250 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. n. 



and prudent, for counteracting them. This was, the 

 laving open the trade to the islands of Trinidad, Porto- 

 Rico, Hispaniola, and Cuba, to every province in 

 Spain, and permitting goods of all kinds to be sent 

 thither, on the payment of moderate duties. Thus 

 the temptation of an illicit commerce with foreign na- 

 tions, being in a great measure removed, there was 

 reason to believe that the effect would cease with the 

 cause. 



Such, however, is the superiority or comparative 

 cheapness of British manufactures, that it is probable 

 the trade would have revived to a certain degree, if 

 the British ministry of 1765, after giving orders for 

 the admission of Spanish vessels into our ports in the 

 West Indies, had proceeded no further. But, in the 

 following year they obtained an act of parliament for 

 opening the chief ports of Jamaica and Dominica, to 

 all foreign vessels of a certain description. The mo- 

 tives which influenced the framers of this law, were 

 undoubtedly laudable; they justly considered the re- 

 covery of the Spanish trade as a matter of the utmost 

 consequence, and concluded that the traders would 

 naturally prefer those ports in which their safety was 

 founded on law, to places where their preservation 

 depended only on the precarious tenure of connivance 

 and favour. Other ostensible reasons were assigned 

 in support of the measure ; but the jealousy of Spain 

 was awakened, and the endeavours of the British 

 parliament on this occasion, served only to increase 

 the evil which was meant to be redressed. By an un- 

 fortunate over-sight, the collectors at the several BrU 



