and injustice, and admits, that the evil originates in overtrading, But neither of these authors has stated to what cause this overtrading was owing.. Neither of them (and on Mr Spence it was peculiarly incumbent) has denounced the African slave traffic as the root of the whole evil, Their deductions are thus materially defective; for they leave their reader to wonder, how so strange a thing can have happened as a continued sup ply of rude produce all over the tropical colonies, for years exceeding the demands of the market; and, unless this difficulty is clearly explained, many thinking persons will be slow of believing the positions which involve it. But how immeasur ably more important, even than this, was the benefit derived to the cause of sound principles, by showing mankind that their advocates, after being ridiculed as fanatics, or at best pitied as mere theorists, are in the end borne out triumphantly, by the testimony of facts; and that, in the most famous instance in which the claims of justice and of policy were ever attempted to be contrasted, they have been found wholly to coincide!

Before proceeding to examine the ftate of this important cafe, as it is now given to the public, we muft recal to the recollection of our readers, in a very few words, the doctrine which we maintained when the queftion was formerly under difcuffion; becaufe we fhall be obliged to fhow, how all the attempts to overthrow it have terminated in placing it upon ftill firmer ground, and because there is no one part of the controverfy which may not be most fpeedily decided by an appeal to that doctrine.

The Weft Indian body afcribed their diftreffes to the excefs of fugars in the British market; and the more independent members of their clafs imputed this, in a great degree, to the abfurd fyftem of capturing fugar colonies, into which the war waged by England had for many years degenerated; while the reft traced it only to. the difficulty of reexporting produce to the Continent, and the cheap fupply of the foreign markets by neutral carriage. In oppofition to this ftatement, we endeavoured to show, that there was an excess of fugars, not merely in the British market, but in the market of the world; that America made more fugar than Europe and America together could confume; that, although the various effects of the war might cause this glut to affect the different colonies fomewhat differently, the evil was general and independent of the war; and that, although fome palliatives might be adminiftered, the only radical cure was to be found in a diminished culture of the fugar cane all over the Weft Indies. For the proofs by which thefe pofitions were maintained, we refer our readers to the Ninth article of the Twenty-firft number.

Since the publication of that article, another committee has

been

pro

been appointed by the Houfe of Commons to inquire into the per means of relieving the West Indian body. It was an obvious remark upon the proceedings of the former committee, that they had avoided the material part of the question; and, without intending the flighteft difrefpect towards them, we took the liberty of fuggefting, that their inquiries had never been pointed towards this quarter, where they had every reafon to expect their adverfaries would be eager to meet them. It is certainly very poffible, that the Weft Indians fhould not have anticipated the arguments by which they were affailed; but it would have been much more in the common courfe of things, if fome one of the many acute and indefatigable perfons, who do honour to that large and refpect able clafs, had thought fit to infert, in the multiplicity of depofitions and documents, a folitary queftion or account illuftrative of the state of the Continental fugar market. Such a statement could not have greatly extended a report, already fufficiently voluminous. It would have borne, even in the eye of a careless inquir er, a more obvious relation to the question at issue, than nine tenths of the evidence which the committee amaffed; and its production would have removed all grounds for cavil and fufpicion,perhaps have precluded the neceffity of further investigation. But after the public had been fairly put in poffeffion of the argument against the planters,-when a further inquiry was found to be abfolutely requifite, because of the imperfect manner in which the firft had been conducted,-we furely had fome right to expect, from the new committee, a full production of every attainable piece of evidence, and more efpecially of that information which most immediately bears upon the chief, nay the only point at iflue. We lament exceedingly to find, that this expectation is difappointed. A volume of above four hundred folio pages, clofely printed, has been the fruit of the committee's labours. Much information, of very great value, as we fhall fpeedily fhow by pointing out its application, is no doubt contained in this book. The talents and practical knowledge exhibited by the witnesses, are highly creditable to them; and are fuch, indeed, as only the merchants of the first commercial country in the world could have difplayed. The industry of the committee is alfo very commendable; for, befides collecting papers, and preparing fome very able reports, they appear to have continued fitting to hear evidence upwards of two months. Yet, ftrange to tell, with the omiffions of their predeceffors before their eyes, as the very caufe of their own appointment, with the queftion before their eyes, whether

the

* This includes the two Reports of 1806 & 1807, on the Distil-. leries and the State of the West Indies,

the glut of fugar is general or topical?-(for this question they have plainly gone out of their way to avoid, after having given it an indirect answer)-with the knowledge which they must have had, that this queftion could only be fettled in the planter's favour by proving the Continental market to be underftocked-with the fullest powers offending for perfons, and calling for papers,'they have actually left the direct evidence where they found it, after a few arguments from accounts formerly produced; and have given us not one tittle of new proof, either that the general fupply of fugar is lefs, or the general demand for it greater, than their adverfaries had maintained it to be. What is the obvious inference from this omiflion? That no fuch proof exists.

In our former article upon this queftion, we brought direct proofs of the contrary pofitions; and although we are far from fuppofing, that the members of the committee ever caft their eyes over thefe humble pages, we are quite confident that the Weft Indian body are aware of every argument adduced against them; and would have contrived means, in the course of their depofitions before the committee, to difcredit our evidence, or to rebut it by counter-proofs, had it been poffible. As we certainly have no right to offer ftrictures upon the proceedings of a parliamentary committee, we truft no one will fufpect us of any fuch intention. We confine ourselves entirely to the statements of the Weft Indians; and if we take these from the reports of the committee, it is only because we there find them brought together in the most convenient form.

The only argument advanced by the Weft Indians, which even profeffes to meet the doctrine maintained by us, is drawn from a comparison of the import with the export of fugar during a feries of years. This has been brought forward with much triumph, and has received, we are rather furprifed to obferve, the fanction of a committee, faid to have been conftituted purposely, of fuch a variety of claties, as must confine the Weft Indian intereft to that influence alone, which their evidence and reafonings fhould beftow. We fhall therefore examine it with fome attention. average annual importation of fugar, fay they, into the United kingdom, for five years ending 1785, was 131,600 hogfheads of 12 cwt. each. * The average exportation, for the fame period, was 13,100 hogfheads, leaving for the annual home confumption 118,500. The average home confumption of 18c2 and 1803, ob

'The

tained

* Through the whole of the calculations in this article, we reduce the cwts. of the Report, and other statements, to hogsheads of 12 cwt.; and, in general, neglect the figures in the two right hand places. Refined is of course always reduced to raw, by the usual proportion,

tained by the fame calculation, was 184,000 hogfheads; the fame average for four years ending 187, was no less than 219,700 hogfheads; and the home confumption of the laft of thofe years, 1807, was 210,000, exclufive of the direct import into Ireland, which, calculated at its amount in 1806, would raise the total home confumption of the empire, in 1807, as high as 221,000 hogfheads. Hence it is inferred, that the annual confumption of fugar in this country has increafed, in about twenty years, from about 1 18,000 to above 220,000, or that upwards of 100,000 hogfheads more of that commodity are used now than were required twenty years ago. Again, the average annual export in 1802 and 1803 was 141,800 hogfheads. The average annual import of old British colony fugar, during four years, ending 1807, was 252,200 hogfheads; from which, if you deduct the average confumption for the fame period, as above estimated, there remains an overplus of 32,500 hogfheads; but the laft peace export was 141,800 hogfheads. Hence it is inferred, that, upon a restoration of peace, the demand of the Continental market would exceed, by 108,300 hogfheads, the whole overplus of the British colony produce ;—or that, after fatisfying the home confumption, we fhould find there was a demand for our fugars much greater than we could answer. Such a picture is, no doubt, fo very gratifying, that one is rather unwilling, after contemplating it, to look at the reality. But this, though an ungrateful, is, nevertheless, an indifpenfable duty; and we must therefore go through the tiresome work of fifting the statement just now analyzed.

In the first place, this statement is liable to feveral particular objections, nearly fatal to the credit of the calculations upon which it proceeds. The choice of the five years ending 1785, as the ftandard by which to eftimate the increase of confumption, is peculiarly unfortunate; for many extraordinary circumstances concurred to diminish the import of British fugars during that period, and to affect the whole of our fugar trade. The enemy was in poffeffion of Grenada, St Vincent, and Dominica, (iflands which exported about 25,000 hogfheads annually), during the whole of 1781 and 1782, and until the execution of the treaty of Versailles in 1783. St Kitts, Montferrat, and Nevis, which afforded an export of about 28,000 hogfheads, were in his hands from the very beginning of 1782 till the end of the war. The lofs of produce occafioned by the military operations of the war in most of those captured islands, and by fire in fome of them, is well known. Dominica, in particular, was well nigh ruined; and feveral of those unfortunate fettlements were vifited by fevere hurricanes and droughts in the course of the fame period. That dreadful fcourge, indeed, never fell fo heavily upon the West India islands as during

the

the five years in question; and Jamaica, in particular, was laid wafte by it no lefs than thrice within that time. The want of fupplies from America, and the other bad effects of the enemy's naval fuperiority in those feas were fo feverely felt, that the Affembly of Jamaica eftimated the lofs of flaves, arifing from famine, in a fhort period, at 15,000. From all these causes, which we really must be excufed for thinking the Weft Indian body cannot have forgotten, it refulted, that the import of fugar into Britain during the five years in queftion, was much lefs than it had been for many years before, or has ever been fince. It was only, as we have already ftated, about 131,000 hogfheads, and the export about 13,000; whereas, the average annual import from the fame colonies for five years ending 1775, was nearly 153,000 hogsheads, the export 6,900; and the average of four years ending 1790, was above 162,000 imported, and 12,000 exported. Had the earlier of thefe periods been affumed as a ftandard, the home confumption would then have been 146,000 hogfheads. Had the last riod been referred to, which is on every account preferable, we fhould have had a confumption of 150,000 hogfheads, inftead of 118,oco, wherewith to compare the alleged confumption of the prefent day; so that the supposed increase of confumption would have been, not 100,000 hogfheads in twenty, as the Weft Indians ftate, but only 70,000 hogfheads in fifteen years; and no more than 74,000 hogiheads in thirty years. The advantage thus gained, we fhall perhaps be told, is not great. Then, we anfwer, it was the lefs worth getting in this very ftrange way. But fome perfons may perhaps think à difference of 26,000 or of 30,000 hogfheads, no fuch trifling matter, when they recollect that the whole question of the diftilleries has been raised with a view to relieve the fugar market of exactly this amount of produce.

pe

Still more undeniable is the error which prevails in the other branch of the statement. In order to show that the produce of the old British settlements could not answer the demands of the foreign market on a return of peace, the West Indians take the average annual export of 1802 and 1803, as the probable demand of the Continent, and compare it with the difference between the import from the old settlements in the following years, and the total export to the Continent. Now, this is manifestly an unfair estimate, even admitting the general mode of estimating consumption which the West Indians adopt. For the export of 1802 included, not merely the export of old British colony produce, but the whole of the produce of the conquered colonies. The definitive treaty was signed March 25th; and three months were allowed for restoring those conquests. But before the end of June, the whole of the sugars raised there were shipped for Eng

land;