them; and hence an increase to the internal wealth, revenue, and navigation of that country.

But the question occurs, whether it will be expedient for France to permit this commerce with America to be carried on in American bottoms? The advocates for restriction say no. The objection is advanced, that if the Americans are permitted to carry away the produce of the Islands for their own use, they will not be contented with the privilege to this extent, but will take away more than they want, and thus elude the commercial regulations with reference to France and her Islands, and become the sole carriers of the Islands to all parts of the world. To obviate this objection, according to the doctrine of the restrictionists, the trade between the Islands and the United States must be carried on in French bottoms only.

This doctrine is at variance with the fact, that the commerce cannot be carried on with any chance of advantage by vessels. sailing from Europe to America, thence to the Islands, and thence again to Europe. Owing to the nature of the navigation among the Islands, and on the American coast, the articles from the United States must be carried in small vessels, navigated by few men. This has been proved by long experience. But this kind of craft is not suited to the commerce from the Islands to Europe, any more than the large ones are from America to the Islands. It follows, that if the Islands are to be supplied by the intervention of large vessels from Europe, the price of the supplies will be increased, and the prosperity of the Islands, and the value of their commerce to France, proportionately diminished.

This may be illustrated by an example. The produce shipped directly from America to Europe employs many more vessels, than are wanted to bring back articles from Europe to America. Two hundred large ships are required to transport the tobacco from the Chesapeake, and these two hundred are sufficient to bring the annual supplies from Europe for all America; but tobacco does not employ more than one fifth of the shipping engaged in the commerce between America and

Europe. It follows that a large portion of the returning ships come empty. And heretofore this has been so remarkably the case, in regard to the tobacco ships, that goods have been freighted from Great Britain for a mere trifle, and sometimes for nothing.

It must be considered, also, that a voyage from France to the West Indies can be performed with great certainty in a given time, by reason of the tropical winds, but to the United States it will be more uncertain and longer. Of two vessels, therefore, sailing at the same time, one for the United States and the other for the Islands, the expenses of the former at the end of the voyage, taking into consideration the risk of the ship, the crew, repairs, and provisions, will exceed those of the latter in the amount of one fourth of the cargo, which she is to receive in the United States for the Islands, and still she has another voyage to perform before she arrives at the point of destination. The result is, that the price of supplies thus carried to the Islands, is enhanced, at least one fourth, beyond what it would be, if the same supplies were transported directly from the United States in American bottoms. This expense must be borne by the merchant, who fits out the ship, or the planter who consumes the produce, and it yields no returns to anybody.

For

But allow a free competition, and this expense will not be incurred at all; in other words, no merchant will send a ship from Europe to take American produce to the Islands. the same reason, no one will send a ship from the United States to the Islands, for the purpose of taking freight there for Europe, and returning thence to America. The circle is the same, let it commence at whatever point it may. And this is a conclusive answer to the objection, that if the trade is thrown open to the Americans, they will take away more produce than their own market demands, and become the carriers from the Islands to Europe. Natural causes prevent it. Moreover, if it is hoped or expected to increase the number of French seamen, by undue restrictions on the colonial commerce, the

end will be defeated by the very means used to attain it; for, if a free trade be allowed, the produce of the Islands will become so much more abundant, that, after deducting all that can possibly be carried away by Americans, there must still remain such a surplus, as will require a great increase of French shipping to take it to Europe.

Such is a summary of the facts and reasonings used to convince the French Minister, that the restrictive policy of his government was founded on erroneous principles, and that a system of free trade, between the French: West India Islands and the United States, would be mutually advantageous to the two nations.

MR MORRIS

CHAPTER XVI.

VISITS MORRISANIA

AFTER THE

PEACE.-ILLUMINATION IN

PHILADELPHIA.-HIS ARGUMENTS FOR THE BANK OF NORTH AMERICA. -CONDITION OF THE TORIES.-COMMERCIAL RESTRICTIONS.-M.

DE CHASTELLUX.-PAMPHLET ON THE BANK.-MR MORKIS'S PLAN OF A NEW COINAGE.-PURCHASES THE ESTATE OF MORRISANIA.

THE preliminary articles of peace having been signed, and hostilities suspended, Mr Morris returned to New York, and visited his mother at Morrisania, after an absence of almost seven years. He writes to Mr Robert Morris; 'I arrived at this place last evening, in company with my uncle, and after making a dinner at six o'clock we drank your health in Cape wine, which has stood on a shelf in this house twenty years to my knowledge, and how much longer I know not. We will drink no more of it, but leave the remnant till you and Mrs Morris can accompany me hither.' He reached home in season to advise and assist his mother, in presenting her claims for depredations committed at Morrisania by the British army during the war. The estate was within the British lines, and

when the army first came to New York, they took from it sixty-five head of horned cattle, ninety four sheep, and other provisions, and in the course of the war, the timber had been cut on four hundred and seventy acres of woodland, and used for various purposes of ship-building, artillery, and fire-wood. Colonel de Lancey's regiment of refugees was also stationed there, for nearly two years, erected above seventy huts in which they dwelt, cultivating the land in the mean time, and cutting the wood for fuel.

Papers and affidavits certifying all these particulars, with estimates of the damages, were presented to the British board of claims, who examined them, and reported that the facts were proved and the charges reasonable, and that, as the timber and other articles had been used in his Majesty's service, the claimant ought to be paid to the full amount of her demands. It is but just to add, that the records of these transactions show the British commander, and the other officers concerned, to have acted apparently on principles honorable. and generous. The claim, amounting to more than eight thousand pounds, was sent to England and entrusted for collection to General Staats Long Morris, but it was not paid during Mrs Morris's lifetime.

The war being now over, Mr Morris retired from the office of Assistant Fnancier, and betook himself anew to the practice of the law, which indeed he had never entirely given up. It was his intention at first to return to New York, and establish himself in that city, but various ties of business kept him in Philadelphia, which may be considered his permanent place of residence from this time till he went to Europe, five years afterwards. He was more or less associated with Robert Morris, in his mercantile affairs and other speculations, sometimes acting as his agent, at others devising plans of new adventure, voyages at sea, purchases of stocks, of lands, or any other projects, which promised successful results, good profits, and the means of accumulating property. By their long intimacy they had acquired a perfect knowledge of each other's

character, which, strengthened by a mutual confidence, enabled them to co-operate with double effect in executing the splendid schemes of enterprise, which marked the career both private and public of the great American financier.

Mr Morris's correspondence with his friends was still continued, though with less frequency and less point, as the topics of keen excitement after the peace were diminished in number and interest. To Mr Jay, who was still in Europe, he wrote on the tenth of January, 1784.

'I was lately in New York, and have the pleasure to tell you, that all your friends were well. Things there are now in that kind of ferment, which was rationally to be expected, and I think the superior advantages of our constitution will now appear, in the repressing of those turbulent spirits, who wish for confusion, because in the regular order of things they can. only fill a subordinate sphere.

'This country has never yet been known to Europe, and God knows whether it ever will be so. To England it is less known, than to any other part of Europe, because they constantly view it through a medium either of prejudice or of faction. True it is, that the general government wants energy, and equally true it is, that this want will eventually be supplied. A national spirit is the natural result of national existence, and although some of the present generation may feel colonial oppositions of opinion, yet this generation will die away and give place to a race of Americans. On this occasion, as on others, Great Britain is our best friend, and by seizing the critical moment when we were about to divide, she has shown clearly the dreadful consequences of division. You will find, that the States are coming into resolutions on the subject of commerce, which, if they had been proposed by Congress on the plain reason of the thing, would have been rejected with resentment and perhaps contempt.

With respect to our taste for luxury, do not grieve about it. Luxury is not so bad a thing as it is often supposed to be, and if it were so, still we must follow the course of things, and