chap, v.] WEST INDIES. 331 
than this, is necessary to demonstrate that, if there 
is any security in the national faith, solemnly pledg¬ 
ed and repeatedly ratified, the system is become a 
fixed and permanent compact; which cannot now 
be violated by either party, without the fullest 
compensation to the other, but on principles which, 
if admitted, may serve to justify a departure from 
the ordinary rules of justice on any occasion. 
First then, as to the monopoly exercised by Great 
Britain of supplying their wants:—The colonists 
are prohibited from purchasing of foreigners, not 
only those articles which Great Britain can supply 
from her own resources, but also many which she is 
herself obliged to purchase from foreigners. Thus a 
double voyage is rendered necessary, that Great Bri¬ 
tain may benefit by the freightage; the expense of 
which, and all other profits, being added to the cost 
of the goods, the extra price which the colonists 
pay is clearly so much profit to her, and loss to them. 
The commodities, which the British colonies in the 
West Indies might purchase on cheaper terms than 
at the British market, are various. East Indian 
goods, including tea, might at all times have been 
obtained from Holland, and of late may be bought 
very reasonably in America.* Germany would 
supply the coarser linens, an article of vast con¬ 
sumption in negro clothing, and France would fur- 
* The tea imported by the Americans in 1791, directly from Chi¬ 
na, was 2,601,852 lbs.—Prices in Philadelphia 33 per cent, lower than 
in London, the drawback deducted. 
