Account of Periodical Papers. do it; but, he fays too, that if we A. We have received repeated and grofs injuries from Spain. B. Attack the Spanish West Indies. B. Why then infift upon fatisfac. tion, indemnification for the påst, and fecurity for the future. us A. Spain will not be at all difpofed to fatisfy, indemnify, or fecure by our fuccefs in any attack upon the Weft Indies. B. Why fo? A. Because he knows that we must C either give up our acquifitions there, D though the refufes an equivalent, or incur total and inevitable ruin by keeping them. B. Who has told her so? A. The writer of a political paper, under the title of the Briton. B. Why, Does not he advife the attack ? A. Yes. What do ye laugh at ? B. Why, because if we take his advice, and if what he fays is true, we shall act just like the poor cuckold who hanged himself to deprive his fpoufe of an annuity which the enjoyed during his life. A. Not fo, neither ? B. Why, what can we gain by the attack if it fucceeds. A. Nay, to be fure, upon his principles, we can gain nothing; but then we lofe only the men and money employed in the expedition. B. That is, if we reftore what we take for nothing? But, if we keep it in hopes Spain will give fomething for it, my fimile will hold. A. Phaw! Let the man answer for himfelf. The NORTH BRITON, No. XXII, contains part of a poem called, Poetry Profears; a fatyr, on the Oxford and Cambridge verfes, upon the birth of a Prince of Wales. (Gent. Mag. November 1762.) 531 The AUDITOR, No. XXIII, contains animadverfions on an examination of The Commercial Principles of the late Negociation, a pamplet, just published. The examiner prefers the island of Guadaloupe to all the conquests which we may keep at a peace, & depreciates Canada,by confidering it as feparate territory, independant of all relation to our North American colonies, rating the value of it, thus condered,at no more than £. 14015: 17:1: per annum: But it is judicioufly obB ferved by the Auditor, that, if he eftimates Guadaloupe in the fame manner, and takes it without connection with or dependance upon other places, it will be eafy to prove, that a commerce thither would not be a benefit, but a difadvantage to England. The writer of the pamphlet fays, that he has eftimated Guadaloupe in its most imper: fet fate, at the time between its being a colony and a conqueft; when it is not well faved, in many parts uncultivated, and is likely for years to improve to higher degrees of confequence; and, he muft allow, that Canada is alfo in its moft imperfect state, the trade ruined by the York, Penfylvania, and Virginia. It is war, and carried to Hudson's Bay, Newwell known that the hope of the country being reftored to France, has reftrained the demand for English commodities in Canada. The inhabitants there are fuppofed to be from fixty to seventy thoufand; and, according to the rate of population in those parts, they must increase amazingly in a few years: Their demand for the commodities of Britain will then rife in proportion, efpecially when, under the benignity of his majesty's reign, commercial ideas have spread amongst them, and they have been taught, by the wisdom of the British government, to make the moft beneficial ufes of their land? But the importance of Canada to this nation, does not arife from what it may produce,either independantly or relatively; it arifes from the quiet and fecurity which will accrue to our other colonies by the acquifition of it; from putting an end to the inroads and malacres of the favages, whom the French were continually inftigating a gainst us; from our being delivered from the expence of fleets, fortreffes, garrifons, and armies, to defend us a gainst a rival power, ftretched along our whole frontier, and ever ready to prefs beyond it; in a word, from preventing occafions of another war, which would undoubtedly happen, as F G H foon 532 Causes of the War with France and Spain. foon as the French fhould be able again to purfue the projects which were the caufe of that which is now, it is to be hoped, near an end. The MONITOR, Nov. 6, fhews that the French were aggreffors in the prefent war, and that our aim has A been only to obtain a lafting and honourable peace. The English, fays he, did not take up arms till neceffity obliged them to defend their property, and to repel force by force: Neither have they profecuted the war with any other B view, or upon any other plan, than to compel the enemy to accept of fuch a peace, as may not leave the embers of a new war which is to feek peace by arms. The English have endeavoured, and well nigh effected, the total extirpa- C tion of the French from North America: But this measure was made neceffary to fecure the English plantations from French encroachments and hoftilities already begun, and to establish a safe and lafting peace on that continent.The difficulties and difcouragements in the African trade, occafioned by the D influence and pretenfions of the French at Senegal and Goree, called aloud for redrefs and deliverance in the conqueft of thofe hoftile fettlements.The lofs of Minorca, and the extraordinary preparations to invade fome of the Britibiles, juftify the feveral ex- E peditions against the coaft of France, and the activity of our fleets, which deprived the enemy of the means to carry the invafion into execution.The miferies brought upon Hanover & our other German allies,under no other pretence than their being connected by the ties of friendship with England, required our utmost efforts to fave them from deftruction.-The French fortifications in the east, their intrigues with the Nabobs and other Indian chiefs in prejudice to the English, and the contineal augmentation of their fleet, which threatened the total G ruin of our trade and navigation beyond the line, roufed that pitit of refentment, wifdom and courage, which. has divested them of all power and inAuence; deftroyed their navy, and driven them from thote strong holds, in which they had placed their dependance. The danger that threatened our leeward iliands, by the French fettling and fortifying the neutral illes, in open violation of treaties; and he preparations at Martiale and Gua F daloupe for invading Jamaica, drew the attention of our arms towards the Weft Indies, and made it necessary to deprive our enemies of thofe places, from whence they hoped to have done us the most harm. And the union of the house of Bourbon against England, which devotes Portugal to be a facrifice to their family intereft, and whofe efficacy depended upon the impregnibility of the Havannah, the inexhaustible treasure of the Spanish Indies, and upon an exclufive trade to South America, obliged us to extend the war, in order to blow up their ftrength on the island of Cuba, to intercept or lock up their riches beyond the ocean, to open a free trade for our merchants to Nerv Spain, and to protect our most faithful ally in the fouth of Europe. While the French were in a condition to encounter our fleets, to inter-rupt our commerce and navigation, to difpute our property and to face our armies in North America; to bid defiance to our amaments beyond the line; to alarm our coafts, and to get home the produce of their colonies; to burn, destroy and depopulate the countries of our allies; and when they had availed themselves of that additional ftrength arifing from the familycompact with the Spanish monarch,our enemies were deaf to the voice of peace: Pondicherry was an eternal bar to a reconciliation in the Eaft: Louifbourg and the forces of Canada fed their ambition with hopes of conquering North America and its fishery : Martinique and Cuadaloupe were tho't equal for any attempt upon our sugar iflands: and the Havannah was provided to give laws to the windward navigation, to annoy our trade, and to deprive us of the advantages of all our conquefts in the Western Ocean. The Monitor then promifes to pursue this fubject in a subsequent paper, but in the next week no Monitor was published. The BRITON, No. XXII, proves, from hiftory, that a mild government and upright adminiftration were feldom or never the objects of popular abufe; his inference is, that we have degenerated from our ancestors, the prefent government being mild, and Hthe adminiftration upright, and yet reviled with a licencioufnels and rancour that is without parallel. The NORTH BRITON, No. XXIII, contains an encomiun on parliaments, and "A View of the Weft-Indian and North-American Trades. 533 and fays,that the very calling of a parliament is a symptom of fanity in our ftate: It implies either that there are no juft grounds of complaint, or that if there are, the prince is ready to redress them. The occafion of this remark, and the general purport of this paper,will fufficiently appear from the following extract : A tains a review of the commercial value of Canada. The Examiner of the commercial Principles having in his remarks on the letter to two great men, laboured in vain to render Great Britain jealous of the commerce of North America, has now, with the fame view, endeavoured to reprefent its commerce as comparatively of little value. He fays, that the North American trade depends upon the Weft Indian trade; his method of proving this is curious: The direct import, he tells us, from B the West Indies in 1759, exclufive of Guadaloupe, was £. 1,834,036 whereas that from North America amounted but to . 648,683.-But the advantages of trade with any place are not to be eítimated by what we import from them? On the contrary, it is well understood that from the quantity of exports the real advantages of Great Britain arife. For this reafon the admirable author of the interefts of Great Britain, with refpect to her colonies, contented himself with fhewing that our exports to North America amounted to £. 1,832948, while thole to the Lugar iflands were only £877,571.. An amazing number of hands mult be employed, and mouths fed here at home, by the former demand for our commodities, and the latter is very fhort of the fame utility. But, fays the Examiner, the returns made by Eth America are greatly inferior to thofe from the fugar colonies, and a ballance ftands against the former no lefs than £1,1842,65. But what then? The ballance must be paid, or our merchants could not go on; and if it is paid, the purposes of trade are compleatly anfwered. But here it is urged, that the Weft India islands enable the Northern colonies, by the traffic they have with them, to make due remittances to Great Britain; and therefore the Weft India is our prime trade, upon which our continental colonies are dependent. A fhort attention to this propofition will detect its falfhood. As our affairs are now fituated, when not only our prefent welfare, but our future profperity, seems to turn upon a moment; when matters of the most interefting nature call for confideration; when bufinefs of the laft confequence is to be done, and there is fo little time to do it in, I will not, I cannot believe, that even that little fhall be made less by the prorogation of the parliament. Let the enemies of the administration pretend what they will, I muft here be an infidel, I must confider it as one of thofe C many lying reports which the fons of fedition induftriously propagate, and with which they endeavour to embroil public affairs, merely to ferve their private interests; nor will I ever give credit to the rumour, till I fee it abWhat! D folutely justified by the event. on the eve of a peace, and of fuch a peace as muft either eftablish or ruin us for ever (for in our prefent fituation, loaded as we are with an enormous debt, there appears no alternative) fhall the great council of the nation be poftponed? True it is, that although they fupply the finews of war, they have no right to make peace; but they have an undoubted right of examining into the peace when made, and, if it shall be found dishonourable and difadvantageous (a circumftance well deferving serious consideration at this time) they have an undoubted right alfo of calling the advisers of it to a fevere account. If the peace be fuch as redounds to the advantage of this nation, no matter by whom it is made. Scot and Englishmen in that refpect are the fame; and matters of let's confequence may remain to be debated afterwards at leifure; but if it shall be inadequate to our great fucceffes, unequal to thofe hopes which we have reasonably formed of fecuring and enlarging our commerce, of freightening the enemy in their marine, and depriving them of those nu: feries of leamen, which alone have enabled them to carry on the war, H then let the advifers of it turn back to paft ages, and, from the examples of others, learn to tremble for themselves. The AUDITOR, No. XXIV, con F 3 How comes it that the fugar plantations have any wealth at all? where is the original fpring of their riches? in England; it confifts in the luxury of the people. We import from the inlands to the amount of £1,834,036 in one year, fo that after deducting for our own exports, we owe them near a Had million. Here then, in the very first inftance,they are created by us. not custom brought fugar into general request, carribees and favages might be 534 A View of the Weft-Indian and North-American Trades. be to this hour the inhabitants of the iflands; which depend upon the fenfations of our palates, not our natural neceffities. When the Examiner calls our fugar plantations the support of the African trade, and the money paid for negroes, in effect a purchafe of British commodities, let it be remembered that Africa and the Weft Indies are mutually dependent on each other; without flaves the latter cannot cultivate their plantations, and where is the obligation if they lay out a part of that wealth they draw from hence for indifpenfible neceffaries? If they do the fame with the northern colonies, it is their want of provisions, lumber, and other materials, that obliges them and were it not so, were the ballance they have against us not to return through collateral channels, a direct trade with them would be ruinous to this country. The Northern colonies would fubfift and flourish though the islands were at the bottom of the fea. But, fays the Examiner, North America could not pay the large ballance that the owes to Britain, were it not for the advantages the derives from the fugar colo nies: how far that affertion is true, we will now examine. Swedes demanded of us three pounds per barrel for tar, and would not suffer it to be exported but in their own fhips: In confequence of this difpute, the commodity was imported from North America, and the price has been reduced to 18 fhillings per barrel. In A time of war the French find it almost impoffible to fit out a fleet in the Mediterranean, and even from Breft, as we intercept their ftores from the Northern powers, where only they can then be fupplied. Hence the Brith fuperiority at fea is almoft enfured; and moreover the large quantity of thips built in North America, and fent to Britain and other parts of Europe, is not mentioned by the Examiner. He omitted all thefe articles, that his beloved iflands might have the honour of fupporting, and of courfe rendering lefs refpectable, the North American trade; whereas, we now fee from what has been mentioned, that the great fund of their wealth and riches lies in other branches of commerce, and in other parts of the world. B C Certain it is the northern colonies can fubfiit without the sugar islands, as they derive no neceffaries from them; that the fugar plantations draw all their wealth, their provifions, the neceilary materials for their works, their very being and protection from the British and American continents; and that North America by taking, in its present state, two millions of our commodities and manufactures, and paying for them by its trade with other places, and its own products, which are either neceflaries, or materials for manufactures, without a fingle article of luxury, is intitled to the highest rank in our commercial fyftem. The BRITON, No. XXIII, has not the leaft relation to public affairs, but confifts wholly of personal abuse. North America, as has been mentioned already, takes near two millions a year in the products of Great Britain, and returns in its own commodities ahout one third of the value: How then does it pay the reft? They ex- E port to the French and Spanish Weft Indies corn, flower, lumber, live itock, &c. for which they receive fugar and moloffes, and a large ballance of cath. Thus the very enemy are under contribution to them: They feed them in time of peace, and can starve them in time of war; for which reafon that trade was allowed by parliament, when complained of by our own fugar planters. But the other day one ship brought from North America 1,30000 1. in money; and befide this, her ballance is made up to Britain by cath from Spain, Portugal and Italy, in return for the fith, rice, &c. fent to thofe parts. This laft article does not appear upon our custom house books, but the Examiner was not ignorant of it. He likewife knew, that thips and naval ftores are the ftaple commodities of the Northern colonies, and because he has not found them in custom-boufe from that continent to the Weft Indies, entries, is he refolved to give no credit for them? Their naval stores are a molt material article. In 1718, the The NORTH BRITON, No. XXIV, alfo confifts wholly of perfonal abuse, in the form of a dialogue, between GEarl Buchanan and Duke d'Ossura. The AUDITOR, No. XXV, contains, among others, the following important and judicions obfervations relative to the value of our North American colonies. It is certain that the whole trade does not amount to one fourth of the balance due to Great Britain from Nero York, Penfylvania, and the other fettle A View of the Weft-Indian and North-American Trades. 535 thus be ftrengthened both with men and riches. It is an uncontroverted maxim,that, for a nation constituted like ours, that trade is not the beft which opens the fhortest road to money; on the contrary, that which inures the greatest number of hands to rough and honeft induftry, and occafions a variety of labour, by which millions are fupported, in order ultimately to bring over to us that precious ore which is dug by flaves out of the mines of Mexico and Peru, is the true natural commerce of Great Britain. The quality, therefore, of goods imported,is of infinitely more confequence than the quantity. Sugar, though a prodigious deal comes over, employs but a very few hands in the refining, and is then totally confumed. The returns from North America are, in a great measure, Cmaterials for thofe very manufactures, which the afterwards buys from us again; and in this view her returns are of much higher value to a nation of merchants and mechanics, than the exports of the islands, which appear fo mighty upon the Custom Houfe Dbooks. ments; and even that trade might be If we add to the above view of improvements in the North American trade, the prodigious encrease of population in thofe regions, what a mighty profpect of advantage opens itself to the minifters, who have made that part of the British dominions the chief object of their care in the negociations of peace! additional numbers there will be an additional demand for the manufactures of this country; and I think it is agreed that nothing çan tend to much to the better peopling Great Britain, as full employment for artificers and workmen of every kind. The hands of the government will The demand of North America for the exports of this country, is at prefent near two millions, and, in all probability, it will be more than double in a few years. Befides, her returns confift in the most material necessary articles, mostly grofs commodities, which employ at least four thousand fhips, and fmaller veffels, and at least forty thousand feamen, including the Newfoundland fishery, from all which the government acquires the prime finews of war, men, money, and naval ftores; alfo the great promoters of the Farts of peace, commodities for the fupport and employment of the industri G ous. Of this great fyftem Canada is a part; from thence the prefent war broke out, and threatened destruction to our interefts in that part of the world. Its value, therefore, is, that it will be henceforward a fafeguard and frontier for those places to which, before, it was dangerous. As Cape Breton is to fall with Canada, it should properly be considered as a part of it. And furely when we reflect that it has upon its hores one of the belt fisheries in the world, and abounds likewife with coal and lum ber, all which commodities the French ufed from thence to carry to their fugar-colonies, it will be allowed a confideral |