i 9 4 HISTORY OF THE [book, m, 
expense to the cultivator, which perhaps is not 
equalled in any other pursuit, in any country of the 
globe. It is an expense too, that is permanent 
and certain; while the returns are more variable 
and fluctuating than any other: owing to calami¬ 
ties, to which these countries are exposed, both 
from the hands of God and man; and it is mourn¬ 
ful to add, that the selfish or mistaken policy of man 
is sometimes more destructive than even the anger 
of Omnipotence! 
At the time that I write this (1791), the huma¬ 
nity of the British nation is tremblingly alive to the 
real or fictitious distresses of the African labourers 
in these and the other islands of the West Indies: 
and the holders and employers of those people, 
seem to be marked out to the public indignation 
for proscription and ruin. So strong and universal a 
sympathy allows no room for the sober exercise of 
reason, or it would be remembered, that the condi¬ 
tion'of that unfortunate race, must depend greatly 
on the condition and circumstances of their owners. 
Oppression towards the principal, will be felt with 
double force by his dependants, and the blow tit at 
wounds the master* will exterminate the slave. 
The propriety of these remarks will be seen in 
subsequent parts of my work, when I come, in 
course, to treat of the slave trade and slavery; and 
to consider the commercial system of Great Britain 
towards her West Indian dependencies, of which I 
have now completed the catalogue. Here then I 
