OUR COMMERCE WITH AFRICA. 381 



with their blood, and which, (if it be true that 

 the same causes produce the same effects,) when 

 extended to Western Africa, will turn a howling 

 wilderness into a fruitful field. 



It must also be remembered that the Haytians 

 are shut out from the British market by prohibi- 

 tory duties upon their produce. The grand 

 problem of free vei^sus slave-labour would long- 

 since have been solved, if we had opened our 

 ports to the coffee of the Haytians. Are we not 

 bound in common justice to do this now ? — shall 

 we virtually keep back one of the finest islands in 

 the world by shutting her produce out of the 

 best market in the world ? Surely some difference 

 should be made in the duties upon the produc- 

 tions of freemen and those of slaves ! The plant- 

 ers of Cuba and Brazil should be shown that we 

 are willing to grant privileges to free which we 

 refuse to slave-labour. 



The duties upon all African produce should be 

 reduced, if not abolished entirely. At present this 

 cannot affect any interests : the present imports 

 are the spontaneous productions of the earth, 

 and peculiar to the country. Coffee would be 

 the first article of export, raised by cultivation to 

 any extent. Sugar requires too great an invest- 



