Benns: British West India Carrying-Trade 151 
Let it not be cajoled into the abandonment or modification of this order 
in council, either by the direct intrigue of the Americans, or the indirect 
efforts of the American party in the West Indies.'^*® 
Gallatin had come to the conclusion as early as May, 1827, 
that the only chance of a change in the British policy was the 
effect which that policy might have on the West India colonies 
and the complaints which might be addressed to the British 
Government from them. He had heard of no remonstrance 
from this quarter as late as August, 1827.^^® In fact, the 
British colonists in the West Indies generally seemed to have 
forgotten their former trying experiences under the Ameri- 
can acts of 1818 and 1820 or at least to have little fear of 
their recurrence. Several papers expressed the belief that no 
“great evil” nor “even any material inconvenience” would be 
felt by the colonists,^^® and altho some of the Trinidad papers 
were not so sure about this, they laid all the blame on the 
United States Government.^^^ One or two papers expressed 
their convictions with some emphasis. Said a Jamaica paper: 
The Americans have taken it into their heads that we cannot do 
without their trade, but we can tell them that we do not care one 
“. . . cent” about it.“^ 
A Bermuda paper sincerely hoped that Great Britain would 
“never allow herself to be bullied into any deviation from the 
regulations” then in force by virtue of the order in council. 
The United States could apparently look for little indirect aid 
from this quarter in its effort to secure the repeal of the 
British order in council. 
It was with little chance of success, therefore, that Gal- 
latin embarked upon the second period of his negotiation re- 
garding the British West India trade, a period which may be 
characterized as one in which the American Government, by 
conceding all and more than Great Britain had formerly 
asked, sought to obtain revocation of the British order in 
council and the admission of American shipping into British 
colonies on the terms of the act of Parliament of July, 1825. 
Atkinson, Letter to the Right Hon. W. Huskisson, 57, 58, 43, 59. 
Senate Docs., 22 Cong., 1 Sess., Ill, No. 132, pp. 20, 27. 
^‘‘“Jamaica Public Advertiser quoted in National Gazette, Oct. 20, 1826. St. George's 
Chronicle and Grenada Gazette, Apr. 21, 1827. Bahama Gazette quoted in St. Christo- 
pher Gazette, May 18, 1827. 
Baltimore Gazette quoted in Tri-tveekly National Intelligencer, Oct. 17, 1826. 
Quoted in Philadelphia Gazette, May 23, 1827. 
St. George’s Chronicle and Grenada Gazette, March 3, 1827. 
