nies complained! They were willing to submit to them. It was the unjust attempt to tax them, to raise a revenue from them, without their consent, which combined that firm and spirited opposition which effected a division of the empire—thus the Congress of 1775, in their last address to the inhabitants of Great Britain, say, "We cheerfully consent to such acts of the British parliament as shall be restrained to the regulations of our exter nal commerce, for the purpose of securing the commercial advan tages of the whole empire to the mother country, and the commercial benefit of its respective members; excluding every idea of taxation internal or external for the purpose of raising a revenue on the subjects in America without their consent." The "colonial codes of other nations are marked with the same spirit of monopoly-thus Portugal shuts out all foreigners from the Brazils as well as from her Asiatic possessions, Spain from South Ame rica and her West India islands, France excludes all foreigners from her Asiatic dominions, and limits within narrow bounds their intercourse with her colonies in the West Indies. Holland guards, with the miser's vigilance, the access to her spice islands, and imitates, though with somewhat less rigor, the policy of the other powers in her West India possessions. And England, by her act of navigation, which has been in operation for more than a century, asserted, and hitherto has uniformly adhered to, the like system of exclusion and monopoly.

Notwithstanding the intimate alliance, the family compact, between France and Spain, the former has not been able to procure admission into the Spanish colonial territories, where she might have acquired immense wealth by the sale of her manufactures, her wines, and her brandies. Holland, though a part of the Spanish monarchy long after the discovery of America, and the establishment of the Spanish power in that quarter of the world, was unable after her separation from Spain, and the acknowledgment of her independence, even in the zenith of her splendid power upon the ocean, to obtain by force or treaty a share in the Spanish colony trade to South America. The rival wars between the English and the Dutch towards the close of the last century, which originated in commercial competition and

jealousy, were successively terminated without England yielding the smallest departure from the exclusive commercial system, contained in her act of navigation.

Great Britain, though maintaining her exclusive laws against other nations at different periods, has shown the strongest desire to share in the rich trade of Spain with her colonies. The war that commenced in 1739, was occasioned by the firm, but irregular, opposition of Spain to the contraband efforts of British traders.

The impediments Great Britain has uniformly met in her attempts to extend her settlement in the Bay of Honduras, to form establishments at Falkland's Island, and more recently at Nootka Sound, afford additional proofs of the fixed policy of Spain on the subject of her colony trade.

Portugal, whose political safety more than once has appeared to depend upon the efficacious aid of Great Britain, does not yield to her ally any portion of her valuable colonial commerce.

So uniform and persevering has been the practice of nations on this point, that in the latest treaties of commerce between France and Spain, between each of these powers and Great Britain, between Great Britain, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, and Portugal, we do not discover that any one of these powers has consented to admit the others to a participation in the trade and navigation to their respective colonies-the Assiento contract for the supply of negroes to the Spanish colonies, which has been made by Spain with several powers, is an unimportant and solitary exception to this rule.

Montesquieu calls this law appropriating the colony commerce to the benefit of the parent state, "A fundamental law of Europe." "It has been established," says this enlightened Frenchman,— "that the metropolis or mother country alone shall trade in the colonies, and that for very good reasons; because the design of the settlement, was the extension of commerce, not the foundation of a city or new empire. Thus it is still a fundamental law of Europe, that all commerce with a foreign colony shall be regarded as a mere monopoly, punishable by the laws of the country; and in this case we are not to be directed by the laws and precedents of the ancients, which are not at all applicable."

"It is likewise acknowledged that a commerce established between the mother countries, does not include a permission to trade in the colonies; for these always continue in a state of prohibition." [Montesquieu, Liv. xxi. chap. xvii.]

This subject is of too great importance not to be pursued a little further. Principles connected with it, and such as will continue to operate whether we sanction or condemn them, remain to be disclosed. It is true that the principal end of the dominion that the European powers have held over their colonies, has been the monopoly of their commerce, "since in their exclusive trade (as has been observed by a sensible writer on the subject) consists the principal advantages of colonies, which afford neither revenue nor force for the defence of the parent country;" but this is not the sole object. Some nations, and among them Great Britain, have viewed the exclusive navigation and trade to their colonies, in the light in which they have seen their coasting trade and fisheries; as a nursery for that body of seamen, whom they have considered not only as necessary to the prosperity and protection of commerce, but as essential to the defence and safety of the state.

When

The situation of Great Britain in this respect is peculiar: when compared with several of the neighboring powers, her numbers and military forces are manifestly inferior. The armies kept on foot in peace, as well as those brought into the field in war, by the great nations in Europe, are so decidedly superior to those of Great Britain, that were she a continental power, her rivals would easily be an overmatch for her. The ocean is her fortification, and her seamen alone are the soldiers who can defend it. Great Britain shall become an inferior maritime power, when her enemy shall acquire a decisive superiority on the sea, what will prevent a repetition of those conquests the examples of which we find in her early history? No subject has been more profoundly thought on than this has been in Great Britain. Her policy, from the date of her navigation act, has been guided by these consid erations that her national safety depends on her wooden walls, is a maxim as sacred in Britain, as it once was in Athens. Her statesmen, her merchants, her manufacturers, and her yeomanry, comprehend and believe it.

Is it then surprising, that we see her so anxious to encourage and extend her navigation, as to exclude as far as practicable, foreigners from any share of her fisheries, her coasting, and her colony trade? Does not candor require us to admit, since her national defence rests upon her navy, which again depends on her seamen, which an extensive navigation can alone supply, that Great Britain having more to risk, is among the last powers likely to break in upon or materially to relinquish that system of exclusive colony trade, that has so long and uniformly prevailed among the great colonizing powers?

America has her opinions, perhaps prejudices, on the subject of commerce: she is, and, at least until she shall become a naval power, will continue to be, without colonies. But her laws manifest a similar spirit with those of other nations, in the regulations which they prescribe for the government of her fishe ries and her coasting trade. The object of these laws is an exclusion of foreign competition, in order to encourage and increase her own navigation and seamen; from which resources, not only in wars between other nations, but likewise in those in which she may be engaged, important commercial and national advantages may be expected. These opinions deserve attention; they have already had and will continue to have a suitable influence with her government. But we should remember, that other nations have likewise their opinions and prejudices on these subjects; opinions and prejudices not the less strong or deeply rooted for having been transmitted to them through a series of past generations. Thus in England, not only the public opinion, but what is more unconquerable, the private interests of many individuals will oppose every change in the existing laws that may be supposed likely to diminish their navigation, to limit their trade, or in any measure to affect disadvantageously their established system. of national commerce.

It cannot have escaped notice, that we have among us characters who are unwilling to see stated the impediments that stand in the way of the commercial arrangements, which they contend, should be conceded to us by foreign nations, and who are ready to charge those who faithfully expose them, with an

inclination to excuse or vindicate the unreasonable denials of our commercial rivals, and with a desire to yield up the just pretensions of our country. The artifice seems too gross to be dangerous with a sensible people, but the public should notwithstanding be on their guard against it. They should dispassionately examine the real difficulties to be encountered in the formation of our commercial treaties. They should inquire and ascertain how far other nations, seeking the same advantages, have been able to succeed. They should further compare the treaty in question with those we have before made with other nations-the result of such investigation so far from warranting the condemnation of the commercial articles of the treaty before us, it is believed would demonstrate that these articles make a wider breach in the British commercial system than has ever before been made; that on their commercial dispositions they are preferable to any treaty we have before concluded, and that there is rational ground to believe that the treaty will have a tendency friendly to the agriculture, the commerce, and the navigation of our country.

CAMILLUS.

NO. XXIV.

1795.

However uniform may have been the law of Europe in relation to the colonial establishments, no pains have been spared to create an opinion that France has been guided by a more liberal policy than the other colonizing powers, and that the regulations of her colony trade were essentially dissimilar from theirs; moreover that her disinterestedness was so great, that she not long since proposed to our government to establish by treaty, a trade between us and her West India colonies equally free with that which prevails in her own intercourse with them. The object of these attempts is readily perceived.

As there was no probability, that Great Britain would consent to our trading with her West India colonies on the same terms