i68 A. D. 1788. 



February — An attempt was made to reduce the interefl of money in 

 Ireland fromjix lo five per cent ; and a bill for that purpofe was carried 

 through the houfe of commons, but rejecled by the peers, of that king- 

 dom. 



March 19'" — A general court of the proprietors of the bank of Eng- 

 land declared the enfuing dividends upon their capital flock to be at 

 the rate of /even per cent per annum : and it dill continues at that rate. 



April 15'^ — A treaty of alliance was concluded between Great Britain 

 and the ftates-general of the United provinces, which, though both the 

 contrading parcies rank fo high in commercial pre-eminence, contains 

 only one article conneded with commerce, whereby it is agreed, that, 

 until the two powers fhould conclude a treaty of commerce, the fubjeds 

 of each fliould be treated in the ports of the other as the moft favoured 

 nation. But it was exprefsly provided, that no diminution fhould take 

 place in the duties on linens. 



February 21" — An additional duty of fixpence per gallon v\^as impofed 

 on all fpiritous liquors diflilled in Scotland, and carried to England, by 

 way of equalizing the duties, which are levied in different manners on 

 the diflilleries in the two united kingdoms. [28 Geo. Ill, c. 4.] 



March 10"' — The parliament, thinking that the experience of five 

 years had now proved that Britifh veffels were competent to the fupply 

 of the Wefi-India iflands vv-ith the produce of America, enabled a per- 

 manent law, inftead of the temporary regulations, hitherto generally re- 

 newed every year, whereby the importation of tobacco, pitch, tar, tur- 

 pentine, hemp, flax, mafts, yards, bowfprits, lumber of every kind, horfes, 

 cattle and other live flock, bread, flour, peas, beans, potatoes, wheat, 

 rice, oats, barley, and other grain, the produce of the United flates, into 

 the Wefl -Indies in Britifh veffels, legally navigated, was authorized : 

 and all other articles were prohibited on penalty of forfeiture of the 

 veiTel and cargo. Goods or produce, which may be lawfully exported 

 from the Weft-Indies to any foreign country in Europe, may be carried 

 to the United flates, as niay alfo fugar *, melafles, coffee, pimento, ca- 

 coa (chocolate nuts), and ginger ; the two later articles paying the fame 

 duty, as when carried to the Britifli colonies in America. Both imports 

 and exports muft be only in Britifh veffels navigated according to law. 

 But veffels belonging to the United flates, arriving in ballafl at the Turk's 

 iflands, are permitted to load w^ith filt, and no other article, on paying 

 a duty of 2/6 per tun (payable in dollars at z^JG per ounce) their mea- 



i'ame work, V. \, pp. 388, 427, for the method of it is a profitable article of trade to China. Sta- 



icfining fugar in Cochin-China by layers of the vorinns alfo defcribes the fimple procefs of making 



porous and luimid trnnk of the plantane tree, which fugar in Bengal. [Voyages, V.\, p. 139 of En^l'ijh 



is more cleanly, and alio more efreihial, than the trarjlatirjn.'\ 



Wcft-lndia procefs by moillened clay. This fu- * Qnere. Is rum forgotten, or defignedly 



gar fells for about three halfpence a pound ; Hill omitted I It conftitutes by far the moft important 



cheaper than tliat of Java ; and the Abbe Rochon, article in the exports from the Weft-Indies to the 



in his Voyage to Madagnjcar, and the Indki^ fays, United ftates. 4 



