chap, iv.] WEST INDIES. 
IN surveying these islands collectively, the cir¬ 
cumstance that first presents itself to notice is the 
burthen of the four and a half per centum on their 
exported produce, to which they are all subject 
equally with Barbadoes, and which, though grant¬ 
ed by their own assemblies, was in most other 
cases, as well as the Virgin Islands, the price of a 
constitutional legislature, and a communication of 
the common privileges of British subjects. 
It would without doubt be satisfactory to the 
reader to be furnished with an account of the pro¬ 
duce of this duty, and the particulars of its dispo¬ 
sal; but no such information, to my knowledge, 
has of late years been given to the public. The 
last return that I am possessed of, is dated so long 
ago as the year 1735. From thence it appears, 
that the whole money collected on this account, 
both in Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands, in 
twenty-one years, (from Christmas 1713 to Christ¬ 
mas 1734) amounted to <£*.326,529 2s. 3-id. ster¬ 
ling, of which it is shameful to relate, that no more 
than £. 140,032. 13s. 54-d. was paid into the Bri¬ 
tish exchequer; upwards of j£. 80,000 having been 
retained in the islands for the charges of collecting. 
