B O O K 11. C H A P. IX. 197 



capable of. The a6l of parliament was certainly well-meant, but 

 it has produced an effe£t very contrary, in fome refpcds, to what 

 was intended. 



Of all the blunders committed by our ftatefmen refpedling co- 

 lony-trade, none perhaps have turned out more injurious, than the- 

 branding his majefty's fhips and tenders, in the year 1764, with 

 cuftom-houfe commifTioners, under pretence of rigoroufly execu- 

 ting the navigation-adl ; in confequence of which meafure, and the. 

 flri£t orders accompanying it, the SpaniCh traders were wholly pro- 

 Icribed from entering the ports of this ifland. The folly and igno- 

 rance of thofe who projefted and abetted this French-Spanjfh 

 fcheme cannot he more expofed, than by (hewing the lofs which'. 

 Great-Britain fufcained in confequence of it, and which will ap- 

 pear from the following comparative account of the exports to- 

 Jamaica : 



Value, Sterling, £ s. </, 



1763, (Before thefe regulations took place) — 584,978 o o 



1764, .^— 456,528 o o 



1765, 415,624 o o 



1766, 415,524 o o. 



1767, (Firfl year of the free-port ad) — 467,681 o o 



This lofs, in adual diminution of exports, amounts, at a medium,, 

 to 146, 134/. Reillng per amium. But, when we take into the ac- 

 count what would have been gained on the return-cargoes, and 

 compute the fuper-lucratioa on the prime-cod only at 30/. per cent, 

 the lofs in four, years amounts to upwards of 700,000/. We may 

 venture, indeed, without any exaggeration, to pronounce it near 

 a miUion. And, what is worfe, we have every reafon to believe, 

 thaP FraQce, by the. immediate tranflation of this trade to her co~ 

 ionies, gained at leafl: the fu-U amount of what Great-Britain loft. 



Second to this enormous meafure, were the orders given (rather 

 unwifely), in a public manner, in November 1765, for the free ad- 

 miffion of Spanifh veflels into all the colonics. Little regard was 

 paid to this invitation by the traders. 



Exclufit ; revQcat. . Redeaiii ? Non •,/: me obfccret. 

 " He" (the minifter) " kicks us out of doors; then he calls us 

 "back. Shall we return ? No; not if he fhould intreat ua. 

 «' on his knees." 



4- The 



