WEST INDIES. 
307 
CHAP. V.] 
from those colonies, and the various branches of our 
commerce dependent thereon, neither the loss to 
individuals in the plantations, by improvident 
schemes in the outset, or improper conduct in their 
subsequent pursuits, nor the temporary inconve¬ 
nience which is sometimes sustained by the pur¬ 
chasers and consumers at home, from an occasional 
advance of price in some few of the colonial pro¬ 
ducts, outweighs in the scale of reason a-feather! 
I shall now proceed to consider those other po¬ 
sitions and doctrines which have been advanced 
concerning the duties that are paid, and the draw¬ 
backs that are granted on the products of the British 
sugar islands, and shall afterwards treat somewhat 
largely of the monopoly compact, or the privilege 
which the planters of those islands possess, of sup¬ 
plying exclusively the British consumption of sugar, 
and other articles. The subject is naturally dry, and 
not susceptible of ornament; but its importance 
will not be disputed, and perhaps there are but few 
commercial regulations whose principles are less 
understood than those of the compact last men¬ 
tioned. 
The points to be considered are briefly comprised 
in the following objections :~-It is asserted. 
First, That the duties which are levied on the 
products of the British West Indies imported into 
Great Britain, though paid in the first instance by 
