Tobacco and Cotton Cultivation in the British 
West India Colonies. 
By William H. Burnley. 
[The following letter from the Guiana Chronicle of May 4th, 
1840, gives a planter’s views on what was then a burning question 
in the West Indies. Cotton has been virtually driven out of cultivation 
for want of a little assistance at the right time; sugar may be ruined in 
a similar manner. Would it not be possible for the British Government 
to give the sugar colonies a little help for a term of years as here 
proposed ? ] 
‘HE following letter from Mr. BURNLEY was 
written in reply to a communication from Mr. 
VERNON SMITH, Under Secretary for the Colo- 
“ Paris, 18th January, 1840. 
Sir,—I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of 
your communication of the 6th instant, in which you 
express Lord JOHN RUSSELL’S desire to know what 
encouragement I consider it advisable that the Govern- 
ment or the Legislature should extend to the cultivation 
of cotton and tobacco in the West Indies, and whether 
I am under an impression that any difficulty is opposed 
by the law as at present in force to the introdu€tion of 
these articles into the markets of Great Britain. 
The chief difficulty which in this last respeét presents 
itself, arises from the imposition of an export duty of 34 
per cent. on all articles, the growth and produce of the 
island of Trinidad, which being paid in advance at the 
time of shipment, may be considered as fully equal to 5 
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