WEST INDIES. 
345 
CHAP. V.] 
country during the last twenty years, and on the 
danger to be dreaded from innovation, he might 
display a statement of facts,—unpleasant indeed to 
hear,—but extremely difficult to controvert or elude. 
Such a person might, without any deviation from 
truth, present them with a detail not unlike the 
following :* 
" It is well known (he might say) that the suffer¬ 
ings of those colonies which fell under the dominion 
of France were very great; and that at the conclu¬ 
sion of the war, such of the planters as survived the 
vexations of the enemy, and were not actually 
bankrupts in their fortunes, as a great many were, 
were reduced to embarrassments nearly approach¬ 
ing to it. For the honour of the British name it 
ought to be recorded, that no sooner was an island 
taken from under the British protection, than the 
property of its inhabitants was treated, to all intents 
and purposes, as the property of natural-born ene¬ 
mies. Your vessels of war cruised upon them, 
and made prize of our effects, wherever they were 
to be found. Even neutral flags afforded no pro¬ 
tection against your depredations ; until the highest 
authorities in the law had pronounced such conduct 
to be illegal; and parliament interfered to facilitate 
the passage of the products of Grenada, which 
having surrendered at discretion, were still exposed 
to capture. Even the hurricane, that most awful 
# See The Case of the Sugar Colonies, from whence this detail is co¬ 
pied almost verbatim. 
Voi. in. 
X X 
