100 per-cent.; and the price has fallen from 69s. to 33s. 6d. per cwt. the average of the laft 8 months. As it appears obvious, from the above statement, that the duty is heavier than the article can bear at its prefent price, it is fuggefted that it might be expedient, for the relief of the home market, to extend the principle which has been adopted on the contingent increase of duty from 275. to 30s.; so that from the maximum of duty then fixed, on a grofs price of 80s. affording 30s. duty, and 50s. to the planter, the duty fhould be thrown back on a fimilar fcale in proportion to the depreffion of the market, till the price arrives at 6os. grofs, leaving 20s. (the original duty) to government, and 40s. to the planter; or, in other words, a reduction of Is. of duty on a reduction of 25. grofs price, from the average then fixed for the impofition of the new duty, as far as 20s. An increase of the bounty on the export has been alfo recommended; and your committee are of opinion, that it would afford great relief if given as an accompaniment to measures of restriction upon neutrals, fo as to render the expences on British and foreign produce equal in the foreign market. A confiderable depreciation in the price of rum having also taken place, it has been fuggefted, that the encouragement of the confumption of that article would be a considerable advantage to the planter. Your committee are aware that such encouragement has been given to a certain extent, but if it were found practicable to carry that affiftance further, by an increased consumption in the army and navy, uch a measure would, in their opinion, have very beneficial effects; or a reduction of duty on rum might afford effential relief to the planter, without loss to the revenue, which would be indemnified by an increased confumption of that spirit. Great, however, as are the evils of the decrease of price and increase of charges, it does not appear to your committee, that they are the original causes of the distress of the planter, by applying to which alone any practicable remedy he could be more than partially relieved; but that the main evil, and that to which these are ultimately to be referred, is the very unfavourable ftate of the foreign market, in which formerly the British merchant enjoyed nearly a monopoly, but where he cannot at present enter into competition with the planters, not only of the neutral, but of the hostile colonies. The refult of all their inquiries on this most important part of the fubject have brought befo re their eyes one grand and primary evil, from which all the others are eafily to be deduced; namely, the facility of intercourse between the hoftile colonies and Europe, under the American neutral flag, by means of which not only the whole of their produce is carried to a market, but at charges little exceeding those of peace; while the British planter is burthened with all the inconvenience, risk, and expence, resulting from a state of war. The advantages, which the hoftile colonies derive from the relaxation of that principle, which prohibited any trade from being carried on with the enemy's colonies by neutrals during war, which the enemy Appen- himself did not permit to those neutrals during peace, may be in part eftimated by reference to a statement of the imports into Amfterdam alone from the United States of America in the year 1806, amount. ing to 34,085 hhds. of coffee, and 45,097 hhds. of sugar, conveyed in dix. 211 vessels hereunto annexed; and to a statement, alfo annexed, of the amount of Weft India produce, exported from the United States of America, between the ift October 1805 and 30th September 1806.-In point of comparative expence, the advantages of the hoftile colonies will be further illuftrated by the evidence of Mr. Marryat, fupported by fatisfactory documents, which fhew the charges of freight and infurance on fugar from the hoftile colonies, through the United States of America, to the ports of Holland and Flanders, and to thofe of the Mediterranean, to be lefs by 8s. 11d. to the former, and by 12s. 6d. to the latter, than those charges on British sugars to the fame ports. Your committee cannot omit to ftate, alfo, another important advantage enjoyed by the French colonies, arifing from the fale of nearly the whole French mercantile marine to neutrals, under the ftipulation of each veffel being returned into French ports, in order to be navigated as French fhips, within twelve months after peace, and with the enjoyment, during war, of the fame privileges in the ports of France as if they were actually French; for inftance, to import fugar at a duty of 45. per cwt. less than the duty imposed on sugar imported in neutral veffels. In order to counterbalance, in fome degree, the advantages thus enjoyed by the hoftile colonies, to the detriment of the British planter, it has been recommended, that a blockade of the ports of the enemy's fettlements fhould be reforted to: fuch a measure, if it could be ftrictly enforced, would undoubtedly afford relief to our export trade. But a measure of more permanent and certain advantage would be the enforcement of those refrictions on the trade between neutrals and the enemy's colonies, which were formerly maintained by Great Britain, and from the relaxation of which, the enemy's colonies obtain indirectly, during war, all the advantages of peace; while our own colonies, in the intercourse with whom that fyftem of monopoly which has been held effential to the commercial and military navy of this country is rigorously enforced, are deprived of the advantages under which, in former wars, they carried their produce to the foreign markets, and which in the prefent war, by means of our decided naval fuperiority, would have amounted to the exclufive supply of the whole of Europe; and when thofe extraordinary measures are taken into confideration which have been adopted to exclude the British colonial produce from the European market, it appears to your committee to be a matter of evident and imperious neceffity to refort to fuch a fyftem, as by impeding and reftricting, and, as far as poffible, preventing the export of the produce of the enemy's colonies from the places of its growth, fhall compel the continent to have recourse to the only fource of fupply, which, in that event, would be open to it. As it may be apprehended, that from the adoption of fuch measures, difficulties might arife in that intercourfe, from which the Weft Indies at prefent derive a confiderable proportion of some of their fupplies, your committee have thought it their duty to make inquiry into the resources in that'respect to which recourfe might be had in fuch an event. During the only period which affords an example of the fufpenfion of that intercourse, the evidence concurs as to the fact of a fupply having been obtained (though not without temporary and occafional inconveniences) from a variety of fources which may reasonably be relied upon in case of such neceffity, at the prefent moment, to a greater amount than at the former period. From the examination of perfons who, in confequence of their refidence in the British North American fettlements, or extenfive commercial connections with them, poffefs the best information as to their present and future resources, there is ground to believe that fome fupply of the principal articles of lumber might be obtained from thence immediately, and to expect that with due encouragement the quantity of that fupply might be increafed to any extent. The supply of flour which they could at prefent afford to the Weft India market would be small, and of inferior quality. They appear to be capable of affording a large supply of fish, and what deficiency might exift in other articles of falt provifions might be made up by fupplies from Europe. Upon the whole, the impreffion which your committee have received is, that the trade now carried on between the British West Indies and the United States of America is very convenient and advantageous to the inhabitants of our colonies, and one which they could not relinquith, without effential detriment, unless it were compenfated by other advantages; but that it is not effential to their exiftence, or equivalent to the disadvantages of their fituation, in these refpects, which your committee have already gone through in the present statement. Your committee having briefly stated the diftreffed fituation of the Weft India planter, the causes which have gradually produced his distress, which are beyond his reach to remedy, and which muft continue to operate with increased effect,—and having stated fuch meafures of relief as have been suggested to them, and such as, from the beft fources of information, appear most adequate to the end in view, have only to add, that if those remedies are liable to objections and difficulties, there is on the other hand the strongest concurrent teftimony and proof, that unless fome speedy and efficient measures of relief are adopted, the ruin of a great number of the planters, and of perfons in this country holding annuities, and otherwise dependent upon thofe properties for their income, muft inevitably very foon take place, which must be followed by the lofs of a vaft capital advanced on fecurities in those countries, and by the most fatal injury to the commercial, maritime, and financial interefts of Great Britain. APPENDIX. Sugar imported from all parts into Great Britain; from 1791 to 1806 inclufive; &c. Sugar imported from the Weft India colonies into Great Britain; from 1761 to 1806; &c. Rum imported from the Weft India colonies into Great Britain; from 1761 to 1806; &c. 2 Coffee imported from the West India colonies into Great Britain; from 1761 to 1806; &c. Cocoa imported from the Weft India colonies into Great Britain; from 1761 to 1806; &c. Pimento imported from the Weft India colonies into Great Britain; from 1761 to 1806; &c. Cotton wool imported from the Weft India colonies into Great Dye woods and other mifcellaneous articles, imported from the Weft Spirits contracted for by the victualling board, for the use of the navy and army; &c. Sugar in warehouses, and afloat, in the Weft India Docks, on the 13th July 1807, Exports, from October 1805 to September 1806, from the United States of America. The general average prices of brown or Mufcovado fugar, for 13 years, ending the 5th day January 1086. The general average prices of brown or Mufcovado fugar, from January 1806 to December 1986. EVIDENCE. MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. Mr. Mitchell Luna, 13° die Julii, 1807. WILLIAM MITCHELL, Efquire, called in, and examined. How there? I have known the inland 44 years, OW long have you known the island of Jamaica, and how long and have refided there nearly 40 years. Are you well acquainted with various fugar eftates in Jamaica, and have you had, during your refidence there, the care and management of feveral of fuch eftates?-I am very well acquainted with fugar eftates, and I have had a number of them under my care. You could not ftate how many, in round numbers?—I could not speak particularly, I was not fo much in that line as others: I have had perhaps 16 or 18 at a time. In various parts of the island?-Yes; in various parts of the ifland. Can, in your opinion, lands long employed in raifing sugar canes be converted to any other object of cultivation, without a great and ruinous facrifice of property?-Certainly not; they may be converted to other purposes, but not without a great facrifice. They might be ufed to raise grafs, or to raise corn; but in fo doing, the facrifice of property would be ruinous. Are not fuch lands in general unfit for the profitable cultivation of other articles of West India produce?-They are not fit for profitable cultivation. What, in your opinion, is the average coft of a fet of works and other buildings, and machinery, neceffary for the manufacture of fugar on an estate making 200 hogfheads?-It is hardly poffible to give a pofitive answer to that, because one man would erect a different fet of works from what another would; but if I were to erect a fet of works for my own ufe, I think it would not be in my power to erect them in the substantial and convenient manner I could with under 10,000l. current money of Jamaica. I have a fet of works on one of my own eftates, on which I have expended, at different times, upwards of 30,000l. currency. What, according to the beft of your knowledge, do you think, is the average value of cane land per acre?-It varies from 51. to 150%. I have land on my own eftate which. I would not fell for 140/. currency, and there are other lands which are not worth more than 5, 10. or 15.; but if you speak of good cane lands in general in cul |