is paid for the purchase of the brandies of France, Spain, and Italy, or the gin of Hol land, gives employment and encouragement to the shipping of foreign nations, and contributes in one way or other to the support of those armies, by which Buonaparte has made himself master of the better part of Europe; and by which, as his ultimate object, to crown his work of conquest and of ruin, he hopes to effect the overthrow of this our empire: of which object he never does, and never will lose sight - -3. A permanent addition should be made to the duties on all foreign spirits. (By this denomination, I of course mean spirits the growth of foreign nations, and the property of foreigners, as contradistinguished from home made spirits, our own rums, the produce of our own countries, the property of our own subjects). The old protecting duties, so called, because they were designed to protect our rums from the too advantageous com etition of foreign spirits, were altered by Pr. Pitt's commercial treaty with France in 1786, under which French brandies, which had previously been subject to a duty of something more than 9s. 6 a gallon, were admitted into this country upon paying a duty of 7s. a gallon. All the duties on spirits have since been altered; and experience has incontrovertibly proved, that the present rates are not sufficiently favourable to rum, to compensate for the various disadvantages incident to that article, which, being brought from so much greater a distance, pays a much higher freight and insurance, suffers much more by leakage in the voyage, and evaporation from the climate, and which, moreover, requires for its pruduction a much greater capital, and causes a much greater loss of interest on that capital, than the foreign brandies or gin of Europe. What I have here stated is most strictly true in time of peace. In time of war, the disadvantages of rum are much aggravated. It is made at much greater expence, and it is subjected to much more than double the peace cost of freight and insurance; none of which extraordinary expenses affect brandy or gin, which are brought to us not in our own ships, but in those of neutral powers. And, accordingly, it has repeatedly happened during the present war, that the selling price here of a puncheon of rum, made in our West Indies at a great expence, has actually been less than the cost of the cask, shipment, freight, insurance, duty, and charges of landing, warehouseing, and sale: so that it would have been well for the planter, if after incurring the expense of distillation, and all previous charges, he had lost his rum

by fire, or had himself caused it to be thrown into the drain of his still-house. Let us suppose a parallel case to occur to the landed produce ot. England; let us suppose that by the unlimited introduction of foreign corn raised in a country where taxes were very light, rent low, labour cheap, and where no tithes or poor's rate existed, the price of grain were to become so small in this kingdom as not to defray the mere cost of conveyance from the place of its growth (Bayfordbury for instance) to market; and the market toll imposed upon the sale of it. I shall be thankful to Mr. Baker to inform me, how in such a state of things farmers would pay their rents, landlords the interest upon their mortgages, or either of them their taxes to government.-4. As the preferable use of our own rums instead of foreign spirits, should in the case of individuals be promoted by protecting duties, (that is by subjecting foreign spirits to such higher duties than those, paid by our own rums, as would somewhat more than countervail the greater cost of distilling the latter, and bringing them to market) so in the dealings of government (I have in my thought more particularly the Victualling Office purchases for supply of the navy) the use of rums should receive equal encouragement. Now, as all spirits supplied to the Victualling Of fice are exempted from duty, the natural mode of affording this encouragement seems to be, that the office should never purchase foreign spirits, unless the price of our own rums exceeded the price of such foreign spi, rits by a difference greater than the excess of the protecting duties. This is precisely what economical victualling officers would do (supposing the articles of equal goodness, and about this, I presume, there does not exist any question) if they dealt for the arti cles, as other people deal for them, subject to their respective duties: and, surely, the mere circumstance that government, to avoid the needless operations of receiving customs and excise with one hand, and paying the amount of them with the other, receives these articles duty free, can make no difference in the reason and justice of the

cases.

It will be said, that under the proposed practice government would pay to the planter for rums, a greater price than that for which brandies might be had. This is most undoubtedly true; and the same thing would be as undoubtedly true, it an individual should buy a gallon of rum, and a gallon of brandy (subject to the different duties) for the same price. It is the natural conquence of our colonial system and navigation laws. The English subject who happens to

have possessions in our West Indian islands, is compelled to bring the produce of those possessions to the English market, and in English ships. This condition was made for the benefit of the public revenue, of factors, and others residing in England; and above all, for the benefit of the national navy: and most highly has it benefited all these. In return for this so beneficial condition, prohibitions as to some foreign articles, and protecting duties as to others, were estab..ed, in order to ensure to the En glishman having West Indian possessions, a sale or his produce in the English market, to which he was compelled to bring that produce. If the system be right as applied to every individual Englishman who purchases spirits, I humbly conceive it cannot be wrong when applied to government, purchasing spirits on account of the aggregate body of Englishmen, and for their use or benefit. I believe that, in fact, until after the commercial treaty of 1786, rum alone was the spirit of the navy. But, however that may have been, to refuse to apply to the government purchases of spirits, the principle on which the protecting duties were founded, is in fact, to compel the English sug Inter to send his rums in English vessels, under a monopoly freight, to the English market, and at the same time to prevent the sale of them, when he has so sent them thither, on such terms as would put him on a footing with the foreign producers of other spirits. -X. X.-Jan. 12, 1807.

(To be continued)

SLAVE TRADE.

SIR,It is highly necessary at this crisis, to address you upon the subject of the abolition of the Slave Trade, before parliament shall have proceeded to pass a final determination respecting that inost important measure. As to the origin of the Slave Trade, it is superfluous on the present occasion to do any thing more than briefly to state, that it was established by royal charter and proclamations, and for a great number of years from time to time sanctioned, protected, and encouraged by divers acts of the British legislature, which have confirmed the West India colonists in the belief, and most perfect assurance and confidence, that they should continue to obtain supplies of labourers from Africa, and they have been induced to invest their fortunes in the British West India colonies, by the unshaken and full conviction that assurances solemnly pledged to them would not be violated. If the West India proprietors should be able to show that they cannot cultivate their proper

ties without having recourse to Africa for labourers; if they have the strongest reasons for dreading that the abolition of the Slave Trade will strike a deadly blow at the very existence of their fortune, and, nay, even involve the British colonies in the West Indies and their inhabitants in one common scene of ruin, desolation, and destruction; surely, it may then be confidently affirmed, that to persevere in the accomplishment of such a scheme, is a plain dereliction of all the principles of justice, and an attempt to promote the purposes of humanity to the sons of Africa, at the expense of an immense sacrifice of the lives of British subjects, and of British property. The parliamentary documents and recent publications, which have appeared upon the subject of the West India trade, have most clearly and satisfactorily established, that this country derives great commercial advantages in various ways from her trade with those colonies, and that they are the most valuable appendages of the empire. If any stroke should sever from Britain that branch of commerce, can the ingenuity of any one suggest to the nation any mode of upholding its prosperity, after it shall have sustained so severe a loss?It is peculiarly my business in this address, to call your attention to the consequences that must result from an abolition of the Slave Trade, which are particularly alarming to the colonists of the extensive island of Jemaica. Authentic reports and returns have shown that the cultivation of coffee has most rapidly increased in that colony in the last seven or eight years. A considerable number of coffee estates, which are still only infant settlements, cannot be cultivated with any prospect of advantage, without obtaining considerable supplies of labourers. Ar abolition will compel those coffee planters to sell their negroes immediately, and their lands will be of no value to them. Let me point out another attendant evil. The colony will also lose the benefit of their services in the various capacities of jurors, magistrates, and militia men ready to defend it against both an internal and external enemy; for, after they shall have been compelled to abandon their plantations, it cannot be expected that they will remain in a country, which will afford them no opportunities of improving their fortunes. Their negroes hitherto accustomed to reside in those parts of the island adapted to the cultivation of coffee, where a mild and temperate climate prevails, and to be employed in light and easy work, will in many instances be removed to a warmer climate, and will be engaged in the more laborious employment of cultiva

ting the soil for the production of canes. They will, in short, be taken away from their habitations, and their gardens, and from other comforts endeared to them by habit. Allow me to present to your view with the utmost earnestness and anxiety, the disastrous and fatal consequences that must follow, if the measure of the abolition be adopted, from a diminution of the white population: consequences of which no one doubts, who is at all acquainted with the local circumstances of Jamaica. The business of West India estates is conducted by white persons, who reside upon them, and who are at present induced to seek their fortunes in that part of the world The ground work of their fortunes is laid, whenever they have acquired as much money, as will enable them to purchase a few negroes. They continue to add to the number by their future savings, and their credit, and ultimately become settlers by purchasing lands. The white population of the colony is constantly kept up by such means, and a power exists, which is indispensably necessary for preserving due subordination, and for affording the only effectual mode of counterbalancing the negro population. After an abolition shall have been accomplished, no method of acquiring a fortune will present itself to persons in that line of life, and no adequate inducement can be held out to tempt the description of white persons, who have hitherto emigrated to our colonies to adventure thither in future. It will be impracticable to find white persons of good education and decent manners, disposed to reside in the West Indies; for, the offer even of augmented salaries, if the proprietors could afford to give them, will not induce them to hazard their lives in that unfavourable climate. It is painful in the extreme to contemplate the situation of Jamaica, which would then be left a prey to the schemes of the negroes, unrestrained by the presence of those, to whom they have been hitherto accustomed to pay respect and deference. Without appealing to the powers of the imagination we may learn from the sad experience of the disasters in St. Domingo, the fate of a colony, in which the black power reigns predominant, and uncontrouled.-Much has been said by the supporters of abolition, with the view of proving the ability of Jamaica to keep up its present stock of negroes without fresh importations. It may be proper to observe that, independently of any loss, which may be supposed to happen among the negroes newly imported, there is a great decrease of the negro population, which is in a great measure attributable to

the disproportion of the sexes, to promiscuous connections, and to other causes, over which no human care can exercise any controul. There are maladies peculiar to the climate of the West Indies, which are prevaient at all times, and reduce in despite of all medical aid and the utmost attention of the proprietors, an efficient labourer into a state of helplessness and decrepitude, and death often closes the scene. A disease also exists, which cuts off a great proportion of very young children within a few days after their births. Other disorders producing considerable mortality frequently happen among the negroes, and multitudes of them have perished by famine arising from hurricanes, and have fallen victims to sickness brought on by a scavity and unwholesome diet, which is one of the consequences attendant upon that calamity. I am aware that other circumstances which attach no blame to the proprietors, may be brought forward as contributing to account for the decrease of the negro population, and which have been dwelt on by intelligent writers upon this subject. Experience upon the whole has proved in opposition to fallacious theory, that the stock of negroes cannot be kept up without supplies of labourers from Africa, I have to ask, if it shall be impracticable from any of these causes to maintain a stock of negroes adequate to the purposes of cultivation, what is to become of the unfortunate planter after an abolition shall be passed? He can no where obtain the number of negroes required to supply the losses which have happened among his labourers, and ruin soon stares him in the face. His crops are rapidly diminished from year to year; and he beholds the miserable prospect of debt fast accumulating without possessing the power by his exertions to avert a total overthrow of all his fortune. It is only proposed to give an outline here of this miserable case, but nothing could be more easy than to fill it up with a detail of particulars. Many properties are known to be encumbered by mortgages, and it is equally notorious that the mortgagees of such properties have remained in possession of them for a great length of time past. If the Slave Trade should be abolished, those estates when restored to their owners would be delivered to them in a state incapable of yielding any advantage to them. The number of negroes attached to those properties will be exhausted through a long lapse of years from natural causes, during which time no additions to the stock have been made by purchase; for the creditors who may be desirous only of accomplishing payment of their demands by

the crops, and who possess neither the power nor the inclination to increase their demands by purchasing negroes, will surrender the estates, in want of the indispensable means of future cultivation. Infants during a long minority will be exposed in numerous instances to the same consequences. In this rapid sketch I shall only glance at another circumstance, which may be apprehended from an abolition, and which it is most distressing to contemplate. A want of labourers will be urgently felt by the planters in general, and a supply will be sought for with avidity, as the only means of averting impending ruin. It will be impossible to prevent effectually a clandestine introduction of them. Such a mode of procuring negroes in the event of an abolition, may occasionally be resorted to under some difficulties.At present, whilst a planter knows that he can at any time procure the number of negroes required for the use of his plantation, he takes care providently to make a suitable preparation for receiving at home the new labourers, whom he is desirous of obtaining. Before he proceeds to purchase them, he provides food, cloathing, and lodging for them. He carries them to his property, and they are properly taken care of. Hereafter, if he shall be forced when stimulated by the irresistible desire of struggling against imminent destruction, to have recourse to clandestine purchases, he will be anxious not to forego any opportunity of procuring labourers, which may present itself, and apprehensive that if he should postpone the buying of them, his object might altogether be defeated, he will purchase them, when he is not prepared to afford them proper necessaries and comforts. I need not dwell on the miserable scenes which must then en sue. It now remains for me to call your attention to another circumstance, which it is most painful to dwell on, and which is a source of great and well founded dread to the colonists. It is certain that an abolition will be considered by the negroes as connected with the prospect of an emancipation. Even the most unlettered and untutored mind is capable of discerning that the legislature, which has proceeded to declare that no person shall hereafter be brought to the British colonies in a state of slavery, has been influenced in a great degree to adopt the measure from an abhorrence of slavery; and that much of what has been advanced upon the subject has gone the length of reprobating the existence of slavery in any shape, or under any modification whatever. It will appear to the negroes employed in the service of the planters, that the supporters of

abolition have done them no service by stopping there, and that on the contrary, the scheme is fraught with injustice to them.The doctrine, which condemns the trade, by which negroes are imported into the West Indies in a state of slavery, cannot be true to its own principle, except it advances one step further, and seeks to annihilate all slavery for, if the importation of a slave be condemnable, is not according to the same train of reasoning the keeping of a negro, who is already imported, and his offspring in a state of slavery, liable at least to equal severity of reprehension? I conceive that no one is bold enough to contend that emancipation ought to be made a part of the general plau; and, indeed, I have the authority of the name of Mr. Pitt, for saying that such a measure would be absolute insanity. It is apprehended on very substantial grounds, that the abolishing of this trade may dispose the minds of the colonial negroes to assert at their own time, and according to their own will and pleasure, their pretensions to emancipation; they may urge that the power, which has put a final period to the slave trade, would have proceeded ac once to emancipate them, had it not been for the opposition of their masters; they may declare that the leading abolitionists have expressed their unwillingness to tolerate for a moment any description of slavery, and that they have refrained from urging that consideration upon the attention of parliament, either from a sense that the fit time for proposing it had not arrived, or from a convic tion that to interfere to that extent would be assuming an improper exercise of power over concerns of private property. Is it to be expected that the labourers in the British West India colonies, will patiently and with due submission wait, until they shall become qualified in the opinion of some of the abolitionists to receive the gift of freedom through their means; or, until, according to the wild and fanciful notions of others, the amelioration of their condition will gradually : produce their emancipation from the free will of their masters? It is to be dreaded, that the negroes, sensible that they possess a great superiority of numbers, and that their constitutions and habits of life render them able to contend with manifest advantage in countries abounding in fastnesses, and peculiarly favourable to their mode of warfare, will bring forward at no distant day, after the abolition shall be passed, their claims to freedom, and defy all that can be done against them by the combined efforts of a diminished white population, and of any proportion of regular milit ry force, which