chap, iv.] WEST INDIES. 291 
Compared with the danger thus impending over 
the feeble and defenceless Africans, the inconve- 
niency which of late has been felt and complained 
of in Great Britain, from the high price of West In¬ 
dian commodities, deserves not the consideration of 
a moment. It is the necessary and unavoidable con¬ 
sequence of our own arrangements. Yet, perhaps, 
it is this circumstance alone that cornes home to our 
feelings; and to this cause, more than to any other, 
I verily believe, may be attributed the clamour 
which has been industriously excited against the 
planters, concerning their supposed ill usage of 
their negroes. Discontent at the high price of su¬ 
gar, is called sympathy for the wretched, and the 
murmurs of avarice become the dictates of huma¬ 
nity. What inconsistency can be more gross and 
lamentable ! We accuse the planter of cruelty to 
his slaves, and contemplate, at the same time, with 
approbation or indifference, our own commercial 
policy, under which many thousands of those un¬ 
happy people have already perished, and to which 
(I grieve to add) many thousands more will probably 
fall a sacrifice ! 
