bHAP. in.] WEST INDIES. 233 
first head therefore, it may generally be observed, 
that the manufacturers of Birmingham and Man¬ 
chester, the clothiers of Yorkshire, Gloucester¬ 
shire and Wilts, the potters of Staffordshire, the 
proprietors of all the lead, copper, and iron works, 
together with the farmers, victuallers, and brewers, 
throughout the kingdom, have a greater vent in 
the British West Indies, for their respective com¬ 
modities, than perhaps they themselves conceive 
to be possible. Who would believe that woollens 
constitute an article of great consumption in the 
torrid zone? Such however is the fact. Of the 
coarser kinds especially, for the use of the negroes, 
the export is prodigious. Even sugar itself, the 
great staple of the West Indies, is frequently re¬ 
turned to them in a re-fined state; so entirely do 
these colonies depend on the mother-country, cen¬ 
tering in her bosom all their wealth, wishes; and 
affections. Why should England (says an old 
££ planter) grudge at the wealth and prosperity of 
££ the plantations, since all that is ours she may ac- 
u count her own, not only because we are a part of 
££ England as it is taken largely, but also, because 
££ all comes to the kingdom of England, properly 
££ so called? By a kind of magnetic force, England 
££ draws to it all that is good in the plantations: it 
I£ is the centre to which all things tend. Nothing 
“ but England can we relish or fancy; our hearts 
£f are there, wherever our bodies are. If we get 
u a little money we remit it to England: they that 
,£ are able breed up their children in England. 
S£ When we are a little easy, we desire to live and 
Yol. III. G g 
