1

neither necessity nor inclination to go into manufacture for you, and govern you.

A reader of the Remarks may be apt to say, if this writer would have us restore Canada, on principles of mo, deration, how can we, consistent with those principles, retain Guadaloupe, which he represents of so much greater value !—I will endeavor to explain this, because by doing it, I shall have an opportunity of showing the truth and good sense of the answer to the interested application I have just supposed: the author then is only apparently and not really inconsistent with himself. If we can obtain the credit of moderation by restoring Canada, it is well: but we should, however, restore it at all events; because it would not only be of no use to us; but "the possession of it (in his opi-, nion) may in its consequences be dangerous."3 As how? Why, plainly, (at length it comes out) if the French are not left there to check the growth of our colonies," they will extend themselves almost without bounds into the inland parts, and increase infinitely from all causes; becoming a numerous, hardy, independent people; possessed of a strong country, communicating little or not at all with England, living wholly on their own labor, and in process of time knowing little and enquiring little about the mothercountry." In short, according to this writer, our present colonies are large enough and numerous enough; and the French ought to be left in North America to prevent their increase, lest they become not only useless, but dangerous to Britain. I agree with the gentleman, that with Canada in our possession, our people in America will increase amazingly. I know, that their common rate of increase, where they are not molested by the enemy, is doubling their numbers every twenty-five years, by natural generation only; exclusive of the accession of foreigners. I

3 Remarks p. 50, 51.

4 The reason of this greater increase in America than in Europe is, that in old settled countries, all trades, farms, offices, and employments are full; and many people refrain from marrage till they see an opening, in which they can settle

think this increase continuing would probably, in a century more, make the number of British subjects on that side the water more numerous than they now are on this; But,

4. Not necessary that the American colonies should cease being useful to the mother-country. Their preference over the West-Indian colonies stated.

I am far from entertaining on that account, any fears of their becoming either useless or dangerous to us; and I look on those fears to be merely imaginary, and without any probable foundation. The remarker is reserved in giving his reasons; as in his opinion this " is not a fit subject for discussion."—I shall give mine, because I conceive it a subject necessary to be discussed; and the rather, as those fears, how groundless and chimerical soever, may, by possessing the multitude, possibly induce the ablest ministry to conform to them against their own judgment; and thereby prevent the assuring to the British name and nation a stability and permanency, that no man acquainted with history durst have hoped for, till our American possessions opened the pleasing prospect. The remarker thinks, that our people in America," finding no check from Canada, would extend themselves almost without bounds into the inland parts, and increase infinitely from all causes." The very reason he assigns for their so extending, and which is indeed the true one (their being "invited to it by the pleasantness, fertility, and plenty of the country,") may satisfy us, that this extension will continue to proceed, as long as there remains any pleasant fertile country within their reach. And if we even suppose them confined by the waters of the Mississippi westward, and by those of St. Laurence and the lakes

themselves, with a reasonable prospect of maintaining a family : but in America, it being easy to obtain land, which, with moderate labor will afford subsistence and something to spare, people marry more readily and earlier in life, whence arises a numerous offspring and the swift population of those countries. It is a common error, that we cannot fill our provinces or increase the number of them, without draining this nation of its people. The increase alone of our present colonies is sufficient for both those purposes. [Written in 1760.]

to the northward; yet still we shall leave them room enough to increase, even in the manner of settling now practised there, till they amount to perhaps a hundred millions of souls. This must take some centuries to fulfil: and in the mean time, this nation must necessarily supply them with the manufactures they consume; because the new settlers will be employed in agriculture; and the new settlements will so continually draw off the spare hands from the old, that our present colonies will not, during the period we have mentioned, find themselves in a condition to manufacture, even for their own inhabitants, to any considerable degree, much less for those who are settling behind them.

Thus our trade must, till that country becomes as fully peopled as England (that is for centuries to come) be continually increasing, and with it our naval power; because the ocean is between us and them, and our ships and seamen must increase as that trade increases.-The human body and the political differ in this; that the first is limited by nature to a certain stature; which, when attained, it cannot ordinarily exceed: the other, by better government and more prudent policy, as well as by the change of manners and other circumstances, often takes fresh starts of growth, after being long at a stand; and may add tenfold to the dimensions it had for ages been confined to. The mother, being of full stature, is in a few years equalled by a growing daughter: but in the case of a mother-country and her colonies, it is quite different. The growth of the children tends to increase the growth of the mother, and so the difference and superiority is longer preserved. Were the inhabitants of this island limited to their present number by any thing in nature, or by unchangeable circumstances, the equality of population between the two countries might indeed sooner come to pass: 'but sure experience, in those parts of the island where manufactures have been introduced, teaches us; that people increase and multiply in proportion as the means and facility of gaining a livelihood increase; and that this island, if they could be employed, is capable of supporting ten times its present number of people. In propor

tion, therefore, as the demand increases for the manufactures of Britain, by the increase of people in her colonies, the number of her people at home will increase; and with them, the strength as well as the wealth of the nation. For satisfaction in this point, let the reader compare in his mind the number and force of our present fleets, with our fleet in Queen Elizabeth's time," before we had colonies. Let

him compare the ancient, with the present state of our towns on or near our western coast (Manchester, Liverpool, Kendal, Lancaster, Glasgow, and the countries round them) that trade with any manufactures for our colonies (not to mention Leeds, Halifax, Sheffield, and Birmingham,) and consider what a difference there is in the numbers of people, buildings, rents, and the value of land and of the produce of land; even if he goes back no farther than is within man's memory. Let him compare those countries with others on the same island, where manufactures have not yet extended themselves: observe the present difference, and reflect how much greater our strength may be (if numbers give strength) when our manufactures shall occupy every part of the island where they can possibly be subsisted.

But, say the objectors, "there is a certain distance from the sea, in America, beyond which the expence of carriage will put a stop to the sale and consumption of your manufactures; and this, with the difficulty of making returns for them, will oblige the inhabitants to manufacture for themselves; of course, if you suffer your people to extend their settlements beyond that distance, your people become useless to you:" and this distance is limited by some to twohundred miles, by others to the Apalachian mountains.Not to insist on a plain truth, that no part of a dominion, from whence a government may on occasion draw supplies and aids both of men and money (though at too great a distance to be supplied with manufactures from some other part) is therefore to be deemed useless to the whole; I shall endeavor to show, that these imaginary limits of uti

5 Viz. forty sail, none of more than forty guns.

lity, even in point of commerce, are much too narrow. The inland parts of the continent of Europe are farther from the sea, than the limits of settlement proposed for America. Germany is full of tradesmen and artificers of all kinds, and the governments there are not all of them always favorable to the commerce of Britain; yet it is a well-known fact, that our manufactures find their way even into the heart of Germany. Ask the great manufacturers and merchants of the Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham, Manchester, and Norwich goods; and they will tell you, that some of them send their riders frequently through France or Spain, and Italy, up to Vienna, and back through the middle and northern parts of Germany, to show samples of their wares, and collect orders, which they receive by almost every mail, to a vast amount. Whatever charges arise on the carriage of goods are added to the value, and all paid by the consumer. If these nations, over whom we can have no government, over whose consumption we can have no influence, but what arises from the cheapness and goodness of our wares, whose trade, manufactures, or commercial connections are not subject to the control of our laws, as those of our colonies certainly are in some degree; I say, if these nations purchase and consume such quantities of our goods, notwithstanding the remoteness of their situation from the sea; how much less likely is it that the settlers in America, who must for ages be employed in agriculture chiefly, should make cheaper for themselves the goods our manufacturers at present supply them with; even if we suppose the carriage five, six, or seven hundred miles from the sea as difficult and expensive, as the like distance into Germany: whereas in the latter, the natural distances are frequently doubled by political obstructions; I mean the intermixed territories and clashing interests of princes. But when we consider, that the inland parts of America are penetrated by great navigable

6 Sir C. Whitworth has the following assertion: "Each state in Germany is jealous of its neighbors; and hence, rather than facilitate the export or transmit of its neighbor's products or manufactures, they have all recourse to strangers." State of Trade, p. xxiv.