HISTORY OF THE 
73 
[book V, 
sugar planter is at once both landlord and tenant on 
his property. In contrasting the profits of a West 
India plantation with those of a landed estate in 
Great Britain, this circumstance is commonly over* 
looked; yet nothing is more certain than that an 
English proprietor, in stating the income that he 
receives from his capital, includes not in his esti¬ 
mate the profits made by his tenants. These con¬ 
stitute a distinct object, and are usually reckoned 
equal to the clear annual rent which is paid to the 
proprietor. Thus a farm in England, producing 
an income of three and a half per cent, to the 
owner, is in fact proportionably equal to a sugar- 
plantation yielding double the profit to the planter; 
and possesses besides, all that stability, certainty, 
and security, the want of which is the great draw¬ 
back on the latter. An English gentleman, when 
either extreme of dry or wet weather injures the 
crop on his lands, has no other concern in the ca¬ 
lamity than such as the mere feelings of humanity 
may dictate : Nor is he under the disagreeable ne¬ 
cessity in time of war, of paying large premiums 
for insuring his estate from capture by a foreign 
enemy. This is another tax, which the unfortu¬ 
nate West Indian, resident in Great Britain, must 
add to his expenses; or submit to the disagreeable 
alternative oi passing many an uneasy day and 
sleepless night, in dreadful anxiety for the fate of 
his possessions, and the future subsistence of his 
family;—harrassed, perhaps, at the same time, by 
creditors, whose importunity increases as their se¬ 
curity becomes endangered. 
