3 20 
HISTORY OF THE [bookvi. 
Having thus explained what is meant by the 
terms drawback and bounty, in the case of sugar 
exported, I shall now endeavour to prove that the 
repayment of the duties, under either appellation, 
is not a matter of favour to the colonist or importer, 
but of rigorous justice, and is founded on a strict 
and conscientious right which he possesses, and of 
which he cannot be deprived, so long as a sense of 
moral duty, and a regard to equal justice, shall be 
found among the principles of a free government. 
An importer of merchandise either comes volun¬ 
tarily into our ports, to seek the best market for 
the sale of his goods; oris compelled to enter them, 
that the nation may secure to itself the pre-emption 
at its own market. If he comes voluntarily, he is 
apprized of the regulations and duties to which, by 
the laws of the port he will be subject; he makes 
his option, and if he meets with disappointment,, 
has no right to complain; much less to expect a 
return of the duties which he has paid on importa- 
being, they said, beneficial only to the planters. It is remarkable 
however, that in the memorial which they presented on that occasion to 
the chancellor of the exchequer, they furnish an unanswerable argu¬ 
ment in support of an actual bonus on the export from Great Britain 
of refined sugar; for they admit that a greater proportion of the re¬ 
fined article is now made from muscovado than was formerly produced, 
owing, they say, to mpromements made by the planters in the ra<iv 
commodity. As those improvements were not effected but after many 
costly, and some fruitless, experiments, it seems no way consonant 
either to justice or reason that the refiners alone should reap the ad¬ 
vantages of them, and the planters, who sustained the risk, sit down 
quietly under the expense. 
