fcHAP. iv.] WEST INDIES; i 13 
ons; and at an expense which, if it had continued, 
would have been equally ruinous with the not be¬ 
ing supplied at all. Their chief resource was the 
American vessels that had been captured in their 
way to the French islands; a resource which had 
terminated with the war, and at best proved so un¬ 
certain and inadequate, that many of the British 
islands had been driven by necessity to the worst 
of all applications (as British colonists) of their la¬ 
bour; the raising provisions, and cutting lumber 
upon their own estates. Instead of directing their 
attention to the culture of those valuable and bulky 
staples which contribute, in so eminent a degree, 
to form the dignified mass of support which the 
British navigation derives from her distant colonies, 
they had been compelled to change their system: 
They had abandoned the cultivation of sugar, and 
applied their land and labour to the purposes of 
raising food. In what degree the British naviga¬ 
tion and commerce had suffered by this measure, the 
custom house books would demonstrate—From that 
authority it would appear, that in 1777, previous 
to the capture by the French of any of the sugar 
islands, the import of sugar into England only, had 
fallen short of the import of 1774 upwards of 
45,000 hogsheads, of 16 cwt; in value nearly one 
million, creating a loss in freight of £. 150,000 on 
that article alone, and a defalcation in the public 
revenue of <£.300 a day for every day in the year! 
Here then, it was said, was a full and satisfactory 
refutation of the popular clamour on the subject of 
the carrying trade. Compared with these losses, 
Vol. III. 
m m 
