however, not to the nature of the trade, but to the injuries which it has received from our impolitic measures. The application of his principles occupying the latter half of his tract, is by much the beft part of it, and gives a very good abftract of the relative value of the colonial commerce. In the pamphlet upon the causes of the prefent diflreffes, he adopts the prevailing opinions, and recominends the remedies which all the Weft India body concur in defiring. Some of his general fpeculations, indeed, now and then intrule, rather for the purpose of supporting ordinary fentiments in a peculiar way, than in order to elucidate the subject by new doctrines. A diftinction, for example, is taken between trade and commerce; the former being the firft exchange of produce for money, and not a fit object of taxation, because the grower has no command of the fupply, the latter, the purchase and refelling with a view to profit, and a perfectly fit object of taxation, becaufe the merchant can command the fupply, and lay the duty upon the confumer. It is quite manifelt that this is merely an imperfect and most crude attempt to generalize the existing case of the Wefl India planter, who maintains that, as things are now fituated, he cannot change the employment of his capital, and fo contract the fupply of produce, as to make the purchaser pay tax upon it. With the exception of thefe attempts, which occur chiefly at the beginning of Mr Bofanquet's Letter,' we have found it a very clear and fatisfactory performance, exhibiting by far, the best statement which has yet been given of the doctrines aintained by the colonial body. He would render an acceptable fervice to the public, by moulding his two tracts into one, omitting the greater part of the general reasoning, and incorporating with his details the valuable statements contained in his very ample and distinct evidence before the West India Committee. the Mr Lowe's tract is one of confiderable merit, as a useful compendium of the statements which others had previously advanced; but as it appeared after feveral pamphlets had been already published, and profeffed to fettle the whole fubject, we might have pardoned a little more originality, and a fomewhat lefs fcrupulous adherence to the pofitions and reasonings of his predeceffors. To analyze the greater part of his work, would be merely to repeat what we have juft now been defcribing as the contents of Sir W. Young and Mr Bofanquet's publications. He follows them minutely, in explaining the importance of the colonies, and their prefent fituation. The remedies which he propofes are nearly the fame with theirs, and difcuffed on fimilar grounds; only that he enlarges, with a moft commendable and enlightened fpirit, upon a fubject of paramount importance, very flightly mentioned by any other writer, and, by most reafoners on this question, wholly wholly omitted, -the neceffity of peace for the relief of the Weft India interest, and of our commerce in general. It would give us very great fatisfaction to have room for abridging or extracting parts of the excellent chapter in which he argues this question. His views are marked by a liberality and freedom from the narrow prejudices of mercantile circles, which give him an infinite advantage over the authors whom he follows on Weft Indian affairs. We would gladly hail this appearance of a right fpirit in the city (a kind of ftar rifing in the eaft) as an omen of more enlightened views than have lately opened upon us from that quarter; and we truft that Mr Lowe, at any rate, will not be wanting in lending his further aid to fo mighty an amendment. The ftyle of his tract, hastily as it feems to have been put together, is plain and unambitious. Its modefty, too, is praifeworthy ;-but there is fomething which deferves not this name in his practice of leaving important fubjects untouched, on the ground, that it belongs to Government alone to determine fuch points,' or, that fuch a fubject would be painful to the reader,' or that fuch a fubject would be unwelcome to the public,'-(See p. 84, 38-44, 60, &c.); for reasons of this fort would put a stop to molt political writings, and affuredly to the whole of the tracts produced by the prefent ftate of the fugar colonies. Upon the whole, however, Mr Lowe's work, independent of its particular merits, forms a very proper addition to the West India Common-Place Book, and the Reports of the two Committees; and we truft it is not the laft production upon fuch fubjects which we fhall owe to the fame pen. The general statement of the planters and West India mer chants, has always been this,-That the profits of fugar planting never were fo great as perfons unacquainted with the colonies fuppofed; that the large incomes fpent by feveral West Indians in the mother country, not only prevented men from reflecting on the multitudes who were either ruined by fpeculation, or fubfifted with difficulty on their eftates, but were afcribed to fuccefeful adventure, whereas, they grew flowly out of a long course of induftry and expenfe, abfolutely neceffary to improve colonial property; that the capital vested in the islands, was in this manner always overlooked, as well as the peculiar rifks of the bafinefs, and a return, really very moderate, was magnified into exorbitant profit. In fupport of fuch affertions, eftimates have been repeatedly produced, of the expenfes of improving and managing a fugar plantation; and the comparison of these with the ordinary produce has led to the inference, that in the most favourable circumftances, feven per cent, profit cannot be expected on capital fo invefted. Б 4 This This was Bryan Edwards's calculation in 1787; and the enemies of the West India body have not fcrupled to affert, in their attempts to decry the colonial fyftem, that although fome great fortunes may be made by planting, it is, upon the whole, a lofing concern to the nation,-a lottery in which the price of the tickets far exceeds the value of the prizes. We may remark, however, that there is a confiderable portion of error both in these estimates and in this general obfervation, The planters, in calculating the expenfes of each year, both ftate every item at the higheft, and include feveral outgoings which belong not to annual charges, but to the increafe of the ftock, or the fupply of its original deficiencies. Then they fwell the account of the capital invested, by inferting, not only the original expenses and the subsequent improvements, but a variety of charges which, properly speaking, belong to the head of tear and wear. They thus make the capital invested appear greater, and the net profits lefs, than they really are. Nor do they ftate a circumftance of confiderable importance in the difcuffion, that, of the eftates now exifting in the fugar colonies, a very fmall proportion indeed have been purchased, like English farms or merchandize, by the payment of the value at a fhort credit. Almost the whole of the plantations now defcribed as worth so much, and fometimes, as having coft fo much, were obtained for a trifling fum paid down, and a further payment, at very long credits, as the produce of lucky years enabled the speculator to fulfil his bargain. It must not therefore be fuppofed, that when the planters value their eftates, they mean to affert how much capital has actually been transferred, by them to the West Indies from other branches of employment. They rarely make this affertion in diftinct terms, if clofely examined; and, when they do, we generally find that their money has been well laid out. Thus Mr Shirley ftates to the Weft India Committee, that he had laid out 170,000l. Sterling on his eftate in Jamaica, including purchase money and improvements; and he admits that he has netted a bove 9 per cent. upon that fum, on an average of the last nine years. Mr Ricketts values his plantation at 50,000l., because a gentleman was in treaty with him at that fum, and he thinks would have purchafed, but for an accident; but he admits that, even at the low prices of last year, he may expect above 4 per cent. on that affumed capital, as foon as the prefent stock produces the quantity of fugar which he lays his account with foon having from it. As for the pofition, that the colonies are, on the whole, Hiftory of West Indies, Book 5. c. 3. + Report, p. 66. a + Ibid. p. 46. Thefe deductions are computed from the ftatements of the witneffes. a lofing concern-it refts merely on vague affumptions; and on the argument of people being found to buy lottery tickets, which is demonftrably a lofing fpeculation. This argument, however, is quite inapplicable to the cafe of fo many perfons risking, not a Imall portion of their money, which they may do from mere love of gambling, but the whole, or nearly the whole of their capital, which they never will employ in a lottery of the kind alluded to. But whatever deductions we may make from the unfavourable calculations of their gains exhibited by the planters twenty years ago, it is certain that changes have since taken place, which more than realize the desponding views then entertained. Estimates are now made upon the same inaccurate principles as formerly, of the capital and charges; but, making every allowance for exaggeration, the gross profits on the sale of the produce appear to be so very small, that the clear returns upon estates, must be almost dwindled to nothing, and, in many cases, even fall short of the whole expenses attending their management. From various particular plantation accounts, say the West Indians, it clearly appears, that sugar cannot be raised under an expense of 20s. 10d. Sterling by the cwt. in Jamaica, and 19s. 6d. in the other islands, over and above the whole profits arising from the sale of the rum. The expense, therefore, incurred in the colonies, from yearly necessary supplies to the estates, and island charges, amounts, at a general average, to above one pound Sterling on each cwt. shipped for Europe. Then the costs of freight, insurance and commission, add to this sum nearly 16s. more upon the same quantity, before it can be exposed to sale in the English market. But the mean price of sugar, exclusive of duty, for the first six months of the present year, has not exceeded 33s. 6d. per cwt. Nor is this low price peculiar to the present season,-it has been coming on rapidly for several years. The average for five years ending 1800, was 65s. 4d.; for the next five years, it was 46s. 7d.; and for the year 1806, it was only 43s. 9d.; during which period it had fallen very regularly. After gaining, therefore, scarcely any thing for several years upon their estates, the planters now complain that there is an absolute loss on the cultivation of them, instead of a profit of 10 per cent. on their capital, which is said to be the smallest fair return; that those whose estates are in debt, have both the loss on their management, and the whole interest of their loans to pay, either from other funds, or by running deeper in debt; and that, as the above estimates are all averages, the dreadful effects * See Diftillery and Weft India Reports; particularly pp. 3-4 23. & feqq.; 84. & 85. of the latter. " effects of the depreciation fall very unequally, depriving some estates, which are favourably circumstanced, of their former returns, but plunging others, which raise bad sugars, or are cultivated at an extraordinary expense, in irretrievable ruin. It is unnecessary to remark, that, whatever exaggeration may be suspected in these calculations, formed as they are upon the inaccurate principles already described, and delivered by one party to a tribunal almost entirely composed of their brethren in distress; yet enough is proved, by the admitted fall of the sugar market, to substantiate a case of extraordinary calamity; for the produce having fallen to about one half its former price, and the expense of raising it having no doubt increased, certainly in nowise diminished, the planters must either have received profits the most incredible before, or they must now be reduced to great distress. The cause of their calamities is therefore to be discovered; and here their statements are by no means so satisfactory. They do not fail to describe the rise in the price of all supplies required by their estates from the European and American markets, and the augmentation also of the island expenses. Freight in like manner has increased, and insurance is upon the war establishment. Meanwhile, the colonies of the enemy being supplied by neutral carriers, raise their sugars at less expense, and, transmitting their produce by the same means, bring it at a smaller charge to the market. It is calculated, for example, that they freight and insure their sugars in American bottoms, to the north of Europe, for about 9s. per cwt., and to the Mediterranean for 12s. 6d. less than we can carry ours to the same markets. Such an advantage, say the West Indians, gives the foreign colonies the entire command of the European market; and while our conquests in the West Indies have brought into our own markets a vast addition to the overplus beyond our home consumption, the exportation, always necessary, and now more essential than ever, is thus nearly stopped by the foreign planters, through the neutral traders. A glut is thus occasioned in the British market; 280,000 hogsheads being annually imported, and only 140,000 consumed; while, of the overplus, not 70,000 could last year be sent abroad; and it happened that the importation was 13,000 above the average. Notwithstanding all this, the planters add, government, without relaxing the monopoly, has been constantly increasing the duties, and attempted to raise them greatly the very year that above 80,000 hogsheads were lying a drug in the warehouses. Such, in fubftance, is the statement of all the Weft India body, and all their advocates, both in books, pamphlets and reports. But it leaves the difficulties of the cafe almoft exactly where it found them. The neutral carriage is not of yesterday. During the |