PREFACE. xiii 



thofe clafTes whofe monopolizing fpirit 

 has had the direct t.ndency to beggar 

 and ruin the kingdom. Whoever eon- 

 fiders atentively t~e commercial con Audi 

 of Great Britain, will not think there 

 is any thing paradoxical in this aflertion. 



The entire adminiftration of the co- 

 1 nies has been commercial. It has 

 been made a trader's project, and the 

 fpirit of monopoly pervaded every ftep 

 of our progress in planting and rearing 

 thofe fettlements. They were govern- 

 ed by the narrow fpirit of a counting 

 houfe, which in the plantation of coun- 

 tries formed to be the relidence of great 

 nations, neither faw nor permitted any 

 thing better than a monopolized mar- 

 ket. It was this fpirit that fhackled 

 thofe countries in fuch commercial fet- 

 ters as to render them incapable of con- 

 tributing to the neceffities of the gene- 

 ral government of the empire. Had a 

 more liberal policy been embraced, (uch 

 contributions would have been early in- 

 troduced, with a capability (from a free 



com- 



