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HISTORY OF THE [book vi 
ABLY as the foregoing considerations were enforced by 
the right honourable speaker, it may be useful to suggest 
some views of the subject which he omitted ; and, 
First, It i-s a conclusion not logically just, that, because 
the commerce of Great Britain has been prosperous and 
progressive since the separation of the North American co¬ 
lonies, it is, therefore, indebted to that separation for any 
part of its prosperity, and might not have arrived to a much 
higher pitch if such an event had not happened. Do the 
American States use none but British manufactures, employ 
none but British agents, enrich none but British capitalists? 
Are they not become formidable rivals to us in commercial 
navigation, and has not France in the present war, found 
in their neutrality a powerful resource? Their advance in 
population and wealth for several years immediately prece¬ 
ding the revolution was so obvious and rapid, that, consi¬ 
dering the drains and burthens which the war imposed, 
it would be too much to say, that their independence has 
given a peculiar spur to their advancement, from which 
Britain, as a trailing nation, has derived a compensation for 
her loss of their exclusive trade. Could any probable ex¬ 
pense of their protection have nearly reached the amount of 
that debt incurred in the war in which they were lost? 
The arguments by which free trade is usually recommended 
do not apply to this case. Such arguments imply a general 
liberation, but here there was no quid pro quo. Something, 
doubtless, was conceded, and nothing obtained in return. 
Secondly, Whatever may be determined respecting the 
advantages which Great Britain derived from her North 
American colonies, no fair conclusion can thence be drawn 
