PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION 



THE sale of a large impression of this Work, in a little 

 more than twelve months, having induced the bookseller 

 to publish a Second Edition, I have availed myself of the op- 

 portunity of correcting several errors which have crept into 

 the first, but 1 have not found it necessary to enlarge my book 

 with any new matter of my own, worthy of mention. The 

 only additions of importance are a few notes and illustrations, 

 with which the kindness of friends has enabled me to supply 

 some of my deficiencies. I have thought it proper, however, 

 in that part of the sixth book which treats of the commercial 

 system, to insert a copy of the provisional bill presented to the 

 House of Commons in March 1782, by the Right Hon. 

 WILLIAM PITT, Chancellor of the Exchequer, for the pur- 

 pose of reviving the beneficial intercourse that existed be- 

 fore the late American war, between the United States and 

 the British Sugar islands. This bill, through the influence- of 

 popular prejudice and other causes, was unfortunately lost. 

 Had it passed into a law it would probably have saved from 

 the horrors of famine fifteen thousand unoffending negroes, 

 who miserably perished (in Jamaica alone) from the sad ef- 

 fects of the fatal restrictive system which prevailed ! The pub- 

 lication of this bill, therefore, is discharging a debt of jus- 

 tice to the minister and myself: to Mr. Pitt, because it proves 

 that his first ideas on this question were founded on principles 



