COMMERCIAL liESTRICTIONS. 117 



tions tending directly to the benefit of the pro- 

 vince ; but, lamentable to say, the same mono- 

 poly still continued in a very great degree. I see 

 that its effects are the same, and that the popu- 

 lation in general have received no relief from the 

 establishment of the new institutions. 



The commercial regulations, recently pub- 

 lished, bear me out in what I have said. I re- 

 spect, in the highest degree, the authority which 

 enforces those laws ; but I must be allowed to ob- 

 serve, that, in their formation, the true interests 

 of the people have not been consulted. The ex- 

 clusive privileges which those regulations grant 

 to the merchants are most grievous to all the rest 

 of the population, as I shall endeavour to prove. 

 It is a well known principle, that the wealth of a 

 people consists in satisfying their wants at the 

 lowest cost possible ; and in disposing of their 

 own productions at the highest cost possible. The 

 regulations alluded to have a direct tendency to 

 prevent this ever taking place. The trammels in 

 which foreign intercourse is held by the third, 

 twelfth, and fifteenth regulations will for ever ex^ 

 elude it from our port ; and limit the buyers and 



