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cotton imported into Great Britain being derived from them.

Mr. Brougham has shewn, that in the shipping employed between this country and the West India colonies, there are more seamen in proportion to the tonnage than in any other trade, being that of one man to every fourteen tons.

From the official reports made to the House of Commons of the tonnage and seamen employed in that trade, during the year 1804, it appears that the former amounted to 236,580 tons of shipping; and that 17,680 seamen were engaged on board of those vessels. The proportion, in this instance, exceeds the estimate of Mr. Brougham; there being one man to every thirteen tons. But Mr. Lowet estimates the number of men, including those engaged in fisheries dependent on the colonies, at 25,000 men, which would reduce the proportion to one man to about each nine tons. The same gentle. man has stated most decisive reasons for the preference given to this trade by the lower classes; and he has also shewn, that the inducements held out by it, are so great as to lead many to enter into the sea service, who would otherwise have shunned it. He has done this, and indeed every part of his subject, such ample justice, that the repetition of the facts this place would be a superfluous labour.

There is another consideration which has been too generally overlooked: that the intercourse between Britain and her colonies, replaces two British capitals, while all others replaces only one.

Such are a few of the advantages enjoyed by the parent state: the next object of attention is the disadvantages under which the colonists labour. They are too goading to be overlooked. To a large class of then the legislature has of late afforded some relief, which has however been imperfect. To another (the cotton planters) there appears to be no intention of affording any aid; for every petition that has been forwarded to the Board of Trade, has been dismissed without the relief sought.

Every man in this empire is deeply affected by the prosperity or adversity of the colonies; for should the evil become too great to be borne, ruin must ensue to those immediately dependent on them:

* Colonial Policy, vol. 1. p. 17.
Inquiry, &c. p. 11,

1

and all the taxes now paid by them, mus be drawn from the parent state.

It is an awful and important truth that Britain cannot exist with a smalle revenue than she at present possesses Landholders, as well as the mercantil interest, should weigh well this fact, an act in such a manner as to promote the own interests no less than those of the fellow-subjects.

These circumstances apply perhaps a greater degree to the sugar than to th cotton colonies: there is another peculia ty connected with the latter.

Raw cotton has become nearly wi wool, a staple of these kingdoms. T unrivalled excellence of our manufactur ensures us the market wherever we ha access. At present we derive the cotto wool which is manufactured or export in its raw state, from our own coloni from the United States of America, t Brazils, the Spanish colonies, the Leva and the East Indies. Of the whole this, above one-third is imported from t British colonies. On this we can alwa calculate, barring the risk of crops, a of capture; the last being much lessen by the expulsion of the French from western hemisphere. All obtained fr foreigners is dependent on their capri of this America has afforded an admi ble illustration.

In 1808, the quantity of cotton ported from North America was only 1 millions of Ibs. being thus reduced little more than one-third of what it been for the three preceding years, to one-fifth of what it has since be The other independent states may equally whimsical, or their interests be different from what they now There are also physical objections to s of the cotton-wool obtained from for sources; that from the Levant b only fit for the coarsest manufactu that from India is either coarse or in the extreme, and cannot be gene used. The expence, too, of freight is times that from the West Indies.

Unless the colonists obtain relief, must and they will seek it for themse It is true that they are without the m of revolt; their peculiar situation, inclinations, all concur to oppose su design. This furnishes an additi claim on generosity.

There is a pitch, however, to which the chords of attachment can be tune wound farther, discord is produced, at last they are broken for ever.

who are then rendered active from necessity, will devise means of relief; those of active redress are not in their power, but they may share their wrongs with those who now inflict them, by withdraw ing themselves and their slaves to some country, where they will receive that protection which is denied at home. And even should this dread alternative not be adopted, the dissatisfaction excited by such real causes will not be confined to the breasts of the immediate sufferers. It will spread rapidly, and may ultimately excite efforts which are much to be deprecated. Men will not be oppressed, nay absolutely defrauded, without a mur. mur or complaint.

These evils will result from the calamities of the whole of the West India coJonies; if a part only suffers, the mischief, though less general, will be proportionably destructive to all connected with them. The cotton colonies are therefore entitled to their due share of attention from the legislature. A statement of their former and present situation, in all respects, will next be given; it is fatally correct, and needs no embellishments to heighten the miseries it contains.

Ever since the British have engaged in colomal speculations in the West Indies, they have made the culture of the cotton tree in some degree an object of attention. For a long time it was partial, and confined to very few situations: the increasing enterprise of the mother country did not, however, allow West Indian industry to be exclusively confined to sugar; but, by improving the manufactures at home, it gave a new impulse to the western world, and cotton has gradually become an object of more general attention.

The West Indies, for a considerable period, supplied nearly the whole of the British demand. About thirty years ago, the Dutch settlements on the coast of Guyana first attracted the attention of the cotton-planters; and about the same time North America engaged in similar pursuits in her southern states.

During the progress of this cultivation, the extension of manufactories at home, produced a corresponding demand for the raw material; which was principally supplied by the British colonies, including those on the coast of Guyana, and which were captured in 1796 by the British. A few years ago, the foreign planter discovered that Britain was the best market for this produce; and since that

occurred, the North Americans have introduced enormous and increasing quantities of cotton-wool. The produce of the Brazils was monopolized by Por tugal previous to the occupation of the latter country by the French; it has since found a vent in Great Britain. Unimportant as the quantities undoubtedly are that are derived from other sources, they also increase. Foreigners, as well as our fellow-citizens, are thus protected, in a way that does not seem quite congenial to the common notions of justice.

The following statement will enable the reader to appreciate fairly the real miseries of the British cotton planter, who suffers for the benefit of foreigners.

In the British cotton-colonies immense capitals have been vested, and large tracts of country have been devoted to the cultivation of this article. In point of national importance, these colonies have been rapidly increasing, as will be seen by reference to table C. (in our next.)

The original expence of forming plantations, and of rendering them fit for the purposes for which they are now used, was very considerable, as will be more evident when it is recollected that the barren uncultivated tracts which have been rendered productive and fruitful, were remote from all those facilities which we possess so amply at home. that the whole labour of clearing away immense forests, and of draining swamps or unhealthy lands, was performed by negroes brought from Africa at a heavy expence, who for a time were entirely dependent on foreign supplies for support. A calculation might be instituted; but the facts are so strong, that the general position may be assumed without fear of being questioned.

From the very nature of our West India colonies, they must even now, and at all periods, be in a great measure dependent on other countries for some of the most important necessaries of life. The constitution of the society precludes manufacturing the most common articles, and they do not possess all the means of support.

The monopoly secured by Britain to herself, enhances the price of whatever is derived from her, as provisions can always be obtained much cheaper from North America-but this is inconsistent with the notions of those who have the power of remedying the mischief.

The

!

!

The effects of this monopoly are decidedly hostile to the British cottonplanter, for it increases the real cost of his property, while it depresses the value of his produce. Of this, however, more will be said hereatier: at present, the allusion is sufficient to confirm the estimate of the value of such property. It may be here remarked that clothing of every kind, as well as provisions, is exported from this country.

It appears from a careful comparison of these circumstances of the real value of cotton estates, (taking every source of expence into consideration), that the average value of each acre of land inay be stated at between 140l. and 150/. steriing.

Each acre (as proved by an average of ten years) produces about 200lbs. net of cotton wool.

(To be concluded in our next.)

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

URING the current month, various D dealers in money and negociable paper, commonly called Bankers, have stopt payment in town and country, and ruined many honest people.

As however it is the professed object of this description of traders to become the depositories of other persons' spare cash, and as they seldom or never lend for any useful or benevolent money it purpose, appears to me that no banker can honestly become a bankrupt; and therefore, that when he does, he ought to be rendered the object of some especial punishment.

Men whose sole business is that of receiving other peoples' money, of which

to year, and from generation to generation, rich in the use of their customers' money, and living in great style on the principle of never settling accounts.

Were bankers in general called upon to pay back to every one his own, and balance with the world, is it not to be feared that not one in ten would prove solvent, nor one in four be able to pay ten shillings in the pound? How often has it happened, on the failure of a large banking-house, which has for years maintained in insolent splendour the families of five or six partners, that a tardy dividend has been obtained of balf-a-crown, or five shillings, in the pound!

At the beginning of the French revo lution, the bankers of France lost the public confidence, and ruined thousands of families, paying in general but trifling dividends; and the consequent exaspera tion of the public mind, led to many of the horrors of the revolution. The same effects would probably arise in England on an invasion, or on any public event that might create general alarm.

It is my advice then, that the banking system be placed under legislative regulation; that bankers be compelled to give security to public functionaries for amounts proportioned to the extent of their credits, and especially to their issues of notes—a regulation adopted in the United States. At present they are dangerous, because delusive, establishments; they encourage and sustain monopolists and monopolies, and they play tricks with the circulating medium, which ought not itself to be an object of traffic!

COMMON SENSE.

they are bound to be the guardians, do To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. not live in the same relation to society as traders in merchandize. These latter

are liable to bad debts, unsuccessful speculations, fluctuations in markets, and even in money matters are subject to the tricks, manœuvres, and illiberal practices of bankers themselves. - Bankers, however, who obtain the use of large sums without interest, are morally bound to enter into no speculations which place at hazard the money confided to them; and ought every night to Compare their obligations with their resources, and be able, if needful, at a few hours notice, to restore to every man that which has been confided to them. Yet so little is this the practice, that bankers proceed in business from year

SIR,

HIE

bishop of Lincoln, in his Ele

ments of Theology, says, that "after a certain time, the whole race of men moved from their original habitation's in Armenia, and settled in the plains of Shinar, near the Euphrates, in Assyria or Chaldæa." The Scripture says, "It came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there." If we consider the position of Armenia and of Shinar, we shall find that the journey here mentioned could not have been from the direction of Armenia. 1. Armenia is a province of Asia, and consists of the modern Turcomania, and part of Persia. It is

bounded

bounded on the north by Georgia, on the south by Curdistan, the ancient Assyria, and on the west by Natolia, or the Les ser Asia. This province includes the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates, of the Araxis and Phasis. 2. Shinar was a considerable extent of level country, and included Babylon, and probably a tract of land farther south. Moses expressly says, that Babel (Babylon) and Erech were situated in the land of Shinar. Hence it would scem, that Babylonia formed a part of the land of Shinar, rather than the land of Shinar a part of Babylonia; and this would lead us to consider the land of Shinar as that tract of country which was situated between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, and which was afterwards called Mesopotamia. With this agrees the opinion of Michaelis, who extends Shinar so far north as to include Nisibis and Edessa. It therefore appears, that Armenia is not only not east, but that it is very much to the north, and considerably to the west of Shinar. This difficulty has been observed by commentators, and different solutions have been offered. Bochart says, that Assyria being divided into two parts, one on this, and the other on the further side of the Tigris, they denominated that part beyond the Tigris the east country, though a great part of it was really north of Armenia. It would, however, have been more to the purpose, had it been supposed that mankind jour neyed from some other place than Armenia, and that as they travelled from the east, they must have come to Shinar from a tract of land east of that country. Captain Wilford says, that “according to the Pauranics, and the followers of Buddha, the ark rested on the mountain of Aryavarta, Aryawart, or India, an appellation which has no small affinity with the Araraut of Scripture. These mountains were a great way to the eastward of the plains of Shinar or Mesopotamia, for it is said in Geñesis, that some time after the flood they journeyed from the east' till they found a plain in the land of Shinar, in which they settled. This surely implies that they came from a very distant country eastward of Shinar." We are therefore led to suppose, that mankind, after the flood, migrated from the vicinage of Caucasus, a series of mountains of which Ararat and Taurus

Asiatic Researches.

form certain parts; and I think that this opinion is not only extremely probable, but corroborated by biblical history. In considering the geography of Eden and Paradise, captain Wilford observes, that "according to a uniform tradition of a very long standing, as it is countenanced by the Hindu sacred books and Persian authors, the progenitors of mankind lived in that mountainous tract which extends from Balkh and Candábár to the Ganges." Hence it would appear, that in the same country as the first father of mankind inhabited in the early days of the world, the second father of mankind quitted that floating residence which had been the means of his deliverance; and that from the same country, the descendants of Noah and his sons migrated, and as the Scripture says, journeyed westward, and settled in the land of Shinar.†

The learned prelate says, that the whole race of men moved from their original habitations in Armenia, and settled in the plains of Shinar. In a note he says, "In the first two editions of this work, I stated that a part only of the inhabitants of the earth journeyed from the east' and settled in the plains of Shinar; but from a more attentive consideration of the subject, to which I have been led by the learned and ingenious Remarks on the Eastern Origination of Mankind, by Mr. Granville Penn, pub. lished in the second volume of the Eastern Collections, I have been induced to change my opinion." However, considerable doubts may arise whether the whole race of mankind moved in a wes tern direction. It seems, indeed, ontirely unaccountable and incredible, that all mankind should have journeyed west, from any supposeable point where they were originally settled, and that none of them should have journeyed in any other direction. The eastern parts were equally inviting to colonies, and at this day are at least equally populous as the west. If we suppose that all mankind journeyed west, we must suppose that the east was left without people; and this is an absurdity which few, I appreheni, will attempt to defend. The reason of our attributing so much to the west is, because we are scated in the west, and derive our information from

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writers whose works may be easily procured, and who live nearer to our situation. If we had possessed equal access to eastern writers, or had sufficiently esteemed them, we should have been led to think that some early tribes settled far east in Asia. It is not improbable that certain names of fathers of nations recorded in Scripture, are preserved to this very time, in places of which we have some, though by reason of their remote situation, perhaps imperfect, information.* Captain Wilford, in an Essay on Egypt and the Nile, has given, from the Indian Puranas, some account of the first settlement of nations after the flood. "It is related in the Padman-Purana, that Satyavrata, whose iniraculous preservation from a general deluge is told at length in the Matsya, had three sons, the eldest of whom was named Iyapeti, or "Lord of the Earth;" the others were Charma and Sharma, which last words are, in the vulgar dialects, usually pronounced Chan and Sham, as we frequently hear Kishn for Krishna. The royal patriarch, for such is his character in the Puran, was particularly fond of Iyapeti, to whom he gave all the regions to the north of Himalaya or the Snowy Mountains, which extend from sea to sea, and of which Caucasus is a part; to Sharma he allotted the countries to the south of those mountains: but he cursed Charma; because, when the old monarch

kind did not migrate in a western direction after the flood. If we adopt that situation of Paradise, and of the first settlement of Noah after the flood, which appears in the Indian accounts, and which is placed much farther east than has been hitherto supposed, in the same proportion we facilitate the population of the east of Asia. We must suppose that in ancient times, migratory colonies were influenced by natural causes, as they are at present; and we cannot but observe that the courses of rivers must have been at that time as they are nowthe guides of settlers, and of inhabitants in a state of progress. If we inspect the map of Asia, we shall perceive that most of the considerable streams issue from Caucasus; and that from this mountain, largely taken, the course of these streams may be considered as marking the course of mankind to remote parts of this continent. In fact, they diverge on all sides; south to India, east to China, north to Siberia, and west towards the Caspian Sea. If it should be thought, as some have supposed, that Shem took no part in the building of Babel, this will afford an additional argument in favour of the opinion that the whole race of mankind did not migrate in a western direction. Ravenstonedale, June 11, 1810.

J. ROBINSON.

was accidentally inebriated with a strong To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. Liquor made of fermented rice, Charma laughed, and it was in consequence of his father's imprecation that he became

a slave to the slaves of his brother." H

"The children of Charma travelled a long time, until they arrived at the bank of the river Nila, or Cali, in Egypt; and a Brahmin informs me, that their journey began after the building of the PadmaMandira, which appears to be the tower of Babel, on the banks of the river Cumudvati, which can be no other than the Euphrates." These extracts are corroborative of the geography of Moses, and prove that the geographical documents preserved to us in Holy Writ, are in perfect unison with the most ancient histories of the people who, after the inspired writers, possessed the most authentic sources of information. They also shew, that the whole race of man

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SIR,

AVING been lately a witness to

the very great labour, expense, and frequent disappointment, attendant on the making of Galvanic troughs in the common way, with wood, and the joints covered with cement, I am induced to propose, through the medium of your most respectable and widely-circulated Journal, an idea that struck me of substituting troughs made of earthenware, for the above-mentioned purpose.

They could be constructed with only one or two cells in each piece, by which means they might be afforded very cheap; and by placing any number of those pieces in continuation in a simple box or trough, made for the purpose, the power could be increased to any degree required. Clonmell, June 24, 1810.

* Sacred Geography.

ROBERT DAVIS.

To

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