60 CULTIVATION OF THE SUGAR CANE. 



of the loans granted to Canada for public works, (canals, 

 &c.j) and in return for the guarantee by the Imperial 

 Government, the Colonial Legislatures might enact a pre- 



mtial claim or liability on all estates to which Govern- 

 ment grants or loans might be extended. All this is prac- 

 ticable without any injustice to claims already existing, 

 when the very object would be to create funds for the liqui- 

 dation of prior obligations. 



The Planters must also remember that they have not 

 only to contend with strangers, but with one another : and 

 those who do not bestir themselves to effect the improve- 

 ments which are so obvious, and so imperatively required, 

 will be distanced, undersold, and ruined by their more 

 enterprising brethren. 



There is no doubt that our West Indian possessions con- 

 tain the elements of prosperity in an eminent degree. 

 Under a proper system of agriculture, their fertility is 

 inexhaustible : their geographical position with regard to 

 the markets of Europe is all that could be wished for ; and 

 the increasing demands of North America will, for gen- 

 erations to come, render the West India islands, and the 

 adjacent portions of the continent, in whatever hands they 

 may happen to be, possessions of first rate importance, and 

 sources of boundless production and wealth. 



Some alarm has been expressed by persons interested in 

 the West Indies in consequence of the rapidly increasing 

 production of beet-root sugar on the continent of Europe : 

 but when we reflect upon the inferiority of the beet in 



