270 A. D. 1749!^ 



In this aflbrtment of goods for tlie Spanifli Wefl-Indics the Bri- 

 tifli manufactures make up one third of the whole, which mufl go by 

 the way of Cadiz, in cafe the afllento of the South-fea company be 

 laid afide ; and by its being fo laid afide, the value of all Englifh goods 

 fent from Cadiz to the Spanifli Wefl-Indies, will be increafed to at leafi; 

 three millions of dollars (or above L675,ooo flerling) yearly : and fup- 

 pofing, in time of peace, nine millions value in goods to be annually 

 fent from Cadiz to the Spanifli Weft- Indies, exclufive of Britifli nianu- 

 faclures, few of which (according to this author) were fent that way 

 whilft the afTicnto was in exercife, and thereto be added the faid three 

 millions in value of Britifh manufactures, then the difpatches yearly 

 from Cadiz to the Spanifh Weft-Indies will be twelve millions of dol- 

 lars. Now, continues this author, allowing that the Britifli merchants 

 fliould (as eafily they may) be one third concerned in the faid trade, 

 which, on a moderate computation, renders at leafl 50 per cent profit, or 

 two millions of dollars more gained to our nation ; this he thinks 

 (from his own premifes, which however feem confiderably exaggerated) 

 will be found to exceed any advantage that has, or ever can, proceed 

 from the afliento, by which it is notorious that the South-fea company 

 have loft very confiderably. He therefor concludes, that the commercial 

 intereft of Great Britain will be much benefited by the extinction of 

 the afliento : and, with refped: to our political intereft, while the 

 afliento fubfifts, it will prove a continual bone of contention between 

 two nations, whole mutual interefts are, more than any other two na- 

 tions in Europe, to be clofely united. 



The government of Great Britain began now ferioufly to confider the 

 great importance of the country and ports of Nova-Scotia, which Cap- 

 tain Thomas Coram, in the year 1735. by a judicious memorial and 

 petition to the privy-council, had reprefented to be in a moft naked 

 and imfettled condition, whereby the French had full leifure to make 

 the mofl fhameful and barefaced encroachments on that province. It 

 was now at length begun to be confidered as the very key of North- 

 America. Upon the conclufion of the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, there- 

 for, they fent out a large colony to a place having a fine harbour, where 

 they fettled and built a town, which they named Halifax, from the 

 title of the noble lord who then preflded fo worthily at the board of 

 trade and plantations. The excellence of this province was now at 

 length viewed in three different and advantageous lights, viz. ifl, for 

 its happy fituation, as capable of always annoying and intercepting our 

 enemies, and as a barrier for New-England ; 2dly, for the great fifliery 

 of its adjacent feas ; and, 3dly, for its infinite quantities of timber 

 for the ufe of the royal navy, befides fundry new productions which 

 may probably be hereafter raifed therein. 



Upon an allegation in certain pamphlets, &c. touching a north-weft 



