in which 
 they are engaged, nor can the slaves which 
 contribute to make up their numbers be taken 
 from the possession of their masters. It 
 therefore surely is not wise, it surely is not 
 prudent to make a regard for these establish¬ 
 ments, or apprehensions of their discourage¬ 
 ment, • grounds for rejecting the use of means 
 f necessary 
 
66 
 
 necessary to the safety and prosperity of the 
 West India colonies, and contributory to the 
 consequent increase of the general and pro¬ 
 per British colonial trade and navigation. 
 
 The necessity of admitting American ves¬ 
 sels into the existing colonial intercourse, as 
 among the means necessary for obtaining ne¬ 
 cessary supplies being thus established in itself, 
 and by a consideration of the remedies applied 
 to redress it, a discussion of the measure pro¬ 
 posed, for duly limiting and regulating the 
 intercourse thus to be conducted should next 
 succeed. The admission of American jointly 
 with British vessels into the American inter¬ 
 course, is to be guarded with all the cauti¬ 
 onary sanctions necessary to preserve to Great 
 Britain her exclufive rights to British colonial 
 import and export, and to the British colonial 
 carrving trade. The proposition therefore for 
 employing American vessels, is necessarily 
 connected, with many devised also for the pur¬ 
 pose of preserving those rights. 
 
 They all proceed from the colouists in the 
 first 
 
67 
 
 first instance, because as subjects affected by 
 the general welfare of the Empire, they are 
 politically bound to consider and consult it, 
 because as applicants, they are prudentially 
 bound to devise and to recommend all such 
 measures as shall remove prohibitory objec¬ 
 tions, and guard against prospective dangers. 
 As loyal subjects, and as fair claimants, they 
 are prepared to accede and submit to any other 
 or further regulations which may be proposed 
 to the same end. " 
 
 The various propositions which with this 
 view may be, or at different times have been 
 brought forward, respect either the nature of 
 the vessel, or the amount of the cargo. The 
 great object to be guarded against, is to pre¬ 
 vent the taking away from the Islands more 
 produce than is barely necessary to pay for 
 supply, and carrying it directly to Europe.-r* 
 It has therefore been recommended, that the 
 American vessels to be employed, should beof 
 such a sort as might be least capable of inter¬ 
 fering in the proper carrying trade, of Great 
 t 3. Britain. 
 
Britain, incapable of being used beyond 
 the supply trade, incapable of crossing the 
 Atlantic from the British colonies directly to 
 Europe ; that they should be of the most sim¬ 
 ple structure and reduced size, and should em¬ 
 ploy the smallest possible number of mariners 
 in proportion to their tonnage, neither requir¬ 
 ing nor forming many or expert seamen. 
 
 A vessel agreeing with this description, had 
 been found in use in the free port trade of 
 the Islands with South America, and had been 
 formally transferred into the North American 
 trade,- by the article of the treaty of commerce 
 with the United States before referred to. It 
 is built with only one deck, and must not ex¬ 
 ceed the burthen of seventy tons. The treaty 
 had adopted only the limitation of tonnage, 
 but as it was afterwards found expedient in 
 the trade from which this description of vessel 
 was taken, to increase the tonnage, and it had 
 been extended indefinitely, or had been left to 
 be limited only by the other qualifying condi¬ 
 tion of the single deck; it would certainly 
 have 
 
have been .better, in-imitation again..of the.free 
 port trade, to have given up the limitation •of 
 tonnage, preserving the limiting circumstance 
 alone of one deck. This was. further! .recom¬ 
 mended by t]ie. following considerationsByen;-, 
 larging thetonnage and confiningit.to one deck,, 
 the trade would be still restrained to the same 
 proposed denomination ofvessels. Them umber of 
 mariners would not be increased in proportion 
 to the tonnage. The expences of the navigation 
 and the prices of supplies would be diminished, 
 and vessels of a larger burthen are alone fitted 
 for carrying large and heavy pieces of timber, 
 or masts, which might be occasionally required. 
 All limitation of vessels however seems to be 
 unnecessary. It is better to leave the trade to 
 regulate itself in this respect, and to admit 
 American vessels of all descriptions in the 
 same unqualified manner as .British, limiting 
 and restraining the export alone of objection¬ 
 able articles of colonial produce to the value of 
 the imports, which imports necessarily limit 
 themselves. Instead therefore of limiting the 
 vessel, it is proposed to limit the export itself. 
 
by allowing only cargo for cargo, or value for 
 value. ; ' 
 
 Oil the subject of imports and exports, 
 ft would seem reasonable, when American 
 vessels are employed in the supply trade, sim¬ 
 ply from a want of British, that no other 
 change would be required, or ought to take 
 place, but that of the vessel alone, and that 
 the same articles might on both sides be indif¬ 
 ferently carried by British or American ship¬ 
 ping. No attempt indeed has been made to 
 create any distinction of this sort as to the arti¬ 
 cles of supply from America, and therefore, 
 as to them, this principle, and the rule to be 
 established by it, may safely be admitted. 
 
 As certain jealousies however have arisen 
 respecting two; particular articles of colonial 
 produce-export in American shipping, it will 
 be right to consider separately each particular 
 article enumerated for the export carriage of 
 British shipping; The first article includes 
 among others, all those various commodities 
 which 
 
71 
 
 .which; Great firi^n;v%7n.lLer!CQmidap^£imal 
 nufactures or territory,' cansupply;) cmsend-tb 
 .the,. .West- Indies.* .* iWhafeyepi.^fti.cfcs,.; of rtJiis 
 sort are there ; found; jfha.veohadiiaitrdi'easfe^rie 
 ■British .^Vest India voyageUpoh Itliehi.tn There 
 can rhe therefore,; ;n,o .objection to aji> American 
 vessel taking any . amount ; of. these; : British 
 navigation, is more benefittedi* by 3 their . being 
 thus,.taken from the Islands,;..thannevehlby 
 sending them; to America,*, and.; certainly .more 
 than by their being taken by the Americans 
 from : Great '.Briiain^i'dh their 1r lown' ( th5p^lbg, 
 which they may- be id J any extent; r; 0 Tha^fRH 
 Americans will unavoidably in their'intercoiirse 
 take of these articles,. many wliich 1 otherwise 
 would never have Anade ; their way' to'; the 
 United States, cannot be doubted; j ' This cir¬ 
 cumstance must be-carried' to the credit, artd 
 allowed'to ? operate in' recommendation of the 
 admission of American vessels into the inter¬ 
 course, and no reason can exist against' al¬ 
 lowing them to take in their own vessels 
 any.', quantities of these goods without any 
 reserve, ; But in the list : of articles of West 
 F 4 India 
 
Indiapr^UW eiiumerated' for export in Bri- 
 tisW.vessels' ta : the United States, : there 'are two, 
 SUgaihandcofFee, which’ 1 ’in the cases of'occa- 
 sioiialadmlssitaof American shipping into the 
 ports! of the Islands^rhave been subjected to 
 exception orirestrietien -as articles 1 of export 1 in 
 American vessels,^ wh ilst they may by- law be ex ¬ 
 ported ttvtihe United States without any reserve, 
 ■itt'British'Vessels; 1 -The principles of this'pro¬ 
 hibition* or-restriction-'deserve to be examined, 
 
 ^y 0 %! priflfijple, ; of ,(;olon.ial; regulation. uni¬ 
 versally; admitted, ; and solemnly, recognized :by 
 Parliament, colonial produce is,entitled,/after 
 having arrived .in, and been; subjected; to- the 
 voyage to, and to. the right of preemption in 
 the markets of Great . .Britain, to go out 
 again, discharged from all other burthens, and 
 to have free access to all foreign markets, as 
 among the most favoured , of British commo¬ 
 dities. . . ; . )lt .. , ; 
 
 Foreign nations, therefore,., and amongthem 
 the Americans, may come into the ports of 
 Great 
 
ft 
 
 Great Britain, and undera duly regelated sys¬ 
 tem of' export, take WestTndia produce away, 
 without any revenue - charge upon it; : This 
 was 'the state of things; when the West'- India 
 intercourse -with' the . United Statesman' J78S; 
 was settled ‘itf- British bottomsj and- these cob*. 
 sideratio&s added to the^Feeessity of paying for 
 supplies with preducS; > induced those arranged 
 ments, which were then adopted. Unfortu¬ 
 nately during the late war, : an idea was taken 
 up, against all principles of political-wisdom and 
 public justice, to tax foreign nations/by re¬ 
 taining part of the drawback, upon the re¬ 
 exportation of sugar from Great Britain. This 
 was a great breach of parental faith, on the 
 part of Great Britain ; it was a great breach 
 of justice thus to take away a portion of the 
 accidental profits of commerce which, they only 
 are honourably entitled to, who risque at all 
 times equally the loss and the profit. Like all 
 other great violations of principle, this also was 
 attended with consequences directly, indirectly 
 and remotely injurious to all whom it affected. 
 
 One 
 
One-of [these -indirect, a and remote--.conse¬ 
 quences,,, was. an ; attempt , mdde for the first 
 time, in the ports.of the colonies, to. establish 
 those distinctions.; befc\Yeen, the. ,ej?pprtsj;t.o the 
 United, States,, in British and in Amgfican : ves-r 
 sels. . Sugar audiCoffep weYe.eitheri.iibsQlutely 
 prohibited to Americajii vessels, : or limited do 
 Specified -pprtiqnSj^pjE.itheii-,, return -cargoes; 
 Considerable;imp.edjn\ents tf> the. : pbtaining; of 
 , supplies-Qi ; ;-necessaries,. were thus ^yexatiqusly 
 preated,and perpetrated,.-,and great inepnyepi- 
 encies sustained. Not ; araong .the.-least [was 
 the considerable drainage of ; specie,- complained 
 of in all the colonies. American vessels;were 
 compelled either to leave a particular colony 
 without dealing, or they, drew out from amidst 
 the population of the,.country, those- last por¬ 
 tions. of gold or of silver money,: which re¬ 
 tained amidst the ranks of. society ; by .all the 
 principles and energies of political existence 
 and combination, yield only to the .most pow¬ 
 erful actions, and like the last portions of; mois¬ 
 ture which give form and solidity to natural 
 bodies, are only in the extremest cases sepa¬ 
 rated 
 
75 
 
 rated and carried off. The, specie thus ob¬ 
 tained was immediately . .laid , out to purchase, 
 without restriction,return cargoes off, produce 
 among the foreign. Islands,: to their .great en¬ 
 couragement, and to the.'Cqnsider^ble vexation 
 and; injury, of.. the, British .colonists. ; .... Tliis 
 drainage of specie was,.attended with^congide- 
 rahle lojss,, : not onlyj^ the. ; plauters,,, bpt i; to 
 government also,, in ,th^,ar.ticlp;'of e&pb§ n g e * 
 From.,the ; scarcity, of jpioney,.. .;all, .bills .sprain¬ 
 ed, a v . depression, in. the, market ..of a consideiar 
 able per centage, and, in our market, where the 
 money point of exchange is fixed at forty per 
 cent. Government could frequently get only 
 twenty-five, per cent, or, a smaller per centage 
 on the bills she was obliged to sell for the 
 purposes of maintaining her establishments. 
 This certain loss considerably overbalancing 
 any contingent interests, .deserves, the atten¬ 
 tion and regulation of Government. 
 
 This unprincipled and abortive attempt to 
 tax foreign nations, by importing- among them, 
 commodities loaded with domestic duties, was 
 at 
 
76 
 
 at length abandoned. Something like a bet¬ 
 ter system has succeeded/Regulations have 
 beeriformed, according to which, although at 
 timesj ' and 'under increasing prices,‘-increasing 
 portfons' of the drawback on sugars, : may be 
 retained, yet, ih compensation'for this, it is 
 : with ‘Some apparent 1 fairness provided, that in 
 othfc'f Cases, aibounty shall'be superadded when 
 the prices' fall beyond' i f certain point. ‘ There 
 is, indeed; in the 1 ascending scale of bounties 
 but One solitary step‘ of compensation, whilst 
 in the ‘ descending the drawbacks are dimi¬ 
 nished through many and various degrees of 
 decline, into total extinction. All assurance 
 also is suspended, as to the permanent benefits 
 of this arrangement, by its limited existence, 
 and consequent dependance upon uncertain 
 opinions, and upon political events and com ¬ 
 binations yet more uncertain. ' 
 
 From discussions of this sort, all questions 
 of finance ought upon principle to be excluded. 
 Whatever sacrifices commerce may make to 
 navigation, she should make none to revenue. 
 
 2 Great 
 
77 
 
 Great Britain will never again be taught to ex-: 
 pect any increase of treasure-from the re-export 
 of her. colonial commodities. The present su¬ 
 gar .regulations are calculated to limit and ac. 
 commodate the prices of that article to an 
 easy and Steady domestic consumption, and 
 should have no other object. In this state of 
 things,' therefore, it might only be necessary, 
 as is done with respect to British vessels, to 
 leave the quantity of export in American ves¬ 
 sels, , grossly to depend upon the quantity of 
 supply, it is judged, : however, more advis¬ 
 able, to apply special provisions to the two 
 particular articles in question. 
 
 The duties upon British plantation coffee, 
 with the new import duty, are only 6|d. per 
 cwt. on warehousing, and this is the only 
 public charge which coffee going out of the 
 kingdom carries upon it. There exists not 
 therefore, either as to coffee or sugar, any 
 question of revenue which may-support any 
 of those grounds of distinction adopted as to 
 them in the 'colonies. In order however to 
 
 remove 
 
78 
 
 remove any apprehensions that they may be 
 exported in quantities, which shall admit of 
 their being carried to Europe, or in any man¬ 
 ner that may i tend to diminish the carrying 
 trade of Great Britain beyond the purpose of 
 paying for supplies, it may be right expressly 
 to limit thenr to that purpose. The ; colonist 
 claims only to receive supplies, and to be al¬ 
 lowed to pay for. them, with; produce. It is 
 fair,: therefore, in order to enable, him to ob¬ 
 tain supplies, and to save the loss of his spe¬ 
 cie, to permit him to pay with any articles of 
 his produce. This payment, however, once 
 made, the claim would strictly there end. As 
 small quantities, however, of these two articles 
 will in general pay for a much more bulky car¬ 
 go of supplies, not to discourage the trade or 
 to burthen it too much, by compelling the 
 supply cargo to pay the import, and almost the 
 whole of the export freight also; after taking 
 sugar and coffee to the value of her cargo, an 
 American vessel might be allowed in the same 
 manner as a British vessel to complete ha- 
 lading with the other enumerated and less 
 objectionable 
 
objectionable articles ofr:coloniarpfodiice,: with 
 such articles as may by: law. be exported from 
 the colonies to any foreign .port in Europe,: to 
 which there can be no. objection, and with Bri 
 tish manufactures and imports, to whose ex 
 port and use there ought to be every, possible 
 encouragement and inducement given. 
 
 . Such are .the claims of the British West In¬ 
 dia colonists, and such, the regulations proposed 
 by them, for conducting the American inter¬ 
 course. After all that has been detailed, and 
 all that has been argued; the only change ex¬ 
 pected or to be produced by them is, the esta¬ 
 blished employment of American shipping, duly 
 regulated, instead of the occasional admission 
 of vessels of any description, so frequently 
 necessary, as to be almost in itself constant. 
 
 These regulations may be always adopted 
 without any danger or any risque. The power 
 is always retained by Great Britain of putting 
 an end to them the moment they appear likely 
 to produce any ill consequences that may have 
 i been 
 
80 
 
 been foreboded respecting them, andmay be 
 exercised without' any! apparent ungraciousness 
 of intention, or unsteadiness of council, being 
 gratuitously adopted and abandoned. That 
 this power however may be thus freely exer¬ 
 cised, it must also be gratuitously exercised. 
 Jt must be done by Act of Parliament, with¬ 
 out reference to or consultation with the United 
 States; it must not be considered as a boon, 
 and must be established, without claiming an 
 equivalent. 
 
 If to the foregoing there be any other con¬ 
 sideration which should, be added, it may 
 be drawn from the leading proposition of the 
 preamble of the fifteenth of Charles II. which 
 your Lordship has quoted. ■ “ The .mainte- 
 “ nance of a greater correspondence andkind- 
 “ ness between the subjects at home and 
 “ those in the plantations,” is a motive which 
 may well be admitted to have its. effect on 
 this occasion, in which the personal accommo¬ 
 dation, comfort and security of the subjects 
 in the plantations are to be considered and.. 
 
 provided 
 
provided for, and that Government will alone 
 do well, which even in matters of the driest 
 policy, or strictest calculation, excludes not 
 even the lesser influences of human nature and, 
 of social feeling. 
 
 I have hitherto carefully abstained from all 
 consideration or suggestion of right in the fo* 
 reign country, to take any part in our discus¬ 
 sions for regulating a portion of her commerce. 
 As between the colonies and the parent state, 
 this may be proper, but as between the Em¬ 
 pire and the foreign state, the consideration of 
 whose rights and interests is not to be dis¬ 
 regarded, this may neither be just nor prudent. 
 Every country has not an unqualified right to 
 regulate for itself its commerce with other na¬ 
 tions, because other nations also have rights 
 in that commerce which must be respected. 
 There are more parties than one to the execution 
 ofthese regulations, and without reciprocity tnere 
 is no right. No country ought to regulate its 
 commerce according to rules which, if adopted 
 
82 
 
 by the 'corresponding country, would put an 
 end to all commerce. To do. as we, would be 
 done by, is a maxim between states as among 
 individuals.. The Navigation Act itself is only 
 founded in justice, as it is formed in reci¬ 
 procity. Let other nations adopt it, and the 
 siime condition,-of things remains. ' 
 
 In the. intercourse of. Great Britain with 
 foreign .nations, and in . her established 
 commercial ..regulations, all argument of in¬ 
 justice on her part is taken away by the re¬ 
 ciprocity which pervades them,, and by the. 
 respect:shewn for the rights of others in sub¬ 
 jecting to the same, mutual provisions respecting 
 carriage, ' her own and the commerce of every 
 country to which she trades. 
 
 . Every, nation may, undoubtedly, exclude 
 any other nation from access to her own ports, 
 O.r,to the ports of her colonies, and from inter¬ 
 ference, in,the intercourse existing between her 
 o.wn. and other countries.- , But any claim to, , or 
 attempt 
 
83 
 
 attempt at preference or advantage of regula¬ 
 tion in the trade existing between any two 
 nations, on the part of any. one of them, is 
 not founded in reason or-justice. To .any be¬ 
 neficial difference which may result from con¬ 
 dition, either country is fairly entitled, to none 
 from ordinance. 
 
 - Tlie Navigation Act allows the vessels of 
 each foreign European nation, indifferently 
 with those of England, to carry between Eng¬ 
 land and each particular country their re¬ 
 spective articles of production, and it excludes 
 all others. This is just towards every nation 
 engaged in the British trade. It even re¬ 
 gulates the navigation of every foreign state, 
 by requiring the employment therein of a de¬ 
 finite number of sailors belonging exclusively 
 to each, in the same riiannef that it regulates 
 the British. This too is just. But had it for¬ 
 bidden the employment of any but British 
 •vessels in foreign trade, it would have been 
 most-unreasonable and most unjust. The same 
 previsions adopted by foreign nations would 
 g 2 have 
 
have excluded all British navigation from their 
 ports. The adoption of her present regulations 
 would only leave things as they are, since they 
 are perfectly and individually'reciprocal. 
 
 Great Britain has an undoubted right alto¬ 
 gether to exclude the United States from access 
 to her colonies. If an intercourse be necessary, 
 she has a right so to regulate it, that it shall not 
 extend itself beyond its objects, or to her in¬ 
 jury. But surely it is not perfectly reasonable, 
 or unquestionably right, abandoning all principle 
 of reciprocity, which alone in these cases is jus¬ 
 tice, to claim the exclusive right of carriage, as 
 against the United States, even of their own 
 products. 
 
 The principle of intercourse between Europe 
 and the European parts of the empire may well 
 be transferred to America, and the American 
 parts of the empire, and the ordinary means 
 should be resorted to of encouragement and 
 support, if necessary or if proper, to render 
 the 
 
85 
 
 the British shipping employed in the trade 
 equal or superior to the American, not the 
 extraordinary measure of unqualified exclusion. 
 
 If, from natural condition, a superiority should ■ 
 unavoidably arise on the part of the American 
 shipping employed in the intercourse, the at- • 
 tainment of this advantage, if worthy, might 
 become a subject of distinct consideration. 
 But surely the claim of exclusive navigation 
 is neither founded in right nor in wisdom, 
 since its simple adoption for itself, by the power 
 against whom it is applied, would bar at once 
 all intercourse; and there can he no question 
 that the United States have the same undoubted 
 right of regulating their trade that Great Britain 
 has of regulating her’s. 
 
 It cannot, either with propriety or with truth, 
 be said that the trade, thus restricted as to its 
 navigation, is freely offered to the adoption or re¬ 
 jection of the United States; and that, if they are 
 not satisfied with the benefits derived in this way 
 from it, they may decline it: It cannot be said 
 g 3 with 
 
86 
 
 ■with propriety, because 'this mode of conduct 
 has not been adopted in Europe, towards Eu¬ 
 ropean nations; and although it might be con¬ 
 tended, that this is only an enforcement of a 
 colonial principle, yet, should America insist 
 to stand upon the general navigation principle 
 ; of ships of the country, applied to the Ame¬ 
 rican ports of the empire, .and. refer to the 
 actual state of colonial regulation preceding hey 
 independence, as a practice to be opposed, to 
 the colonial, principle, there would then be one 
 principle opposed to another, and justice, re¬ 
 ciprocal right, and precedent establishment, 
 would be on the side of the Navigation Princi¬ 
 ple: It cannot with truth be so said, because the 
 West Indies cannot exist without the American 
 intercourse. Great Britain cannot be made a 
 staple for the live stock and Indian corn of the 
 United States, as the 15tli Car, II. proposed 
 generally, with respect to the commodities of 
 other nations for the supply of the colonies, 
 and proposed at., that time wisely, for the 
 United; States were then .among the colonies 
 of 
 
of the empire, and the objects of that act were 
 confined to European commodities. 
 
 ' I admit, my Lord, the geueral right of Great 
 Britain to frame colonial and navigation laws, 
 due regard being had to the reciprocal rights 
 of other nations. I admit the general objects 
 of founding colonies to be what'you suggest, 
 and I have already more distinctly stated" and 
 enumerated them. I agree in opinion most 
 decidedly with your Lordship, that rather than 
 surrender the carrying trade of the islands, it 
 would be incomparably better to rehouric'ethe" 
 islands themselves. But I distinguish, niy Lord, 
 the proper general carrying trade of supply and 
 of produce between Great Britain and"the‘ West 
 Indies, from the petty auxiliary provision trade 
 between the islands and the continent of Ame¬ 
 rica • and I contend,' that to permit this, is to 
 promote that. 
 
 ' Against the proposed admission of American 
 jointly with British or British colonial vessels into 
 the West India ports, your Lordship has opposed 
 g 4 several 
 
several arguments under three heads of formal 
 objections and various points of recapitulation. 
 In as much as they relate to unrestricted inter¬ 
 course, to which the colonists make no claim, 
 they-may be considered as generally answered 
 by the observation, that no such intercourse 
 can ever exist. In as much as they may he 
 applied to the employment of American ship¬ 
 ping, even in the established limited inter¬ 
 course, they deserve to be noticed. 
 
 Your first objection to the admission of 
 American vessels is, that it will promote illicit 
 trade between America and the islands. 
 
 I speak, my Lord, from experience, when I 
 affirm that it will not. American vessels have 
 been for now nearly twenty years in the con¬ 
 stant habit of passing among all the islands 
 between all their ports, and along all their 
 coasts, and no illicit trade, to any extent, has 
 ever been practised or attempted. None could 
 have been attempted without discovery. The 
 same objection lies equally against the employ¬ 
 ment 
 
89 
 
 ment of British vessels. That American vessels 
 would be more disposed to illicit trade than the 
 British vessels now employed under the same cir¬ 
 cumstances, and amidst the same temptations, 
 is not to be supposed against general observa¬ 
 tion and experience. Against all' attempts of 
 this sort, however, the officers of the customs 
 in the colonies may confidently be considered, 
 and will always be found to be, as hitherto 
 they have been, a sufficient check and safe¬ 
 guard. 
 
 Your Lordship further objects, that carrying 
 produce from the colonies in American vessels 
 will increase the price to the British consumer. 
 So would the purchase of the same articles in 
 Great Britain. So would the carriage to Ame¬ 
 rica of the same articles in British ships from 
 the West Indies. Yet to these your Lordship 
 does not, I hope, undertake to object, and if 
 not, your grounds of objection fail alto¬ 
 gether. 
 
 pnder this head of objection, your Lordship 
 . has 
 
' lias produced accounts of American tonnage 
 •and shipping employed, during a certain pe¬ 
 riod, in the West Indies, upon which you ex¬ 
 pressly rely as exhibiting a just amount of the 
 momentous loss Great Britain would sustain in 
 her navigation by the admission of American 
 shipping into the ports of the islands. ‘ You do 
 this too, my Lord, without qualification or re¬ 
 serve, although you are well informed of the 
 deception which prevails in all accounts of this 
 sort. I cannot consider this as candid or in? 
 genuous. 
 
 From these accounts it appears, that-on an 
 average of entrances and clearances for the 
 years 1795-6-7, 1,260 American vessels, of 
 134,417 tons, were employed in the British 
 West Indies. 
 
 Every American vessel makes on an average: 
 two voyages in a year. This circumstance 
 will, therefore, diminish the number stated to 
 one half, or 630. Every American vessel, in 
 passing among the islands) touches at most, 
 

 and enters and clears from many of them, from 
 two at least, it may beadmitted during each voy*- 
 age; and this will again reduce the latter number 
 to 315. Instead, therefore, of I, £60 vessels, Only 
 315, of about 100 tons burthen each, remain as 
 the, real number employed, and this number .was 
 occasionally only augmented to this amount 
 by the existing state of-war, which at that 
 time absolutely prevented the employment of 
 British vessels. : 
 
 Your- Lordship knows all the circumstances, 
 which render the numbers thus.obtained, the do¬ 
 cuments from whiclvthey are derived, and the 
 arguments dependent upon them fallacious, and 
 ought not to have exhibited and relied upon 
 them. You have yourself, on another occasion, 
 made the following similar remarks. “ In 
 “ 1775, 1,150 vessels sailed from Philadelphia. 
 “ This proves a great number, although there' 
 “ is much deception in returns of this kind, 
 “ as the same ship may have sailed, several 
 “ times from the same port in the same year.” 
 
 These 
 
These are your own words, Sheffield on Ame¬ 
 rican Commerce, page 88.; and it must abate 
 considerably of the authority attached to your 
 station, appointments, and experience, to per¬ 
 ceive your Lordship exhibiting such arguments 
 and documents for the petty purpose of sus¬ 
 taining an impotent objection. Not contented 
 with this, however, you have afterwards again 
 seriously referred to them in recapitulating, and 
 insist that the navigation of the kingdom is 
 lessened to the amount of the tonnage, and 
 men thus employed. You know, my Lord, 
 this not to be so, 
 
 Youf Lordship’s third objection is as easily 
 disposed of as the preceding. 
 
 “ That the Americans in time of war would, 
 •“ with the advantages on their part of peace- 
 .** insurance, peace-wages, peace-freight, and 
 “ peace-contingencies of every kind, and of 
 “ shorter voyages, monopolize the supply of 
 “ the islands,” is a proposition which, as it re- 
 ■ ■ spects 
 
93 
 
 spects the proper British supply from Europe, 
 is denied; as it respects the provision supply 
 from America, may be admitted and rejoiced 
 in. That our colonies can be secured against 
 all the evils of war, except the dangers of 
 hostility, and be supported and supplied with 
 articles of the first necessity at reasonable 
 prices, when other regular connections can 
 only be occasionally and precariously main¬ 
 tained, is, as applied to the proposed measure 
 of regulation, matter of recommendation, not 
 reprobation. If at any time, in time of war 
 certainly the American intercourse in American 
 vessels is valuable, and is to be solicited. 
 
 The charge exhibited against Ministers of 
 conducting the trade of this country under 
 licenses of the Privy Council, although coupled 
 with that against governors of the colonies on 
 the same subject of licenses, might be passed 
 by. But the incorrect and uncandid manner 
 in which these charges are stated, must be 
 noticed. You make a charge unfounded in. 
 terms, because it is general;, and yet, under 
 the 
 
94 
 
 the generality of the charge, the whole ob- 
 ' jection is couched‘and implied. Thus* the oc¬ 
 casional exercise of a ; power, with great pro¬ 
 priety exercised by his Majesty in council, is 
 magnified into a general practice of conducting 
 the trade of the country under licenses. This 
 • enormity of charge, this extravagance of repre¬ 
 sentation, this distortion of descriptive features, 
 is exhibited by anamorphous reflection, intended 
 to disfigure, and by its own creations to excite 
 disgust and abhorrence. 
 
 With respect to the practice of West India 
 Governors granting licenses to all shipping, 
 particularly Americans, to enter their ports, 
 which you state to be common for the sake 
 of the emolument of persons in office, as far as 
 this .charge includes the colony of which I am 
 the'representative, I am authorized to deny 
 equally the fact and the motive. Americans 
 certainly cannot, and do not, enter without 
 licenses granted according to that discretion, 
 which I have before stated must justify itself 
 on the grounds of expediency. The applica- 
 ’• tion 
 
95 
 
 tion is attended with little expence, and with 
 no known emolument; and as to any other 
 shipping but Americans, no foreign vessel 
 enters .our ports, but in cases of extreme dis¬ 
 tress, - and their reception has been always 
 so carefully watched, and strictly guarded . 
 and they have been subjected to such incon¬ 
 veniences, and frequently to such unknown - 
 dangers from the Revenue Laws, that to 
 a Christian vessel, .1 scarcely know which 
 should be most desirable, a British West India 
 or a Barbary lee-port. No continuance is 
 permitted but under the plea of distress. No 
 relief, no repairs are supplied' but under ju¬ 
 ridical authority, after a due investigation had of 
 the necessity and an estimate made of the means 
 required, and. so much only of the cargo is 
 allowed be sold by the proper officers, as is 
 adequate to the wants of the vessel. This I 
 believe also to be the practice of,, the other 
 colonies. 
 
 To the several heads of general recapitulatory 
 objections stated by your Lordship, not al¬ 
 ready 
 
 ■ * 
 
ready noticed, I answer in the following 'Ob¬ 
 servations. . 
 
 I allow, that to admit into this country 
 the produce of all countries in any foreigfl 
 vessels, or the supply, generally, of our co¬ 
 lonies by foreign shipping, departs from the 
 principles under which our navigation has 
 prospered. It cannot, however, be denied, 
 that it may be right, that occasions may arise, 
 which would render it necessary and proper 
 to admit foreign vessels in the most unli¬ 
 mited manner, into the united kingdom. This 
 must, however, always depend upon circum¬ 
 stances, and will be defended, as the Dutch 
 Property Acts are, upon the exigency that 
 produced them, upon the limited nature of 
 the arrangements adopted, and upon as 
 speedy a restoration as possible, of the ac¬ 
 customed order of things. 
 
 To the Dutch Property Acts, therefore, the 
 first part of your observation, as being'laid 
 
97 
 
 down too generally,' does not apply, al¬ 
 though so intended, and' to the other part, 
 that to supply our colonies by foreign shipping 
 departs from the principles under which our 
 navigation has prospered, as applied to the 
 American intercourse, I answer; . that this 
 intercourse is conformable to, and consistent 
 with the established practices under which 
 "our navigation lias so long and so happily 
 prospered, and will continue to prosper. 
 
 Here again your Lordship has intentionally 
 confounded the right of great and general co¬ 
 lonial supply from Britain, with that of pro-. 
 visions from America, which is always to be 
 distinguished from it . Our navigation pros¬ 
 pered most when scarcely an article of this 
 latter sort was supplied to the colonies, except 
 ■from the American provinces, and in ships 
 built there. This practice, and the experience 
 of its necessity and utility, recommend most 
 strongly its continuance, without respect to 
 any nominal change of principle where things 
 ■ remain the same. 
 
 Of 
 
I do not admit that any deviation from 
 the general principles of our navigation and 
 colonial systems is of course wrong, and will 
 be attended with the consequences you pre¬ 
 sume. I have maintained, that under par¬ 
 ticular circumstances, a deviation may be 
 necessary, may be safe, and beneficial. Of 
 these systems, sometimes the principles, and 
 sometimes the rules, by your Lordship fre¬ 
 quently considered as' and confounded with, 
 the principles, are to be controuled, the prin¬ 
 ciples by others paramount to them, and 
 the' rules by • the principles themselves. 
 
 Your Lordship’s fourth head of recapitu¬ 
 lation appears to me most unaccountably to 
 operate in direct opposition to What you in¬ 
 tend by it. The freights in British, and 
 in. American vessels, you Hate to be the 
 same, and that the freight is the principal 
 object with the American. From these cir¬ 
 cumstances you contend, that the supply m 
 American vessels is not cheaper than in British. 
 
 From 
 
99 
 
 From these propositions it appears to me, 
 my Lord, that a contrary conclusion is war¬ 
 ranted by the premises. If the American 
 makes his freight, which is his principal ob¬ 
 ject, lie can afford - to sell his cargo at the 
 prime-cost. The British'vessel do the 
 same, but if freight be not the principal ob¬ 
 ject, and if any further benefit is expected, 
 the price must be accordingly increased, and 
 the supply will therefore become dearer in 
 the British veSSeh 
 
 That the American supply is less steady, 
 and less to be depended on, is disproved by all 
 Colonial experience; and the occasionally extra¬ 
 vagant prices of necessaries in the markets of 
 the islands, have always been Occasioned by the 
 exclusion,- qt uncertain admission ©f American 
 vessels. , ' 
 
 I entirely aceofd with your Lordship in the 
 observation that an improvident limitation and 
 assortmeui^of the American‘‘return cargoes 
 bS ha§ 
 
has been attended with the unhappy conse¬ 
 quences of draining the colonies of their money, 
 of driving the Americans .into foreign West 
 India, markets, and' of depressing government 
 and other bills five, ten, and fifteen .per cent, 
 and I. hope that this stricture at . least will 
 have its effect. 
 
 Over the remaining heads of recapitulation, 
 as already disposed of, I hasten that . I may 
 supply your Lordship with matter for further 
 consideration, and with other subjects of stric¬ 
 ture.. I wonder that the free ports of the West 
 Indies have escaped your Lordship’s animad¬ 
 version. • These are ports, established for the 
 purpose of carrying, on a trade ,in which 
 none but foreign-vessels are or, can he '.em¬ 
 ployed. .1 introduce this subject, not merely 
 for the information of your Lordship, but for 
 the purpose of drawing the attention of Go¬ 
 vernment thereto. .Here is indeed a formida¬ 
 ble invasion of the- navigation and colonial 
 systems of the empire.,' Yet I introduce this 
 
subject for‘the express purpose of recommend¬ 
 ing to Government, to extend these principles 
 and practices now applied, and ; obtaining in; 
 only particular cases and situations, to the 
 general and permanent establishment of a trade, 
 not limited to ports and places, but to be opened 
 to all the British West India islands and co¬ 
 lonies. It is possible to open a South American’ 
 trade,. as well as that of North America, which, 
 without any . respect to the. nature of : the 
 shipping employed, shall, by a due enume¬ 
 ration and restriction of the permitted articles 
 of exchange or carriage, with perfect safety 
 and propriety, increase indefinitely the British 
 import, export, and carrying trades of the 
 West India islands. 
 
 These islands arc so disposed along the 
 coasts, or stretched across between the princi¬ 
 pal points, of . South and North America, that ac¬ 
 cess to theniifrom both the continents may at all 
 times be had by the simplest and cheapest species 
 of navigation. The approach of British vessels 
 
t<S the continent of South America is partially 
 or totally forbidden by the great European 
 powers who possess it. Under these circum¬ 
 stances, ' British vessels cannot be used in the 
 intercourse with it. Great Britain, therefore, 
 of necessity indeed, but with her accustomed 
 wisdom, has opened certain ports in the co¬ 
 lonies to vessels of these foreign countries, 
 in order that they may- bring in the enume¬ 
 rated articles she defires to obtain, and that 
 they may carry the enumerated articles she 
 wishes , to. dispose of, or such as are necessary 
 to support; the trade. The first enumeration 
 contains articles of territorial produce of that 
 part of the continent, and bullion among the 
 rest; the other consists of goods of British 
 manufacture, or import, or articles of 
 territorial produce of the islands. Great 
 Britain does not upon this occasion con¬ 
 sider her navigation and colonial systems, 
 as not at any time, upon any occasion, op 
 under any circumstances -to be invaded. She 
 looks to the objects and. purposes of those sys¬ 
 tems, 
 
105 
 
 terns. She wants raw materials’; she wants mar¬ 
 kets for her various articles of manufacture, 
 commerce, and produce; she wants encou¬ 
 ragement and extensive employment for 
 her shipping. By neglecting all : considera¬ 
 tion of the use, as militating against her navi¬ 
 gation and colonial systems, of these petty ves¬ 
 sels, which serve to associate her islands with 
 the Continent, she obtains all the objects of those 
 systems, materials, markets, and increased car¬ 
 riage. The ports of her Islands become ports of 
 the continent, and these vessels are only as the 
 port vessels and lading droghers of other coun¬ 
 tries. British ships carry to, and bring away 
 from the islands the commodities laden in, 
 and unladen from these vessels, and neither 
 their employment or their number is to be 
 contemplated or calculated upon by Great 
 Britain, but as proofs of the extension of her 
 own commerce and proper na’/igation. 
 
 Instead, therefore, of a port in Grenada, a 
 port in Dominica, two in Jamaica, one in Tor- 
 h 4 tola, 
 
tola, one in the Bahamas, it might upon these 
 principles well be recommended to Great Bri¬ 
 tain, to extend the provisions of the Free Port 
 A6ts to all the Islands, or to. the Custom-house 
 ports.'-of all: the Islands. It might further be 
 ■ proposed, by enlarging and combining all the 
 principles' and practices which alike prevail in 
 the West India intercourse wilh .the. Northern: 
 and Southern portions of America, to form one 
 general, simple, and consolidated system, that 
 should connect them all,, which should embrace 
 and comprehend the at present enumerated ar¬ 
 ticles of import and export between the whole 
 Continent and the Islands, and permit, be¬ 
 tween them the employment, jointly with Bri¬ 
 tish ships, of one decked vessels, of all the 
 countries growing the commodities imported 
 into the Islands, . I submit this proposal to the ■ 
 severity of your Lordship’s strictures, I sug¬ 
 gest it for the consideration of Ministers. 
 
 In this view : of the subject, what is there to 
 be objected against North American vessels of 
 this description, that will not apply ;to the Spa¬ 
 nish 
 
105 
 
 nish launches of South America, and what is 
 there to recommend the droghers of the Oro- 
 noko, and of the river of the Amazons, that 
 will not also favour the sloops and schooners of 
 the Delaware and the Chesapeak?- They are all 
 but as the country boats of all the other na¬ 
 tions of the world,' employed wherever our 
 commence extends, to bring to and deposit;Jn 
 ports of access, commodities for use or for 
 transport. They are auxiliary and subservi¬ 
 ent to the great traders of the deep, who may 
 pass by them with their woven wings without 
 jealousy or envy. 
 
 I again most seriously and earnestly recom¬ 
 mend to his Majesty’s Ministers,- to establish, 
 a general American. intercourse with all the 
 British West India colonies upon these general 
 principles, and I do not hesitate to say, that 
 if Great Britain still. continues to refuse the 
 employment of these petty vessels, for these 
 purposes, and in the manner proposed, that 
 she sacrifices, and continues to sacrifice her 
 navigation to her navigation and colonial sys¬ 
 tems, 
 
 One 
 
106 
 
 One argument which may be adduced in 
 support of your Lordship’s strictures; re¬ 
 mains to be observed upon, one claim of right 
 to be resisted. You profess to have frequently, 
 and with much attention, considered these sub¬ 
 jects, to have supported the opinions you ad¬ 
 vance, by writings, and by various efforts dur¬ 
 ing twenty years, and to be confirmed in them 
 by long experience, and twenty years accumu¬ 
 lation of proofs. Your claim to authority and 
 decisional right in these matters, notwithstand¬ 
 ing this specification of title is disputed and de¬ 
 nied. 
 
 You bring, my Lord, .too many prejudices 
 into this question, prejudices of ancient growth, 
 and of inveterate establishment, to be allowed 
 to give any opinion upon it. From proximity 
 of situation, and from necessary connection, 
 the West Indies, and the United States, be¬ 
 come naturally associated in your Lordship’s 
 mind, and the colonies are involved in all the 
 clouds and colours through which you contem¬ 
 plate that independant republic. The eye trans^ 
 
 ' - . fers 
 
107 
 
 fers to the one the hues of the other; the imagi¬ 
 nation, its conceptions and passions 
 
 You have, my Lord, to maintain a question, 
 which it has been the great business of your 
 life to establish. It has been the anxious bu¬ 
 siness of a great part of your life to accumu¬ 
 late and to bend all facts and all arguments 
 for and towards a particular purpose. The 
 cause which you have thus advocated, yon 
 must not decide.. 
 
 Prejudices respecting the naval institutions 
 of our country, which under other circilm- 
 stances might be amiable, this condition of'your 
 mind has perpetuated, and has kept you back 
 from progressive' improvement, bound down to 
 the original conceptions of limited intelli¬ 
 gence and immature information. Who does 
 not respect the navigation and colonial sys- - 
 terns of Great Britain ? Who can deny that 
 like every other work of mail, they may be 
 capable of amelioration, of modification, of 
 accommodation 
 
108 
 
 accommodation to times and circumstances, 
 to their own principles and objects ? 
 
 You cease, my Lord, to be arbiter when 
 you commence accuser. You charge the West 
 India colonists with claiming unrestricted in¬ 
 tercourse with America, who at this moment 
 claim no intercourse at all. Want of infor¬ 
 mation is no excuse in this ease. Without in¬ 
 formation such a charge ought not to have 
 existed. 
 
 Authority is certainly due to long experi¬ 
 ence, and the right. of judgment exercised at 
 an interval of twenty : years, deserves to be 
 respected. But lapse of time does not of it¬ 
 self constitute experience, nor do the flying 
 years necessarily impart information. It must 
 be shewn, that use has been made of the op¬ 
 portunities of acquiring knowledge, which 
 passing days and hours afford. You charge 
 the West India colonists with obtaining by 
 clamour and joint intrigue with the Americans, 
 the mischievous concession of a free trade. 
 
 Ihc 
 
109 
 
 The claims aud wishes of the West India 
 body respecting the American intercourse, yon 
 might be excused for not knowing, although 
 not for charging them with what you did not 
 or could not know.'. But there is no excuse 
 for charging them with obtaining, by virtue 
 of a written article of an existing Treaty, a 
 trade which never was granted them. Your 
 Lordship should have perused the article. You 
 would have found, instead of a free trade with 
 the West ludies open to all American ships to 
 come and to go as they pleased, to import 
 and carry away what they pleased, to and 
 from whatever parts of the world they pleased, 
 (and such alone is a free trade;) that the trade 
 was limited to vessels of a limited description, 
 to articles of limited specification, to endu¬ 
 rance of a limited time, upon the express li¬ 
 mitation and condition that no West India 
 produce of any kind should be exported from 
 the United States to any part of the world, 
 reasonable sea stores only excepted. No trade 
 could be morelimited than this, and yet under the 
 name of free trade, it is made the ground of an 
 offensive 
 
no 
 
 offensive and injurious charge. All opinion Of 
 correctness of information or of judgment in your 
 Lordship is removed by this single circumstance. 
 
 Your Lordship more than once lias for¬ 
 mally adduced, and positively relied on, to 
 prove certain points to the full extent to which 
 they purport, certain documents or returns of 
 American shipping, which you know to be fal¬ 
 lacious, to Quadruple the amount at least of tlier 
 numbers they exhibit, Without noticing on 
 . this, as you have done on a former occasion, 
 the little dependence to be had in them. This 
 single circumstance will remove all future 
 expectation of fair statement or candid rfi- 
 presentation on the part of your Lordship. 
 
 .These observations my Lord, are not gratui¬ 
 tously made. They are necessary for the sake of 
 others. Persons conversant in these matters, caff 
 indeed with ease in running over your statements, 
 perceive their Weakness or their fallacy. But there 
 are others, who in seeking for information, re¬ 
 quire to h.e guided by authority, and enligbt- 
 .' - 3 ened 
 
Ill 
 
 er;ed by experience. To these it is important 
 to know what as such deserves to be respected 
 and relied on, and the power is now given to all, 
 of duly appreciating your Lordship’s strictures 
 and opinions. 
 
 In the enunciation of West India claims, 
 they were broadly extended to all necessary, 
 articles, and all necessary means of obtaining 
 those articles. . In the present-discussion, they 
 have been narrowed in their immediate objects 
 to the enumerated articles of the American 
 intercourse act. It is not, however, thence to 
 be concluded, that they are of course, and of 
 necessity confined to these. The extent of 
 rights;is not abridged, although the claim is 
 suspended. 
 
 This cautionary observation has been ren¬ 
 dered necessary by a question raised on the 
 part pf the colonists of Nova Scotia, respect¬ 
 ing, their right exclusively to supply the West 
 India markets with fish. This right is admit¬ 
 ted, If supplies of this article of the first ne¬ 
 cessity 
 
112 .. 
 
 cessity'can be furnished adequately, in suffix 
 cient'quantities, and at reasonable prices; front 
 any part of the British Empire, the right of 
 exclusive supply must be maintained. But if 
 by war, the power of supply is liable to be in¬ 
 terrupted, if from other circumstances, the sup¬ 
 ply may‘be precarious or inadequate, provision 
 should be made against these contingencies. To 
 guard against the injurious consequences of 
 hostilities, of short supplies, or of mercantile 
 combinations, a regulating price, to exclude 
 or admitforeign importations should be adopted, 
 •and the exclusive right of supply subjected to 
 this established principle of adjustment. 
 
 The articles of salted pork and salted beef, 
 might be subjected to similar regulations, in the 
 West India markets. They frequently rise to 
 enormous prices in the Islands. It is a well 
 known fact,-that during thelast war Government 
 was under the necessity of purchasing foreign, 
 articles of this, sort. for the public service, 
 and under • similar circumstances, similar in¬ 
 dulgences may be granted to the colonies.— 
 2 Exclusive 
 
113 
 
 Exclusive indeed of those great articles of the 
 first necessity, which cannot be obtained from 
 Great Britain, and which are always allowed to 
 be received from America, there are many 
 smaller articles of convenient supply which 
 Great Britain can, upon some occasions, fur¬ 
 nish to the colonies' in sufficient quantities, 
 and under other circumstances cannot. It 
 would be perhaps adviseable to subject the 
 whole class of articles of this sort which might 
 be distinctly enumerated to similar provi¬ 
 sions and regulations.. During the continu¬ 
 ance of war, the operation of these regulations 
 would principally, and perhaps at no other 
 time be demanded; But by being established 
 generally in time of peace, they might under 
 contingencies, against which, peace cannot al? 
 ways- secure, be .occasionally resorted to, and 
 would not be exposed to interruption from the 
 enemy in time of war. By this mode of ajar: 
 commodation and adjustment, the navigation 
 and colonial systems of Great Britain are main¬ 
 tained, are: inviolably maintained, amidst the 
 contests.ofjopppsingprinciples; J 
 
 Before 
 
m 
 
 Before I conclude, it may not be improper 
 to give a general" view of the great outlines 
 of the question respecting the West India in¬ 
 tercourse with America, in the following pro¬ 
 positions : 
 
 Great Britain, upon general colonial prin¬ 
 ciples, claims the exclusive right of import 
 into the colonies. The colonies admit this 
 right, excepting only from. it articles of the 
 first necessity, with which Great Britain cannot 
 supply them. Great Britain admits the excep¬ 
 tion, and has enumerated the articles which the 
 colonies may obtain from America. 
 
 Great Britain claims the exclusive right of co¬ 
 lonial export. The colonies admit the right, ex- 
 ceptingfromit only, such quantities of produce as 
 are necessary to pay for the articles obtained from 
 America. Great Britain admits this exception, 
 and has enumerated the species of produce 
 which, may be exported to America. 
 
 Great Britain claims the exclusive right 6fcar¬ 
 rying in British sbijps all colonial imports and ex- 
 ••' S ports, 
 
ports.- The colonies admit this right, excepting 
 only from : it the before excepted articles of. 
 import and export.—Upon this exception alone 
 there arises any question, and that question 
 respects the admission of American vessels 
 jointly with British,' to carry , the excepted 
 and enumerated articles of colonial import and, 
 export between the Islands and Continent. 
 
 Great Britain objects, that this admission is 
 against the colonial principle of exclusion; 
 that it will injure her marine ; and that it 
 will interfere with and diminish her direct co¬ 
 lonial and carrying trades. 
 
 To the first objection, the colonies reply, 
 That they cannot adequately be supplied with 
 the necessaries they require by means of Bri¬ 
 tish shipping alone; that the admission of 
 American vessels into the provision trade being 
 among the necessary means of obtain ing supplies, 
 is as necessary as the supplies themselves; that 
 the supplies have been admitted in exception 
 to the. colonial principle of exclusion, and that 
 1 2 the 
 
the admission of the vessels is within the principle 
 of. those exceptions; that the employment of 
 American vessels is approved by precedent 
 use, and .established practice, from the very 
 existence of the colonies; and that it is con¬ 
 formable to the navigation principle, and the 
 just rights of foreign nations, by which ships 
 of the country are allowed to participate in 
 the carriage of their own products. 
 
 In reply to the second objection, thfe colo¬ 
 nies stat6, That by the admission of American 
 vessels, the colonial^ carrying trade between, 
 the Islands and the continent of America, will 
 not sustain any very considerable diminution 
 or reduction from what it is, ahd has been, 
 and that the great British carrying trade be¬ 
 tween the colonies and Great Britain, will be 
 'generally encreased to an extent which will 
 more than compensate for any possible dimi¬ 
 nution in i that other branch; the provision 
 carrying trade; that the British marine 
 can receive no considerable augmentation 
 of means, or accession of strength from the 
 colonial 
 
U7 
 
 Colonial shipping employed in the provision 
 trade, the navigation not being of the highest 
 class, nor the niarinerS best adapted to general 
 Service, or readily to be withdrawn for the public 
 service, frbmthe conuherce in which they ate 
 engaged; and that the colonies ought not to 
 be sacrificed to their own carriers. 
 
 The colonies meet the third objection by 
 observing, that the direct carrying trade be* 
 tween Britain and the colonies, dependant upon 
 colonial prosperity, will be increased by what¬ 
 ever tends to colonial increase,—by proposing 
 the adoption of regulations which shall confine 
 effectually the American provision trade to its 
 limits, both of district and of dealing, shall 
 make the import of supply the measure of ex¬ 
 port, cargo for Cargo, Or value for value, and 
 shall keep the shipping employed therein from 
 deviating beyond the channel of the intercourse, 
 —and by professing an anxious readiness to sub¬ 
 mit the intercourse to any further or other re¬ 
 lictions that may he consistent with its ex¬ 
 istence and continuance.. To these arguments 
 of 
 
of general expediency, propriety, utility^ and- 
 safety, applied to the ordinary state of the colonies, 
 they add other considerations derived from the 
 extraordinary, hut frequently recurring cases of 
 scarcity, calamity, and hostility, and they con: 
 tend that all principles concur to sanction and to 
 recommend to Great Britain, the adoption of a 
 measure which whilst it secures to a considerable 
 portion of her subjects, benefits political, ceco- 
 nomical, and domestic, benefits to which, from 
 condition and situation they have a natural 
 right and claim, as being produced near them, 
 created for them, and held out to them by the 
 hand of nature, and of nature’s God, promises 
 at the same time to herself an augmentation of 
 those great proper colonial and carrying trades, 
 which alone she has always possessed, and which 
 alone every parent state is entitled to, 
 
 The rights of the British West India colo* 
 nists have been thus clearly stated and fully 
 established. Of the justice of their claims nq 
 doubt can exist, nor of the moderation of the 
 claimants, who simply.require, on the grounds 
 
 ■ of 
 
119 
 
 of irremediable necessity, that American vessels, 
 under appropriate regulations and restrictions, 
 may be permitted jointly with their own to carry 
 on the intercourse now existing and established 
 by law between the Islands and the United 
 States. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 G. Woodfall, Printer, Paternofter-Row,