

C O L O N Y. 





General Observations. 







The shipping employed Tons 160,000 



Number of seamen above :?(),000 



The Britih West India trade v>.i> i-i value about two- 

 thirds of the French ; while the number of our seamen 

 rmployed in it, in consequence of their superior dexteri- 

 ty, was lew than half. In fact, the West India trade oc- 

 cupied half the mercantile navy of France, while, in our 

 i', its proportion to the whole was not more than a 

 ninth. The total of our mercantile tonnage, previous to 

 the French revolution, was three times that of France ; 

 the number of our seamen was double. It deserves to be 

 it-marked, that, in the West India trade, the average size 

 of British shipping is nearly .WO tons, while of French 

 West Indiamcn, so lately as the years 1791 and 1792, the 

 average (Brougham, vol. i. p. 177.) was below 100 tons. 1 ) 

 ni-ti and Danhh and Swedish Colonies. The northern powers 

 eduh were, at the time of the great discoveries of the sixteenth 

 ct'loniM. century, too insignificant to obtain any considerable share 

 of these distant acquisitions. Their trade, as Sir Wil- 

 liam Temple says, was " war," and war conducted on 

 land and in their own neighbourhood. About two cen- 

 turies ago, Denmark acquired some small settlements on 

 the coast of Coromandel ; and agreeably to the current 

 practice, put them under the management of an exclu- 

 sive company. This company shared the ordinary fate 

 of these associations, and became insolvent. It was suc- 

 ceeded, in the course of years, by a second, a third, and 

 even by a fourth company, all of whom arrived at the 

 same end ; the demise of the last, however, being pro- 

 crastinated, as in the case of our own East India Com- 

 pany, by the union of territorial sovereignty with the 

 possession of the exclusive trade. At last, in 1777, the 

 crown purchased the rights of the company, and open- 

 ed, under certain limitations, the India trade to indi- 

 viduals at large. In 1792, these limitations were far- 

 ther relaxed, and all persons, whether Danes or fo- 

 reigners, were permitted to trade with India, on condi- 

 tion of bringing their cargoes to Copenhagen. The long 

 war which followed, and involved all the south of Eu- 

 rope, threw a great deal of India trade into the hands 

 of the Danes ; and their flag was used as a convenient 

 medium by private traders in our own country. It has 

 been for a century past, the policy both of Denmark and 

 Sweden to avoid maritime war, and to profit by the hos- 

 tilities of other countries. Nothing but the pressure of 

 necessity would have made the Danes depart from this 

 course in 1 807. 



The West India colonies of Denmark consist of San- 

 ta Cruz, and of two insignificant islands. This trade 

 was formerly vested in the hands of a company who fail- 

 ed ; and for a long time this trade likewise has been open 

 to all inhabitants of Denmark, with hardly any other re- 

 striction than that of bringing their produce to the ca- 

 pital, or to a port which is privileged to erect a sugar 

 -cfinery. 



Sweden possesses no colony except the small island of 

 St Bartholomew, which was obtained thirty years ago 

 from France. The trade with this little spot is also 

 under specific limitations, Stockholm and Gottenburg 

 being the two privileged harbours, and an association 

 bearing the name of a West India Company possessing 

 the direction of the intercourse. The returns, however, 

 do not probably amount tot 50,000 a-year. The Swedes 

 have likewise an East India Company, whose dealings 

 are very limited, and who are in the peculiar, but pro- 

 bably not unfortunate tituation of possessing no Indian 

 territory. 



Moli-ccs for Emigration. It is common to make a Ml) 

 distinction between ancient and modern colonies, by ascri- ,' or 

 bing the origin of the former to the want of subsistence, i.o 

 and that of the latter to commercial projects. The dis- 

 tinction, however, holds less generally than many are in- 

 clined to suppose. The want, or rather the imaj ; 

 want, of subsistence, had a powerful operation in sending 

 abroad many of the English emigrants to North Ame- 

 rica. Mr Brougham has caught this idea, and is at grent 

 pains (vol. i. p. 34.) to shew, that, in the progress of 

 society, certain classes may be exposed to a very r 

 ble diminution of their accustomed enjoyments, and con- 

 sequently acquire a disposition to emigrate. While >ve 

 have great pleasure in bearing testimony to the ability ofhis 

 illustrations in this and several other topics, in his Colo- 

 i/iul Policy, we cannot help thinking, from the length of 

 his observations, that he has sought too far for the mo- 

 tives which lead to the exchange of an old for a newly 

 settled country. In our opinion, the comparison which 

 an ardent mind is prepared to make between the unbound- 

 ed prospect offered by the one, and the well-ascertained 

 toil and trouble attendant on a continued residence in the 

 other, is amply sufficient to account for such emigrations. 

 As to the facility of obtaining subsistence, we are inclined 

 to think that most long settled countries are on a par, for 

 the plain reason, that an increase of population is inva- 

 riably found to attend an increase of provisions. Ireland 

 contributes annually a considerable number of colonists 

 to the American states; and the emigrants, be it remark- 

 ed, are chiefly from the Protestant part of the popula- 

 tion. Now, on the score of subsistence, the Irish Pro- 

 testants are less uncomfortably situated than their Catho- 

 lic neighbours who do not emigrate ; a fact which shews 

 that the influence of necessity, in this case, is a relative, 

 not an absolute feeling. Moreover, a passage to Ame- 

 rica costs at present, and, we believe, always did cost, a 

 sum which, small as it may be, would afford to the emi- 

 grant the means of subsisting at home for a season. Our 

 opinion, therefore, is, that the want, not of a mere sub- 

 sistence, but of a comfortable livelihood, has been the 

 chief motive for emigration in modern as well as in an- 

 cient times ; and that this want was not, in general, the 

 result of any sudden or particular change of circum- 

 stances, so much as of the predilection with which a 

 man, aware of the necessity of prolonged labour at 

 home, is apt to contemplate his prospects in a new 

 countrj'. Adverting to the case of Scotland, we admit 

 the Highland emigrations to have been, in general, the 

 result of a direct cause, the loss of employment to 

 the inhabitants, by the extensive introduction of sheep- 

 farming. On the other hand, the annual drain of our 

 young countrymen from the Lowlands to the West In- 

 dies, affords a striking example of the relative nature 

 of the consideration mentioned above. They go abroad 

 in quest, not of a mere support, but, as they imagine, 

 of a more comfortable one than they can find at home. 

 A farther argument in favour of our view of the cause of 

 emigration, is to be found in the agricultural situation of 

 Great Britain. Until the middle of last century, or ra- 

 ther until the year 1770, we were in the habit of making 

 annual exportations of corn ; a sufficient reason for not 

 going out of the country in quest of a bare subsistence. 

 Ireland at the present day is a corn-exporting country; 

 and were the husbandry of Lothian, Berwickshire, or 

 Northumberland generally introduced into the more fa- 

 vourable soil and climate of the west and south of Eng- 

 land, a material alteration would ensue. Great Britain 



