SOUTHERN AFRICA. 273 
tlngent expences of the eftablifhraent and the garnfon, but to 
produce a furplus for the ufe of the State, that they fhould 
then confider how to difpofe of it to the beft advantage. 
All fhlps were, accordingly, admitted to an entry of Euro- 
pean, American, or Indian produce and manufactures, on pay- 
ment of a duty of 10 per cent, on the invoice prices; and all 
Indian goods, teas and fpices excepted, were fuffered to be again 
exported on a drawback of the fame amount as the duty. How 
far fuch a regulation may interfere, in time of peace, with the 
interefts of our Eaft India Company, I am not fufficiently ac- 
quainted with the fubjeft to determine ; but it would feem to 
open a wide door for fmuggling Indian commodities into Eu- 
rope, under Englifh capitals, r.o an amount that muft be alarm- 
ing to the Directors themfelves. 
The operation of this meafure will be checked, to a certain 
degree, by the prefent war, which, it is to be hoped, may ulti- 
mately be the means of once more annexing the fouthern ex- 
tremity of Africa to the dominions of Great Britain. In fuch 
an event, the determination of fecuring it, at a peace, will be a 
more important object than the confideration how its govern- 
ment is to be adminiftered ; whether as a dependency of the 
crown, or as a territorial poflefFion of the Eaft India Company. 
The interefts, indeed, of the two, are fo intimately connedted, 
that any queftion of privilege, in a matter of fuch national im- 
portance, is a mere fecondary confideration, and ought, there- 
fore, to bend to circumftances. The interefts of the Company, 
during our late tenure, were, as I have O^icwn, feeured and 
VOL. II. N N promoted 
