278 HISTORY OF THE [book. vi. 
with airy conjectures, with frivolous ifs and may 
be's; with promises inconsistent with the Jaws of 
nature, and with declarations negatived both bv 
experience and reason! 
In truth, the argument which appeared to have 
most weight with their lordships themselves, was 
that which (tacitly admitting all expectation of 
supply from Canada and Nova Scotia to be chime¬ 
rical and delusive) took for granted, that by exclu¬ 
ding American ships from the ports of the West 
Indies, Great Britain would find full employment 
for as many additional vessels as America formerly 
employed in that commerce, and reap all the pro¬ 
fits which America reaped, of which they calcu¬ 
lated the freightage alone, at the annual sum of 
.£’.245,000 sterling. 
On the whole, the lords of the committee strong¬ 
ly recommended a strict and rigid adherence to the 
measure of confining the intercourse between our 
West Indian islands and America, to British ships 
only, as a regulation of absolute necessity; consi¬ 
dering any deviation from it, as exposing the com¬ 
merce and navigation of Great Britain to the rival¬ 
ry of revolted subjects, now become ill-affected 
aliens. They expressed, indeed, some apprehen¬ 
sion, lest the congress of the United States might 
retaliate, by prohibiting, in return, British vessels 
from being the carriers between them and the Bri¬ 
tish West Indies ; but seemed to think this circum¬ 
stance not very probable, inasmuch as the people 
