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HISTORY OF THE [book vi. 
of civil regulations from hence, can be governed 
only by the sword, and which, at no very remote 
period, may regain their independence when 
however it will be too late to resort back to our 
ruined and deserted colonies in the West Indies! 
If the reader imagines that the intention of this 
scheme is to open a sugar trade with the East Indies, 
to British subjects without distinction, it is neces¬ 
sary he should be informed that nothing is farther 
from the thoughts of its advocates and promoters. 
Their aim is to transfer the monopoly of the West 
Indies, to the monopolists of the East; being well 
apprized that a great importation of sugar for a few 
years from India, would effectually stop the cultiva¬ 
tion of this article in the British colonies, after which 
the market would be their own; and the supply, as 
in the case of all other articles of foreign growth, be 
increased or diminished, as the interest of the im¬ 
porter, not of the public, should regulate and direct. 
For myself, I am unwilling to believe that the 
British government has at any time meditated inten¬ 
tional injury towards the sugar islands, and there¬ 
fore cannot be persuaded that such a project will 
ever receive the sanction and support of adminis¬ 
tration. The planters however, judging of the fu¬ 
ture by the past, have abundant cause for anxiety 
and alarm ; and if it were permitted to an uncourtly 
West Indian to expostulate, freely and explicitly, 
with the king’s ministers on the treatment which 
those colonies have experienced from the mother- 
