WEST INDIES, 
CHAP. V.] 
335 
icwt. only. The difference therefore is a dead loss 
both to the public and the planter. The former 
lose the use of two hundred pounds weight of su¬ 
gar, and the latter, is deprived of its value, which, 
at 40 ,?. per cwt. may be stated at 6 s. per 
hogshead, the merchants charges deducted. 
But this circumstance requires further illustra¬ 
tion. The quantity of raw or muscovado sugar im¬ 
ported into Great Britain, on an average of four 
years, (1787 to 1790 , both inclusive) was somewhat 
more than 140,000 hogsheads of 14 cwt. at the 
King’s beam. The drainage at sea amounted there¬ 
fore to 280,000 cwt. being in value 560,000 ster¬ 
ling.—Such is the loss to the public; and let it be 
remembered, that this loss is not merely contingent 
or possible, but plain, positive, and certain; it being 
as undeniably true, that 280,000 cwt. or 14,000 ton, 
of sugar was sunk into the sea, in the transporta¬ 
tion of 140,000 hogsheads of the raw commodity, 
as that this number was imported into Great Britain ; 
and it is equally certain, that every ounce of it 
would have been saved, if the planters had been 
permitted to refine the commodity in the colonies. 
The consequent loss to the revenue is easily calcu¬ 
lated. 
Concerning the planter however, other circum¬ 
stances are to be taken into the account; for in this 
case he has a right to reckon not only on what he 
positively lost in the first instance, but also, on 
what he might probably have gained under a diffe- 
