ix 



ditional advantage of furnishing a supply of 

 hardy and experienced seamen, whenever it 

 may be necessary to send forth the warhke 

 fleets of Britain to repel aggression or defend 

 her possessions ; the nature of the freights too 

 from these provinces is of first rate consequence, 

 as they consist of articles of indispensable ne- 

 cessity to the West India islands, and large 

 quantities of timber for naval uses to England ; 

 and to which could be added, in a very few 

 years, other naval stores at present supplied by 

 other countries. The real value of these co- 

 lonies to the parent state, and the great ame- 

 lioration they are susceptible of, appears to 

 have been known hitherto, on this side of the 

 Atlantic, but by a few persons having some 

 connection with them : however, it may be 

 reasonably expected that a more minute in- 

 vestigation will ere long take place upon this 

 subject, from seeing the efforts recently made 

 by the Americans to obtain them; and which 

 will most assuredly be repeated should a con- 

 venient occasion ever again present itself. To- 

 wards their permanent security the attention 

 of government ma}^ be profitably turned in se- 

 veral ways ; one of the most prominent is the 

 encouragement of agricultural improvement. 

 Of the many hundred thousand acres of excel- 



