COLONY. 



757 



Causes of 

 colonial 



C.siony. would cease to be dependant on foreign countries for 

 Y ^ corn, and might be enabled to maintain even an addi- 

 tional population from her own resources. 



Causes of Colonial Prosperity. Various reasons con- 

 cur to accelerate the progress of a colony in the career 

 prosperity. ,. . . . m, ' , r 



of wealth and consequence. The country chosen for a 



colony hai generally the advantage of a good soil and 

 climate. Ihe colonists, emigrating from a civilized 

 quarter, bring along with them the habits both of in- 

 dustry and of subordination. They bring also a small ca- 

 pital, not perhaps in the shape of money, but in that of 

 tools, or other productive stock ; and they are little ac- 

 tuated by that ostentation and disposition to expence, 

 , which, in our part of the world, interferes so materially 

 with the augmentation of property. Utility is the great 

 object in a new settlement, and the habits of consump- 

 tion do not greatly exceed the limits of necessity. Their 

 towns are few, and, for many years, of small size, so that 

 the majority lead a country life : a situation of all others 

 the most conducive to habits of economy. The local 

 government is generally guided by a correipondent train 

 of feeling. It meddles little with foreign affairs, seeks 

 no quarrels, and confines its expenditure within very 

 narrow limits ; the consequence of which is, that the 

 taxes are very light, and the citizen is left in possession 

 of almost all the fruits of his labour. The augmen- 

 tation of property would be still quicker, were capital 

 abundant among them ; but men of capital do not emi- 

 grate, and in new colonies, consequently, the rate of in- 

 terest is high. Of all the advantages, however, of a new 

 colony, the most important is the abundance of subsist- 

 ence. The woods which afforded a scanty support to a 

 few families of savage hunters, are converted, by the axe 

 and the plough of the farmer, into luxuriant corn fields. 

 In such a country, a numerous family of young persons, 

 instead of being a bnrdw on their parents, become a 

 source of additional income. Uncleared land is to be 

 bought for a trifle, so that the means of extending culti- 

 vation arc within the reach of all persons above the low- 

 fit rank. One of the chief consequences of this state of 

 things, is discovered in a high rate of wages. Where 

 people .multiply so fast, the great want is the want of 

 labourers to provide for their accommodation. The do- 

 mestic and the mechanic are much more independent ot 

 their masters, than in a country xvhcre a recourse to 

 agricultural habits is impracticable. These circumstan- 

 i-tM, if not calculated to make them respectful in beha- 

 viour to their superiors, have, politically speaking, the 

 good effect of affording strong inducements to industry. 

 The journeyman in a town, like the labourer in the 

 country, is enabled soon to engage in business on his 

 own account, and to pay his assistants the same liberal 

 rate of wages which he formerly received. In such a 

 community, the chief expence of a family consists in the 

 price of the manufactured articles, which it is necessary 

 to import from the mother country, or from some long 

 settled quarter ; and which, in compliance with the vul- 

 gar notion of loss by consumption, are generally sad- 

 dled with heavy duties. Another serious article of ex- 

 pence, consists in servants' wages, which, like, all other 

 wages, are, in such a situation, very high. 



In the existence of these circumstances, varied, as they 

 necessarily are, by difference of situation, we shall find 

 .in explanation of the rapid growth of almost all colonies. 

 Were our materials sufficient, we might be enabled to 

 trace their operation in the ancient settlements of Asia 

 Minor, Italy, and Sicily, ai clearly as in the well authen- 

 ticated history of New England, or of the territory ad- 

 jacent to the Cape of Good Hope. It was in const- 



quence of such causes, that Tyre rose superior to Sidon, ^^^ 



and Carthage, in her turn, to Tyre. The population of 



the thirteen United States of America bids fair, before 



the expiration of the present century, to surpass that of 



the greatest nations in Europe. In point of literature 



and works of taste, our American brethren, it muit.be 



confessed, are hitherto much behind the brilliant exam- 



ple of the Grecian colonists. The spirit of trade seems, 



in the United States, almost wholly to absorb that time 



and attention which, in other countries, is shared with 



more refined pursuits. 



Insalubrity of Tropical Settlements. Powerful as are Insalubrity 

 the above-mentioned causes of colonial prosperity, their 

 operation will be found more applicable to the state than 

 to the individual. The facility afforded by them, is not 

 that of making a fortune, but of rearing a family. In 

 speaking accordingly of colonies, such as the West In- 

 dies, where, from unhealthiness of climate, and deficien- 

 cy of the comforts of life, the settlers do not contem- 

 plate a permanent abode, we must make very consider- 

 able deductions from the operation of the favourable cir- 

 cumstances of colonies. The advantage of bringing up 

 a family at a cheap rate, becomes, in a manner, lost in 

 such a situation ; the settlers either not marrying at all, 

 or finding it expedient to have their children educated in 

 Europe. Here lies the great difference between our sugar 

 colonies, and the more congenial climate of the northern 

 part of America. Were our young countrymen, in par- 

 ticular those north of the Tweed, apprized of the real 

 nature of a West India life, they would discover much 

 less eagerness to try their chance in so hazardous a ca- 

 reer. They take up a vague notion of the wealth of 

 the West Indies, from the example, perhaps, of a few 

 individuals in their neighbourhood, who, having realised 

 a competency', get credit, throughout an uninformed 

 circle, for being men of fortune. The young adventu- 

 rer is too little acquainted with the world, to make the 

 requisite deduction from the sums, of which the vanity 

 of these envied persons, or of their friends, represents 

 them to be possessed. He is likewise too little aware of 

 the danger of the climate, to calculate how many have 

 fallen victims to it, without in any degree attaining the 

 object of their emigration. The fact is, that during 

 the last fourteen years, the acquisition of property in the 

 West Indies has been much more difficult than at home. 

 If, for the rake of taking the matter on its fair side, 

 we consider the bad times at an end, and regard the co- 

 lonies as restored to their ordinary course, we shall still 

 find very serious deductions from the supposed rapidity 

 of money-making. The expence of living the high in- 

 terest on borrowed funds the endless procrastination of 

 payments the accumulation of law expences the fre- 

 quent occurrence of losses by the death of debtors, whoj 

 like most men in that country, have no property but 

 their personal exertion, are all obstacles to the success of 

 even the prudent and industrious settler. When to this 

 unpleasant list we add the decay of constitution by the 

 climate, there seems no doubt of the balance being in 

 favour of a life passed, however laboriously, in the mo- 

 ther country. Admitting the acquisition of property 

 in the West Indies in a given number of years to be 

 quicker, it is not greater (nor by any means equal) when 

 a suitable deduction is made for the effect of climate in 

 abridging the duration of life. A large proportion of 

 the settlers are cut off in the outset of their career, and 

 the survivors are, in general, found by middle age to 

 have advanced much nearer to a state of infirmity, than 

 . if they had remained inhabitants of their native clime. 

 Sir William Young, among other useful documents on 



