nish the British West India islands with a more extensive that, in consequence of the failure by the past administra market for their productions, and with the means of sup- tion of the Government of the United States to comply plying themselves, on the cheapest terms, with all articles with the provisions of the act of Parliament of 1825, by of foreign produce of which they might stand in need. repealing certain restrictions in their laws deemed incom The act of 1825 was, in fact, a relaxation of the pre-patible with the interests of the colonies, Great Britain vious policy, affording to the West India colonies advan- thought proper, by order in council, to exclude them tages of trade which they had not previously enjoyed, from the direct trade authorized by that act. But it canand offering the benefit of their commerce to all the world. not, therefore, be supposed that they were thus excluded It will scarcely be denied that this relaxation was dictated because Great Britain had repented of the regulations of by a wise regard for the peculiar wants of those islands. 1825, which she continued to extend to all other nations, Abundant proof of this may be found in the reciprocal pri- though some of them, too, had neglected the conditions vileges granted at the same time to the other possessions of that act; neither could it be supposed that the import of Great Britain, the interests of which might be supposed ance of a direct trade with the United States had in any to be affected by these regulations; and more especially degree diminished. in the privileges conferred on the Northern possessions, of It is not a fair inference from any measure, neither is it introducing their grain into England at a fixed and mode- avowed on the face of any public document of Great Bri rate duty, and of receiving in exchange, and importing tain, that, by the interdict applied by the order in council, directly from all parts of the world, productions similar to she intended, permanently and unchangeably, to deprive those of the West India islands; and also in the reduction the United States and her West India islands of the benefit of the duty on the Mauritius sugar, in the ports of Great of a direct trade, which had always been deemed of the Britain, to an equality with that on the West India first importance to both. The opposite is the natural insugar.

It will scarcely be doubted that these privileges were fully commensurate with the object. Indeed, it must be perceived that they were of extensive scope and growing importance, materially affecting the present and prospective trade of the West India planters. They conferred on the Northern possessions a free and direct trade, not only with the European ports, but with the continent of South America, in which are countries daily increasing in resources, and destined, beyond a doubt, when the advantages of their soil and climate shall be properly cultivated, to become rival growers of the West India produce.

It may be safely affirmed that these are privileges of greater magnitude than any conferred by the same act on the West India islands; and it is worthy of remark, that they are still enjoyed by those possessions, constituting a source of profit and prosperity; while of those for which they were given as an equivalent, the West India planter has been almost ever since deprived.

ference; and it is due to the character of Great Britain, and to her knowledge of her true interests, to believe that the adjustment of trade with her several possessions by the act of 1825, was, in her opinion, salutary, and that she ought to secure it in every part, and to give it more complete effect, by her order in council, the true intent of which was to exclude the United States from the direct trade merely until they should consent to engage in it on terms mutually advantageous. It was thus, whilst her other posses sions were left in the enjoyment of their privileges, Great Britain intended to secure to the West India islands the commercial benefits which had been designed for them by these regulations.

After

as a matter

Nor are the answers heretofore given by this Govern ment in the course of previous negotiations, incompatible with this interpretation of the order in council. applying the interdict for the purposes of the act of 1825, it was not unreasonable that the time of its removal should be adapted to the same ends. It might have been de It could not be imagined that the remotest forethought signed, not merely to evince the predilection of Great was entertained of this state of things, by which the West Britain for regulations adopted in 1825, but to manifest to India islands would ultimately be deprived of their most all other nations the mutual advantages of that course of natural and profitable market, and their interests sacri- trade, and to yield to a liberal spirit when that effect ficed to the adventitious prosperity of possessions which should be produced. The language of the late Mr. Can already, in the privileges heretofore alluded to, and in the ning, and of Lord Dudley, authorizes this belief. Mr. scale of discriminating duties provided by the act of Par- Canning said no more than that the British Government liament, enjoyed advantages equivalent to any accorded would not feel bound to remove the interdict, by the protecting policy of Great Britain. Much less of course, whenever it might suit a foreign nation to recould the undersigned permit himself to suppose that the consider her measures; implying, surely, that, under other act of 1825 contemplated any other objects than those circumstances, our overture would not be rejected. In which it ostensibly imported, or that those objects could the negotiation with Mr. Canning, moreover, the Ameri be permanently defeated by accidental causes. can pretensions, which, before that time, had embarrassed The undersigned need not here enter into a particular an arrangement, were not conceded; and on that ground, defence of the omission on the part of the United States particularly, Mr. Gallatin's proposition was then declined. seasonably to embrace the offer of the direct trade made by At the time of the negotiation with Lord Dudley, neither Great Britain in the year 1825, and to which allusion has party had felt the effects of a state of things which neither so frequently been made. Whether it be a subject more had ever contemplated, and for which Great Britain had of regret or of censure, it ought to be enough that the never, until then, manifested any desire. claims advanced in justification of it have since been aban- Without attempting here to point out the error of Lord doned by those who made them, have received no sanc- Dudley's conception of Mr. Gallatin's proposition, the untion from the people of the United States, and that they dersigned contents himself with suggesting that his answer are not now revived. If it be the intention of Great Britain most particularly referred to the proposition merely in to perpetuate the present state of things from a belief that regard to the form and the time. it is more for her interest, she will require no warrant mated, as, had such been the intention, it unquestionably from the past; and if she intend it for any other purpose, would have done, that Great Britain designed, by the the mistakes of the past will not justify a policy observed order in council, permanently to abandon the objects of

towards the United States alone, while unenforced against her act of 1825.

It neither said nor

inti

other nations chargeable with similar neglect. If these It must be admitted that such inference would be inmistakes have led to the mutual injury of both countries, compatible with the views entertained by the present there ought rather to be inspired a disposition to remedy ministry, as expressed in the order in council of 1828, such injury, and to prevent its future recurrence. The undersigned, therefore, may be content to admit feges granted by the act of 1825, which she, also, had gratuitously extending and continuing to Spain the privi

Trade with British Colonies.

forfeited, by failing, up to that period, to comply with the conditions.

On no supposition, consistent with ordinary impartiality towards a friendly nation, can this order be reconciled, than that the whole subject rested in the discretion of the ministry, to be changed and modified at any time when they might deem it expedient.

[21st CoNG. 2d SESS.

is sufficient, without the aid of other causes which might be cited, to produce a state of distress greater even than that of which they at present complain.

The Earl of Aberdeen will scarcely need be informed that the consumption, in the United States, of West India produce is very considerable; but it may not be superfluous to state that, of foreign sugar alone, it is certainly little less than sixty millions of pounds per annum; of foreign molasses, it is not less than thirteen millions of gallons; and of foreign rum, it is equal to three millions and a half; and yet, in consequence of the present embarrassments of the direct trade, the importation of British West India produce has substantially ceased.

The undersigned, therefore, takes leave to suppose that the present state of things is new and unexpected in the colonial history of Great Britain; that the interests and advantages dependent upon it are adventitious, subordinate, if not opposed, to the objects of the act of Parliament of 1825, and injurious to the interests contemplated by that act; and that it was neither intended to be produced nor It does not appear, in the mean time, that the planter perpetuated by the order in council of 1826. He is in- has been indemnified for his loss by any other market. In duced, therefore, by these considerations, to renew his that of London, he certainly has not: it neither requires hope that the real purposes of that order may now be ful- the surplus produce thus left on the hands of the planter, filled, and the cardinal object of the act of 1825 effectually nor offers him an equal price for that which it consumes. promoted. The freight to New York is one shilling, and to London He would venture to ask, moreover, whether those in- five shillings per hundred weight; the difference of interests which have recently sprung up out of this adven-surance between the two places, also, is as one to six per titious state of things, which depend upon accidental cent. The price of sugar, therefore, ought to be procauses, and subsist upon the sufferings of others more an-portionably higher in the London market. The Earl of cient in standing, and at least equal in magnitude, have Aberdeen will perceive, however, by a reference to the any peculiar claim to be upheld. They connected them- prices current of Philadelphia, Boston, and London, alselves with a course of trade subversive of the leading ready submitted to his inspection, that, instead of being motives of the act of 1825, and necessarily temporary, greater, the price is less in the market of London than in and which it would be unreasonable to convert into a per- that of the United States. The sugar of St. Croix, which manent arrangement, unless it could be proved that it had is of an inferior quality to that of Jamaica, is quoted in attained, or was likely to attain, in some other way, all the prices current of the United States at from eight to the objects contemplated by that act. ten dollars and fifty cents per hundred weight; and while The regulations of the sixth year of his present Majesty's the price of nine dollars and fifty cents, after deducting reign were not adopted without reason, or uncalled for by freight and duty, would nett twenty-five shillings sterling, the condition of the West India colonies. The improvi- the prices in London, it is believed, do not nett more than dent legislation with which their trade with the United twenty-two shillings per hundred weight, for sugar of States has been unhappily restricted, subsequently to the similar quality. The undersigned begs leave also to reyear 1822, had produced embarrassments which all ac-mark, that an examination of the same prices current, knowledged, and which the measures of 1825 proposed for the purpose of comparing the prices of the lower qualito obviate, by extending the market for their productions, and enlarging the means of a cheap supply.

Such, it must be admitted, was the obvious remedy for the evil; and, if their own picture of actual distress and embarrassment be not overdrawn, the situation of the West India planters is more in need of its application at present than in the year 1825. Seldom, indeed, if ever, have their distresses been more intense, or their supplications for relief more urgent.

ties of sugar, as well as of rum, would present a more striking disparity in favor of the market of the United States. It may not be necessary to assert the impossibility of supplying the West India islands at present without the aid, directly or indirectly, of the United States. If this were not the case, unless the supplies could be drawn from other possessions of Great Britain, the undersigned will not imagine that there could be any motive or pretence, as between other nations, to exclude the United States, more It is also true that, according to usual custom in periods especially as it is not likely that any other nation could of public distress, the evils which now afflict the West furnish them on terms equally advantageous, India planters have been ascribed to causes various in their But the undersigned may assert with perfect safety, that, nature, and not always consistent. For evils of general for a great portion of their principal supplies, especially prevalence, however, there is always some cause of gene- flour, Indian meal, rice, boards, staves, and shingles, the ral and uniform operation; and it certainly is not unfair to West India islands must be, for a long time, dependent argue that the same circumstances which have led to such upon the United States; for rice, in fact, they must ala calamitous state of things at one period, may lead to ways be so. The proximity of the United States and the similar effects at another; therefore, that an aggravation West India islands to each other; the adaptation of their of those causes which produced the embarrassments pre-productions to their mutual wants; the capacity of the valent from 1822 to 1825, may produce the same, in a still United States to furnish the principal articles of promore oppressive degree, at present, and may render them insupportable hereafter.

That there is an immense reduction in the value of colonial produce, is not a matter of conjectural speculation. It will not be denied that it has been taking place gradually since the interruption of the direct trade, until it may be affirmed that the nett proceeds of a single hogshead of sugar are less, by ten pounds sterling, than they were in the last year.

visions, at all seasons, in a fresh state, and by a cheap navigation; and, above all, the extent and steadfastness of their demand for the island productions, not only constitute them the best customers of the planters, but give them advantages for such a trade not possessed by any other nation. Even the British Northern possessions, if in fact they were equally capable of producing the necessary articles, could not enter into competition upon equal terms. The physical impediments which, for at least half the year, embarrass their intercourse with the islands, compel the latter, during that time, to look elsewhere for any imme

It is not a matter of doubt to the undersigned that the total loss to the West India planters of a direct trade with the United States, the most natural source of their sup-diate supplies of which they may stand in need. plies, and the most profitable market for their productions, Not to dwell too minutely on this point, the undersigned by enhancing the price of the one, and not merely lower-will content himself with referring to the general course ing the price, but diminishing the quantity of the other, and extent of this trade in all past times; to the value of

VOL. VII.-Z

amount of lumber introduced since the interruption of the direct trade, nearly one-half of the most valuable kinds, which previously went directly from the United States, passed through the foreign West Indies; of shingles considerably more than one-half; and of staves, a greater number were imported from the foreign West Indies in '1828, than were introduced directly from the United States in 1825.

the supplies uniformly furnished by the United States, of rice; and it is also shown by the same account, that, of the under all the disadvantages of a restricted and embarrassed intercourse; and to the vast amount which is even now finding its way through indirect and difficult, and consequently expensive channels, under a positive and total interdict of the direct trade. Surely if other parts, with which the trade is not merely direct, but highly favored, were actually able, from their own resources and productions, to furnish these supplies, there would be no recourse for them to the United States.

It will not escape the attention of the Earl of AberIdeen that the foreign West Indies derive their means of exporting these articles principally, if not exclusively, from the United States; and that, while the importance to the planters of their direct trade with the latter is thus exemplified by these statements, it is also shown that the diversion of it into indirect and circuitous channels does not confer equally substantial advantages upon the British Northern colonies.

The undersigned is unable to speak with precision of the amount of provisions and other articles actually supplied from the United States in the present course of business. There is a difficulty in tracing the trade through the numerous channels into which it has been diverted from its natural course. Tabular statements are not, in all respects, full and accurate; especially when they relate to merchandise transported across the frontier lines, and pass- With this view of the subject, the undersigned takes ing down the St. Lawrence to the Northern possessions; leave to ask, why may not these supplies, which must of such there being but little, if any, account taken in the thus necessarily be drawn from the United States, be custom-houses. furnished by means of a direct trade? It must be ad These circumstances render all conclusions on this sub-mitted that the evils of the indirect trade fall upon the ject more or less matters of conjecture. It is the opinion, planters. Among these may be considered the charges however, of the most intelligent persons engaged in the of double freight and insurance, the expenses of transhiptrade, both before and since the order in council of 1826, ment, and the commissions and duties in the neutral islands, and an opinion which, it is believed, cannot be contro- estimated at fifty per centum on the first cost of lumber, verted, that an amount equal to more than a half of that and from fifteen to twenty per centum on provisions. So heretofore exported through the direct channels still con- far as this estimate relates to lumber, it is fully warranted tinues to go by the present circuitous routes. It has even by the official account of the comparative prices of that been asserted by intelligent commercial men, that Jamaica article in Jamaica in the years 1825 and 1828, already subhas not consumed less of the flour, and provisions gene- mitted to the Earl of Aberdeen; and, as it respects prorally, of the United States, though at an additional and visions, the duty of five shillings per barrel on flour, and oppressive expense, than when the trade was direct. The in proportion on other articles, as completely sustains it. routes through which these supplies now pass comprehend not merely the Northern possessions, which have the solitary advantage of occasionally affording a better assort ment of goods, but the islands of St. Thomas and St. Bartholomew, Martinique, Guadaloupe, and the port of St. Jago de Cuba.

But to these evils, great as they are, must be added the total loss of the market offered by the United States under a direct trade, the extent and advantages of which have already been shown, and would have continued for an indefinite length of time, if not interrupted by these restrictions. It is true the cultivation of sugar had been commenced, It is believed that those facts will be fully sustained, so and is extending in the United States, but under difficul far as certain official returns in the archives of this Go- ties and impediments arising from the nature of the climate, vernment, to which the undersigned has had access, may and the frequent injury of the crops by the variableness be relied on. One of these, being a comparative account of the seasons. It has to contend, also, with the superiof the quantity of provisions and lumber imported into ority, if not the indispensable necessity of foreign sugar the British West Indies in the years 1825 and 1828, the for the purpose of the refiner. The demand of the latter undersigned has already submitted to the Earl of Aber- is steadfast and increasing, being commensurate, not merely deen as deserving of particular attention. It would ap- with the consumption of refined sugar in the United pear from this, that, of the corn and grain imported into States, but the growing trade in it with all parts of the these islands in 1825, amounting to 383,332 bushels, world. The exportation of refined sugar has also been 237,248 bushels were introduced from the United States, further encouraged by a recent augmentation of the draw7,012 from the British colonies in North America, 9,249 back, placing it on an equal footing with domestic sugar from the foreign West Indies, 1,584 from foreign Europe, in respect to foreign markets. Under these circumstances, and the remainder from the United Kingdom, and the while the direct trade remained open, there would, as has islands of Jersey and Guernsey; thus constituting the been said, have continued a great and augmenting deUnited States, in the regular course of the trade, the natu- mand for the West India sugars for an indefinite length of ral and cheapest source of supply. It also appears that time. The present restrictions, however, menace the in the year 1828, of the aggregate importation, then re-planter with its total loss, if, in fact, they have not already duced to 351,832 bushels, 27 bushels only were introduced ensured it. In proportion as they augment the embarrassdirectly from the United States; but, from the foreign ments and expense of the trade with the British West West Indies, 126,221; from the British colonies in North India islands, they compel the United States to grow their America, 45,495; from foreign Europe, 464; and from the own sugar, and act as bounties to encourage and improve United Kingdom, &c. 172,718 bushels. its cultivation; or they induce them to look for their inIn 1825, there were imported into the same islands dispensable supplies to other islands more liberal in their 202,737 barrels of meal and flour; of which the United commercial regulations.

States supplied directly 161,568; the British colonies in In the mean time, the planters, while they lose a market, North America, 4,232; foreign Europe, 400; foreign West ample, constant, profitable, and contiguous, find no inIndies, 21,090, and the United Kingdom, &c. 15,447 bar- demnification in that of the Northern possessions, whose rels. In 1828, the aggregate importation of the same arti- consumption is comparatively limited, nor in that of the cles was 206,653 barrels; of which the United States sent mother country; for there, in addition to the low prices directly 940 barrels, and the foreign West Indies, 142,092; already adverted to, they must encounter the sugar of the the British colonies in North America, 36,766; foreign Mauritius, which, being now placed on an equality with their own, has increased the amount of its importation, in

Europe, 1,135, and the United Kingdom, 25,331.

A similar result is more strikingly presented in the article the course of five years, from four thousand six hundred

Trade with British Colonies.

to a little less, as it is believed, than thirty thousand tons. From this state of things, therefore, serious injury arises to the trade, both of the United States and of the British West India islands. So far as that injury presses upon the latter, it is confidently submitted whether plenary relief can be found, as has been supposed, in the reduction of duties upon their produce, unless it be in a manner to give them a monopoly in the home market equal to that of which they have been deprived in the United States; or even then, unless the reduction be in proportion, not merely to the loss of the market, but to the increased charges incident to the indirect trade for their necessary supplies. The supply of sugar is already greater than the demand of the home market; and the amount of reduction of duty could not be a clear gain to the planter, because it would be also attended with a partial fall of the price, and his gain could be in proportion to the latter only. This mode of relief, without a correspondent reduction of the bounty allowed to the refiner, would be prejudicial to the revenue, but, with such reduction, much more injurious to the refiner; and if, as it may be well supposed, one-half, at least, of the sugars imported from the West Indies are manufactured for exportation, it is not likely that such mode of relief would, in any event, be beneficial to the planter. It is suggested with great respect and deference, that the more obvious and natural remedy for an evil, which all must admit, would be to remove the cause. This would be done by cheapening the supplies, and extending the market for the productions of the islands, and by authorizing a direct trade with the United States to a degree commensurate with the interests and necessities of the islands, and on such terms as are now allowed, for similar purposes, to all the rest of the world.

The partial application of a like remedy produced a salutary effect from 1825 to 1826, and, therefore, it may well be presumed that a more thorough experiment on both sides, at present, would be still more beneficial. At that time, undoubtedly, the British Northern possessions neither complained nor had cause of complaint; still less) can any such cause have arisen since, as their monopoly of the direct trade, instead of relieving, has only aggravated the sufferings of the planters!

[21st CoNG. 2d SESS

possessions of Great Britain an equal, or even a better chance in the West India market; but he requires that the United States, as far as they are capable of supplying its wants, may be permitted, in common with the rest of the world, to contribute supplies by a direct trade, and that they may be the carriers of such of their own productions as are indispensable or highly necessary to the planters. That the Northern possessions have an interest in the present state of things, the undersigned does not mean to deny, nor particularly to state. It is sufficient for him to repeat what has been already remarked, that the interests which have grown up in that quarter are adventitious in their character, and subordinate to all the great considerations connected with this subject. They may be of some importance in themselves, and yet there may be views of higher moment and grander scope, to some of which allusion has already been made, before which, in every sense, they ought to give way.

It will be difficult to maintain the propriety of the claim by the Northern possessions, that they should be secured in the enjoyment of a direct trade with all parts of the world, and that it should be denied to other possessions of Great Britain, to whom it is more necessary.

Of the capacity of the British West Indies to supply with their productions all the demands of the Northern colonies, there can be no doubt; yet those colonies, by a direct trade, may introduce similar productions from foreign countries. Why, then, may not the British islands be permitted by the same medium to introduce those articles which the Northern possessions cannot supply, and for which they are dependent upon others? If the Canadian may import from foreign countries, by a direct trade, merchandise of which he is not in need for his own subsistence, and which he may procure from other colonies of Great Britain, why may not the West Indian receive from the United States in the same direct manner that which is indispensably necessary to him, and which none of his Majesty's colonies can supply?

The undersigned does not pretend to state, since he is unable to obtain the information requisite to enable him to state with accuracy, the precise proportion which the productive capacity of the Northern possessions bears to the It has been stated to the undersigned, however, as the wants of the West India islands. It is the general opinion opinion of Great Britain, that, while devising measures that the productions of those possessions, especially corn for the relief of the West Indies, it is, at the same time, and other bread stuffs, but little exceed the quantity reindispensably necessary to consider the claims of the quired for their own consumption; and that the amount of Northern possessions to be protected in the enjoyment of those articles, and even of lumber exported by them to certain accidental advantages. Though the undersigned the mother country, the West Indies, and to other parts, by no means admits the justice of these claims, he would is derived principally from the United States, and from observe, that, if they are to receive protection, it ought, some ports of Europe. This opinion would seem to be at least, to be effected in some way not inconsistent with confirmed by the state of the trade between those possesthe meditated relief of the planters. This might be done sions and the United States, and by the encouragement by granting greater facilities for the introduction of the given heretofore, and at present, by low duties, to the inproduce of the Northern possessions into the mother coun- troduction into their ports from the latter of most, if not try-a measure which would not merely benefit them, but all, of the foregoing articles. would ensure important advantages to Great Britain, by increasing her revenue, and augmenting and perpetuating the consumption of her manufactures in those possessions. But the proposition does not go to exclude the productions of the Northern colonies, or even to expose them without protection to a competition with those of the United States. It supposes, on the contrary, that, as far as the former are capable of producing the articles in demand, a fair preference is already secured to them in The Earl of Aberdeen has already inspected the official the West India market by the scale of duties prescribed tables of the exports of domestic articles from the United by the act of 1825, and fully commensurate, consistently States during the year 1827; and though, for purposes of with the interests of the planters, with that object. That comparison, similar tables for 1828 would be more prescale could only prove insufficient if the capacity to produce cise, it is believed they would not diminish, if they did not did not exist, or should depend for its existence upon an add to the weight of those of 1827. From this statement, exclusive monopoly ruinous to all other interests. and a recurrence to the account already explained, to say

The exports from the United States to the British American colonies consist principally of flour, meal, Indian corn, wheat, ship bread, rice, pot and pearl ashes, butter, and lumber; amounting annually, according to the circumstances of the year, to from two and one-half and three and one-half millions of dollars, and little inferior in value to the aggregate exports from the United States to the British West India islands in an open trade.

It is not for the undersigned, therefore, to object to that nothing of the amount of produce passing down the St. scale of duties as regulated by the act of 1825, though it Lawrence, of which, as has been observed, little, if any, must be allowed to give the productions of the Northern account is taken in the United States, the Earl of Aber

deen will perceive that, after a full experiment of the ad-out presuming that any of these opinions are in all respects vantages afforded to the British Northern colonies by the accurate, but making every allowance for the character present course of trade, they are in fact dependent upon of such answers, which, if in any degree erroneous, are the United States for considerably more than double the amount of their exports to the British West Indies.

likely to err in favor of the Canadas, it may be safely and confidently assumed that the Northern possessions do not By these statements, it appears that, in 1828, the British now, and cannot for a great number of years, however Northern colonies exported to the British West India they may be favored and encouraged, produce the requiislands 45,495 bushels of corn and grain, and, as far as the site supplies for the West Indies. They must rely upon trade in 1827 may be considered indicative of that of 1828, other sources, and principally upon the United States, not they received from the United States 88,456 bushels of merely to furnish the deficiency, but as consumers of the the same articles; that, of flour and meal, they received West India produce. To this extent, and for these purfrom the United States 136,770 barrels, and exported to poses, the proposition of the undersigned asks for a direct the West Indies only 36,766; and that a like proportion is intercourse. The undersigned would here observe, moreobservable in the articles of ship bread, and biscuit, and over, that the Northern colonies offer as little advantage rice. Of lumber, the official tables of the United States in their demand for the produce of the British West India are not supposed to afford any satisfactory account; and, in islands, as in their capacity to furnish supplies. He is respect to pot and pearl ashes, the British statement is aware of the erroneous supposition that the United States, silent; though it will probably be conceded that the sup-in their direct trade with the British West Indies heretofore, plies of the latter articles are principally from the United

States.

did not take so much of their produce as of specie, to be invested, as it was imagined, in the produce of other islands. So far, however, as it may be thought to argue an unfavorable course of trade between the United States and those islands, he may confidently rely for its refutation, not only upon its obvious improbability, but upon the past, and even the present course of the trade.

On looking to the large amount of importations from the United States by the British Northern colonies, the comparatively small exportation from the latter to the British West Indies cannot escape observation. That these islands require much more than the quantity furnished them by the North, is shown, not only by the table of their It is obvious that the restrictions by which the trade of direct trade with the United States, but by the amount the United States with the British West Indies has been so furnished at present, under all the pressure of the dis- frequently embarrassed, offered peculiar inducements to criminating duties, from the foreign West Indies. It is a the importation of specie; but on this head the undersigned matter, in fact, that does not admit of a doubt. That the may venture to affirm that the amount of specie has not, at Northern colonies do not, under these circumstances, send any period of the direct trade, exceeded much more than more of the produce received by them from the United one-fourth of the importation into the United States States, must be either because a great part of it is absorb- through those islands. ed by the demands for the home consumption, or that it is Without stopping to detect the error of supposing any necessary for their export trade with other parts of the thing unfavorable to the general result of trade from the world. The first cause satisfactorily evinces the incapaci- exchange of specie for produce, which Lord Aberdeen is ty of those possessions, even under their present advan-aware is a natural occurrence, incident to commerce in all tages, to augment, in any considerable degree, their own parts of the world, it will be sufficient to observe that, as productions; the last does not merely evince this, but ma- the advantages of the direct trade to the West India planter nifests more strikingly the inexpediency of their claim to a were never doubted, it may fairly be inferred that the exmonopoly of the trade with the West Indies, to the exclusion changes were mutually made in the most profitable med.of the United States, upon whose productions they are um. That specie was occasionally received for part of the themselves dependent, not only for their trade (with the supplies furnished by the United States, need not be deWest Indies, but also for that with the mother country,nied; which would prove, only, that, from the general reand with the foreign European ports. sult of their traffic with other parts, the West India plant

If these facts should be considered as requiring further ers were enabled to deal more profitably in specie for the confirmation, it may be found in the testimony of several produce of the United States-thus affording additional of the most intelligent inhabitants of the Northern colo-illustration of the mutual advantage of their intercourse. nies, taken, in 1826, before the select committee on emi-But the undersigned takes leave wholly to doubt that spe gration, by which it appears that, at that period, and pre-cie was so taken for the purpose of being invested in simiviously, Lower Canada did not supply any flour suited to lar articles in the foreign islands.

the West India market; and that the whole of the exports Unless an occasional instance of the kind has been proof the Upper Province, not exceeding 40,000 barrels, duced by the pressure of those restrictions which it were disposed of in the ports of Newfoundland, New now proposed to abolish, the occurrence of it would arBrunswick, and Halifax, and were insufficient for their gue in the merchant the unaccountable folly of submitwants; that Quebec depended, in a great degree, for pro- ting to a prolonged voyage, but reduced freight, and to visions, upon the supplics furnished by the United States; the other disadvantages of a circuitous trade, in the search and that Canada, at the time, found the utmost difficulty in after commodities which lay ready at hand, and which he subsisting her own population. It was further stated in might convey immediately to his market by a direct that testimony, that "there was not sufficient corn grown voyage, and at a better freight.

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in Upper Canada to induce any foreign market to deal with It will doubtless, however, occur to Lord Aberdeen, them; and that it would be extremely desirable, for some that, whatever may have been the course or nature of the years to come, to introduce American flour into the Cana- exchanges in a direct trade, they were not merely adapted das, in order to make up their deficit for the supply of the to the necessities of the parties, but are not likely to be West Indies:" that, in fact, their own supply to the West improved under the embarrassments of an indirect trade; Indian merchant was very inconsiderable, and that they or that more produce and less specie would pass off formed a very secondary consideration in his estimation." through the circuitous than the direct channel. One of the persons examined on that occasion, a legislative Though the Northern colonies may become the car councillor of Lower Canada, gave it as his opinion, and as riers, they do not thereby become the consumers, except one which he thought would be taken for granted, that to a limited extent, of the West India produce. Their the provinces of the two Canadas would not be able, from capacity to consume in produce the value of all supplies their own produce, to supply a single barrel of flour to carried by them to the West Indies, or even of that part the West Indian market for the next twenty years. With going from the United States, will not be asserted; and,