235 HISTORY OF THE [book vi, 
•country, for almost every thing that is useful and 
ornamental to civilized life; and it was justly ob¬ 
served, by the accurate and intelligent Mr. Glover, 
that such a market for the vent of our manufac¬ 
tures, furnishes irrefragi'ole proof, that, through 
whatever channel riches have flowed into those co¬ 
lonies, that influx hath made its passage to the mo¬ 
ther country, “ not (continued he) like the dash of 
an oriental torrent, but in salubrious, various, pla¬ 
cid, and copious streams; refreshing and augment¬ 
ing sober industry by additional .employment to 
thousands and ten thousands of families, and light¬ 
ening the burthen upon rents, by reducing the con¬ 
tributions of parishes to poverty unemployed.” 
After all, it is not so much by the exports to as by 
the imports from, the sugar islands, that we are to 
judge of their value: every article of their products 
and returns being in fact as truly British property, 
as the tin which is found in the mines of Cornwall; 
and their staples are the more valuable, inasmuch 
as they differ from the commodities produced at 
home: for they supply the mother country, not on¬ 
ly with what she must otherwise purchase from fo¬ 
reigners for her own use, but with a superfluity 
besides for foreign consumption. Let us now then, 
as proposed, inquire into the particulars, and esti¬ 
mate the value of their various productions and 
commodities with which Great Britain and her de¬ 
pendencies are annually supplied. Here too, I 
might refer to the year 1787, and avail myself, as 
I have done in the history of each particular island,. 
