the Trade, Revenues, and Navigation of this country will suffer, by a diminution in the growth and manufacture of these commodities.

Q. What do you apprehend will be the consequence to Jamaica, in case the supply of Provisions from North America is interrupted?

A. I have partly answered that question before. Those plantations which have not good Provision-grounds for their Negroes, will soon be in a starving condition; and even those which have must suffer greatly; for the Negroes are a very thoughtless, improvident people; they do not look forward to provide against those evils which too frequently happen; such as droughts, which destroy their ground Provisions, and gusts of wind which throw down their plantation trees. Those who are in want, will steal; when they can no longer steal, and hunger presses, they will take by force. What further consequence may arise, I dread to think of.

Q. Are there not places, besides the Middle Colonies of North America, from whence may be drawn a supply of Lumber?

A. I apprehend not. Georgia, indeed, furnishes at present, in small quantities, Scantling and Boards for building, and some few Staves. How far that Province is capable of increasing the export of these articles, I cannot say; but it must surely be many years before it equals that of all the confederated Colonies together. As to Canada, and the two Floridas, the population at the extremities of the Continent is too feeble to promise any great supply from thence. The navigation from Canada is obstructed many months in the year by the ice; but however this may be, these countries do not afford any supply at present; and I believe it is contrary to the known principles of commerce, to expect that any country can yield an adequate supply to a great, an immediate and unexpected demand.

Q. What do you compute the value of the Property in that Island?

A. Twenty-four millions sterling. I shall not take up the time of the Committee by a long tedious calculation. In every well-appointed property, the value of Negroes constitute a third of the capital. By a well-appointed property, I mean a property where the Master is competent to the furnishing it with a sufficient stock of Negroes and Cattle, and every necessary appendage. In such properties, the value of Negroes constitute a third of the capital; but the greater part of the properties in the Island, from the inability of the Planters, have not a due proportion of Negroes, and in such the value of the Negroes does not exceed one-fourth of the capital. I shall, however, make my calculation upon a supposition, that all the properties in the Island are sufficiently stocked with Negroes, and that the value of Negroes, therefore, constitute one-third part of the general capital of the Island. Now the number of Negroes in the Island of Jamaica, exceed two hundred thousand; however, I shall estimate them only at two hundred thousand; and I shall value them only at the same rate with the African cargoes; of them I have lately seen several sales, and they average for each Negro from forty Pounds to forty-five Pounds; but I will put them only at forty Pounds, and I shall rate the Negroes of the Island who are seasoned to the country, are civilized, and have acquired arts, at the same value with the Savages newly imported from Africa; two hundred thousand Negroes, therefore, at the rate of forty Pounds each, amount to eight millions, and the Negroes constituting one third of the general capital, the whole capital of the Island amounts to twenty-four millions.

Mr. Glover having finished with this evidence, some questions were asked by Mr. Innes, relative to particular articles of Provision, and in what quantities they were furnished to the Negroes by their Masters; in answer to which Mr. Ellis asserted, that the dependence of the Island upon foreign Provisions was so very great, that if the Masters did not attend to, and supply the wants of their Slaves, many thousands of them must perish.

Withdrew.

After the examination of Mr. Walker and Mr. Ellis, the whole was summed up, as follows:

Sir: Having closed the examination of witnesses, I must recur to my introductory proposition; that from the evidence at your bar, and official papers upon your table, it shall be endeavoured to give the Committee a clear insight into the two capital branches of Colony Trade, the West Indian, the North American, and the immediate dependent upon both, the African, with the relations and proportions of each towards the other, and towards the several great interests, the Manufacture, Commerce,-Navigation, Revenue, and Land of Great Britain.

Finding my authority so much diminished in number, I must supply the void by imagination, presenting, to my view, the genius of the place, the majestick genius of Parliament, holding a balance to weigh the future fortunes of Kingdoms, with an impartial hand, ready to receive the weights peculiar to each scale; and conscious that the welfare, perhaps the being, of a whole Empire depend on the turn.

I begin with investigating the general system of the British Empire, not only in description, but illustration by comparison. Ancient Nations were possessed of the widest dominion, not with commercial helps. To be brief, I shall confine the inquiry to one—to the Romans, in their ages of purity. Cultivation of their soil, rude manufacture, just adequate to their necessities, severity of manners, superiority in martial discipline, enthusiasm for the very name of Rome, and the dulce et decorum pro patria mori, made them masters of the world. War was conducted with little expense, and the weightiest arms in the most skilful hands prevailed. Commerce flourished among others, whose affluence submitted to the steel of Rome.

What is the system now? All over Europe the same weapons, the same discipline, the same military arts are in practice; war is attended with a profusion of expense; and the deepest purse is the best assurance of success. Hence the encouragement of manufacture and trade is the pursuit of every Nation in this quarter of the globe, except two, who derive the treasure which Europe wants, from distant mines, with a facility enervating their own industry, while the rest are exerting theirs, each for a share in that wealth which the other two introduce, and can only be obtained through the commercial channel. By this, Holland, with a territory insufficient to nourish her inhabitants, hath in her day stood forth a bulwark against tyranny and superstition. An artificial strength, created by commerce, enabled her to make head, with numerous Fleets and Armies, against Powers immensely her superiours in natural force. Above all, in commercial arts and advantages, is Great Britain. Her purse, kept full by her credit, the resource of a trading Nation, an annual expenditure at least of six-teen to eighteen millions recently supported so long, so extensive, and so vigorous a war. Had her purse been scanty, she never would have seen a Navy which bore little short of ninety thousand men, could never have engaged a potent ally, nor furnished such Troops as acted so efficiently, and at the same time in such different parts of the globe. Hence it is evident her system is commercial; her strength and resources are wholly derived from trade. I allow the first interest in rank among us is the landed, but interwoven altogether with trade. Pay no regard to a doctrine from me, but pay all to the supreme authority of the clearest luminary this country ever produced, the great Mr. Locke. His words are these: "The decays that come upon and bring to ruin any country, do constantly first fall upon the land; and though the country gentleman is not very forward to think so, yet this nevertheless is an undoubted truth, that he is more concerned in trade, and ought to take a greater care that it be well managed and preserved, than even the Merchant himself."

On the firm ground of such authority, let inquiry be made, whether we should not remain content with the lot assigned us, which hath raised us so high among the modern Nations, where all are in rivalry for manufacture and trade; whether we should degrade our refinements by a parallel with an unpolished and rugged race of old, and contaminate the delicacy of modern sensations, with those primitive and stern principles which imposed such a yoke on mankind, as the 'Majestas populi Romani,' or whether, Confining our speculations to the placid sphere of enjoyments, with more quiet and less hazard, than the restless pursuits of their ambition, we should not have in contemplation, upon all extraordinary convulsions, how far the means of those enjoyments may be affected, that influx of