AGRICULTURE IN 18209. 253 
the power of foreclosing the mortgage which he has upon 
the Estate, and the Planter binds himself in willing con- 
demnation on the law proceedings for that purpose. 
The £5,000 of the Planter being sunk in the Estate, 
the merchant, the 1st year, possesses security for at least 
that sum more than the first value—and every succeeding, 
year increases the security by the receipt of the crops 
and the diminution of the debt, whilst in all the subse- 
quent decreasing terms of the debt his great source of 
emolument, the consignments, has no diminution. It is 
apparent therefore from this statement that a Planter 
buying an Estate with a mortgage to a Merchant, merely 
gives that Merchant a premium down, to appoint him 
his Bailiff or Agent, on a Property that may in a given 
number of years restore to the Merchant his own capital, 
trebled by interest and consignments. At the expiration 
of that time the Estate becoming free, the Proprzetor, 
now also rich, returns to Europe to enjoy his boarding 
house at Cheltenham, or his wheel-chair at Bath. And 
let those who envy the possessors of West India fortunes, 
point out in this how the proprietor of £50,000 is superior 
to him of £5,o00—since the anxiety, the care, and the con- 
tumely of the rich proprietor, during the period of his 
occupancy, has merely entailed upon him the diseases 
of age, and taken away the power of enjoyment. 
It is evidently not the interest of the Merchant to en- 
courage the’ liquidation of his debt speedily, provided he 
sees that the Property does not diminish in value below 
his security. It is common therefore for the Planter to 
procure such pecuniary advances from the Merchant as 
may continue the period of consignment, and give the 
Proprietor means of entering into all the extravagances 
KK 2 
