140 The British West India Colonies, [FEB. 



who do not subscribe, to the most extreme of their doctrines, on the 

 subject of free trade. 



We have often been much amused with the extent to which this sort 

 of dominion has been carried. In our occasional walks into the city, we 

 sometimes encounter an unworthy son of some hardy North Briton, who 

 had probably been transferred, unbreeched, from his native hills to the 

 more genial clime of the western world, there to realize a fortune now in 

 the possession of this his nondescript descendant. 



He generally meets us with an apologetic grimace for being found in 

 that neighbourhood, and nothing shocks his feelings so much as to be 

 classed as a West Indian. We have also seen M. P/s, and others 

 denominated influential individuals, in a similar predicament, although 

 their errand may have been, to draw from the produce of their West 

 India property, the means of maintaining their station in society. We 

 and all other persons would think much better of such individuals, and 

 they would be more worthy of the sires from whom they are descended, 

 were they honestly to avow the property which they inherit ; and to 

 acknowledge and fairly connect themselves with the many weighty 

 duties which its proper management imposes upon them. 



On the subject of free trade we have no unsocial predilections; but 

 we think there is good reason in saying it should not be made to over- 

 ride all those connections and interests which have arisen out of our 

 colonial establishments. 



The very name of colony implies that the trade between it and 

 the mother country is strictly national, and is not to be consi- 

 dered in the light of a foreign trade ; and that the obligations which 

 have been established when the colonies were created, are not to be 

 broken down without the most open, complete, and deliberate deci- 

 sion : it is a thing not to be done by a side wind, and ought never 

 to be attempted in that manner. It has been estimated that we now 

 derive an annual revenue of nearly seven millions from the duties on the 

 commodities imported from our West India Colonies, the statement of 

 which fact, carries with it a view of the very extended interests that are 

 involved in a system producing such a result, and we should, at all 

 events, ascertain fully the benefits that we are to receive in exchange, 

 before we break it down. 



Have we at present to complain of the high price of the commodities 

 which we now draw from thence? Or can we obtain a permanent 

 supply of them on better terms from any other country ? or can we, in 

 any other way, command the numerous additional advantages that accom- 

 pany these fixed and secure channels of trade ? 



It is often bruited forth that this country pays largely for a West 

 India monopoly; but any person who has attended to our preceding 

 remarks will see the inconsistency of such assertions. If the rate of 

 duties levied in this country on the produce of our Colonies be too low 

 in reference to those levied on similar commodities from foreign coun- 

 tries, let all such questions be the subject of fair and open discussion and 

 arrangement. We feel, however, particular objections to any extended 

 facility being given, on lower duties, to our direct trade with the Brazils, 

 Cuba, and other countries who still carry on the slave trade ; objections, 

 which, we have no doubt, will equally enter into the minds of our 

 readers. By being too indifferent with regard to that point, this country 

 loses one of its principal arguments with foreign nations for enforcing 



