WEST INDIES. 
CHAP. V.] 
321 
tion, in case he shall afterwards find it more to his 
advantage to re-ship his goods, and try another 
market. He comes in the spirit of adventure, and 
as his profits, however great, are wholly his own, 
if his adventure proves fortunate; so it is but rea¬ 
sonable that he should submit patiently to his loss, 
if loss is the consequence of his experiment. This 
conclusion is, I think, too evident to require further 
Illustration. 
On the other hand, the case of those who are 
compelled to bring their goods to our ports is widely 
different. The sugar planter, for instance, is not 
only obliged to bring his sugar at all times and sea¬ 
sons to a market which perhaps is already over¬ 
loaded ; but to bring it too in British ships, that the 
mother-country may have the benefit arising from 
the freight. On the supposition that the whole 
may be sold for home consumption, he is further¬ 
more compelled to pay down the duties on the full 
quantity imported, before he is permitted to sell 
any part. The home consumption is then sup¬ 
plied; and a surplus remains, for which a vent offers 
in a foreign market. The foreign purchaser, how¬ 
ever, buys nothing for which the people of Great 
Britain choose to pay an equal price: they have the 
first offer, and refusal of the whole. Under what 
pretence then can the British government, whose 
language it is that all duties are, and ought to be 
ultimately paid by the consumer, retain the duties 
on such part of the goods as are not purchased for 
the home supply ? The mother-country has already 
Vol. III. s s 
