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[( tNIVERSITT 
 
 I 
 
 r 
 
THE COLONIES, 
 
 AND 
 
 THE PRESENT 
 
 AMERICAN REVOLUTIONS. 
 
 BYM. DEPRADT, 
 
 ■\ ■ /, 
 
 FORMERLY ARCHBISHOP OF MALINES. 
 
 Magnus ab integro sajclorura nascitur ordo. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH. 
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED FOR BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AND JOY, 
 
 PATERNOSTER-ROW. 
 
 1817. 
 

 sir/s^ 
 
 C. Baldwin, Printer, 
 New Bridge-street, London. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 AN the Work; which we now give to the PubUc, we 
 are about to lead its attention to a subject of great 
 importance. When, in 1 800, we presented to it the first 
 fruits of our reflections on the question of the Colonies*, 
 we could only have in view then to lay before it the 
 principles, or great outlines of the Colonial System. 
 Our efforts, at that time, only extended to the demon- 
 stration of a theory which awaited the confirmation of 
 facts. It has not had long to wait that confirmation — 
 for in the times in which we live, the wing of time 
 follows close upon, when it does not outstrip, the pen 
 of the writer, and we can commonly soon determine 
 what opinions to hold upon the merit of all kinds of 
 theories. 
 
 Since the period at which we wrote, facts have ap- 
 •peared, if we may so speak, to range themselves under 
 the order of the principles which we then announced 
 — and the Colonial System, which at that time seemed 
 only to be shaken, has since undergone a total change. 
 Among the principal facts which have occurred in that 
 
 * The author's former wor^s, entitled, Les Trois Ages des Colonies, 
 Paris, 1802, of which " The Colonies" is a sort of revised edition, 
 with much new matter,— ^T. 
 
 A % 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 interval of time, there are several vi^hich we may be 
 permitted to point out as the necessary consequences 
 of the change which ah*eady began to be remarked in 
 the Colonies — thus we have announced, 
 
 1. The dissolution of the equivocal state in which 
 St. Domingo then stood with regard to France, as 
 terminating in a complete independence, as soon as 
 circumstances should appear to favour it ; 
 
 2. The continuance of insurrections among the Ne- 
 groes ; 
 
 3. The successive and forced conquest of all the 
 Colonies by England, not to gain them for herself, but 
 for the advantage of her commerce, leaving them to 
 their own wishes with regard to the sovereignty ; 
 
 4. The decided and incontestible superiority of the 
 English navy over all the other navies of Europe ; 
 
 5. The propriety and the probability of the transla- 
 tion of the King of Portugal to Brazil ; 
 
 6. The tendency of the United States to acquire 
 the Floridas ; 
 
 7. The emancipation of Spanish America, that act, 
 decisive of the Colonial System, which we foretold so 
 long ago must result from the long separation of the 
 Colony from the mother country. 
 
 We have thus, at this moment, the authority of 
 facts the most striking and the most numerous on our 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 side. It is under shelter of these, and in some mea- 
 sure induced by them, that we again venture to call 
 the attention of the Public to the consideration of the 
 most important question with which it can be engaged 
 — for it is rather an appeal to the public attention re- 
 lating to the Colonies, than a treatise upon them, 
 which we have pretended to give. Let others go over 
 the whole of the course — we have only desired to show 
 the entrance and the exit, to place the stakes upon the 
 ground, and induce others to enter upon it — a career 
 long and large enough, and where there is space for all. 
 The division of the work was pointed out by the 
 very nature of its subject — it was natural to commence 
 with a short exposition of the facts relative to the esta- 
 blishment of each people, from their discovery to the 
 latest treaties which have fixed the condition of each. 
 Such an analysis appears sufficient to give that portion 
 of information which every one, in our times, expects 
 to obtain — those who would desire more profound 
 views must turn to that abundant source of informa- 
 tion, the celebrated work of Raynal — ours will serve 
 them to correct some notions of that writer, too much 
 admired at the time, as well as too much vituperated, 
 and to compare the order of things which he has traced, 
 with the order which exists in our days ; for if, in 
 point of time, there are but a few years of interval 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 between llaynal and us, in point of facts there are 
 ages — he himself could not recognize the world to 
 which his writings introduced us — the painter would 
 not know his own picture. Such is the effect of the 
 immense change which has been operated in the Co- 
 lonies — the concussion given to these countries by the 
 revolution has been felt still more forcibly than in the 
 places themselves in which it originated ; and fixed in 
 Europe, it is in full activity in the Colonies. The 
 complete change in the Colonial System, which must 
 necessarily follow the emancipation of Spanish America, 
 will be the most extensive result of that great event, 
 which, in its totality, we call the French Revolution. 
 The rapidity with which these changes have occurred 
 has led us to use with moderation calculations of sta- 
 tistics. In the actual state of the world, general and 
 positive statistics no longer exist : the rapidity and 
 mobility which have characterized the changes which 
 have taken place during the last twenty-five years, are 
 the greatest enemies of that science, which is the friend 
 of immutability : and politics resemble those esta- 
 blishments of commerce which reckon only on the 
 prices of to-day, and have neither yesterday nor to- 
 morrow. Time, in conducting that science to its pri- 
 mitive character, permits it to re-assume its natural 
 destination : in the mean time, we must use it with 
 
PREFACE. VU 
 
 discretion, and search in it rather for approximations 
 than for certainties — it is only under these relations 
 that we present our own calculations^ and that we de- 
 mand that they should be judged. The principles of 
 the Colonial System naturally follow this detail of histo- 
 rical facts i and, finally, it has been thought necessary 
 to inquire what the colonial countries may become, 
 and for that purpose to enter into the question of the 
 ^ war of Spain with its Colonies. The fate of Spanish 
 America will be that of all the Colonies ; for that mass 
 is too powerful not to carry every thing along with it, 
 in the direction which itself takes. 
 
 In insisting on the necessity of a Colonial Congress, 
 as well as on the friendly intervention of Europe in 
 the quarrel, we had a viev/ to the general interests of 
 Europe, and to the particular interests of Spain, and 
 at the same time to those of America, which in fact 
 suppose the two first. The ruin of the first, and the 
 torment of the other, must be prevented. But why 
 should we devastate America, to the entire loss of the 
 whole world? For nothing, now, can change the fixed 
 state of things ; it remains only to terminate the 
 matter in the way least injurious to the interests of 
 each. America, delivered to a crowd of leaders, who, 
 without any ties among themselves, portion it into a 
 thousand parts, will be every where destroyed ; it will 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 become unprofitable to Europe, and will fall into the 
 
 condition of Asia Minor and the anarchical pacha- 
 
 lics of the Ottoman empire, if we do not hasten to 
 
 recall it to those centres of authority acknowledged 
 
 by the generality of nations, beneath whose sanction 
 
 the relations of Europe with America can alone be 
 
 re-established. Tlie anarchy of America will be the 
 
 cause of poverty to both worlds, while her good order 
 
 will produce their opulence and their repose. Already 
 
 these effects are felt in Europe, and we must entirely 
 
 turn our eyes from the true state of the country, not 
 
 to discover the double want of money and supplies 
 
 which the troubles of America have caused it to suffer. 
 
 The products of more than six mines of Mexico have 
 
 been arrested — the workmen have become combatants 
 
 — the progress of their labour has been stopped at the 
 
 sight of arms ; all transport has been interdicted on 
 
 those routes where the war has been carried on ; and 
 
 things are arrived at such a pitch that the port of Vera 
 
 Cruz, which every year sent out bullion to the amount 
 
 of more than one hundred millions, in I8O6 sent to 
 
 Spain a sum which we hardly dare name, 6o,000 
 
 francs ! Thus Europe experiences a general stoppage 
 
 in its commercial relations, and yet does any one 
 
 believe the specie to have disappeared ? On the other 
 
 hand, during some years, the want has been as it 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 were, naturalized in Europe — that country lives under 
 a tempestuous sky, which, changing only the kinds of 
 its plagues, makes the paleness of famine succeed to 
 war, and doubles by want the ravages of the sword. 
 What resources would fainting Europe find, if she 
 could but reach them, in the harvests of America and 
 the mines of Mexico, where the earth rewards the la- 
 bours of man in a proportion unknown there ? And it 
 is not only to the present moment that we are to look, 
 but to the future ; for we must not conceal the embar- 
 rassments which will be caused, in the bosom of Eu- 
 rope, by the facilities, and, as it were, the open roads, 
 through which every one may now attain that edu- 
 cation which, not long since, was in the possession 
 only of certain classes. It is safer at present to count 
 on instruction than employment, on industry than on 
 riches, people of business than business itself. We 
 may say that in some measure among the first, the form 
 outweighs the thing itself. This inequality will be al- 
 ways increasing, from the modern organization of so- 
 ciety; and surely it would be a happy thing to be able 
 to open means to that vast number, whose faculties 
 are so far above their fortunes, favoured by nature with 
 her gifts, and repulsed by the neglect of society. The 
 Colonies, whether we consider the field which they 
 oppn in themselves, or the wide pursuits to which they 
 
 2 
 
X PREFACPl 
 
 lead, are extrciuely fit to be employed for the assistance 
 of Europe, in furnishing the means which it wants in 
 itself, for the supply of a part of its own great family. 
 
 Duty and personal feeling have induced us to point 
 out the dangers which arise to royalty and the Catholic 
 religion, from'lhe prolonged struggle between Spain 
 and America, and the facility which is given to the first 
 to dispose ot its fate : we are the more drawn to make 
 this observation, because, in the number of American 
 constitutions which we have seen, we have not met 
 with one which included a single word referring to 
 royalty ; on the contrary, all are struck with a deep 
 die of republicanism, and lean more to the institutions 
 of the United States than to those of Europe. The 
 danger is so much the greater, as no country equal* 
 in prosperity that of the United States. There is a 
 great attraction in the view of happiness ; and the 
 nature of man leads him to seek it, and to make it his 
 own. 
 
 For a long time Europe has not had, nor will have, 
 more than three great affairs in view ; the Colonies, 
 the consolidation of France, and the proper establish- 
 ment of the ecclesiastical, with regard to the civil or- 
 der* : its riches, its repose, and its independence hang 
 
 * We4o not here speak of the fourth, the establishment of the 
 civil or constitutional order: 1, Because this is the concern of each 
 
PREFACE. xi 
 
 on these ; but among these three great interests, that 
 which over-rules, and by far surpasses all the others, 
 is wittiout doubt that of the Colonial System. What 
 has passed in the Colonies carries back the world to 
 the epoch of the discovery of the colonial regions, and 
 in the assignment of their proper class to the two 
 epochs, the decision is not difficult ; for there is all the 
 difference between the one and the other that there 
 is between a sketch and a finished picture. 
 
 .The revolution in the Colonies is not a matter of 
 chance, nor unexpected ; it is only the necessary result 
 of the developement of the elements of which they 
 were composed ; ^the growth of the seeds which were 
 sown on them ; of the institutions, and of the men 
 jvhich have governed them. On comparing the prin- 
 ciples of the Colonial System with the plans adopted 
 by the people of Europe in the administration of 
 their Colonies, we shall find that the only people which 
 has had notions truly colonial is the English. In the 
 Colonies, as well as elsewhere, nothing is the effect 
 of chance ; chance is the idol of the blind, wor- 
 shipped by thoughtlessness : reason, on the con- 
 trary, admits nothing as the proof of events but the 
 nature of things, observation, and experience. It is 
 
 people in particular ; 2. Because it is every where prgmised, and 
 partly accomplished. 
 
xii PREFACE. 
 
 thus that the separation of America from Spain has 
 been falsely attributed to Napoleon : he only accelerated 
 the moment of the publication of their divorce : it is 
 true, that he cut the cable which bound them toge- 
 ther,: but time had already reduced it to a thread, of 
 which immersion in the water had concealed the feeble- 
 ness for some time after it was broken. If, instead of 
 exerting his power to conduct two direct wars against 
 independent powers, at sea against England, on land 
 against Russia, Napoleon had employed the strength 
 of his arm in securing the independence of America, 
 an event, besides, which he regarded as written in the 
 great book of nature and of necessity, he would have 
 delivered Europe and France from those chains which 
 the maritime superiority of England imposes on them. 
 France, deprived of all her Colonies, has, of all the 
 states of Europe, the most need of the emancipation 
 of America. No consideration of sovereignty of family 
 ought to prevent this : nations have no interests but 
 the interests of state. 
 
 A general system of good-will to all nations, such 
 as forms the ground of this work, cannot rest but 
 upon truth and impartiality ; they only have inspired 
 what has been written ; to show men that they have 
 no true interest but that of their species — that the 
 source of most abundant prosperity for one nation is 
 
PREFACE. xiii 
 
 the prosperity which it diffuses through another — ^to 
 extend the limits of liherty, to multiply commercial 
 relations — to regard the wealth of the world as a 
 common fund created by Providence, from which each 
 member of the great family of mankind may draw, 
 according to his labour and his industry — to abjure 
 the jealous and odious maxims of ancient trade — to 
 teach nations that it is not their interest to rule over 
 one another, but only to trade together— to extin- 
 guish, or at least to prevent, by this conduct, the causes 
 of restraint, of ruin, and of wars: such has been the end 
 which we proposed to ourselves : we all feel how in- 
 compatible it is, with the appearance even of elevating 
 or a design to abase any one — of swelling the power 
 of some, and afflicting others. The flatterers and the 
 detractors of nations are as odious as the flatterers and 
 the detractors of individuals. All that can be said of 
 the colonial, commercial, and maritime conditions of 
 various nations, consists in facts; let these be de- 
 stroyed, and it will cost us nothing to acknowledge 
 our error; but as they now stand, let nobody be 
 enraged to see them exposed ; thus, when we calculate 
 the power of England, and the force of the double 
 lever with which she moves the world, her capital and 
 her industry, let not our readers attempt to discover 
 either an intention to over-rate her resources, or to lessen 
 
xiv PREFACE. 
 
 those of other states, for our only wish is, to present such 
 i picture of her strength, as it is necessary to examine 
 to learn how to defend ourselves from its operation. 
 
 We think it also fit that we should guard our 
 readers from any false interpretations which may be put 
 on our opinions relating to the military marines of 
 Europe, and particularly on that of France. Justice 
 demands that we should not separate that part of our 
 doctrine from the connection with the Colonial System 
 which we assign to it. In calculating, also, what her 
 marine costs to France, it was natural to inquire what 
 it returned to her ; it seems that this question found 
 its fit place on the tribune of the deputies of France, 
 the fixed regulators of the sacrifices of her people ; but 
 since the limits within which the charter has bounded 
 the flight of their patriotism forbid their discussion of 
 great political interests, in confining them to the inte- 
 rior legislation ; since the grant of participation in the 
 civil government accompanies the denial of discussion 
 on the political system, we have done what we could to 
 fill up the blank : writers are in the place of legist 
 lators, when these are not their precursors, and their 
 silence tells them to speak. When could they better 
 have taken up the discourse, than when it is proposed 
 to put an end to those hideous abuses which now ex- 
 tend over America. While the perpetrators of those 
 
 () 
 
 \' 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 outrages do evil to the cause of Spain, they are kind- 
 ling a hatred in the bosoms of the Americans which 
 nothing will extinguish ; they have made all the interest 
 of the tragical drama be felt for America ; they have 
 awakened the cruel recollection of those atrocities which 
 first gave to Spain the dominion of those countries ; but 
 the times are changed: and those means which then ena- 
 bled her to succeed will now ruin her. All kingdoms 
 have changed their names, their aspects, and their 
 masters. One only remains unshaken, imperishable, / 
 and immutable — reason, humanity, nature, — a bond ^ 
 which every endeavour to break will but render more 
 lasting. In viewing an entire and immense people, 
 devoted to extermination in the name of the rights of 
 sovereignty, it is natural to inquire, whether nations 
 have been made for sovereignty, or sovereignty for na- 
 tions ; if, while in the social system all proceeds from 
 them, ©ught not all also to refer to them; if it be 
 much to declare a whole people rebellious, what 
 must it not be to see a whole world declared rebel- 
 lious by a part of anpther world, which gives com- 
 mand to the former, to offer itself up a sacrifice to its 
 own interested views ? for this is the whole ground of 
 quarrel between Spain and America. That alliance 
 would be indeed holy^ which should take in hand this 
 sacred cause, and which should put a final term to the 
 
xvi PREFACE. 
 
 abominable right of extermination, which the ferocious 
 soldier of Spain has carried into America. Without 
 doubt, next to oppression, nothing is more odious than 
 rebellion : but if America is rebellious, we must de- 
 clare nature rebellious, which tells man not to suf- 
 fer himself to be crushed and ruined ; nature, which 
 separates from its parents the child become a mart 
 — the sap which, in time, makes the young oak rival 
 in strength and in foliage that which, in dropping an 
 acorn on the ground, has given birth to its rival : 
 every thing in nature, in the same manner, is made to 
 be succeeded and supplanted ; and humanity is not a 
 tree set to be topped by a few armed hands, which are to 
 bend its branches after their own fancies. If the bloody 
 opposition to the emancipation of America be cruel 
 to that country, it is equally fatal to the prosperity of 
 the whole world ; for, who can number the advantages 
 of which liberty is the foundation ? America is as yet 
 discovered only by her name and her geography : the 
 treasures, shut up in her bosom, are hidden, till her 
 liberty shall reveal them to the world. It is by her 
 that commerce will enter into possession of all the 
 routes and all the sources which the combination of 
 private property had closed. When all the western 
 coasts of America can trade with Asia, and the eastern 
 coasts can follow their natural relations with Africa 
 
PREFACE. xvii 
 
 and India> we shall see that the seas will be laden 
 with the productions which these favoured climates 
 shall exchange with each other'*«=. When the only re- 
 gulations between the earth and man shall be labour 
 and industry, we will know, for the first time, what 
 the world can do; Till now it has had but a forced 
 and constrained direction : the emancipation of Ame- 
 rica will lead it to know its power and its strength, 
 and will unite all the parties and all the talents of the 
 globe, which, separated and withheld from each other 
 by the prohibitive laws of every nation^ have never 
 been able to mix together* 
 
 History tells us, that the ferocious Companions of 
 Almagro and Pizarro, when they arrived at the sum- 
 mit of the Cordilleras, with Peru under their feet, 
 and the Pacific Ocean before their eyes, fell on their 
 knees as they viewed the new earth and the new seas 
 which they descried from the top of those icy sum- 
 mits, overwhelmed with the weight of the bounties 
 which Providence had given as the reward of their 
 courage : astonishment and gratitude united tast 
 
 * See, " The Isthmus of Panama considered as to the pracu'- 
 cability of its affording a route to the Pacific Ocean, and the infe- 
 riority of that route (if practicable) to the land route by Bueno;5 
 Ayres, in reply to the mistakes of the Edinburgh Review, by Wil- 
 liam Walton, Esq.'* Colonial Journal, Vol. Ill, — T. 
 
 b 
 
Kviti PREFACE. 
 
 down those, whose breasts, as well for the sake of their 
 exploits as for their crimes, nature had armed with « 
 cuirass more impenetrable than that which the poet 
 has given to the first navigator. What these men felt 
 we too feel : we yield to the same emotion of suqjrise 
 and of joy, when we contemplate in imagination the 
 blessings which American emancipation will pour on 
 the universe. The fancy is too barren to represent 
 them-*— words are too weak to declare them.* 
 
 There is but one step of the course entered upon^ 
 and already the daughters of Brazil are come to be 
 seated on the thrones of Europe ; the daughter of the 
 Csesars is united to the sceptre of Brazil, and other 
 unions will follow : the two worlds, mingling their blood 
 instead of reciprocally spilling it, shall substitute the 
 bonds of family affection for the chains with which 
 
 * We may judge of the future powers and progress of America 
 by the subjoined examples : 
 
 The revenue of New Spain (Mexico) in 1712 16,000,000f. 
 
 in 1802 101,000,000 
 
 Increase in the space of ninety years 85,000,000 
 
 In the same interval, the plains in the neighbourhood of the 
 Caracas have produced treble the number of animals which they for- 
 merly possessed. (Depon's Voyage to Terra Firma, vol ii.) Se6 
 also what the same traveller has said on the vegetable and animal 
 productions of that country, and of the increase of which it i« sub- 
 ceptible. 
 
PREFACE. xix 
 
 they were loaded, and thus recall humanity to the 
 condition which Providence assigned to it in form- 
 ing it, that of a single family animated with the same 
 heart, since he endowed all parts of it with the same 
 faculties. May these considerations contribute to fix 
 tlie attention of our contemporaries upon this impor- 
 tant subject ! may they turn it from nearer objects 
 which tend rather to irritate than to occupy them ! 
 Europe, and France most of all, have need of some- 
 thing to carry their attention beyond their own terri- 
 tories ; before this period, the Colonies of the French 
 hardly extended beyond their possessions in the 
 Antilles — when one spoke of the Colonies, one only 
 thought of St. Domingo and of Martinico ; now a wider 
 prospect is extended before them, the world itself; let 
 them bear among them in their noble enterprise a part 
 of that activity which would have consumed them 
 fruitlessly, when all that would have supported them 
 would have been the recollection of a time past which 
 could never return ; — we have spoken enough of dis- 
 cords and of evilsj let us seek to forget them in the 
 contemplation of these new interests! 
 
 There are some employments which have a happy 
 tendency to calm, to elevate, and to purify the mind ; 
 the science of Politics, applied to the great interests of 
 humanity, should, like Astronomy, produce this effect ; 
 
XX 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 and, if it be impossible not to return wiser and better 
 from the contemplation of the heavens, it cannot 
 be less so not to lay down many passions and preju- 
 dices at the feet of human societies, viewed from an 
 eminence, and in their totality, and not to feel the force 
 of our private interests diminish, in proportion as we 
 compare them with theirs. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Page 
 Grandeur and Importance of the Inquiry respecting the 
 
 Colonies 1 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 European Colonies— Portuguese Colonies , > , , , 8 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 Dutch Colonies ; r> .«••..••• . 28 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 British Colonies • • • 40 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 French Colonies 58 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 Spanish Colonies , • 77 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 General View of the Revenue of the Colonies of Europe «... 101 
 
xxii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. VliL 
 ^...,-Of Colonies in general * . . 110 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 Constituent Principles of the Colonial Systena 126 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 Of Exclusive Commercial Coippanies 134* 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 Of the Exclusive Trade of Mother Countries with their 
 Colonies lo3 
 
 CHAP. XH. 
 
 Slavery in the Colonies. — St. Domingo 164 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 The Constituent Principles of the Colonial System compared 
 with those which have been followed by the Europeans. . , . 205 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 The Conduct of the Europeans in their Colonies 257 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 Recapitulation of the present State of the Colonial Powers , , 290 
 
 CHAP. XVI. 
 
 Consequences of this State : its Dangers , 300 
 
 CHAP. XVII. 
 
 Of the Change of Mother Countries into Colonies, and of Colo- 
 
 iiiea into Mother Countries , . 308 
 
 S 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP, XVIIL 
 Of the Dependence and Independence of the Colonies i-:^*^,;^^!^ 
 
 CHAP. XIX. 
 
 Of the Separation, prepared and not prepared, of Colonies 
 from Mother Countries. Dangers and Advantages in these 
 respective Cases 338 
 
 CHAP. XX. 
 Necessity of a Colonial Congress 351 
 
 CHAP. XXI. 
 
 * 
 
 Can Spain reconquer her Colonies ? Will she be able to keep 
 them 355 
 
 CHAP. XXII. 
 Of the Rights of Europe in the War between Spain and Ame- 
 
 rica 
 
 384. 
 
 CHAP. XXIII. 
 
 Influence of the State of the Colonies upon the Navies of Eu- 
 rope ; 413 
 
 CHAP. XXIV. 
 What ought the inferior Maritime Powers to do for their Co- 
 lonies ? 42*r 
 
 CHAP. XXV. 
 Plans proposed for the Colonies 431 
 
 CHAP. XXVI. 
 Plan for the Colonies 438 
 
 CHAP. XXVII. 
 
 Advantages and Disadvantages of the Plan for the Colonies. , 444 
 
xxiT CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. XXVIII. 
 Particular Considerations .7. .... . 457 
 
 CHAP. XXIX. 
 
 Of the English Empire in India, and its Duration 458 
 
 CHAP. XXX. 
 
 What will become of the United States of America ? 474 
 
 CHAP. XXXI. 
 On the necessity of forming Colonial Establishments in Europe 483 
 
 Miscellaneous Illustrations. 490 
 
THE 
 
 COLONIES, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 PRESENT AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Grandeur and Importance of the Inquiry respecting 
 the Colonies, 
 
 X HE mariner's compass* and Columbus, adventurous 
 navigators and lucky accidents, such as are almost of 
 perpetual occurrence in human affairs, have given and 
 unbosomed the New World to the Old ; have joined, it 
 may be said, two parts of the world together, which 
 were mutually ignorant of each other s existence, and 
 have thus rendered man's knowledge of, and dominion 
 over, the universe complete. More glorious, more 
 happy than their so-highly-celebrated predecessors, 
 than all those ancient nations whom men are disposed 
 to make the subject of degrading comparisons, the 
 moderns are acquainted with the form and extent of 
 the residence which Heaven created for them; they- 
 enjoy an intercourse with all its inhabitants, the fruits 
 
 * Invented in the fourteenth century by Flavio Gioja, of Amalfi, 
 a celebrated town of the kingdom of Naples. 
 
 B 
 
9 THE COLONIES. 
 
 of its different soils, the productions of all its climates. 
 Nothing in nature is now concealed from their eyes ; 
 the earth no longer contains obscurities into which 
 they have not penetrated : its form and its circumfer- 
 ence, the mass of the solid parts, the immensity of the 
 seas which surround them, the immensity of the vast 
 basins in which it seems to float; every thing is 
 known, every thing is measured, every thing fixed. 
 
 Along all the extent of those coasts, in the different 
 forms of which nature seems to have displayed so much 
 variety and caprice, there is not even an inlet that has 
 escaped the compass, or the pencil of travellers, guided 
 by the equally useful love of riches or of pleasure. In 
 the interior of the two continents, in the midst of so 
 many regions where the foot of man has never pene- 
 trated, is there, at present, even a cavern exempt from 
 his piercing research ? Is there even one of their sa- 
 vage inhabitants, whose origin and kind he has not 
 examined, whose tastes he has not inquired into, 
 whose sense of the mor^ refined enjoyments, as well 
 as those to which he was actually limited, of which he 
 has not informed himself? Is there one whose place 
 he has not fixed in the long hierarchy of the human 
 species ? Is there any mountain, the height of which 
 his hand has not measured, the features of which he 
 has not sketched, determined its base and connexion 
 with corresponding chains, as well as the influence 
 which they exercise over some of the phenomena of 
 nature ? Is there a great river, whose source he has 
 not discovered, whose course and termination he has 
 not marked out, whose depth he has not sounded, and 
 whose utility he has not pointed out ? Is there any 
 production which has escaped his solicitude to extend 
 the sphere of his own enjoyments and pleasures, or to 
 
THE COLONIES. 3 
 
 keep at a distance the attacks of pain ? Is there a 
 country of whicli he has not demanded those briUiant 
 ornaments which decorate it, the precious metals 
 which ghtter in its palaces, in the rich variety of its 
 furniture and of her dresses, the distribution of which 
 among all the classes of society sheds among them 
 the blessings of a bountiful dew. These are the 
 advantages which the discovery and possession of the 
 New World have of themselves procured for the 
 Old ; and even these constitute but the smallest part 
 of the benefits; for, in order to have a just estimate 
 of their value, to finish the picture, it would be neces- 
 sary to add the increase in her population, and in the 
 number of her cities, in commerce, in maritime power, 
 in knowledge of the arts ; it would be necessary to 
 estimate the value of every conquest which she has 
 been obliged to obtain over herself, to enable her to 
 enjoy her new conquest ; in a word, it would be ne- 
 cessary to be able to compare the state of Europe, at 
 the time the Colonies were discovered, with that in. 
 which it is at the present day; — of that Europe, which 
 knew nothing of one half of the world, and, un- 
 acquainted with herself, confined in her enjoyments to 
 a circle as narrow as that of her acquirements ; not 
 daring to permit her navigators to venture beyond the 
 sight of their own coasts, or but with the direction of the 
 stars of heaven ; consequently in want of the means of 
 forming any close union between the members of the 
 great family which covers the earth, in want of the 
 aliments which the genius of commerce, and the long 
 and expensive enterprises of governments require ; — 
 enterprises which lead so abundantly to these new 
 sources. 
 
 It would be necessary to compare that old and d^ 
 
 B2 
 
4 THE COLONIES, 
 
 cayed mansion with the elegance and splendour of 
 modern Europe, commanding at once the four quar- 
 ters of the world, of which she seems to be the capital ; 
 covering one part with her shoots, obliging the other 
 to labour for her profit, whilst, in return, she is com- 
 municating her tastes, her wants, and her arts ; trans- 
 porting, in the twinkling of an eye, in a thousand 
 vessels, the productions of a thousand climates, the 
 assiduous purveyors to the enjoyments of her own 
 inhabitants ; to compare the activity of their commerce 
 and the necessities of their governments, which, sup- 
 ported by the tributes of the world, may indulge in 
 enterprises proportioned to the fecundity of such 
 powerful support ! 
 
 Three hundred years have been sufficient to bring 
 about this astonishing metamorphosis, and these three 
 hundred years have done more for the good of the 
 world than all preceding ages. The latter end of the 
 fifteenth century saw the dawn of that revolution ; it 
 expired on the twilight of the new day which was 
 about to shine forth on the universe. Vasquez de Gama 
 and Columbus had already appeared, by the most for- 
 tunate accident ; and, that nothing might escape or ob- 
 struct their researches, they took two opposite routes ; 
 from west to east their course embraced the world. 
 The one attempts Asia by ways which no European 
 had ever suspected : America was revealed to Europe 
 by the other. In the space of fifty years all is dis- 
 covered, traversed, invaded ; the veil which covered 
 the globe removed ; man ascertained the extent of the 
 world, and enjoyed the plenitude of his habitation. 
 What epoch of history can be compared with that? 
 Which, among the most celebrated, presents us with 
 any actions so intrinsically great? How does every 
 
THE COLONIES. 5 
 
 preceding and subsequent event in history contract 
 and shrink up when compared with that revolution! 
 What a concussion is, in consequence, suddenly felt by 
 the whole world ! The human race, roused by the 
 shock, seemed to awake from a deep sleep, and to have 
 found new senses in the new roads which man cuts 
 out for himself. A new intellectual universe opens 
 before him at the same time with the new material 
 and terrestrial ; his ideas take another direction, en- 
 large, and refine. Astronomy, Natural Philosophy, 
 Navigation, Arts, Botany, the Knowledge of his own 
 Species, — every thing enlarges and improves around 
 him, from all the subjects for observation which are 
 scattered over the immense surface of which he enters 
 into possession. Never had so vast a harvest offered 
 itself to that happy avidity which man nourishes in 
 himself for seeing and knowing every thing. Ancient 
 errors, revered almost equally with Holy Writ, fall to 
 the ground at sight of the new facts which contradict 
 them : it might even be said that, to put man on a 
 level with his new conquest, the epoch when he ac- 
 complished it was that of all the great discoveries, and 
 of the abjuration of almost all the ancient errors. 
 The Colonies and the Press, designed for the use of 
 Europe, which made their appearance almost at the 
 same epoch, have entirely changed its face. 
 
 The dull and narrow channels which had hitherto 
 sufficed to connect the parts of the ancient world as 
 yet known, and for the transport and exchange of 
 their productions, were abandoned at once, and re- 
 placed by new routes, lately discovered. All nations 
 rush eagerly forward at once, in that career to which 
 brilliant success, and hopes still more brilliant, invite 
 them. Genoa, Venice, Flanders, the ancient staple^ 
 
« THE COLONIES. 
 
 towns of Europe and of Asia,. of the north and of the 
 south, see their power ecHpsed at once, too feeble to 
 support the new movement of commerce, and to(5 re- 
 mote, besides, from its new direction. The Cape of 
 Good Hope completed their destruction, the discovery 
 of which sent the commerce of Africa and of India 
 to Lisbon. Spain alone becomes the channel of the 
 American treasures; happy if, contented with enjoying 
 them, she had not employed against the Old World 
 those which the New poured into her bosom. France, 
 Holland, and, some time afterwards, England^ aspire 
 to share the fruits of the new discoveries with the 
 people of the South, and also the countries themselves 
 which produced them. Each seized what he con- 
 veniently could, or whatever was within his reach ; and 
 during some time the half of the world was a scene of 
 plunder and robbery. 
 
 It certainly does not form any part of our plan, it 
 will never enter into the plan of any sensible person, 
 to investigate European rights upon this principle of 
 the taking possession, or of the seizure of territories, 
 or by mounting up to the origin of those new proper- 
 ties. Away with such an idea, the source of idle 
 questions and of declamations, where the fame which 
 results does not diminish the danger. 
 
 Power and commerce have, at all times, formed the 
 primitive titles of nations against each other. Their 
 archives have seldom admitted any other ; and there 
 are very few of them which could undergo such an 
 examination without reproach. As for us, adverse from 
 principle to all such abstractions, besides convinced 
 that, between nations v>hich are not confined, like in- 
 dividuals, by any superior authority, possession and 
 the need of tranquiUity cover the vices of the primitive 
 
THE COLONIES. 7 
 
 titles, we shall consider the European establishments 
 in both worlds under relations purely political: we 
 shall examine, principally, their influence upon the 
 colonial possessions, the origin, the extent, the pro- 
 gress of those conquests, their real state, the causes of 
 their rise and of their fall. Proceeding then from 
 these positive data to the explanation of the different 
 colonial theories, we shall make use of them as so 
 many steps in the demonstration of a plan entirely 
 new. This plan will result from an examination of the 
 principles upon which the Europeans have conducted 
 their colonial establishments, from the success which 
 they have met with, from the errors into which they 
 have fallen, from the plans which they tried or pre- 
 pared ; in fine, from that which remains for them to 
 do. It will also be the result of an examination of the 
 Colonies, as to their different kinds, their different ages, 
 their diff*erent wants, the different degrees of their im- 
 portance, and, above all, their different destinations. 
 One sees what a mass of facts and observations must 
 be collected to throw light upon all those subjects, and 
 to connect them together ; and as nothing is better 
 adapted to elucidate an inquiry than to commence 
 with an exposition of the facts which belong to it, we 
 shall begin this important discussion by an account 
 of the ancient and modern state of the European 
 Colonies. 
 
S THE COLONIES. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 European Colonies, — Portuguese. 
 
 Of all the European nations the Portuguese appear, 
 with respect to colonies, to be best entitled to the 
 claim of seniority, though in every other respect they 
 are juniors. This nation, almost imperceptible in Eu- 
 rope at present, from its position, from the low state 
 of its population, and the narrow limits of its terri- 
 tories, was the first to conceive and to prove the exist- 
 ence of unknown countries, the discovery of which 
 might be of service to Europe, Enclosed in a very con- 
 fined space, without any of those preliminary convul- 
 vulsions which, by electrifying a nation, strikes fire from 
 bosoms which were never supposed to have contained 
 any, Portugal ran the career upon which she entered 
 with the stride of a giant; she carried into the midst 
 of the African nations and of Asia a heroism of valour 
 and of virtue which, striking them at once with asto- 
 nishment and respect, deeply inculcated on their 
 minds the idea of the superiority of Europeans, and 
 effectually prepared for that success which they did 
 not fail subsequently to obtain, in the midst of the in- 
 habitants of those countries. Portugal, almost un- 
 known in Europe, became all at once a colossus in 
 Asia. It might have been said, that the Portuguese 
 had qualities in reserve for the regions beyond the 
 line, which entirely deserted them on this side of it ; 
 and what is most singular, and most honourable at the 
 same time, in their history, is, that it never happened, 
 even once, that they turned the riches and the energy 
 of their new existence against Europe. The Portu- 
 
THE COLONIES. 9 
 
 guese never mixed in the affairs of Europe ; if they 
 were great in the Indies alone, it was only there that 
 they were formidable also : they never have been dan- 
 gerous to Europe, which they have never at any time at- 
 tempted to disquiet: Vasquez de Gama,AIay da, Castro, 
 but above all Albuquerque, exhibited in the midst of 
 the nations of Africa virtues and talents which may 
 be compared with the grandest and most honourable 
 actions which history records. When contemplating 
 their high exploits, we fancy ourselves returned to the 
 heroic ages, and the wonders of fabulous times turn 
 pale in the presence of the recorded miracles of their 
 history. They ennobled at the same time the name of 
 Europe and that of their own nation ; they disposed 
 the inhabitants of India to bear, with less impatience, 
 a yoke lightened by necessity, and eased by so much 
 glory. Tha Portuguese, therefore, have been the na- 
 tion that really introduced the Europeans into India ; 
 and they may find some compensation, in these honour- 
 able recollections, for having retained but a few wrecks 
 in the midst of empires which they have the glory of 
 having formed. 
 
 The power of the Portuguese in India, the imme- 
 diate work of the men whose names we have men- 
 tioned, was prepared by two wise princes, namely, 
 John II and Emmanuel. 
 
 The first, despising the prejudices which prevailed 
 before and in his day, and which even still prevail in 
 too many places, was not afraid to make his capital a 
 free port, and to open an asylum in it for all kinds of 
 commerce and industry. He made a fresh application 
 of astronomy to navigation ; and his zeal, enlightened 
 by the double advantage of the arts and of commerce, 
 soon received the most valuable recompense, by the 
 
10 THE COLONIES. 
 
 discovery, of that celebrated Cape which, at first, in- 
 spired his first adventurers with no other feeling than 
 that of terror. While lender the impression of fear 
 they found no other name to give it than that of the 
 " Cape of Tempests^'' the Prince, true to the inspira- 
 tion of his own genius, did not hesitate to name it the 
 Cape of Good Hope, a name which it has well jus- 
 tified. Emmanuel sent Vasquez de Gama to India in 
 1497? who landed in that country after a voyage of 
 fifteen months, full of all the dangers which unknown 
 seas and inhospitable shores could present. 
 
 These expeditions, calculated on good and solid 
 plans, had been preceded by some excursions on the 
 coast of Africa, undertaken and executed in two expe- 
 ditions by Norman and Portuguese pirates whom the 
 love of plunder, without any views of an ulterior esta- 
 blishment, attracted to those coasts. It was about the 
 same time that the Portuguese established themselves 
 at Madeira, and in the group of islands which surround 
 it. Madeira is of great importance as a place of re- 
 freshment for ships on their passage to both Indies, 
 and for the extent of its wine trade ; a taste for its 
 wines having become general in Europe, and still more 
 so in America. 
 
 Such is this first colony belonging to Portugal, 
 which is very convenient to her, and puts her to little 
 or no expense in the way of guard. The formation of 
 a more numerous militia ; the expense of a military 
 establishment, not very compatible however with that 
 habitual state of peace in which Portugal lives ; a 
 more vigilant government than that of the country is 
 commonly found to be ; might add very much to the 
 value of this settlement, as well with respect to the 
 colony itself, as to the mother country : but it is not 
 
THE COLONIES. 11 
 
 from the modern Portuguese that such attentions and , 
 such eftbrts are to be expected. By occupying Ma- 
 deira they have the possession of the Canaries v/ith the 
 Spaniards, of those islands to which the dehciousness 
 of their chmate and productions have given the name 
 of Fortunate. 
 
 The Httle archipelasjo of Azores, to the number of 
 nine islands, of which Tercera is the principal, belongs 
 to Portugal : it is the Look-out pointy or the place of 
 shelter, for every ship on its passage to Asia or America. 
 
 The population of these islands must amount to two 
 hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants ; they export 
 to the mother country, to the Portuguese colonies, and 
 to the north of America, produce of their own growth 
 to the amount of four or five millions of livres. This 
 produce might be much augmented in so favourable a 
 climate and situation. 
 
 Further to the south, opposite Senegal, is the Por- 
 tuguese colony of the Cape Verd Islands^ ten in num- 
 ber, of which Saint Jago is the capital. This archipe- 
 lago, susceptible of all the cultivation of America, is 
 scarcely sufficient for the subsistence of a small num* 
 ber of inhabitants, almost all blacks. Its trade with 
 Europe is limited to a herb (archilla) used in a scarlet 
 dye; with America, to exporting a few cattle; and with 
 Africa, to a small quantity of sugar, and a tolerable 
 quantity of coarse cotton stuffs. There, as along the 
 neighbouring shores of Africa where the Portuguese 
 are spread, they have almost all lost the characteristic 
 of their origin ; and, by their degradation, much more 
 resemble the vile inhabitants of these miserable shores, 
 than the descendants of the conquerors of Africa and 
 of Asia. 
 
 The importance of the slave trade multiplied the 
 
It THE COLONIES. 
 
 European settlements upon this coast, which has beert 
 the theatre of it : those of the Portuguese preceded all 
 the others ; but they have experienced there the same 
 fate as they have done every where else: after having 
 domineered there as in India, they have been obliged 
 to give way to more active and more powerful nations, 
 whose naval superiority and superior industry have 
 every where pursued them. Their trade, even lat- 
 terly, has been nothing in comparison with that of the 
 English and the Dutch, who have prohibited them 
 from taking any part in this trade, without paying a 
 duty of ten per cent, upon all their cargoes, a condi- 
 tion so burthensome, especially to the merchants of 
 Brazil, that they have extremely circumscribed their 
 trade there, and have sought for more freedom in other 
 places. 
 
 The negroes being the real cultivators of the soil in 
 the colonies, we see how important it is to a people, in 
 possession of this kind of property, not to meet with 
 any obstacle in getting the hands necessary to fertilize 
 them. The Portuguese, occupying in Brazil an im- 
 mense extent of ground, the twentieth part of which 
 is not cultivated, evenin the best districts, consequently 
 require to be not in the least confined in the means of 
 procuring cultivators for it. The multiplying them is 
 the only way to extend the clearing of the untilled land, 
 as well as to improve that which is already under cul- 
 tivation; and Portugal, that stands in so great need of 
 recruiting herself in Brazil, ought not, on this account, 
 to neglect any thing by which she might again acquis 
 her ancient superiority in the trade, and render it, in 
 numbers and prices, most favourable to the settlement 
 which supports her. 
 
 The Portuguese, being the first settlers on the coasts 
 
THE COLONIES. 13 
 
 of Africa, carried on the slave trade a long time with- 
 out competitors, as it was important to none but them, 
 they alone having established cultivations in America. 
 They lost this advantage, together with their liberty, 
 when they were robbed of it by Philip II; they lost 
 even the trade to Brazil, when the Dutch dispossessed 
 them of it. It is a singular spectacle to see two 
 nations^ who formerly fought at the same time against 
 the yoke of the Spaniards, now fighting .furiously 
 against one another in the New World. Portugal still 
 possesses, on the coast of Africa, settlements of a 
 great extent ; they reach from the eighth to the eigh- 
 teenth degree of south latitude, and stretch inland in 
 some places to the depth of an hundred leagues. 
 There is certainly no need of mentioning that this im- 
 mense space is not inhabited only by Portuguese ; 
 their right is rather that of sovereignty than of owner- 
 ship and of cultivation. They reign over the chiefs of 
 a multitude of tribes who acknowledge themselves 
 tributaries of Tv.sbon, but who cannot be very formi- 
 dable, since seven or eight companies of soldiers are 
 sufficient to secure their submission. The forests of 
 this country contain iron superior to any that is 
 known ; it was worked by the orders of a governor 
 attentive to make the most of the advantages which 
 belonged to the settlements entrusted to his care. This 
 was not the only benefit he saw might be derived 
 from them. By a very bold idea, the possibility of 
 the execution of which cannot be vouched for, he pro- 
 posed to establish a direct communication across the 
 interior of Africa with the Portuguese settlements of 
 Mozambique. This project was for the double object 
 of facilitating the communication between the settle- 
 ments of the nation upon the opposite coasts, and of 
 
14 THE COLONIES. 
 
 penetrating as far as the mines of Monomotapa. The 
 recall of the author of this plan (M. de Souza) caused 
 it to fall to the ground, as well as put a stop to the 
 works which he had undertaken to realize it. 
 
 We shall seek in vain why the Portuguese neglected 
 to form a settlement at the Cape of Good Hope, which 
 they discovered, at a place which would have served 
 for a port to all their vessels, and have united their 
 settlements in Africa and Asia : this negligence is 
 inconceivable. Whatever may have been the reason 
 of it, they had not the sense to perceive the impor- 
 tance of this situation ; they passed a thousand times 
 by these shores still unoccupied, and never thought of 
 settling on them : they preferred excursions more to 
 the east, in which voyages they discovered the islands 
 of Bombon and of Madagascar, which also they dis- 
 dained ; they settled when they came to Mozambique, 
 and occupied an extent of coast as far as Melinda, 
 which they made the seat of their^government. Such 
 is the actual condition of their settlements upon the 
 coasts of Africa. 
 
 It is still worse upon the coasts of Asia, which now 
 scarcely perceive that flag which formerly ruled over 
 them, and which, of all the European flags, appeared, 
 there the first and with the greatest glory. In fact, 
 the dominion of the Portuguese in India extended at 
 onceover all the maritime parts of that vast continent. 
 From the Red Sea to the Sea of Japan, this little 
 nation alone occupied all those places for which at this 
 time all the* nations of Europe are scarcely suflficient. 
 It ruled at the same time over the Red Sea, the Gulf 
 of Persia, the vast coasts of Malabar, Ceylon, and the 
 Moluccas ; it was the first that penetrated to China or 
 Japan ; it was at once present, fighting, and ruling 
 
THE COLONIES. 15 
 
 over this immense extent of territories then new to 
 Europe. The coast of Coromandel was alone exempt 
 from its dominion ; for it does not appear that the 
 Portuguese have at any time formed important set- 
 tlements there. But though chance had given them 
 part of these possessions, chance alone was not suf- 
 ficient to secure them : they felt it necessary to pre- 
 serve them by a complete plan of government, and of 
 civil and military establishments. Goa became the 
 seat of it. This city, celebrated in the east before 
 the arrival of the Portuguese, became still more so 
 under their dominion ; after having been taken, lost, 
 and retaken by the great Albuquerque, it remained 
 the centre of the Portuguese dominions in India. Its 
 situation, excellent in itself as a city, and as a port, 
 was still wonderfully selected to unite all the posses- 
 sions of the Portuguese in India, in the very middle of 
 which it was situated. This choice was a mark of 
 genms, worthy of the great man who made it. In 
 fact, Goa commands the Sea of Malabar, and the 
 Gulf of Persia which borders upon it ; it is near the 
 Red Sea, where the Portuguese had dispossessed the 
 Venetians ; it is on the road from Europe and Africa 
 to China, the Moluccas, and Japan ; and by these 
 means gave its possessors the facility of extending their 
 superintendence, and carrying assistance wherever 
 there was a necessity. Goa was moreover a necessary 
 port, where every ship was forced to touch which was 
 sailing from one part of India to another, from India 
 to Africa, from India to Europe, and from Europe to 
 India. What situation ever offered more advantages, 
 and was better marked by nature to form the seat of a 
 vast and durable government ? In 1507, the Portuguese 
 had begun to penetrate into the Red Sea ; the busi- 
 
 % 
 
16 THE COLONIES. 
 
 ness was to expel the Venetians^ to whom it served 
 as a channel for their trade with the East, which 
 trade they possessed almost exclusively before the dis- 
 covery of the Cape of Good Hope. At the si^ht of 
 this new passage, Venice perceived that the edifice of 
 her power was overthrown, and the source of her 
 riches dried up. Accordingly she neglected nothing 
 which could preserve or re-establish them : she tried to 
 take the advantage of her empire in the Red Sea to 
 dispute t'liat of India with the Portuguese, but it was 
 in vain. In order to make themselves masters of this 
 great sea, and thus to shut up all communications 
 through it with India, they established themselves oil 
 the Island of Socotora, which is the key of the Red 
 SesL ; but the aridity of the soil did not suifer them to 
 settle there, as it has not suffered the other Europeans 
 who have endeavoured to do so since. The English 
 have tried it in order to close the passage to India 
 against the French expedition in Egypt, which was 
 opened to it by the possession of the eastern coasts of 
 the Red Sea. Dissatisfied with this project, which did 
 not meet the wishes of his impatience, Albuquerqiie 
 ventured to stride the very centre of the Venetian 
 power at Suez, which was the depot of their navy and 
 their commerce. In despair of not having been able 
 to arrive there, this man, whose ideas were of the 
 grandest stamp, conceived a design still more fatal to 
 Egypt itself than to Venice : for he had nothing less 
 in his mind than to persuade the Emperor of Abys- 
 sinia to turn the course of the Nile into the Red Sea ; 
 which plan, by depriving Egypt of the river which is 
 the cause of her fertility, would have deprived her at 
 once of the sources of existence and of life, and, by 
 giving her up to the sands which are incessantly 
 1 
 
THE COLONIES. 17 
 
 striving to invade her, would soon have confounded 
 with Lybia that ancient country of commerce and the 
 arts. Happily, this gigantic conception, the fruit of 
 an animosity more ardent than deliberate, remained 
 unexecuted, and the relinquishment of this project 
 permits us still to reckon Egypt among the number of 
 inhabited parts of the globe. 
 
 Albuquerque had a design much more worthy of 
 himself in getting possession of Ormus, which gave 
 him the command of the Gulf of Persia. This city^ 
 built by the Arabs in the eleventh century, and be- 
 come the centre of the commercial transactions in the 
 East, was at that time a most delightful and most 
 splendid place ; its situation was the cause of its 
 power and its wealth, by rendering it the mart of the 
 European trade with India, (a mart necessarily very 
 considerable) at a time when the deficiency of any 
 other passage rendered that the only one for the mer- 
 chandise of India, which came to the ports of Syria, 
 in order thence to be carried over into Europe. 
 This expedition perfected the conquests of the Por- 
 tuguese in the west of India, and left them at liberty 
 to extend them in the east of Asia. They began 
 methodically, and gradually advanced towards its 
 limits. 
 
 The first object which struck them irl that direc^ 
 tion was the island of Ceylon : there they made a 
 settlement. This was a very important conquest, on 
 account of the extent of the island, which is eighty 
 leagues in length and thirty in breadth, and also on ac- 
 count of the richness of its produce, and the advan- 
 tages of its situation^ at the very point of the peninsula 
 of India, in the centre of the ocean, and of the 
 Indian archipelago. But the genius of Albuquerque 
 
IS THE COLONIES. 
 
 seems to have been asleep when hfe entirely overlooked 
 the coast of Coromandel, the richest coast of India, 
 and far superior to that of Malabar, He had it in 
 his power to have taken at least the first fruits, and 
 perhaps the lasting possession, of those riches which 
 it has afforded to the French, and especially to the 
 English. Even the two weak settlements of Saint 
 Thomas and Negapatam were not his work. All his 
 designs were aimed at the peninsula of Malacca, the 
 occupation of which, joined to that of Ceylon, seemed 
 to him to enclose the coast of Coromandel, so that he 
 could have it at his disposal without the necessity of 
 settling there. He finished with this conquest, the 
 protection of which he thought would not be very ex- 
 pensive, because the peninsula is a narrow track of 
 land 100 leagues in length, yet joined to the 
 continent only in one point : for the same reason it 
 was also susceptible of a very easy defence. In the 
 year 1511, the important place which has given its 
 name to the peninsula, fell into the hands of the Por- 
 tuguese, and the kings of the adjacent countries 
 courted the alliance of Portugal and the friendship of 
 Albuquerque. After this conquest the Portuguese 
 turned against the Molucca Islands, and made them- 
 selves masters of them : they are ten in number, and 
 the largest of them is not more than ten leagues in 
 circumference, and the others much less. Albuquerque 
 was also the person who determined the movement of 
 the Portuguese towards China; and it was in pur- 
 suance of his advice that the Portuguese in 1518 sent 
 a solemn embassy to that country. After various suc- 
 cesses and events, such as were to be expected be- 
 tween nations so different in their customs, and be- 
 tween whom moreover this was the first intercourse, 
 6 
 
THE COLONIES. 19 
 
 the Portuguese received, by the gift of the emperor, - 
 the town of Macao, where they are established. It 
 soon served them as a port for their trade with Japan : 
 that country soon became to them a source of great 
 riches, because, through want of articles of exchange, 
 it was obhged to pay with bulhon for the balance of 
 that which it received over the amount of its own pro- 
 ductions- These were so few, that the Portuguese 
 received annually from Japan the sum of fourteen 
 or fifteen millions of livres in bullion, which came 
 from the mines of gold and silver contained in the 
 country. 
 
 Thus, the territorial and commercial conquests of 
 the Portuguese in Asia extended to its very limits, 
 and were stopped only by them. They were masters 
 of the coast of Guinea, of Mozambique, of Arabia, of 
 Persia, of the two peninsulas of India, of tlie Mo- 
 luccas, and of the islands and the streight of Sunda ; 
 and, finally, by the possession of Macao, they had 
 secured the greatest part of the trade with China and 
 Japan. What people, either ancient or modern, had, 
 before that time, possessed so great an extent of ter- 
 ritory, and drank from the sources of more abundant 
 riches ? and, as if such great possessions were not 
 sufficient for a nation so little proportionate to such a 
 great extent of dominion, we see them soon after 
 founding another empire in America, destined to be- 
 come one day the mistress of her own founders, as 
 well as to change the colony into the mother country. 
 Brazil has performed this metamorphosis ; we can only 
 say, as has been said before, in speaking of the parts 
 of a state so disproportionate to each other, that Por- 
 tugal had her head in Europe and her body in 
 America. This superb iK)ssession extends from the River 
 
20 THE COLONIES. 
 
 Plata to the River of the Amazons, in length 520, and 
 in breadth 840 leagues, and containing 176,800 square 
 leagues ; a surface much more considerable than that 
 occupied by Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Hol- 
 land, England, and Germany, put together. 
 
 This tract of land would have been divided among 
 these nations, and would have given them the com- 
 plete possession of South America, if Columbus, 
 when, in 1499, he had arrived at the mouth of the 
 Oronooko, had gone a little further southward, and 
 had been in less haste to return to the north in order 
 not to lose sight of Saint Domingo, which was the 
 cradle of the Spanish settlements. It was reserved 
 for Cabral to give Brazil to the Portuguese : he him- 
 self owed the discovery of it to a chance whjch 
 singularly attended the infancy of navigation and 
 geography. This navigator, dreading the calms on the 
 coast of Africa, sailed so far out to sea, that he found 
 himself, without expecting it, in sight of a land where a 
 tempest forced him to put in ; in flying from death he 
 discovered a country to which, according to the ideas 
 of those religious times, he gave the name of Sainte- 
 Croix, which has been displaced by that of Brazil, 
 after the name it bears in that country ; or, according 
 to others, from the Italian name of a wood used in 
 dyeing which is its principal produce, and that which 
 the Europeans immediately gave the preference to. 
 
 The Portuguese have not always had quiet possession 
 of Brazil : the French soon attempted to settle there ; 
 but they did it with a levity which, there as elsewhere, 
 has often hindered their success. The Dutch came 
 next, and brought there that constancy and perseve^ 
 xance which are the characteristics of their nation. 
 Holland had then shook oflf the yoke of Spain, and 
 
THE COLONIES. 21 
 
 had paid back in India all the injuries which she had 
 received from it in Europe. The Portuguese posses- 
 sions in the Indian Sea, having fallen to Spain by the 
 re-union of Portugal, were become the prey of the 
 Dutch : Spain seemed to have conquered Portugal only 
 for their advantage. They wished to derive still more 
 from it, by going to seek their enemies even in Brazil, 
 which was then possessed by Spain in consequence of 
 her conquest of Portugal. This country was attacked 
 and subdued in l6'24; but the Portuguese did not 
 leave them the enjoyment of it long: in 1626 they 
 drove out the invaders^ already weakened by the heroic 
 resistance of the Archbishop of Saint-Salvador (Michael 
 Texeira), who thought he could not better employ his 
 hand than for his country, and against the heretics. 
 
 Brazil was again subdued by the Dutch in l637; 
 but, as always happens when conquerors are of a dis- 
 tant country, and the inhabitants are equal to them in 
 arms and willing to defend themselves, this dominion 
 had hardly any duration, and ended as the first did. 
 The Portuguese colonists, assisted by the nature of the 
 country, united together in l645, and marched against 
 their oppressors, under the command of Veira, one of 
 those chiefs whom nature and circumstances almost 
 always create in critical moments. Great necessities 
 in states have almost always given them great men : 
 Veira attacked the Dutch, pursued them, and in op- 
 position to the orders of his king, who was without 
 doubt deceived by false suggestions, succeeded in 
 driving them out of Brazil, and united for ever to 
 Portugal, even in spite of itself, a possession destined 
 to be its principal strength and riches. The treaty of 
 1661 secured this possession to Portugal by the re- 
 nunciation of the Dutcbij who, since that time, have 
 
 ii.-'~" 
 
 ^"^kRy 
 
32 THE COLONIES. 
 
 n 'ver made any attempt against it. The Portuguese 
 have endeavoured several times to establish themselves 
 above the river Plata and the great river of the Ama- 
 zons; these attempts have been the occasion of a thou- 
 sand disputes between the courts of Lisbon and Ma- 
 drid, as well as of bloody quarrels between the colo- 
 nists of the two nations, that were terminated at 
 length by the treaties of J 777 and 1778, which have 
 determined the removal of the Portuguese without re- 
 turn, by having ceded to Spain the colony of Saint 
 Sacrement, the object of dispute, and by the allowance 
 of some indemnification to Portugal. Latterly Spain 
 and Portugal have made new regulations respecting 
 this territory, after fresh circumstances had taken place 
 in the colonies, and new connexions between the two 
 courts. 
 
 Brazil is divided into nine provinces, each under a 
 separate governor, dependant on the Viceroy. Three 
 of these provinces are known by the name of the Mine- 
 Provinces, because it is from these that the gold and 
 diamonds are obtained. 
 
 The population of Brazil amounts to 3,800,000 per- 
 sons.'^ This is very small for so extensive and an- 
 cient a colony, and is so much the more astonishing, as, 
 contrary to the other Portuguese possessions, which 
 swarm with monks like those in Spain, Brazil has ad- 
 mitted only twenty-two monasteries of men, and has 
 absolutely withstood the establishment of convents for 
 females, not a single one of which exists in the whole 
 extent of the country. 
 
 * Humboldt, vol. v. p. 133. Mawe's Travels in the Interior of 
 Brazil (1816). 
 
THE COLONIES. 2S 
 
 The revenue of Brazil, which must 
 
 be considered under many heads, 
 
 cannot amount to less than. . . . 100,000,000 liv. 
 In 177-5 it amounted to 75,000,000 liv. 
 
 under the following accounts. 
 
 1. Duties reserved to government, 
 
 and the monopoly 18,773,930 liv. 
 
 2. The produce of the wines ex- 
 ported to Portugal 25,312,500 liv. 
 
 3. The produce of the diamond 
 
 mines 3,432,000 liv. 
 
 By which it appears that these 
 
 mines, so much boasted of, are 
 
 a property more brilliant than 
 
 productive. 
 Produce exported to the mother 
 
 country, above 25,000,000 liv. 
 
 This sum must have been greatly increased lat- 
 terly, as cultivation has been extended. It is with 
 this produce, and that of some of the productions of 
 the soil, that Portugal balanced her imports, amount- 
 ing to sixty millions of livres, which her want of 
 industry and agriculture still obliged her to receive 
 from foreigners. She drew this enormous sum from 
 the colony, in return for commodities of the value of 
 fifteen millions of livres, half of which were the pro- 
 ductions of her own soil or industry. 
 
 Besides the exports to Portugal, Brazil exports in 
 her own vessels articles to the amount of five or six 
 millions of livres to the coasts of Africa^ to the Azores, 
 and to Madeira, in return for wines, slaves, and other 
 articles of consumption which she has need of. 
 
 The inhabitants of Brazil, and particularly those of 
 
S4^ THE COLONIES. 
 
 Rio Janeiro, are all engaged in foreign trade, very 
 different from the inhabitants of South America, who 
 remained passive in all commercial concerns, and, to the 
 very moment of their independence, confined them- 
 selves to receiving every thing, without exporting any 
 thing on their own account. 
 
 Brazil was for some time the Botany Bay of Por- 
 tugal ; every year two or three ships were sent over 
 with malefactors and other persons who disturbed the 
 peace of their own country. Europe has very often 
 made this use of her colonies, which were considered 
 as common sinks, before they were discovered to be 
 sources of wealth. 
 
 The Inquisition transported the Jews there, who 
 were fortunate enough to escape being burned. A great 
 number of these unfortunate people, who were driven 
 from Portugal by the persecution which was customary 
 in those times, sought an asylum in Brazil ; and this 
 people, true there^ as every where else, to their active 
 and laborious disposition, were the first who began to 
 cultivate the colony ; which is indebted to them for its 
 first harvests, as Europe is for the vehicle of its com- 
 merce, bills of exchange, originating from that perse- 
 cution, which seems by oppressing a man only to 
 render him more industrious, and to add to his facul- 
 ties as much as it endeavours to take away from his li- 
 berties. The Portuguese, taught by the example of 
 the Jews, began to feel the value of their new pos- 
 session 5 from that time the government applied them- 
 selves to it, and endeavoured to make it valuable ; but 
 being unequal to the performance, they called upon 
 the first men in the nation each to take upon them- 
 selves the management of a certain extent of land 
 \yhich was granted to them, reserving only the royal 
 
 6 ' 
 
THE COLONIES. 55 
 
 rights. Spain, England, and France have done the 
 same thing, in granting provinces and whole islands 
 to private persons. 
 
 Brazil, from its extent and from the richness of its 
 soil, might be the most flourishing colony, or, I might 
 almost say, the most opulent empire ia the world. 
 Gold and diamonds are produced there ; every kind of 
 agriculture, from the richest to the most common, 
 thrives in its soil ; cochineal has been brought there, 
 and has succeeded ; the sugar cane has been trans- 
 planted there from Madeira with equal success; indigo, 
 cotton, tobacco, and a thousand other productions, 
 spring up there in every part of the surface of the land, 
 ready for the hand of the labourer. If the small num- 
 ber of those who now farm it are already sufficient to 
 obtain immense wealth from a country, the surface of 
 which has hardly been touched by cultivation, and 
 where two thirds even of the banks of the great rivers 
 are yet uncultivated, what would not it yield with a 
 population proportionate to its extent and fertility ! 
 
 Thus, when Lisbon was swallowed up, and Portu- 
 gal quivered with the shocks which had overthrown 
 the capital, and the King was afraid that he should 
 have to reign only over the ruins or the gulfs of his 
 country, it was towards Brazil that the judicious 
 Pombal turned his^ views, and projected the design of 
 transferring the monarch and the seat of empire. This 
 probably is the first truly grand and just idea which an 
 European has conceived with respect to the colonies 
 of his country ; this idea is, we may say, a prognostic 
 of the conduct which Europe must pursue, and that 
 from which originated the determination taken by the 
 present king of Portugal, the consequences of which 
 W^ will point out hereafter, 
 
to THE COLONIEa 
 
 Brazil owes the discovery of its gold and diamond 
 mines to chance : the former were discovered in 1577* 
 the latter in 17'28. The working of the gold mines is 
 nearly free to every body, under a reservation of a 
 fifth part to the King. 
 
 The lands which contain gold have been known 
 since 1.577 ; but the working of the alluvial mines 
 commenced in the reign of Peter II, in 1699. 
 
 The gold of the Portuguese colo- 
 nies, registered since the disco- 
 very of Brazil until the year i 
 175^, and brought to Europe, 
 
 amounts to 480,000,000 ps. 
 
 From 1755 to 1803, to 204,000,000 
 
 Gold not registered 171,000,000 
 
 Total 4,491,375 fs. 
 
 An exclusive company had, in 1730, the monopoly 
 of the extraction of the diamonds, and also of the 
 trade. 
 
 The gold and diamond mines are not the only bril- 
 liant appurtenances of Brazil ; it possesses some more 
 really precious, in the mines of iron, lead, and quick- 
 silver, which it contains in abundance, without any 
 hand having yet taken the trouble to work them for 
 the benefit of the arts, agriculture, or commerce : all 
 are employed in searching for gold. Copper appears 
 to be the only metal which is wanting in this rich 
 country. 
 
 The inhabitant of Brazil, weaker than the African, 
 and even than the European, and very limited in his 
 
THE COLONIES. 27 
 
 knowledge, happier than the lodians hy whom he is 
 surrounded, enjoys perfect freedom; he owes this pre- 
 cious advantage to the decree which the government 
 made in his favour in 1757. He was then declared 
 free, and this excellent decree at one stroke put an end 
 to the variations which, for three centuries, had tor- 
 mented a whole nation with respect to their condi- 
 tion. 
 
 The Jesuits renewed in Brazil the attempts at 
 civilization which they had tried in Paraguay. The 
 military and civil government of Brazil is entirely 
 copied from that of Portugal ; it is an exact repetition 
 of every thing in the mother country. 
 
 RECAPITULATION. 
 
 The Portuguese had extended their dominion from 
 the coast of Guinea to that of Japan ; they were never 
 really established in the Philippine Islands, notwith- 
 standing the disputed and transitory cession of them 
 by Charles V. They possessed the eastern coasts 
 of Africa, tlie coasts of the Red Sea, of Arabia, 
 of the two peninsulas of India, Ceylon, and the Mo- 
 luccas; they had a footing in China and in Japan ; and 
 they possessed Brazil. What now remains then of 
 such great possessions? In Asia, Macao, Damaun, 
 Diu, and Ooa ; on the east of Africa, Mozambique j 
 in the west of Africa, some factories on the Guinea 
 coast, the Cape- Verd Islands, and Madeira; and in 
 America, Brazil. 
 
 Portugal, fallen to this state of decay in ruin, be- 
 tween the remembrance of its past greatness and the 
 feeling of its actual weakness, mitrht apply to itself 
 the words which Saladin caused to be proclaimed at his 
 
28 THE COLONIES. 
 
 last moments by the herald who carried his shroud ; 
 " This is all which remains for the great Saladin, the 
 conqueror of Syria and of Egypt." 
 
 CHAP. HI. 
 
 The Dutch Colonies. 
 
 Jl he existence of colonies already formed, and of 
 places tit to form others in, was sufficient to make the 
 Dutch wish to partake in the advantages which they 
 perceived that other nations derived from their colo- 
 nies ; in fact, could any source of riches exist, which 
 was not destined to be enjoyed by a nation that had 
 itself forced from nature every thing which she had 
 given bountifully to others? Its privations have served 
 as incentives, and its efforts and its success have been 
 proportionate to its difficulties. Its territory was en^ 
 closed within the most narrow limits : but the Dutch 
 extended those limits over the sea, and fixed their 
 dwellings where they had driven back the waves. Their 
 soil is susceptible but of a very limited cultivation, and 
 yields very small harvests; but they cultivate the waves, 
 and furrow the ocean ; and obtain from its bosom 
 crops which their hands have not had the trouble of 
 sowing : they have no fields, and yet the granaries of 
 the universe are within their walls ; they have no 
 forests, yet all those of Europe are felled for them, and 
 brought together, and worked in their yards ; they 
 have no mines, and yet are the general dealers in the 
 gold and silver of the whol^ world. Finally, without 
 
THE COLONIES. 29 
 
 possessing any thing of their own, they make their 
 country the mart of all that is possessed hy others, 
 and are the general agents in every transaction : such 
 are the wonderful effects of industry, sobriety, patience, 
 and all the virtues of economy, which seem from par* 
 tiality to have fixed their abode among the Dutch ! 
 Though these effects are astonishing, they proceed 
 from causes which are not less so ; they are the just 
 recompense of the most wonderful labours. With such 
 dispositions, the Dutch could not fail of becoming a 
 colonial nation, and of establishing colonies in every 
 place where it could be of benefit to their immense 
 commerce: in forming these settlements they calcu- 
 lated their abilities with respect to territory and popu- 
 lation, and were regulated by them ; in order, by this 
 means, to obtain the greatest possible advantages at 
 the least expense. Far then from seizing every object 
 which fell in their way, as almost all the other nations 
 of Europe have done, who immediately invaded 
 every place, as if they could not have land enough, 
 the Dutch established colonies upon a methodical 
 plan, which has necessarily contributed to their suc- 
 cess ; and in the disposition of their settlements, we 
 cannot help remarking that spirit of method and 
 arrangement which regulates all the conceptions of this 
 wise people: thus the Dutch colonies were better pro- 
 portionate to the mother country than any of those 
 which belonged to the other nations of Europe. 
 
 As the Dutch did not possess large colonies in the 
 West Indies, they did not require a large number of 
 slaves: in their Asiatic colonies, cultivators, either 
 slaves or freemen, were found upon the spot: thus 
 Holland had but very small settlements upon the coast 
 of Africa, She struggled there a long while with the 
 
80 THE COLONIES. 
 
 Portuguese, the English, and especially with the 
 French, in the long wars between Louis XIV and 
 King William. The result of these various con- 
 tests has been the reducing the Dutch trade to seven 
 or eight thousand negroes, sent to the West Indies, 
 either for the Dutch colonies, or for those of other 
 nations. This trade was carried on by an exclusive 
 company, which, acting in the same manner there as 
 those companies do every where, received the same 
 reward; that of a total ruin in 1730. Freedom has 
 taken the place of it in this trade, and it is this which 
 keeps it at the height at which it is at this present 
 time. 
 
 Two causes, in appearance diametrically opposite, 
 have contributed in causing the Dutch to turn their 
 views towards colonies. Philip II persecuted them, 
 and Philip had invaded Portugal. How did this 
 cause it ? They, considering the Portuguese only as 
 the subjects of their tyrant, and considering their 
 spoils as those of their most cruel enemy, began to 
 range over the seas in pursuit of the Portuguese, and 
 to attack the coasts which they had occupied for up- 
 wards of a century: thus tyranny there also produced 
 its effect; that of extending liberty, and working in 
 its behalf. It was exactly an hundred years after 
 Vasquez dcGama had been sent tolndia, that the Dutch 
 appeared there for the first time; and, what is very 
 remarkable, the Dutch, like their enemies the Por- 
 tuguese, passed by the Cape of Good Hope, still un- 
 occupied, during sixty years, without thinking of 
 settling there. That all the people of Europe should 
 have made the same omission, is a great and a fair 
 subject of astonishment : a simple surgeon of a vessel 
 saw that which had escai^ed the eyes of so many civil 
 
THE COLONIES. SI 
 
 and military chiefs, and supplied the defect of their 
 long inattention. He so well pointed out the im- 
 portance of this position, that at length, in l630, they 
 determined to form a settlement there. The Dutch, 
 as a reward, confided the care of it to this same Van- 
 kisbek, the projector of the plan, very certain, more- 
 over, of securing the success of it, by joining thus the 
 execution and the conception, an essential point which 
 is not enough attended to, and the omission of which 
 causes so many enterprises to fail, since people with 
 sufficient skill, or sufficient honesty, to execute the 
 plans of another, well and with fidelity, are very rare 
 indeed. 
 
 The Dutch, by their settlement at the Cape, were 
 masters of the point of Africa, and of all the extent of 
 coast which they might wish to take, and by that 
 means found themselves able to command the road to 
 all the European settlements in India. The Cape be- 
 came at once the point of division and of junction be- 
 tween Europe and Asia. The Dutch have established 
 a complete empire there, at least every thing which 
 can contribute to form one : for their possessions in the 
 interior of the country are almost unlimited ; the culti- 
 vated lands already extend far more than an hundred 
 leagues ; and there is nothing to hinder their being 
 extended as far as may be wished. 
 
 Cape Town is the capital, and even the only con- 
 siderable place in the colony; it contains only 15,000 
 European inhabitants ; the slaves amount to the num- 
 ber of 50,000, and receive a better treatment than in 
 the other Colonies. The natives, who are reduced to a 
 very small number by the great epidemical disease 
 which raged there in 1713, dwell in the interior of the 
 country, and are a pastoral people, and consequently 
 
32 THE COLONIES. 
 
 not at all numerous. The most fertile lands of the 
 colony are up the country; for the Cape is surrounded 
 only by barren plains. All the productions of Europe 
 have thrived there ; and the Constantia wine, which is 
 made from the grape transplanted from Persia, has 
 shared, with the most celebrated wine in the world, the 
 taste and approbation of all connoisseurs ; it grows 
 only upon a farm of sixteen acres : the other wines, 
 although transplanted from Madeira, are of an inferior 
 quality, and are scarcely ever exported from the 
 colony. 
 
 If we are astonished and grieved at the weakness of 
 a settlement so advantageousl}^ situated, we must lay 
 it to the fault of the India Company, who are the 
 persons that formed it. For the odious and absurd 
 purpose of shutting up the road to India by discourage- 
 ment, in default of force, the Company checks the 
 prosperity of the colony, and endeavours to render it 
 at first sight discouraging to strangers. Such a system 
 is certainly the very corruption of the exclusive system 
 itself; that is to say, of the worst thing in the world. 
 On the contrary, the Cape should have been made a 
 free port, and an open haven for the ships of the whole 
 world; every possible inducement should have been 
 held out to invite and fix people there : the contrary, 
 in every thing, has been done ; and what is more 
 offensive is, that the Dutch, who have made their own 
 country the seat of commercial liberty, have made the 
 Cape the seat of slavery. The unfortunate colonists, 
 who can only receive their supplies from the Company, 
 receive but a small quantity, and at an immense price, 
 and see their interests constantly sacrificed in these 
 partial dealings ; thus they live in an almost absolute 
 want of all the commodities of life, and of those arti- 
 
THE COLONIES. '«» 
 
 cles which, under a free trade, they could receive 
 from foreigners. 
 
 It was in pursuit of the Portuguese that the Dutch 
 first entered India ; and in order to go through the list 
 of their conquests, we need only run over the long line 
 of Portuguese settlements, which they invaded suc- 
 cessively, and step by step. 
 
 The Dutch landed in India, for the first time, in 
 1595, under the command of Cornelius Houteman, 
 who obtained from his fellow countrymen the com- 
 mand of four vessels, with which he revenged their 
 injuries, and his own imprisonment at Lisbon. 
 
 The first settlements of the Dutch were formed in 
 the island of Java, in l602, which afterwards be- 
 came the centre of their dominion in India. In 
 1624 they settled at Formosa, a large island, 130 
 leagues in circumference, which the revolutions in 
 China had rendered prosperous by an immense num- 
 ber of emigrants, to whom it served for an asylum. 
 The island has lost almost all its importance by the 
 cessation of the trade to Japan, and by the shackles, 
 equivalent to prohibitions, which have been laid upon 
 thfe trade with China. The Portuguese were in joint 
 possession with the Spaniards of the Molucca Islands. 
 The Dutch took them from both in ]()21 ; and from 
 that time have neglected nothing which could secure 
 to themselves the fruits and produce of these valuable 
 possessions ; they have taken every precaution to share 
 them with nobody, and to be always the masters of the 
 price. At Ternate and at Tidore, they totally carried 
 away all the nutmeg-trees and clove-trees, for which 
 they make amends to the pusillanimous princes by an 
 annual salary : they have concentrated the cultivation 
 
84 THE colonie:s. 
 
 of the clove-trees in the island of Amboynaj and that 
 of nutmegs in the three islands of Banda. Amboyna 
 has been planted like a garden. By a law^ made in 
 1725, 4,000 farms have each received 125 clove-trees, 
 which brings the v\^hole number to 500,000. The clove- 
 tree yields two pounds of cloves; so that the whole 
 crop is 1,000,000 lb. In these islands the Dutch 
 watch even the natural fertility, and repress it with 
 as much care as it is in other places incited ; every 
 year commissioners, taking advantage of the regular 
 calms, go over the spice islands, and root out those 
 shoots which nature has dared to throw up without 
 their consent. 
 
 The Dutch settlements in Tidore and Celebes were 
 established in 1613; the former of these islands is 
 large, but poor ; the latter, which is thirty leagues in 
 diameter, is more useful to the Dutch trade ; and it 
 also is the key to the other spice islands. 
 
 Borneo, the largest island in the world, yields to 
 the Dutch 600,000 lb. of pepper, at an advantageous 
 price. They have no settlement there : after having 
 formed one at Sumatra, they equally restricted the 
 trade, which procured them a great quantity of pep- 
 per and tin* They acted at Malacca in the same 
 manner : after placing great importance in driving the 
 Portuguese out of this peninsula, and in taking the 
 capital, they have in the end felt how useless this 
 possession is, since the discovery of the new passages 
 of Bali and Lamboa, which have taken away the neces- 
 sity of going through that of Malacca, as well as 
 through the Straits of Sunda. Ceylon fell into their 
 power in 1650, by the entire expulsion of the Por- 
 tuguese, against whom the Dutch united with the 
 
THE COLONIES. S5 
 
 natives of the country, who had risen against the go- 
 vernment of the former. This island is in shape almost 
 oval, in length seventy leagues, the same in breadth, 
 and about two hundred in circumference ; it contains 
 excellent harbours, and produces a valuable crop of 
 cinnamon, precious stones, though but of an inferior 
 quality, pepper, and of arrack and betle, which are 
 used so much by all the inhabitants of the East. It is 
 upon the coasts of this island that they fish for pearls, 
 the produce of which, as also of the diamond, is far 
 from equal to the ideas which are formed of these rich 
 gifts of nature. This fishery, although free, does not 
 yield more than 200,000 livres. 
 
 The Dutch have factories, rather than settlements, 
 properly so called, on the coasts of Coromandel and 
 Orissa; they are six in number, of which that at 
 Negapatam is the chief. The Dutch stripped the 
 Portuguese of many places on the coast of Malabar, in 
 1633, of which Cochin is the principal; but these 
 possessions are not of great use to them. It is at 
 Java, and its capital of Batavia, that we must look for 
 the Dutch empire in India; that island is the St. 
 Domingo of Holland. 
 
 It is nearly two hundred leagues long, and between 
 thirty and forty broad ; it is divided into many small 
 kingdoms, the greater part of which are allies or trir 
 butaries of the Dutch. 
 
 The city of Batavia, which is built entirely in the 
 modern Dutch style, resembles, in the regularity of its 
 lines and ornaments, the cities of the mother country: 
 it contains a population of 10,000 whites, and of 
 150,000 slaves; and about 200,000 Chinese perform 
 part of the work of the colony. Unfortunately the cli- 
 mate is deadly to such a degree as to have caused a los^ 
 
 D 2 
 
36 THE COLONIES. 
 
 of 87,000 sailors and soldiers, who have died in the 
 hospitals between the years 1714 and ]7^6, a space of 
 only sixty-two years. Thus the Dutch, in case of an 
 attack, rely more upon the dreadful assistance of the 
 climate, than even upon the fortifications with which 
 they have taken care to surround the city. This great 
 city is the seat of the Dutch government in India, the 
 mart of their commerce, the rendezvous of their fleets, 
 and the centre of their military force, both by land 
 and sea. The expenses of the colony amount, in 
 time of peace, to 8,000,000 livres, which the taxes 
 alone could not cover. Among the taxes is to be no- 
 ticed one upon gaming, the periodical return of which, 
 at Batavia, is marked by a frenzy and madness far 
 surpassing that which, but too often, is excited by it 
 in the great cities of Europe. The Dutch, after having 
 been exempt for some years from the proscription 
 which exists against all Christians throughout the 
 whole of Japan, submitted to remain in the artificial 
 island of Dezima, which is, in fact, their prison. They 
 purchased very trifling profits by submission and most 
 revolting behaviour, and by still more disgusting de- 
 vices. 
 
 They have no settlement in China, and their com- 
 mercial transactions with that country are extremely 
 limited. 
 
 The soil of the Moluccas, of those islands which, on 
 account of their valuable productions, have been called 
 the gold mines of the Dutch, is the most ungrateful 
 in the world ; their barrenness is only atoned for by 
 the richness of their productions, which nature seems 
 to have placed in such a soil, as though she wished 
 to bring extremes together. 
 
 Banda is the only island where the Dutch are the 
 
THE COLONIES. ' 37 
 
 ©wners of the land. They have become so by the 
 cruel expedient of exterminating the whole of the na- 
 tives, on the pretext of their being too much inclined 
 to rcvolt, and of an untameable ferocity. In some 
 places the Dutch have set the example of attaching 
 tlie natives to agriculture, by granting or selling them 
 knd> 
 
 They share the sovereignty of the Moluccas with 
 the kings of the islands, whom they either make friends 
 of, or rule over, according to the degree of their power, 
 or of their cunning. 
 
 All the Dutch settlements in India are dependent 
 upon the supreme government at Batavia. The council 
 of Batavia has the management of the whole civil, 
 military, and commercial establishments, and is itself 
 subordinate to the general directory in Holland^ com- 
 posed of the directors of the six chambers of com- 
 merce. 
 
 The Dutch Colonies in India are not the immediate 
 property of the nation, which only participates in 
 them through the general business produced in it by 
 a great commerce ; the natioti has given up its rights 
 io the India Company, which is the sovereign both by 
 right and in fact. The ancients had no idea of this 
 kind of sovereignty, exercised by a body standing in 
 the place of the nation, and at the same time a sove- 
 reign and a subject. The moderns have realized this 
 phenomenon ; and the Dutch, and also the English, 
 have put it into execution upon a grand scale. 
 
 The Dutch Company was formed nearly at the time 
 of the first Dutch settlements; this was in l602, a 
 time when they had only just made their appearance 
 in India ; what is very remarkable is, that the same 
 company has always, since the origin of the Dutch 
 
38 THE COLONIES. 
 
 colonies in Asia, been able to carry her point in ob- 
 taining the successive renewals of its charter. 
 
 On many occasions the Company has generously 
 eome forward to the assistance of the state, as these 
 great bodies almost every where do, for they have. a 
 double object in doing it ; in the first place, to sup- 
 port tlie state which on her part supports them ; and in 
 the second place, to disarm the envy of those who do 
 not participate in the same advanta;>es. 
 
 We have already seen that the Dutch at different 
 times have held Brazil, and that in l6(il they were 
 forced to yield it finally to its first possessors, the Por- 
 'tuguese. By this cession the Dutch possessions in 
 America, as well upon the Continent as in the islands, 
 were reduced to a very few. 
 
 Those upon the Continent consist of the colony ge- 
 nerally known by the name of Surinam : it is situated 
 upon the western coast of South America, between the 
 great rivers of Oronooko and the Amazons ; it is 
 the Dutch Guinea, being north of the French and 
 south of the Spanish Guinea ; it consists of the four 
 settlements of Surinam, Essequibo, Berbice, and De- 
 merary, which take their names from the rivers upon 
 which they are situate: Paramaribo is the capital. 
 The eye, struck at once with enchantment and sur- 
 prise, contemplates at Surinam the miracles of the pa- 
 tience and perseverance of the Dutch, who striving 
 against the most barbarous nature, have converted a 
 place infested with reptiles to a cheerful abode, and 
 have been able to transplant the delights of their Eu- 
 ropean cities to these infected shores. Never did peo- 
 ple submit to a labour more painful, or demanding 
 morte perseverance ; they have received the reward of it, 
 by having extended agriculture for more than twenty 
 
THE COLONIES. 39 
 
 leagues. The colonists live in an almost habitual state 
 of warfare against the negro tribes, who dwell in the. 
 midst of impenetrable forests, which contests thwart 
 the progress of cultivation at Surinam : they have been 
 sometimes obliged to oppose European troops to them, 
 even without obtaining great success. 
 
 Berbice, which was established in i626, after 
 having passed through various proprietors, has fallen 
 into a great state of weakness. 
 
 Essequibo and Demerary are of much more value. 
 The latter contained, even in 1769, 130 houses on 
 very valuable farms ; the number is increased already, 
 and must increase with time upon the very fertile banks 
 of the rivers. 
 
 The Dutch possessions in the West Indies will not 
 detain us long. In fact, what can be said of little 
 islands, which are for the most part barren rocks des- 
 titute of earth and of inhabitants, points almost lost 
 in the vast archipelago of the West Indies, and the 
 produce of which is scarcely sufficient to freight a few 
 vessels to the mother country. In this light, these 
 islands are of very little importance; but they are much 
 more so with respect to the trade they carry on with the 
 surrounding islands, which is assisted by the singular 
 disposition of the European possessions in the West 
 Indies ; they lie so intermixed, and are so unequal in 
 point of riches, that the colonists are constantly upon 
 the defensive towards each other. Moreover, as each 
 nation has the exclusive trade to her own colony, those 
 who have small possessions are always endeavouring 
 to live at the expense of those who have greater, 
 and by means of very active smuggling to share the 
 advantages which the latter wish to keep exclusively to 
 themselves ; consequently these have to be continually 
 
40 TH£ COLOISJIES. 
 
 defending themselves against the traps which the others 
 are laying for them. What contests this produces be- 
 tiveen such opposite interests may he easily conceived* 
 The Dutch are very favourably situated to profit by 
 this conflict : for, on one side, they nearly touch the 
 Spanish continent by rrieans of the island of Curaqoa^ 
 which is distant from it only ten leagues ; this island 
 they took from the Spaniards in 162(5: on the other side, 
 by means of St. Eustatia, they are able to trade clan- 
 destinely with all their neighbours in the West Indies. 
 This part is the asylum for every thing that can be 
 purloined from the monopoly exercised in each island; 
 it is the centre of all smuggling transactions; in a word, 
 it is the exchange of the West Indies, as Amsterdam 
 is of Holland. In time of war between France and 
 England, this mart was much increased in importance ; 
 it then became the rendezvous of the subjects of the 
 belligerent nations, who there forgot the quarrels of 
 their country, and substituted in their place the more 
 profitable transactions of commerce. 
 
 Colonies of this kind are entirely clear profit to those 
 who possess them ; there is nothing to be lost and 
 every thing to be gained from their more opulent 
 neighbours. We shall hereafter speak more of the 
 convenience of these sort of colonies. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 British Colonies^ 
 
 If Caesar could come back again into the world, what 
 w^ould not be his astonishment at finding the descen* 
 
THE COLONIES. 41 
 
 dants of the savage Picts, the only inhabitants of those 
 islands which Rome considered as the limits of the 
 world, and who then were not even in the possession 
 of a boat, now masters of the whole sea, ruling from 
 Hudson's Bay to the mouth of the Ganges^ and reigning 
 at once in two worlds of the existence of which he could 
 not have had the least idea ! The sight of him who fills 
 his place in the Capitol could not astonish him more. In 
 fact, how can we restrain our own surprise at the sight 
 of the immense possessions which England holds in 
 America and in Asia, which form, not only colonies, 
 but great and rich empires ; and in looking at the sin- 
 gular kind of government which England has given to 
 one part of these valuable possessions ? For> though 
 they belong to the body of the nation, they are not 
 managed and enjoyed by her ; but only by an infi»- 
 liitely small part, formed into an association exjclusive 
 of the rest of the nation ; sovereigns in India, subjects 
 in England, and sharing with their own sovereign the 
 honours, expenses, and profits of the colonial sove- 
 reignty. The great prosperity which has been enjoyed 
 by the English settlements, and by their mother coun- 
 try through their means, will^ during the whole of 
 their existence, show the effects of a system which has 
 been always followed, that of irresistible dominion by 
 means of naval superiority, and true principles of 
 colonization, and of the relative importance of colonies 
 with respect to the mother country. It will thus be 
 seen how a nation can lose immense colonies without 
 being shook by their separation ; and, what is still 
 more, liow she is able to be a gainer by the loss, 
 an event which gives at once the solution of an impor- 
 tant problem, and points out the principles which 
 ought to decide the fate of colonies. Great lessons 
 
4t THE COLONIES. 
 
 are then to be learned from the great examples which 
 will be shown in the examination we are going to 
 make of the colonies of England, that rich and superb 
 property which is an hundred times the value of the 
 building of which it is the decoration ! 
 
 In order to make with regularity this analysis and 
 review of the colonial riches of England, we shall 
 confine ourselves to the plan observed in the foregoing 
 chapters, a plan which we also intend to keep to in 
 those which follow. In this manner, by conducting 
 the reader successively over all the points occupied by 
 this celebrated people, we shall make the tour of their 
 vast settlements, that is to say, of almost the whole 
 world, beginning at the coasts of Africa, and returning 
 across the seas of Asia and America towards this 
 flourishing island, which has become the capital of 
 so many countries, and the sovereign of so many na- 
 .tions. 
 
 The first appearance of the English on the coasts of 
 Africa was in 1550: they found the Portuguese and 
 Dutch settled there, and already, especially the former, 
 in the full possession of the slave trade. The Dutch 
 threw every possible obstacle in their way, which their 
 right of priority and their settlements already formed 
 rendered easy to them : this contest lasted till the 
 peace of Breda, which irrevocably put an end to it, by 
 settling the rights of each. The English had still to 
 struggle with the French upon these coasts, whom 
 they were encountering and fighting every where. 
 These two nations, destined like Rome and Carthage 
 to an opposition at all times and in all places, began all 
 their wars by an attack upon the settlements of the 
 other in Africa, which, as they were the nearest, were 
 always the first attacked ; they have been taken and 
 
 I 
 
THE COLONIES. 48 
 
 retaken, destroyed and re-established a thousand times. 
 The peace of 1763 confirmed the superiority of the 
 English upon the coast of Africa; who being masters 
 of the three rivers of Senegal, Gambia, and Benin, 
 and of other places upon the coast, were able to make 
 their trade as large as that of the other nations engaged 
 in the same commerce. It employed more than two 
 hundred vessels, and eighteen thousand men. Liver- 
 pool and Lancaster were the most concerned in this 
 trade of all the cities in England, the success of which 
 has raised these towns from the last to the first rank 
 of commercial towns in England. 
 
 The English had no other settlements in Africa, be- 
 fore they got possession of the Cape of Good Hope and 
 the Isle of France. 
 
 At the time of the French expedition to Egypt, the 
 Enghsh made a survey, rather than took possession of, 
 the Island of Socotara, which commands the strait of 
 Babelmandel, in order to be ready to watch their ene- 
 mies, if they should endeavour to open for themselves 
 a passage to India. But this island is entirely desti- 
 tute of water ; and this inconvenience, which had al- 
 ready driven away the Portuguese and other Euro- 
 peans, will always be an obstacle to any durable 
 settlement which shall be attempted to be formed 
 there. 
 
 St. Helena, situate at nearly an equal distance 
 from Africa and America, has lost its importance by 
 the occupation of the Cape of Good Hope and the 
 Isle of France. It is a rock thirty miles in cir- 
 cumference, with an ungrateful soil and a very bad 
 cultivation, which is much thwarted by the propaga- 
 tion of the devouring animals brought there by the 
 ships. The peach tree is the only one of all the 
 I 
 
44 THE COLONIES. 
 
 plants transplanted from Europe, whicli has succeddeJ, 
 and been able to resist the chmate. St. Helena yields 
 to England 30,000, and costs 1,700,000 francs.''^ 
 
 The English were a long while before they went to 
 Asia ; and it is worthy of remark that the nation 
 which was destined to rule there almost exclusively^ 
 and to displace all the other nations of Europe, arrived 
 there the last : it is however the fact. The English, 
 under the command of Drake and of Cavendish, had 
 already sailed round the world, and were not in posses*- 
 sion of an inch of land in Asia. Powerful empires, how- 
 ever,- had been already founded there by the Portuguese 
 and the Dutch, whicli were destined to receive from the 
 hands of the English a treatment similar to that which 
 the former had experienced from the latter. It was in 
 the face of these nations, in competition and conse- 
 quently in opposition to them, and in places already 
 occupied, that the English had to establish themselves, 
 with hardly any forces, and with no support, in a 
 country where they had no personal possessions, and 
 no connexions with the inhabitants. Very far were 
 they then from possessing an actual dominion. How- 
 ever so many disadvantages were not able to stop the 
 association which was formed in London, in ]6oo> 
 with a very small capital, and an armament of four 
 ships under the command of Lancaster. The first 
 settlements were made in Java, Banda, Amboyna, 
 and the other spice islands, which the Dutch had ap- 
 propriated exclusively to themselves. The latter, after 
 having turned out the Portuguese, did not quietly 
 permit these new comers to establish themselves ; and 
 either by force or by artifice they at last expelled 
 
 * Say. 
 
'l^HE COLONIES. 4S 
 
 them ; and since that time the EngHsh have, been en- 
 tirely exchided from them. 
 
 The English had got a footing upon the coasts of 
 Malabar and Coromandel before the year l6l2, at 
 which time they were able to defend themselves at 
 Surat against the attacks of the Dutch. They then 
 got possession of the trade to the Persian Gulf, by 
 means of the impression which their courage made 
 upon Shah Abbas the emperor of Persia. They en- 
 joyed this trade until the time of the dissen- 
 tions in their own country, which so much occupied 
 themthat they were unable to make any opposition to th'fe 
 united attacks of the Portuguese and Dutch, from 
 whom the haughty Cromwell never received the satis- 
 faction, in honour or in profit, which he was able to 
 have demanded. 
 
 The trade with India revived, increased, and pros- 
 pered until the year 1657. But the profits of the 
 Company having excited the cupidity of the other Eng- 
 lish merchants ; and it being very badly supported by 
 Charles II, after having received from the Dutch 
 outrages which remained unpunished, and after 
 having committed impudent and shameful violence 
 against the monarch of Hindostan, and having suffered 
 great losses and committed great injustice, the Com- 
 pany felt a general opposition rise against it throughout 
 the nation, and had for its defence nothing but the 
 protection of the court, which in such cases is always 
 feeble. Its cause was solemnly pleaded before parlia- 
 ment, which refused it its support, and granted it to 
 Its competitors; so that England for some time had 
 two India Companies. They had the good sense to 
 unite in 1702; and, since this junction, the Company 
 has gone on from one success to anotjier, until it has 
 
46 THE COLONIES. 
 
 arrived at that degree of height and opulence which 
 makes it the richest and most powerful commercial as- 
 sociation that has ever existed, as well as master of 
 territorial and commercial property much larger than 
 the greater part of the known empires. 
 
 The chief of this commercial property is the trade to 
 the Red Sea, which, lying between Asia and Africa, is 
 the canal which serves for transmission of goods from 
 one continent to the other. 
 
 The Portuguese had very much repressed the acti- 
 vity of the trade carried on by the Arabs in this sea. 
 The English have taken a very large share in it ; and 
 it was very natural that a nation which extended and 
 strengthened its empire in Asia, should endeavour to 
 extend it in the same proportion on the Red Sea: thus 
 the English commerce increases there every day, and 
 already exceeds that of all the other European na- 
 tions put together. Jedda and Mocha are the places 
 where the English vessels from India bring the articles 
 which are required for the consumption of Egypt and 
 Arabia. 
 
 Coffee, as is well known, forms the chief branch of 
 this trade. It passes through the two ports of Jedda 
 and Mocha ; the caravans and the Europeans take 
 away the best part. 
 
 The first coffee was brought to London in l652. It 
 reached Paris later, and did not get into great favour 
 till the time of the Turkish embassy, which was sent 
 to Louis XIV. 
 
 The English carry on a great trade in the Red Sea, 
 and also in Egypt, under the protection of the favour- 
 able articles in the treaty, entered into between the 
 Beys of Egypt and Hastings, the Governor of India, 
 in the year 1775; it is in the benefit which England 
 
THE COLONIES. 47 
 
 derives from this treaty, that we must look for the mo- 
 tives of the interest she took in restoring Egypt to the 
 Ottoman government. 
 
 The territorial property of the English in India 
 c^omprises almost all this country, from the Indus to 
 the frontiers of Nepal, and beyond the Ganges. An 
 immense chain of mountains bound these territories ; 
 another runs up through the middle of nearly the 
 whole peninsula, divides it into two zones, and sepa- 
 rates the two coasts of Malabar and Coromandel. 
 
 Bombay is the chief seat of the civil and military 
 government on the Malabar coast; Madras, on the 
 coast of Coromandel. England was a long while ago 
 suspected to aim at the possession of the whole penin- 
 sula of India. No project could be more attracting, 
 and every thing seemed to invite England to realize it. 
 She was then in the possession of the two coasts, 
 ascending in a parallel direction from the southern 
 extremity, Cape Cormorin, to the great rivers, the 
 Indus and the Ganges ; thus the English had esta- 
 blished themselves more firmly than the other Euro- 
 pean nations had ever done, who, confining themselves 
 to the coasts, and almost to the edges, of the lands 
 which they discovered, had never penetrated into the 
 interior. The sudden end of the war with Tippoo 
 Saib, and the war which has given them all the Eu- 
 ropean settlements in India, have afforded England 
 the opportunity of performing this object of her vast 
 ambition. By means of the possession of Mysore, 
 the settlements on the two coasts communicate with 
 each other. The Mahrattas, deprived of assistance in 
 the interior, are no longer dangerous rivals ; and 
 though they continue to be enemies, they have 
 
48 THE COLONIES. 
 
 « 
 
 ceased to be the counterpoise of the English power in 
 India. The extent of the EngHsh territories in India 
 amounts to 50,000 square leagues. The territories 
 of her allies, or tributaries, to 33,000 ; making a 
 total of 83,000 square leagues of twenty-five to a 
 degree. 
 
 The population immediately subject to England 
 amounts to 30,000,000. 
 
 That of her allies, or tributaries, to 17,000,000. 
 
 Total, 47,000,000 inhabitants. 
 
 England has had the art of making use of the In- 
 dians in keeping their own country in obedience, and 
 in defending her against external enemies, whether 
 Europeans or Asiatics. For this purpose, the English 
 have raised an army in that country, composed of na- 
 tives, known by the name of Sepoys : they have in- 
 corporated them in their ranks; and, after having bent 
 them to their discipline, they have employed them to 
 make the others bend to their obedience. The under- 
 taking was dangerous and bold, but has completely 
 succeeded : it is this army which fights for the Eng- 
 lish, conquers for them, and keeps guard for the de- 
 fence of India. 
 
 It is composed of 17,000 English troops paid by the 
 Company. 
 
 And of 140,000 Indian troops, commanded by 
 8,000 English officers. 
 
 Moreover, the Company employs 25,000 sailors. 
 
 The revenue of India are of two kinds: those arising 
 from the sovereignty and those from commerce. 
 
 The revenues from the sovereignty amount to 
 18,000,000/. sterling. 
 
 The expenses of government, of defence, of thQ 
 2 
 
THE COLONIES. 49 
 
 maintenance of the settlements, and the interest of the 
 debt, which amounts to 46,000,000 sterhng, swallow- 
 up the sum of 19,000,000 sterling. 
 
 So that there is a deficiency of 979,223/. sterling, 
 or 23,000,000 of francs. 
 
 The profits " of the trade from 1 807 
 to 1810, amounted to the mode- 
 rate sum of 1,728,958/. 
 
 or. 41,000,000 fs. 
 
 From which we must deduct the de- 
 ficiency 22,000,000 fs. 
 
 Also the annuities which the Com- 
 pany receives from the Bank 900,000 fs. 
 
 The net produce is reduced to . • • • J 8,000,000 fs. 
 
 We must observe that these calculations are made 
 on four years favourable to the trade of the Company, 
 and there are not wanting enlightened men in Eng- 
 land who dispute these results, and who maintain that 
 the receipts of the trade do not even cover the defi- 
 ciency arising from the expenses of the sovereignty. 
 So that this dominion is more brilliant than lucrative, 
 and more a subject of envy than worthy of being its 
 object. . 
 
 By the treaties made at the termination of the war, 
 the trade to India has undergone modifications, advan- 
 tageous to commerce in. general, and particularly to 
 the British subjects. 
 
 The monopoly of the Company has been confined 
 to the tea trade, and to the direct transactions with 
 China, It alone has the right of dealing with this vast 
 country. The rest of India is open to the three king- 
 doms. They have lately even taken off, in the behalf 
 of the United States, certain prohibitions, which for- 
 merly kept the traders of that power away from India, 
 
 E 
 
50 THE COLONIES. 
 
 The first English settlement in the West Indies was 
 formed at St. Christopher's, in the year J 625. By an 
 odd chance, the French arrived there the very same 
 day as their rivals. In order to avoid the difficulties 
 of deciding to which it belonged, as the Europeans, 
 by their colonial code as well as by the civil law, have 
 generally assigned the ownership according to the right 
 of priority, it was agreed that the island should be di- 
 vided between the two nations: this curious agreement 
 had the effect which was naturally to be expected be- 
 tween people accustomed to be every where fighting 
 with each other. Fortune declared for the English, 
 who drove the French out in 1702 ; and her decrees 
 were confirmed by the treaty of Utretcht, in 1713. 
 The sugar of St. Christopher's is reckoned the finest in 
 the New World. 
 
 Barbadoes, which \vas given in I627 to the Earl 
 of Carlisle by Charles II, is seven leagues long, 
 from two to five broad, and eighteen in circumference. 
 It obtained, in the space of forty years, a degree of 
 prosperity quite unheard of, for its population 
 amounted to 100,000 souls ; which, except in some 
 great cities of Europe, has certainly never happened 
 in any other place. In 1804 it contained 80,000 
 inhabitants, of whom 16,000 were white. Anti- 
 gua is of no importance either with respect to 
 commerce or to territory; but, to make amends 
 for that, it is of very great importance in a military 
 respect, as it is the arsenal of the English colonies, 
 and the rendezvous of the fleets of England, whether 
 they are for the purpose of protecting her own colo- 
 nies, or of attacking those of other nations. 
 
 But of all the English colonies, the most important, 
 and the one which has the pre-eminence in rank and 
 
THE COLONIES. 51 
 
 riches^ (and the latter always regulates the former,) is 
 without doubt Jamaica. Columbus discovered it in 
 1494; it is in length forty-four leagues, and in breadth 
 about sixteen. The son of Columbus estabUshed the 
 Spaniards there in 1500; the English drove them out 
 in 1655. 
 
 Their first colonists were 3,000 soldiers, of those 
 fanatics whom Cromwell had armed, were those 
 whom time, distance from the scenes which had en- 
 flamed their imaginations, different objects, and dif- 
 ferent anxieties, metamorphosed into men of a different 
 stamp, and made them as good husbandmen as the 
 revolutionary enthusiasm had made them savage, but 
 brave soldiers. 
 
 The code of the island is dated from 168O; it enjoys 
 the advantage of many regulations favourable to agri- 
 culture. The sugar-cane was carried there by the 
 Portuguese in 1668. It was made a free port in 1769, 
 a very profitable speculation for her, on account of 
 that double neighbourhood which she enjoyed, namely, 
 that of the Continent and of the Spanish islands ; a 
 neighbourhood of which she has profited in such a 
 manner , as very frequently to excite the complaints 
 of Spain, and force her to change the order in 
 which her ships returned, substituting register ships 
 in the place of galleons. 
 
 The EngHsh have been long in possession of St. 
 liUcia, which was ceded to France by the peace of 
 3 783. It has been restored to England by the peace 
 of Paris in 18J4. Her intention cannot be mi s^iaken 
 in re-entering upoii a point which cannot be of any 
 immediate utility to her; it could not have been any 
 other than that of nullifying the arsenal which France 
 has established at Martinique : the neighbourhood of 
 
 E 2 
 
52 THE COLONIES. 
 
 Saint Lucia will, in future, keep Martinique in a state 
 of surveillance, and whatever French force it may either 
 receive or contain. 
 
 The Lucayos or Bahama Islands, and the Bermudas, 
 are of no importance. 
 
 Grenada, where the French were established from 
 1638, was ceded to England in 17 6$, retaken by 
 France in 1778, and restored to England in 1783, with 
 whotn it remains. 
 
 Tobago, Saint Vincent, and Dominica (the last- 
 mentioned declared a free port in 17^6), are small 
 islands : their soils are poor, and produce moderate. 
 ^i'The tobacco crops are what alone support Saint 
 Vincent. 
 
 The Dutch were in possession of the victualling- 
 trade of the English Colonies : the great act of Navi- 
 gation deprived them of that lucrative privilege in 
 1651. Since that time England, like other parent 
 states, reserved to herself exclusively both the com- 
 merce and the victualling trade of her Colonies. 
 
 They enjoy the advantages of a mild government, 
 modeled after that of the mother country : the go- 
 vernment is in their own hands, and they retain agents 
 near the government in England. 
 
 When the English established themselves in North 
 America, they found the French already settled there, 
 in Canada, in the North ; and the Spaniards in the 
 South, in Florida. They placed themselves in the 
 centre, which remained vacant, and occupied all that 
 vast space which at present forms the territories of the 
 United States. These possessions were of sufficient 
 extent in themselves, and the English held them 
 during a long time; but when their population and 
 tlieii- strength were increased, when those great esta- 
 
THE COLONIES. S3 
 
 blishments liad acquired sufficient consistence to be 
 adequate to their own support, then they thought of 
 giving them additional extent, and that complement 
 which was to result from the conquest of the two 
 parts which seem to form their wings. They suc- 
 ceeded in consequence, as well of their great success 
 in the seven years' war, as by the peace of 1763. 
 
 Those two acquisitions gave them the full and entire 
 disposal of all the eastern coast of North America, in 
 which they found themselves as firmly established as 
 the Spaniards are on the western coast of South 
 America. 
 
 Florida, in fact, seems a dismemberment of the 
 United States, from its position at the extreme point 
 of that coast which they occupy. This state, being 
 hemmed in on the north by the United States^ on the 
 west by the Apalachian mountains, the common barrier 
 between the United States and Florida, on the south 
 by the Gulf of Mexico, on the east by the Ocean, ap- 
 pears to be a continuation of the United States, their 
 necessary completion, and seem to have been given to 
 them by nature, so as to belong to them, rather than 
 to Spain. For which reason Florida will always be 
 the object of the wishes and intrigues of the United 
 States, until it be joined to them, as it happens with 
 all those enclosures which are so extremely commo- 
 dious to other states^ that they never cease endeavouring 
 to get possession of them, and in the end inevitably 
 accomplish it. What the English have done is a 
 pledge of what the United States will do. The latter, 
 even before they got possession of Louisiana, made 
 their first advances by forcing a passage in the rear of 
 Florida. 
 
 England did not long enjoy that aggrandizement 
 
64. THE COLON1E8. 
 
 which she had given to her power^ for she has lost 
 both the United States and Florida. The accessary has 
 followed the fortune of his principal ; and of all that 
 magnificent establishment on the continent of North 
 America, no more remains with England than the part 
 which extends from the northern limits of the United 
 States to Hudson's-Bay ; namely, Acadia and Canada. 
 The first part of those possessions is a peninsula, 
 formed in the west, by the great river St. Laurence, 
 on the east by the ocean ; it is also called Nova 
 Scotia. It has an extent of coast of 300 leagues. 
 The French established themselves in that country in 
 1602, and gave it the name of Acadia, which it has 
 kept. 
 
 The neighbourhood of New England was often fatal 
 to its tranquillity, but they were at length united toge- 
 ther by the peace of Utrecht. The English have taken 
 the trouble to fortify and cultivate that country. Ha- 
 lifax has become a place of some note. The population 
 should increase with the prosperity of the colony, 
 which contains the means within itself, from the ex- 
 cellence of its pastures, and from the soil being well 
 adapted to the cultivation of hemp and flax, and from 
 its happy position for the cod fishery, to which its 
 vessels can make seven voyages while those of Eng- 
 land make two. 
 
 The second part of the English possessions is 
 Canada. This country was discovered in J 523, in con- 
 sequence of the orders of Francis I, by Verazani, a 
 Florentine, and eleven years afterwards by Jacques 
 Cartier, a navigator of Saint Maloes. Forgotten soon 
 after, Canada received its first colonists from among 
 the Frenchmen that visited the fishing bank of New- 
 foundland. Champlain founded Quebec in 1()08, and 
 
THE COLONIES. 55 
 
 Canada might, perhaps, have prospered from that time, 
 were it not for the exclusive companies which ruined 
 it ; they were replaced by an association which, though 
 numerous and supported by all the favours of govern- 
 ment, nevertheless had no success. 
 
 The English always had a design upon Canada ; for 
 even as far back as 1629, they took it from France, 
 and would have kept it too from that time, were it 
 not for the courage of Cardinal Richelieu, who exerted 
 the known obstinacy of his character to have it restored 
 to France, in lOsi. 
 
 Canada is destined by its position to become a com- 
 petitor with America, in the provision trade of the 
 Antilles, and has done every thing to carry it on with 
 advantage : corn succeeds there wonderfully well ; im- 
 mense pastures rear a great quantity of cattle and of 
 horses, which, though not beautiful, are excellent. Ca- 
 nada carries on an export trade in them to the Antilles 
 and America, where they are highly prized : it pos- 
 sesses the second iron mines in the world as to quahty ; 
 its immense forests present materials for building. 
 Canada, in fine, is the source of an immense trade in 
 peltries, and can alone boast of furnishing the valuable 
 spoils of the castor, a merchandise unique in its kind. 
 The medicinal herb, ginseng, so much sought after in 
 China, grew in Canada, and grew without being of 
 any utility to its savage inhabitants, who knew not its 
 good qualities, neither for themselves nor others. Laf- 
 titeau, the Jesuit, discovered it there in 1778, and 
 added that to the many services which his society has 
 rendered the Colonies ; the quantity of it exported 
 had, in 1762, already amounted to the sum of 500,000 
 francs, when the unfair dealings practised in the trade 
 deprived the country of it, and punished it most 
 
56 THE COLONIES. 
 
 cruelly for the fraud of some of its inhabitants ; the 
 just reward of bad faith. 
 
 France ceded Canada to England by the peace of 
 17^3. The country prospers under its new govern- 
 ment : the population is increased to the number of 
 four or five hundred thousand inhabitants; its manu- 
 factures are extended ; the fur trade, instead of dimi- 
 wishing, as was apprehended, has increased : the 
 fisheries also have improved very much, as well as every 
 kind of husbandry ; and Canada is beginning to find 
 her way to the West Indies, to supply them with flour, 
 salt provisions, lumber, and horses. 
 
 But the most valuable property which England has 
 in North America is the island and banks of Newfound- 
 land, in which the French have but a very small share. 
 The island and banks were discovered by John Cabot, 
 a Venetian, in 1539 * the island is 200 leagues long, and 
 86 broad : the English established themselves there 
 in 1582, in the active and wise reign of EHzabeth, 
 The French did not fail to make a settlement there also, 
 and to quarrel with the English, as they do every 
 where; fortune having declared against them, they 
 were, agreeably to the peace of Utrecht, concentrated 
 in a part of the island where their establishment has 
 been definitively fixed by the peace of 1783. 
 
 ,This possession deserves to be ranked among the 
 most valuable of those which belong to England ; for 
 it enables her to supply all the South of Europe, a 
 part of the North, and almost all the colonies of the 
 Antilles, with that kind of food which religious obser- 
 vances, or habit, make an article of the first necessity 
 to all countries, and to every nation. 
 
 The islands of Saint John and Cape Breton, situated 
 in the Gulf of Saint Laurence, belong to England, as 
 
 3 
 
THE COLONIES. 57 
 
 an appendage of that immense domain, Canada. After 
 having been the terror of the Anglo-Americans, under 
 the French, they have been reduced to a state of great 
 weakness by the loss of their population ; the English 
 having expelled three thousand settlers from the first, 
 and four thousand from the second. The backw^ard 
 state of those islands will be a sufficient punishment 
 for a rigour which was rather dictated by political 
 jealousy than any real necessity. In these latter days 
 England has granted some settlements to Frenchmen, 
 whom the troubles of their native country prompted 
 to seek another. 
 
 Here closes that circle which the immense extent 
 of the English establishments has obliged us to survey; 
 having reached this boundary, let us stop here, that 
 we may be better able to comprehend, at one view, the 
 proportions, and the whole, taken together. 
 
 England occupies the best of the establishments 
 belonging to Europe on the coast of Africa. She is 
 mistress of the Cape of Good Hope, of the isle of 
 France, of St. Helena, of Ceylon, and of the penin- 
 sula of India ; in America, she possesses Trinidad, 
 a great part of the Antilles, many points in the gulf 
 of Mexico, Acadia or Nova Scotia, Canada, and New. 
 fbundland. From her colonial possessions in India, 
 and at the extremity of Africa, England has it in her 
 power to enjoy, almost exclusively, the trade of the 
 Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, and to take the Chinese 
 trade to herself : she can also appropriate all the ad- 
 vantages of the South Sea and South American trade. 
 By means of all the parts of this whole, thus perfectly 
 linked together, she is present at all points of the 
 universe ; she draws wealth, of every kind, from the 
 
58 THE COLONIES. 
 
 very fountain heads, and can supply Europe with every 
 thin^ which she fancies or needs. 
 
 What is wanting to this immense heap of posses- 
 sions, to this almost overpowering weight of riches ? 
 Nothing ; and the less so, as this vast treasure reposes 
 under the safeguard of principles which, at the same 
 time, create the power which bestows Colonies, and 
 the government which preserves them, as we shall 
 prove in a succeeding chapter. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 The Frxnch Colo7iies. 
 
 Jb RANCE is too great a power in Europe, she has 
 always taken too great a part in the affairs of that divi- 
 sion of the globe, though she might not have been the 
 original mover, not to feel a concern on the subject 
 of Colonies, in the midst of nations which held some 
 in possession ; not to have shared with other nations 
 the enjoyment of a good, the privation of which would 
 have left her in entire dependance upon them, for a 
 multitude of objects, of niecessity or pleasure, which is 
 all the same in the present state of modern civilization, 
 and in the balance of trade ; for a wealthy nation pays 
 for its luxuries as it does for its wants, and is in- 
 different about any distinction between the one and 
 the other. 
 
 France, with the greater part of her coast stretching 
 along the Atlantic, and turned towards America, could 
 
 2 
 
THE COLONIES. 59 
 
 not have pronounced against herself that interdict, 
 which nature has pronounced against certain states, 
 such as Italy^ Austria, and Russia, which, bordered by 
 narrow and confined seas, have had no direct commu- 
 nication with the Colonies, or with the routes which 
 lead to them. 
 
 The powers which are the rivals of France having, 
 all of them, preceded her in the Colonies, and being 
 richly estabhshed in them, their example made it a 
 duty in her to imitate them ; and if she did not think 
 of it till after them, the delay was the consequence of 
 the long and odious quarrels which, during almost the 
 whole of the sixteenth century, the ambition of the 
 great decorated with the pretext of religion. 
 
 The Protestants and the League, by turning away 
 the attention and activity of Frenchmen from the new 
 sources of riches which had opened to every one, cost 
 France more gold than blood, and rendered themselves 
 equally accountable for all the prosperity of which 
 they deprived her. They retarded their nation poli- 
 tically, as well as morally. The attempts which were 
 then made savoured strongly of the difficulty of cir- 
 cumstances, and of that divided attention, of which 
 little could remain for the Colonies to create or excite 
 in opposition to present objects, which absorbed it al- 
 most altogether. The enterprises, which were under- 
 taken rather with the appearance of paying homage 
 to the new direction of ideas, than as serious occupa- 
 tions, were, therefore, attended with no success. It 
 was reserved for Colbert to rouse France from her long 
 lethargy, as if the administration of that great man 
 were to be^ in the order of administration, the end ot 
 ignorance of all kinds, and the beginning of every kind 
 
60 THE COLONIES. 
 
 of good. He, in fact, established a new gera, in all 
 departments of admimstration, which really takes its 
 date, not only with respect to France, but other coun- 
 tries from him. 
 
 France having established settlements in the An- 
 tilles, was under the necessity of seeking, by herself, 
 the hands required for their cultivation. AH the Co- 
 lonies feeling the same want, she was under the neces- 
 sity of satisfying them from the surplus of her own 
 trade, for which reason she applied herself betimes to 
 the slave trade. She commenced in the same manner 
 as all nations at that time, by granting an exclusive 
 privilege in it, which continued up to 1716, the epoch 
 at which the trade was granted to the four ports of 
 Rouen, Havre, Rochelle, and Nantes. What incon- 
 ceivable madness, what blind subserviency to senseless 
 routine, could have thus prompted all nations to 
 shackle themselves, in their means of prosperity and 
 reproduction, for the advantage of a few individuals. 
 
 The French have long contended against the Dutch 
 and English, on the side of Africa : they have also been 
 in long possession of the establishments of Senegal 
 and the Gambia, and also at a number of other points 
 on the coast. The loss of Senegal, and to be reduced 
 to a few miserable settlements, of which Goree is the 
 centre, is the result of their quarrels with the English, 
 and of the inferiority of their marine ; they must have 
 fallen into the hands of the English. In the last war 
 France recovered her establishments by the treaty of 
 Paris : she keeps up the slave trade for a few years, 
 but has limited the space upon which it is to take 
 place. 
 
 The jQrst voyage made by France beyond the Cape 
 
THE COLONIES. 61 
 
 of Good Hope is dated in 1603. It was undertaken 
 by Gonneville, at the expense of some merchants of 
 Rouen, and met with no success. 
 
 The Isles of France and of Bourbon were discovered 
 by the Portuguese, at the time of their first voyages to 
 India ; and after being seen and despised by the other 
 European nations, were occupied by the French, and 
 received French names from them ; the first in 1660, 
 the second in 17*20. The one has peopled the other. 
 Bourbon is sixty mil^ long, and forty-five broad. 
 The soil is dry for the most part. 
 
 The Isle of France is much smaller, and the soil is 
 not better. In all likelihood it is the arid nature of 
 their soil which constitutes their riches, by rendering 
 their ground more proper for the culture of coffee, 
 which was imported there from Arabia in 1708, and 
 which besides, by preserving the quality of the soil 
 from which it has been transplanted, is also more 
 prized than any other after that of Yemen. 
 
 The air of Bourbon is very pure. The population 
 may, perhaps, amount to eight thousand whites, and 
 to thirty thousand blacks. This is the only possession 
 which, according to the late treaties, remains with 
 France in that part of the world. 
 
 In the neighbourhood of the Isles of France and 
 Bourbon is that of Madagascar, one of the largest in 
 the world, as it is 336 leagues in length, 120 in 
 breadth, and 800 in circumference. The air is, for the 
 most part, unhealthy, being charged with exhalations 
 from a soil where cultivation has neither cleared the 
 forests, nor drained the marshes. The soil upon the sea^ 
 coast is, for the most part, dry; but the interior is very 
 fertile, and peopled almost every where. 
 
 Instead of mines of gold and silver, in the existence 
 
62 THE COLONIES. 
 
 of which a strong belief prevailed for a long time 
 without any good foundation, Madagascar possesses 
 copper mines, which are very abundant, and iron mines, 
 which are very pure. 
 
 The first French settlement was effected there in 
 1642 by a Company, established in consequence of the 
 favourable idea, which some of the first French navi- 
 gators to the Indies gave of that island. But the un- 
 skilfulness of the measures, the bad conduct of the 
 agents, the misfortunes which thwarted their enter- 
 prises, and the fatality that attaches, as it Avould ap- 
 pear, to every thing which is Company^ ruined this 
 first essay. The establishment itself became the pro^ 
 perty of Marshal Meilleraye, who was so fortunate as 
 to dispose of it for the sum of 24,000 francs. 
 
 It was also towards these islands that the French 
 East India Company first turned their eyes, at the 
 time of their incorporation in ^665. They proposed to 
 make them the centre and point of support for the 
 establishments which they were then planning to form 
 in India. This was taking a prudent view of things, 
 and required nothing more than to be carried into 
 execution on a proper plan : unfortunately it fell out 
 quite otherwise; the crimes and blunders of the Com- 
 pany's servants reduced them to restore the island to 
 government, from which they had received the fatal 
 present ; from that time their ships shaped their course 
 to Asia direct. 
 
 The attempts made under the direction of govern- 
 ment, in 1770 and 1 773, were attended with no better 
 success, and were not susceptible of a more favourable 
 issue, because they were neither better understood, nor 
 better managed. Can it be expected that enterprises, 
 formed by governments at immense distances from 
 
THE COLONIES. Gti 
 
 the places where they were to be carried into execu- 
 tion, could have had success, when those that are exe- 
 cuted under their eyes are often exposed to the danger 
 of meeting with none ? 
 
 There were also some private associations, but of an 
 open kind, formed in Britanny and Normandy, which, 
 in the years 1601, 1606, I6I9, made their first voy- 
 ages into France, in the same manner as is done at 
 present. Those first navigators landed in the beginning 
 at Java^ from which they returned with cargoes of 
 spices, which inflamed the desires of many to proceed 
 in search of them, and of the profits which they hoped 
 to make by the sale. An order, entirely new, at length 
 commenced with Colbert, in 1664. That great minister 
 invited the attention of the whole nation to the subject, 
 and desired to have their concurrence. A privileged 
 Company immediately appeared, agreeably to the ideas 
 which then prevailed : this Company fixed its first 
 establishment at Surat, in the peninsula formed by 
 the Indus and the coast of Malabar. The country is 
 the best in all India. Surat was, at that time, the 
 principal town and the first staple of that country, a 
 splendour which it preserved till 16g4, the epoch at 
 which it experienced that famous pillage in which it 
 lost more than thirty millions of francs. The Company 
 appeared in its greatest lustre under the able admini- 
 stration of M. Caron, one of its directors, who endea- 
 voured, but without success, to establish their country- 
 men at Ceylon, and to share the profits of those 
 valuable crops with the Hollanders. In 168I the 
 Company was authorized to establish itself at Siam, 
 agreeably to the suggestions of Constantin,whom chance 
 and the Prince's favour had made prime minister of 
 the country, though a stranger,: he was the real source 
 
e^ THE COLONIES. 
 
 of the celebrated embassy to Siam by Louis XIV. 
 The Company might have derived the greatest advan- 
 tage by thus getting admission into a country, where 
 the fertility of the soil is at a degree that may appear 
 fabulous ; but the incapacity and irregular conduct of 
 the Company's agents soon deprived them of it^ and 
 was the cause of their losing the favour of the country, 
 with that of the minister also^ whom they dragged 
 with them in their fate. 
 
 During their stay at Siam, the Company had taken 
 advantage of the neighbourhood of Tonquin and Co- 
 chin-china, to form connexions which were not at- 
 tended with much success. Their levity deprived thenv 
 of the fruits of the commerce which they might have 
 established in those two countries, where every thing 
 abounds. 
 
 The French were afterwards established at Pondi- 
 cherry, from which they were driven by the Dutch in 
 169s, and to which they returned by the peace of 
 Ryswick. That settlement, destined to become the 
 metropolis of all French India, flourished under the 
 direction of Martin, one of the most able governors 
 that they have had ; to him succeeded Dumas, who 
 obtained very important concessions from the Mogul, 
 and who knew how to support the honour of his nation 
 with proper dignity, by refusing to subscribe to the 
 conditions which an Indian Prince would impose 
 on him, at the head of an army of 100,000 
 men. Labourdonnaye, so celebrated in Indian An- 
 nals, and whom Dupleix alone could equal, succeeded 
 Dumas: the latter (Dupleix) established at first at 
 Chandernagore, extended its relations very much. The 
 misfortunes caused, during the war of 1744, by the 
 misunderstanding between Labourdonnaye and Du- 
 
THE COLONIES. 65 
 
 pleix, were repaired by the latter, after the fall of the 
 former. He defended Pondicherry against the Eng- 
 lish ; took Madras, and by the force of success, be- 
 came arbiter of India : his administration is the fairest 
 monument of the French power in that country. Du- 
 pleix had formed the plan of establishing his nation 
 on great territorial possessions, as England has since 
 done. For this purpose he took advantage of a vacancy in 
 theSubahdarry of the Deccan, which happened in 1748, 
 and put Salabetzingue, his protege, in possession of it. 
 The latter ceded to him an immense territory in the 
 Carnatic, and in four other provinces, which gave the 
 French possession an extent of more than six hundred 
 leagues of sea coast. The French were then in India 
 on the same footing as the English are at present: 
 they took part in the differences between the sovereigns 
 of the country, and in this manner compromised them- 
 selves with the English, who never failed to declare 
 themselves in favour of their opponents. But their 
 grandeur was but of short duration, and perished in: 
 that train of misfortunes which, during the war of 
 17 57 J destroyed the French power in India, and sub- 
 stituted that of the English, and confined a nation, 
 lately triumphant and predominant, to a few wretched 
 factories, the only remains of a grandeur too soon 
 eclipsed. Such was the term of their existence in 
 India, and of that famous Company which, for a cen- 
 tury, had been so great an object of solicitude and 
 embarrassment to the French government, as well as so 
 great a subject of offence to the English ; it was dis- 
 solved in 1770. I1ie ashes of it were stirred up in 
 1784, and that weak attempt was lost in the common 
 wreck of the Colonial establishments formed before 
 the same epoch. 
 
 F 
 
(S6 THE COLONIES. 
 
 The English had treated Pondicherry as Rome 
 treated Carthage : a population of 76,000 inhabi- 
 tants received orders to disperse^ after the taking 
 of the town in 1761, but were restored by the peace 
 of 1763 : the incalculable advantages which the situai 
 tion presented for the perfection of dies, induced the 
 government to restore it: the works commenced in 
 April, J 766. The ancient inhabitants were seen run- 
 ning from all parts : it was intended at first to foi'tifj^ 
 the town^ which was carried into execution unfor- 
 tunately on contradictory systems : a great deal of 
 money has been expended and lost; nothing solid has 
 been done ; for which rea?on the place fell at the first 
 attack during the last two wars. They always begin 
 by attacking and taking this establishment, which is 
 too much isolated, and besides too weak in itself, tb 
 hold out against the power of England in those parts, 
 in the midst of which it has also the inconvenience to 
 be placed : it is not worth the expense which it costs. 
 Chandernagor is also fallen as well as Pondicherry: it 
 has declined from a population of 60,000 souls to 
 20,000. It is an open town, in which the French are 
 entirely at the mercy of the English. Their situation 
 is not better at Mahe. 
 
 The trade of France with China has followed 
 the gradation of her power in India. When she dis- 
 posed of a great quantity of goods, and when she en- 
 joyed a great territory, she, for that reason, must have 
 carried much to China, and brought back from it in 
 proportion; but as her possessions diminished and her 
 commercial means dried up, she has less to offer to 
 China, and consequently less to ask in return. They 
 who supplanted her in her possessions, and in the 
 commerce of Asia, must of course have supplanted lier 
 
THE COLONIES. 67 
 
 in the China trade ; which has not failed to come to 
 passjfor the English have succeeded to theFrench there, 
 in proportion as they have succeeded them in India, 
 and in the same proportion as they erected their empire 
 on the ruins of the French possessions. For which 
 reason almost all the China trade has fallen into the 
 hands of the English. 
 
 The French had formed, at various times, commer- 
 cial associations for that country. The first took 
 place in l66o, by a company of Rouen^ under 
 the direction of Sermantel ; it did not succeed. The 
 second also, by a free company, met with no better 
 fortune ; and it was only under the East India Com- 
 pany, that the French took a very active part in the 
 commerce of that country : they have almost entirely 
 lost it. 
 
 The French establishments not having been raised 
 up again, and the English not ceasing to increase and 
 to prosper, their government having paid the greatest 
 attention to extend them, as has even appeared very 
 recently by their signal proceedings towards the Em- 
 peror of China, in sending an ambassador to that 
 Prince, the China trade may be considered as dead 
 to the French. They have twice attempted to esta- 
 blish themselves at the extremity of South America 
 at the islands called the Malouines, from the name of 
 the privateers of Saint Malo, who, in 1706, furnished 
 the funds for the enterprise. The toleration accorded 
 by Spain was the price of the services which France 
 was then rendering her ; but it was too much in deroga- 
 tion from her principles, respecting the danger of ad- 
 mitting strangers into her neighbourhood, to suffer it 
 to be of any long duration ; for which reason it did 
 not extend beyond 1718, the year which saw the 
 
68 THE COLONIES. 
 
 French obliged to depart by the importunity of the 
 Spaniards. It was at the very same place, and for a 
 similar cause, the dispute arose between Spain and 
 England, in 1770, known by the name of the Falk- 
 land Islands, and which had the same issue as the first 
 with France. 
 
 The French have formed another establishment on 
 the continent of South America, whTch is important in 
 a quite diiferent way, namely the settlement of Ca- 
 yenne, in the great space which extends from the 
 Oronoco to the river Amazons. The Spaniards dis- 
 covered it in 1499; i^ became the object of European 
 invasion from the reputation of possessing gold in 
 abundance, and principally from the fabulous narra- 
 tives of Raleigh, who endowed this country with 
 riches which had no existence, except in his own ima- 
 gination. The French landed there, for the first time, 
 in l604 ; they returned to it in l643, and did so again 
 on a grand scale, but without success, in 1651. The 
 year 1 663 saw another enterprise prepared under the 
 special protection of government. From that epoch, 
 till 1676, the Colony felt the vicissitudes of the war 
 which existed between the French, the English, and 
 Dutch: since that time it has been exempt from them. 
 The Buccaneers established themselves there, and 
 would have made it prosper by cultivation, when their 
 attention was diverted from it by an invitation to join 
 their former profession; the affair under consideration 
 was the plundering of Surinam ; they failed at Suri- 
 nam, and lost Cayenne, with all their thriving pos- 
 sessions — the just reward of their avidity. 
 
 Four different European nations occupy Guiana: the 
 Spaniards ascending towards the Oronoco, the Dutch 
 after them, the French more to the south, and the 
 
THE COLONIES. 69 
 
 Portuguese after we have crossed the Amazon. The 
 French part extends more than one hundred leagues. 
 Cayenne, which is an island separated from the con- 
 tinent only by a river, is fifteen leagues in circumference. 
 The shores are easily approached, and the muddy bot- 
 tom, which is very soft, makes amends for the want of 
 harbours. But the air is unhealthy and the soil for 
 the most part poor. It does not become better, except 
 on the banks of some of the rivers, and on the soil 
 which, in imitation of the Dutch at Surinam, is 
 gained from the sea, an example which cannot be too 
 strongly recommended tothe Colonists; and which it 
 was not left for a German, as intelligent as patriotic, 
 M. Maluret, to make general in the Colony, together 
 with all the means of prosperity which he could intro- 
 duce by it. However, notwithstanding his attentions, 
 the Colony was always in a state of weakness, which 
 rendered it, in a manner, of no use to herself or the 
 mother country. The Colony stood France in six hun- 
 dred thousand livres a year. Its products ought to 
 increase, from what we are to expect from the planting 
 of the clove and muscadin, which the government 
 sent to the Colony. They were cultivated with great 
 care, in the garden belonging to the Colony, by an able 
 botanist named Martin. The plants had already 
 produced cloves very little inferior to those of the Mo- 
 luccas. The culture once well known, and .rendered 
 certain by the cultivation of the plants, might be secured 
 against all attacks, and might enrich the Colony. This 
 is the first French settlement in which coffee has been 
 cultivated : it was carried there from Surinam, and it 
 is the best of any that comes from America. 
 
 Cayenne would have acquired a considerable degree 
 of importance, if the views of the government had 
 
70 THE COLONIES. 
 
 been crowned with success. The government sought 
 to find a compensation for the loss of Canada, and ex- 
 pected to find it in Guiana, wherefore great means 
 were employed : 12,000 inhabitants were conveyed 
 to it; 2530003000 francs were devoted to it, alas! 
 all in vain; for the state lost the money advanced, 
 and the wretched Colonists found nothing there but 
 want and death, only two thousand at most were able 
 to regain Europe, some of them scattered themselves, 
 over the continent, were they merely vegetated. 
 
 The frightful issue of that enterprise threw a kind 
 of prejudice over the Colony, a sort of funereal crape, 
 which must have made that atrocious distinction still 
 blacker, which in these latter times it has been at-^ 
 tempted to make of this settlement, by converting it to 
 the same use as the Romans did the Balearic islands. 
 
 A Guiana Company, but not an exclusive one, ex- 
 isted in France ; it was solely engaged in the slave 
 trade. The government had given it large grants of 
 lands, esteemed the best in the colony, and afforded 
 great facilities to improve their value : the capital of 
 the Company, which was considerable, was applied to 
 the cutting of wood, the raising of cattle, the culture 
 of cotton, of cacao, and principally of tobacco, which 
 has the same flavour as that of Brazil, which freed 
 France from the subjection she was under, of providing 
 herself with it for different purposes from Lisbon, but 
 especially for the slave trade, in which it is indispen- 
 sably necessary. 
 
 The first French establishment in the Antilles took 
 place in 1 625, the epoch when the French made their 
 appearance, for the first time, at St. Christopher's, 
 as we have already remarked. We can never be able 
 to form an adequate idea of the vexations of every 
 1 
 
THE COLOxVIES. 71 
 
 kind which those infant estabHshments had to bear 
 with from the exclusive companies to which they had 
 been consigned over : the entire stock of human pa- 
 tience and of submission was necessary on the part 
 of the men, all imaginable fecundity on the part of 
 the soil, so as not to be entirely overcome and suffocated 
 under the chaos of absurd regulations which furnish 
 their codes, without any advantage even to the mem- 
 bers of the Company, who saw themselves reduced in 
 1649 to sell their possessions in detail, which they 
 only knew how to ruin. Will any one at this day 
 believe that Gaudeloupe, and tlie islands which de- 
 pend on it, were then sold for the sum of 73,600 
 francs, and that the order of Malta acquired St. 
 Christopher's, St. Martin, St. Bartholomew, and 
 St. Croix, for 120,000 francs? Colbert was the 
 first to discover the importance of those islands ; and 
 he re-purchased them all for 840,000. Much more 
 happy would it have been for the Colonies, more happy , 
 for himself, had he entirely felt all the inconveniences 
 of commercial companies ! But the age had not at- 
 tained the level of such ideas; and a company had once 
 more the right of governing, that is, of ravaging those 
 new domains of France. It did its duty so well in this 
 way, that it was dissolved in 1764, and the Colonies 
 at length obtained their liberty, but with all the re- 
 strictions which still entered into the spirit of the 
 times; they were not entirely freed from them till 
 1737, by regulations dictated in a spirit more truly 
 colonial. 
 
 The French Colonies may be divided, into military 
 and commercial establishments ; the first destined to 
 protect the second ; they are the military stations of 
 France in the Antilles, and places of shelter for her 
 
72 THE COLONIES. 
 
 fleets. Martinique and St. Lucia are of the first 
 mentioned class: Domingo and Guadeloupe of the 
 second. Martinique and St. Lucia are too near ever 
 to be separated from the same government; they ought 
 always to belong] to the same master, which did take 
 place from the peace of 1783; but this regulation has 
 been changed by the treaty of Paris in 1814. 
 
 The possession of this island was, for a long time, a 
 subject of very difficult discussion between the French 
 and the English. The latter had only come to and 
 left tjie island, from 1639 to l651. It appeared of so 
 little importance at that time, that the French go- 
 vernment made a present of it to Marshal d'Estrees, 
 while the English government did the same to the 
 Duke of Montague, cessions which had no effect till 
 1721, when it was restored to its true destination, that 
 of national property, which it has no longer ceased 
 to be. 
 
 St. Lucia is about forty leagues in circumference; 
 its shape is triangular, the air is unhealthy for the 
 most part, the soil middling, and the population 
 amounts to 20,000 inhabitants ; the produce for expor- 
 tation amounts to 3,000,000 francs. 
 
 It might reach ten millions, and its population might 
 be trebled, by an increase of cultivation : its careening- 
 place is the best in the Antilles. 
 
 The French passed from St. Christopher to Marti- 
 nico in l635. This island may be about fifty leagues 
 round ; its soil, covered with frightful rocks, is gene- 
 rally poor : it has, however, admitted all sorts of bus. 
 bandry, which still might be increased. 
 
 The coffee plant was introduced there in 17^6, by 
 M. Desclieux, whose devotedness for the preservation 
 of the precious plants which had been confided to him 
 
 6 
 
THE COLONIES. 73 
 
 can never be forgotten: they have become the parents 
 of a numerous posterity, which now covers the island 
 with more than seventeen millions of coffee plants: the 
 exports consequently amount to a very considerable 
 sum. 
 
 The French establishment of Gaudeloupe is dated 
 from 1635. The island, the shape of which is very 
 regular, presents a circumference of almost eighty 
 leagues: it is divided, by a very narrow arm of the sea, 
 into two parts, the second of which is called Basse 
 Terre, and has a dependance of some importance in the 
 island of Marie Galante. 
 
 But what are all these Colonies in comparison with 
 the French part of St. Domingo ; which, reaching in 
 the space of fifty years the highest rank of all the Eu- 
 repean establishments in both worlds, presented in 
 the smallest division of that island such miracles of 
 labour and industry, and in the largest the ludicrous 
 results of idleness and neglect? Who has not admired 
 this French St. Domingo, which covered Europe 
 with the luxuries of her harvests, and from her con- 
 fined territory sends as much riches to the parent 
 state as the vast empires of India give to England, 
 and as Spain wrings from the continent of the twa 
 Americas ? 
 
 St. Domingo is 160 leagues long, its mean 
 breadth is thirty, and its circumference 300 leagues, 
 without reckoning the creeks, which would almost 
 double this circumference. The climate has only the 
 ordinary inconveniences of the Antilles. The clearing 
 of the woods having been effected long ago, and 
 all the lands disposed of, the principal causes of insa- 
 lubrity no longer exist. 
 
 The first French inhabitants arrived from St. Chris* 
 
71. THE COLONIES. 
 
 topher's, from which they had been driven ;' they were 
 adventurers, who^ joined to others of the same descrip- 
 tion, and of every nation, first estabhshed themselves 
 atTortue, from which they were driven, and to which 
 they returned several times. Their first employment 
 was the hunting of cattle, with which the island was 
 covered after the importation of them from Spain. 
 They also gave themselves up to piracy against all 
 navigators, but principally against those of Spain, 
 whose scourge they were during forty years. They 
 were the Barbary States, or Moors, of the Antilles. 
 Those terrible buccaneers, those intrepid pirates, the 
 consternation and astonishment of the American seas, 
 who have filled the world with the recollections of 
 their savage valour and their dreadful exploits. Do- 
 geron, whose name recalls the idea of all the virtues, 
 was the first to try the empire of persuasion and pa- 
 ternal authority over these ferocious hordes. He com- 
 menced the difficult work of civilizing them, when 
 death carried him off in the midst of his labours. After 
 him the Colony languished till 1722. All kinds of 
 cultivation had been undertaken. The sugar cane had 
 been transported there from Mexico ; cocoa had been 
 planted by Dogeron. The Colony lost at once all that 
 it possessed, but the most cruel of all plagues which 
 could fall upon it, the best calculated to accomplish 
 its entire destruction, were three privileged companies, 
 which there, as every where else, commenced with re- 
 ducing the Colonists to despair, and ended by ruining 
 themselves. 
 
 At length, in 1722, liberty reared her head in this 
 country, which was so very worthy of her ; and it is 
 from that epoch that it has risen from a state of abso- 
 lute nothingness to one of the highest prosperity, and 
 
THE COLONIES. 75 
 
 from possessing no more than a few thousand negroes, 
 to a population of 500,000. We shall not stop here 
 to enter into any description of the country, or to 
 pass any eulogium on its fertility. What need has 
 it of our pencil, or of our praise ? Is not its praise 
 written on all the exchanges of Europe, on all the 
 ports of France, on all her shores, on all her manu- 
 factories, and on all her warehouses? 540,000 inha- 
 bitants, of all colours, 150,000,000 francs of exports, 
 arising out of 8,536 plantations, on which stand 800 
 sugar manufactories, 400 ships employed in the car- 
 riage of those productions, employing r2,000 sailors. 
 Such are the titles of St. Domingo to the admiration 
 of the universe, and to the gratitude of France ! The 
 part of the island belonging to France is divided into 
 three divisions, the North, West, and South. The 
 first is the most fertile, and contains the military esta- 
 blishments, fixed at the mole of St. Nicholas, which 
 is the Gibraltar of the Antilles. St. Domingo can 
 enumerate some towns of considerable importance, 
 such as Port-au-Prince and Cape Franqois, particularly 
 the last, which is the staple of half the goods of t^he 
 colony. 
 
 By the colonial regulations the importation of all 
 the produce, intended for the European market, must 
 be confined to France. Much, however, was sent to 
 the Spaniards of St. Domingo, or of the continent, to 
 the Dutch of Curaqoa, to the Americans, who received 
 the syrups manufactured in the colony in payment of 
 the wood, flour, pulse, and salt fish, imported into the 
 island by the American traders, to the English, who 
 were in the habit of supplying the deficiency in the 
 French slave trade, which was too confined for the 
 wants of the island. Before the monarchies of France 
 
^^ THE COLONIES. 
 
 and Spain were united in the House of Bourbon, St. 
 Domingo was a prey to the calamities of war, which 
 Was constantly carried on between the two parent 
 states. Their near neighbourhood was their common 
 jnisfortune ; for the Colonies, not being powers, but 
 growers, every kind of hostility is contrar}^ to their 
 essential and primitive destination. The buccaneers 
 were disposed to drive away the Spaniards, and pro- 
 mised the Court of France that they would carry this 
 resolution into effect; the Spaniards, on their part, 
 assisted by the English, were inclined to do the same 
 by them in 1688. Ducasse knew how to stop them, 
 and to take his revenge on Jamaica : he was about to do 
 the same on the Spanish part of St. Domingo. Peace, 
 and the succession to the Spanish crown, have stopped 
 the renewal of hostilities during a whole century. St. 
 Domingo had ceased to be the theatre of any till that 
 catastrophe arrived, which deprived France of that fair 
 possession. 
 
 RECAPITULATION, 
 
 France possesses only a few insignificant establish* 
 ments on the coast of Guinea, rendered useless by the 
 abolition of the slave trade. 
 
 At the extremity of Africa, the Isle of Bourbon 
 remains with her, which, by its separation from the 
 Isle of France, costs her very high, and makes no 
 return. Her factories in India are burdensome and 
 useless to her. 
 
 Her trade with China is lost. Guiana is burden- 
 some and unproductive. Newfoundland furnishes 
 produce for her home consumption to the value of 
 from six to seven millions. 
 
THE COLONIES. 77 
 
 Martinique and Guadeloupe, therefore, compose all 
 the colonial fortune of France, since the loss of St. 
 Domingo — that pearl of all the European colonies—. 
 that eternal subject of grief to every Frenchman. 
 
 The complete loss of all her colonial possessions 
 makes France a power purely continental. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 The Spanish Colonies, 
 
 xF the number, variety, extent, and v^ealth of colonial 
 possessions were alone sufficient of themselves to con- 
 stitute utility with regard to a parent state, where can 
 be found one to compare with Spain ? What is that 
 nation which can take a higher, or an equal pride, iu 
 reigning over countries of such vast extent, in com- 
 manding realms more numerous, or more various ; in 
 possessing, as she does, the sources of gold and of 
 other precious or useful metals, 'in dispensing those 
 signs which every where nourish and reward every 
 kind of industry, in such a manner as that the whole 
 world seems to labour for Spain, and to expect their 
 wages at her bands ? 
 
 To speak of the Spanish Colonies is to speak by 
 empires, by continents ; to name them is to name 
 Mexico, Peru, and twenty other realms: it is recalling 
 to memory the riches of the ancient Sovereigns of 
 the New World, and to show, in the persons of the 
 JSpaniards, the inheritors of their opulence. If some 
 
78 THE COLONIES. 
 
 nations have reached a high degree of prosperity with 
 Colonies of small extent, as the French have done with 
 the smallest portion of St. Domingo, what should the 
 prosperity of Spain not be with all the advantages of 
 all her Colonies united together! And, notwithstanding, 
 what is the condition of that power? What a spectacle 
 does she present ? What peculiar utility does she de- 
 rive from that heap of treasures, which rather seem to 
 overpower than enrich her? Spain, it is true, like an 
 immense tree, covers a vast extent of ground with her 
 branches, but their shade smothers the fruits, which 
 they ought either to protect or defend. 
 
 Spain has pushed forth and expanded her shoots 
 into countries a thousand times more extensive than 
 herself; and this dissemination, after having exhausted 
 her, is lost upon spaces to which it is not propor- 
 tioned. 
 
 Spain is mistress of the richest mines in the world, 
 but she does not work them to her own profit ; she is 
 no more than the channel through which their valu- 
 able products are every where distributed, without 
 stopping with her. She has the solicitude which at- 
 tends the searching for, and the distribution of riches, 
 which she cannot keep within her own bosom : she 
 commands every where in the New World ; she is 
 commanded every where in the Old, Queen there, 
 slave here; she draws no other advantage from the 
 strange peculiarity of her situation than that the chains 
 she wears are gilded ! Grand and instructive lesson 
 upon the nature of Colonies, and the manner in which 
 they are to be employed, upon the nature of property, 
 upon the essence of real riches, irrefragable decree in 
 favour of labour against gold, pronounced by nature 
 herself, who shows us that the last inevitably belongs 
 
THE COLONIES, 79 
 
 to the first, and, in the end, always becomes her 
 subject 1 
 
 In taking a view of the Spanish Colonies, we shall 
 find that truth demonstrated at every step ; and by it 
 the demonstration of the system which best suits ex- 
 tensive Colonies, particularly after faults and misfor- 
 tunes of long duration, and under the empire of circum- 
 stances which change all the known and established 
 relations of both hemispheres. ^ 
 
 We shall not insult the Spanish Colonies so far as | 
 to reckon among them the presidentships of Africa, 
 the remains of Cardinal Ximenes' conquests on that 
 continent, when that prelate, complying with the pre- 
 vailing ideas of the times in which he lived, would 
 rather pursue the infidels than firmly establish his na- 
 tion. Spain has already given up some of those ports, 
 and can do nothing better than abandon the remainder, J 
 which are burdensome to her in men and money. In 
 a word, what use is there in two or three strong places 
 on a continent, into which they neither desire, nor are 
 able to penetrate r If it be for the purpose of giving 
 employment to criminals, she will find that elsewhere. 
 Galleys of this description are too expensive. 
 
 The first Spanish colony which presents itself to 
 our view, in the long space which the extent of Spanish 
 sovereignty will oblige us to run over, is that of the 
 Canary Islands, to the number of seven : they are 
 situated at the distance of 500 miles from Spain, and 
 100 from the coast of Africa. The name of the For- 
 tunate Islands belongs to them from ancient times, 
 during which Ptolemy fixed his first meridian there, 
 which has become almost the general measure for cal- 
 culating the longitude of all places on all geographioal 
 maps. 
 
#0 THE COLONIES. 
 
 These islands, forgotten since that time in the chaos 
 of barbarism into which Europe had fallen, re-disco- 
 v^red in X3445 became, in the following century, sub- 
 ject to the crown of Castile. TenerifFe belongs to the 
 Canaries, celebrated for its volcanoes and the height of 
 its mountains, the highest of which rises to an elevation 
 of 1,900 toises above the level of the sea. Teneriffe is 
 the seat of government, in virtue of its superiority over 
 the other islands. Their climate is delicious, as are 
 also their productions, particularly their malmsey, of 
 which they export annually from 1,200 to 1,500 butts. 
 
 The population is almost 200,000 inhabitants. 
 
 It is rather singular that the power most richly 
 endowed with Colonies, should have been that one pre- 
 cisely without any establishments, in the country which 
 furnished the hands to cultivate them : this, however, 
 is what has happened to Spain for ages past. Her 
 conduct in this respect has been very singular, and 
 has obliged her to pass successively through the hands 
 of all the commercial nations. The first importation 
 of negroes into the Spanish Islands was in the year 
 1503. Charles V permitted 4,000 to be imported 
 into them in 1517. In 1606 the Portuguese contracted 
 for the importation of 15,000 in the space of five years. 
 After them came the French, who took the lead in the 
 Spanish carrying trade from 1702 till 1713. The 
 treaty of Utrecht followed, and soon after that the 
 Assiento contract, which transferred. the privilege of 
 that trade to the English. They were succeeded in it 
 by a Com}3any established at Porto Rico, which ful-. 
 filled its destination but very imperfectly, as was the 
 case with another Company, consisting of foreigners, 
 who had offered to supply a certain quantity of negroes 
 in a given time. The inadequacy of all those attempts. 
 
THE COLONIES. 81 
 
 as well as the trouble with which they were attended, 
 at length brought the government to the only thing 
 which reason admits, that in which matters are sure 
 to end, and with which it would be much better to 
 begin, a^ree trade, which was granted to this branch 
 of commerce in 1789, 
 
 Spain had been disposed to do still more for her 
 carrying trade ; for she had acquired possession of two 
 islands on the coast, for the purpose of forming esta- 
 blishments upon them adapted to this trade. The late 
 arrangements respecting the slave-trade will make those 
 dispositions superfluous. From that point on the coast 
 of Africa, to the extremity of the seas of Asia, no 
 traces of any Spanish establishments are to be found. 
 We must search for them in the midst of the Indian 
 Ocean, in a position which appears midway between 
 Asia and America : they will be found at the Philip- 
 pines. They were discovered in 1521, as well as the 
 Mariannes, from which we shall not separate them : 
 their extent, divided into a vast number of small islands, 
 equals that of the half of France, or 14,640 square 
 leagues. 
 
 The island of Luzon, the principal of them, is 125 
 leagues long, and 40 broad ; it contains the bay of Cavita, 
 which is the dock-yard and arsenal of those islands, as 
 also the town of Manilla, which is the capital, and the 
 seat of government. It was taken by the English in 
 1762. Had it been carefully fortified before that time, 
 perhaps it would have escaped the misfortune. 
 
 The climate of these islands is delicious, the soil 
 excellent; all the productions of Europe, Asia, and 
 America, thrive in them : the cultivation of rice de- 
 mands less preparation there than any where else. 
 Mines of most excellent iron are worked there ; the 
 
 G 
 
82 THE COLONIES. 
 
 copper is of a quality equally good; gold is no stranger, 
 and shows itself in the sand which the rivers carry 
 down. The riches of the vegetable kingdom are such 
 that, in 1781, Sonnerat brought home from it more 
 than 6,000 plants, unknown in Europe. The great 
 abundance of wood is favourable to all kinds of build- 
 ing; the cattle is multiplied to such a degree as to 
 cover the plains of the island. In a word, nothing is 
 wanting that is necessary for the abundant supply of a 
 numerous population in every respect, or for the occa- 
 sions of trade, and the support of a great exportation, 
 to which their position between Asia and America 
 seems to invite them. However, with so many ad- 
 vantages, these islands do not reckon a greater popu- 
 lation than 1,900,000 souls, and cost Spain 1,200,000 
 francs beyond their annual revenue, which amounts 
 to 8,400,000 francs. The Mariannes lost almost all 
 their inhabitants by the hands of the Spaniards. In 
 1772 an enlightened Governor, M. Tobias, was of opi- 
 nion that men might be good for some other purpose 
 than to be killed or persecuted: he, therefore, set 
 those islanders to work, and success had crowned his 
 generous designs, when he himself found he had an 
 account to settle with Envy, who made him feel every 
 thing which might be expected from her, and from 
 those oversights to which the religion of Princes is 
 exposed, especially with respect to objects far removed 
 from their eyes. 
 
 The Spaniards and Portuguese were formerly at 
 variance respecting the right of possession of the Phi- 
 lippines. Charles V, as his mind was more taken up 
 with Europe than with a few Asiatic islands, gave them 
 up to the Portuguese for the sum of 2,600,000 livres ; 
 but Philip II was not scrupulous in revising his father's 
 
THE COLONIES. 8S 
 
 engagements, and he took them back again. For this 
 time, however, he was not disposed to hold them by- 
 violence, and peaceable missionaries were his only 
 soldiers. 
 
 Whatever the folly of Spain may have been with 
 respect to her Colonies, it would be very strange 
 if such a fair possession as that of the Philippines 
 would not sometimes speak to the eyes and soul of 
 Government, as well as those of private speculators. 
 Every thing, indeed, invited one as v/ell as the other 
 to them : Colonies situated between America and Asia, 
 in the neighbourhood of China, Japan, and the Mo- 
 luccas, seemed as if destined to unite all those countries 
 in one common knot, and to serve them as a staple ; 
 but Spain, always jealous with respect to her Americas, 
 dreaded the establishment of such connexions, from 
 an apprehension that the prosperity of the Philippines 
 might be prejudicial to her favourite possession. The 
 embarrassment which was experienced by attempting 
 to reunite all those interests gave rise to the idea of 
 abandoning those colonies, almost at the very time of 
 their first discovery. They have been retained till these 
 latter times, when, at length, some pains are taken to 
 revive them, and to place them in direct correspondence 
 with the parent state. Previous to that innovation, 
 several had been suggested : the first was the project of 
 Cardinal Alberoni, who proposed to open the American 
 trade with Asia, through the Philippines ; the returns 
 to be made at Panama, from which place they were to 
 be embarked on the Chagre, and conveyed to Europe. 
 The second was that of Pathino, minister in 1733 : he 
 proposed establishing a Company for twenty years, but 
 a stop was put to it by the maritime powers, who then 
 maintained that Spain could not take the route of the 
 
 . ' G 2 
 
^4^ THE COLONIES. 
 
 Cape of Good Hope— an assertion which would appeaf 
 very strange at present. The third was that of M. de 
 Musquiz, minister in I767 : he was for forming an 
 association, half Spanish, half French, which he pro- 
 posed to join to the French India Company: this 
 project was attended with no result. Since that time 
 Count d' Estaing and the Prince of Nassau, presented 
 many projects, all relating to the same object ; none 
 of them were adopted. At length, in 1784, M. Ca- 
 barras obtained the establishment of a Philippine 
 Company ; an enterprise which was resisted on many 
 accounts, as all novelties are ; but which seems to have 
 given a sufficient answer to its projectors and detrac- 
 tors, by the regular payment of a dividend of five per 
 cent., and by having a considerable number of ships, 
 in continual motion, in passing between America and 
 Spain. 
 
 It is to the refusal which Columbus met with from 
 his countrymen, the Genoese, and to England also, 
 refusing to employ that man whom an irresistible bias 
 attracted towards America, who was tormented with 
 the desire of executing his favourite project, that Spain 
 is indebted for this celebrated navigator, and through 
 him, perhaps, for a part of her greatness. What has 
 he not done for her, especially when the feeble assist- 
 ance which he received from her is taken into con- 
 sideration ? In reality, she had but three small ships 
 to offer him, whose crews amounted to no more than 
 80 men ; an armament, the expense of which did not 
 exceed 100,000 livres. Such were the means with 
 which Columbus, with the air rather of a man flying 
 from the Old World, than of one setting out to con-* 
 quer a New, took his departure from Spain, in August, 
 14Q2. He arrived at the Lucayos, or Bahama Islands^ 
 
THE COLONIES. 85 
 
 in October, and the New World was discovered : he 
 then directed his course towards Hispaniola, since 
 called St. Domingo. We have spoken already of its 
 extent, productions, and climate ; it remains for us to 
 consider it under such points of view as are more 
 immediately interesting to Spain. She is in possession 
 of almost two-thirds of the island, the population of 
 which does not exceed 100,000 inhabitants. Instead 
 of making some return to the parent state, it stands 
 her in an annual expense of 900,000 livres. The face 
 of the country is diversified, the soil excellent^ and fit 
 for all kinds of produce, as well those of America as of 
 Europe, notwithstanding it produces but a very trifling 
 quantity. The inhabitants rather apply themselves to 
 the rearing of cattle, with which they supply the French 
 part of St. Domingo, as well as the other Colonies. 
 This species of industry is more agreeable to the indo- 
 lence of the inhabitants than to the interests of the 
 island, which is confined to an exportation of from 
 five to six thousand hides, and a small quantity of 
 other articles. Could any one believe that, till lately, 
 Domingo sent no more than one solitary ship to the 
 parent state, and that too every three years, while the 
 French part of the island dispatched more than 300 
 every year ? 
 
 Almost all the towns are either fallen into ruins, or 
 are deserted. Everywhere misery presents itself to the 
 view, the inseparable companion of indolence. 
 
 St. Domingo has not always been in this very low 
 state: in former times it prospered by its cultiva- 
 tion ; it then was in the habit of sending more than 
 10,000,000 pounds weight of sugar to the mother 
 country, and alone supplied all the cocoa that she used. 
 But those happy times are passed, for many reasons ; 
 3 
 
S6 THE COLONIES. 
 
 the principal of which is, the emigration of the inhabi- 
 tants to Mexico, where the immense fortunes which 
 they saw made in that country invited them. St. Do- 
 mingo has not recovered. Plundered by Sir Francis 
 Drake, laid waste by the Buccaneers, and still more 
 so by its own government, which was so imprudent as 
 to order a number of towns on the coast to be razed, 
 for the purpose of concentrating the population in the 
 interior, and, by these means, of stopping all smug- 
 gling with America, St. Domingo, like every useless 
 member, has remained in a languishing state, even 
 though the government has since had recourse to 
 better measures. In 1756 the government permitted 
 a Company, but an exclusive one, to be established for 
 St. Domingo : that Company has produced nothing. 
 In 1766 the Colony was thrown open to all Spanish 
 traders, with the exception of the Biscayens, on ac- 
 count of customs of a peculiar kind, the consequence 
 of privileges to which they are strongly attached. This 
 measure, excellent as it is in itself, has had no influence 
 upon the state of St. Domingo, where every thing re- 
 mains in the same languid condition. 
 
 The island of Porto Rico, discovered by Columbus 
 in 1493, and taken possession of by the Spaniards in 
 1500, is situated to the windward of St. Domingo. 
 It is 35 leagues long, 18 broad, and J 00 in circum- 
 ference. It is, perhaps, the very best soil of all the 
 Antilles, as far as has been discovered. The air is 
 salubrious, the harbour of St. John excellent, even for 
 ships of the first rate. The population about 160,000, 
 of which only a very trifling proportion are slaves. 
 Porto Rico received the privilege of free trade in 17^5, 
 but without having, as yet, made any progress pro- 
 portioned to the extent of such a favour. However, it 
 
THE COLONIES. 87 
 
 is in a progressive state of amelioration, especially 
 since the government has paid some attention, and has 
 expended upon it, annually, the sum of 2^634,000 
 livres. 
 
 The great island of Cuba, discovered by Columbus 
 in 1492, and conquered by the Spaniards in 1512, 
 lies to the leeward of St. Domingo. It is 230 leagues 
 long, and from 14 to 24 broad. Its population, in 
 1814, amounted to 432,000 inhabitants, of whom 
 234,000 were whites ; the people of colour amounted 
 to 90,000; the slaves, to 108,000. 
 
 The capital is the celebrated town of the Havannah, 
 built by the Spaniards in 1520, who then fully under- 
 stood the value of the possession in securing their 
 communication with the continent of America. It is 
 the war harbour of Spain for Mexico, and its port is 
 one of the finest and best in the world. 
 
 The colonial importance of Cuba is greatly enhanced 
 by the cultivation of tobacco, of sugar, and of wax. 
 The first supplies all that the government has occasion 
 for in its exclusive sale of this article, in all its posses- 
 sions in both hemispheres. In 1794, Cuba exported 
 to the amount of 7,800,000 * livres of tobacco. It 
 furnishes more sugar than Spain consumes: in 1803, 
 the exports amount^ii to 75,0005000-1- pounds weight. 
 
 The emigration from the island of St. Domingo has 
 favoured the increase of cultivation in the island of 
 Cuba. The art of tending bees and their hives, the 
 fruits of such industrious labour, was carried to Cuba 
 by emigrants from Florida : they have multiplied to 
 such a degree that the inhabitants find it necessary to 
 restrain the increase. The wax produced supplies the 
 
 * Humboldt, vol. V. t Il»J^- 
 
88 THE COLONIES. 
 
 wants of the island, and of Spain also. In 1803, the 
 exports of this article amounted to 3,150,000 francs. 
 
 When each year Cuba saw only four vessels from 
 Cadiz arrive in her ports, with those of Mexico, which, 
 on their return to Spain, had occasion to complete 
 their cargoes, we may readily conjecture that it was 
 under the yoke of Companies and monopoly. A free 
 trade has changed that state of things, and enables 
 Cuba to receive, in the same space of time, more than 
 the same number of hundreds, as well ships belonging 
 to their own country as of foreigners. 
 
 The expenses of government in the . 
 island of Cuba, including those 
 incurred for guards, exceed the 
 sum which the sovereignty pro- 
 duces, by the sum of 6,500,000 fs. 
 
 Those of Porto Rico 2,000,000 fs. 
 
 Havannah maintains and can raise an armed force 
 of 24,000 men. 
 
 Cumana and Marguerita, in the neighbourhood of 
 the continent of America, have lost all their importance 
 by losing the pearl fishery, the banks getting ex- 
 hausted. They began to fail as far back as 1614. 
 
 Trinidad, separated from the Spanish continent by a 
 channel ten leagues broad, was di^?overed by Columbus 
 in 1498, and occupied by the Spaniards in 1535. It 
 is twenty-five leagues long, and eighteen broad. 
 
 This island was of no account among the Spanish 
 possessions, prior to 1780, and the French revolu- 
 tion. A free trade was then given to it, and Colo- 
 nists were invited. Its prosperity is to be dated from 
 that sera ; the revolution completed it by introducing 
 a great number of Colonists from St. Domingo, who 
 carried with them their active industry. The English 
 
THE COLONIES. 89 
 
 have made themselves masters of it, and have kept 
 it as a plank, by which they may cross over to the 
 Spanish continent. The population of Trinidad is 
 raised, from a few thousands, to very near 100,000. 
 
 Jamaica belonged to Spain till the time of Cromwell, 
 who took it from her. It has gained by changing 
 roasters ; for it is not the Colonies that disappoint 
 Spain, but Spain that disappoints the Colonies. 
 
 Florida is, for the most part, a peninsula^ the southern 
 extremity of which is the eastern boundary of the con- 
 tinent of North America: it is 100 leagues in length, 
 and 40 in breadth. 
 
 Florida is as yet in its cradle, if one can judge 
 from this circumstance ; namely, that it stands Spain 
 800,000 francs, sent every year to make the receipts 
 meet the expenditure. When the English had Florida 
 ceded to them at the same time as Canada, they dis- 
 covered an intention, by that circumstance, to make 
 their possession of all the eastern parts of America 
 complete, from the highest point of northern to the 
 lowest point of southern latitude. Since the acquisition 
 of Louisiana, the Americans have continued the same 
 project, and cannot fail to obtain possession of a 
 country, at last, so necessary to connect their ancient 
 possessions with their new member, Louisiana, which 
 Florida divides, and to prevent them from being con- 
 fined in their communications, either by sea or land, 
 with the different parts of the union. 
 
 Mexico contains a great number of provinces, many 
 of which are of as great extent as great kingdoms 
 elsewhere ; such as the audiencia of Guatimala, which 
 contains, in itself, an area of 25,000 leagues square ; 
 that is to say, as much as Spain itself : that of Mexico, 
 
90 THE COLONIES. 
 
 that audience^ those named provincias internas in- 
 cluded, amount to square leagues 144,460 
 
 Population souls 5,900,000 
 
 That of Mexico 130,000 
 
 The revenues of Mexico amount to, fs. 1 20,000,000 
 
 The expenses absorb 84,000,000 
 
 Payments to the Royal Treasury at 
 
 Madrid 35,000,000 
 
 The Mexican army men 32,000 
 
 In the troops of the .line 5,000 
 
 The produce of the mines of Mexico, 120,000>O0O 
 
 It consists entirely of silver. 
 Every species of husbandry succeeds well in Mexico. 
 The corn crops infinitely exceed the produce of those 
 of Europe. The usual return of wheat is thirty for one ; 
 maize, 150; banana, from 300 to 400. The cultiva- 
 tion of wheat was introduced by the Viceroy Galvez. 
 Mexico is the country that furnishes cochineal : the 
 soil and climate of that country would answer ex- 
 tremely well for the cultivation of the vine, for silk, 
 and the olive ; but the jealousy of Spain, as hitherto, 
 deprived her of such valuable productions. All the 
 animals imported from Europe have thriven perfectly 
 well, notwithstanding any thing that BufFon may have 
 said to the contrary. 
 
 At the aera of its discovery Charles V was about to 
 grant America a free trade with all Spain. Unfor- 
 tunately, the age in which this Prince lived was un- 
 worthy of him ; he was the only one to feel the value 
 of that idea : so far, therefore, was it from being rea- 
 lized, that the trade was confined to the port of Seville 
 alone, to which the port of Cadiz succeeded, when the 
 former was filled. At length, after two ages of suffering, 
 
THE COLONIES. Ql 
 
 the wants and complaints of America brought about 
 the order of things which was established in 1778. 
 
 The regions denominated Honduras, Campechy, and 
 Yucatan^ lie along the coast of Mexico : Yucatan has 
 no other European inhabitants than the English, who 
 are established, and maintain their ground there, in 
 opposition to all the efforts of Spain, employing them- 
 selves in the lucrative export trade of that wood, which 
 is known by the name of Campechy, 
 
 California, situated at the western extremity of 
 Mexico, was discovered by Cortez, in 1694. It mea- 
 sures 9,300 square leagues^ and contains a population 
 of 25,000 inhabitants. It is divided into missions to 
 the number of fifteen ; its government hitherto has 
 been exclusively ecclesiastical. 
 
 The isthmus of Darien, with the provinces of Va- 
 ragua and Panama, form what is called the kingdom 
 of Terra Firma. Panama is the capital. It was from 
 that place the Spaniards set out on their expedition to 
 Peru; through this port, and that of Porto Bello, 
 which corresponds with it on the opposite side of the 
 isthmus, all the affairs of Spain with the South Sea 
 are carried on. 
 
 South America is a country of vast extent, being no 
 less than 1,200 leagues in length, and somewhat less 
 than 400 in breadth. Spain is in possession of the 
 whole, with the exception of Brazil and the two Gui- 
 lanas, which belong to Holland and France. 
 
 The first Spanish province in this country is Car- 
 thagena, which stretches 50 leagues along the coast, 
 and 80 into the interior of the country. The town so 
 called was built in 1527, burned by Drake in 1585, 
 taken by Pontis in 1692, and in 1741 Admiral Vernon 
 withdrew from before it : it is well fortified, and well 
 
92 THE. COLONIES. 
 
 built, but very unhealthy; its population is above 
 30,000 souls. St. Martha and Venezuela are situated 
 in the neighbourhood ; the name of the last arose from 
 the resemblance which the site of the town bears to 
 that of Venice. Charles V ceded it to certain Augs- 
 bourg merchants, then the richest in Europe, who had 
 become his creditors. They were the means of their 
 own expulsion, from their vexatious conduct. 
 
 This country derives its principal importance from 
 the cultivatioa of cacao; it is the cacao which is 
 known by the name of cacao Caraca, because Caracas 
 is the principal mart where it is disposed of: it is, 
 at this moment, the very focus of the war against 
 Spain. 
 
 After this country comes the kingdom of New 
 Grenada, formed in 17 18 by a dismemberment from 
 the Viceroyalty of Peru. It contains 64,520 square 
 leagues ; its population amounts to 1,800,000. The 
 conquest is dated from 1526. The country is very rich 
 in gold mines. The province of Quito forms a part of 
 it : the Spaniards inhabit no more than the valley of 
 that name, which is 80 leagues long, and 15 broad, 
 formed of two branches of the Cordeleras. It is one 
 of the most charming places to live in, and the finest 
 soil in the whole world. 
 
 Quinquina, or Jesuits' bark, is the growth of this 
 province : that tree, which may be called the friend of 
 man, the juices of which pursue the principles of cor- 
 ruption through all the veins of the body where they 
 can introduce themselves. The best grows at Loxa. 
 
 Peru, that opulent country, the name of which has 
 become synonymous with riches, was discovered by 
 Balboa in 15] 3, attacked by Pizarro and Almagro in 
 1514, and conquered by them in 1531, after such 
 
THE COLONIES. 95 
 
 prodigies of boldness, courage, and perseverance, as 
 were sufficient to cover a part of the horrors with 
 which the conquerors defiled themselves ; unheard-of 
 assemblage of grandeur and of crimes, at one time 
 above man, at another below monsters ! It would be 
 useless to retrace every thing which gave them this 
 powerful empire, the frauds which put them in posses- 
 sion of the Emperor, and the horrible death of that 
 Sovereign, the distractions which followed, and the 
 wars which were lighted up betv/een the conqueror^ 
 themselves, now become implacable enemies. Almagro 
 massacred by Pizarro, Pizarro by the sons of Almagro, 
 and all the chiefs falling by mutual blows, as if they 
 were all to serve equally as a monument of that Jus- 
 tice, which is constantly awake at all times, and in all 
 places. 
 
 Peru contains 30,000 square leagues ; its population 
 amounts to 1,000,000 inhabitants. It is a very 
 close country, and bounded by the largest mountains 
 in the world. Chimboraco, which is the most elevated, 
 is 3,220 toises above the level of the sea. 
 
 Lima is the capital of Peru, built by Francis 
 Pizarro, in 1535, on a fine piece of ground; it was 
 destroyed by an earthquake on the 26th of October, 
 1746. Lima means the town of silver , a denomina- 
 tion which her riches secure from the reproach of 
 usurpation. Its population amounts to nearly 100,000 
 souls. 
 
 It never rains at Lima; and that verdure which the 
 firmament refuses is, by an exception almost singular 
 in the world, kept up by a mist which rises every 
 day, and which is the only cause of the fertility which 
 it enjoys. Guyaquil, situated to the north of Lima, 
 reckons 60,000 inhabitants: it is the mart for the 
 
9« THE COLONIES. 
 
 commerce carried on between the two parts of Spanish 
 America and the South Sea. Almost all the mines of 
 Peru are confined to the most mountainous parts of 
 that country ; a circumstance which makes it a diffi- 
 cult matter to export them. The produce is reduced 
 to a very trifle. We may easily judge of it from the 
 revenue of the country, which does not make a higher 
 return to Spain than 24,000,000 francs, of which 
 only 6,000,000 are sent to the parent state. 
 
 Besides the productions common to Europe and 
 America, Peru is in possession of one which is very 
 valuable ; a kind of sheep serviceable in carrying 
 goods, which is a difficult matter in a country covered 
 with mountains, and intersected with steep valleys : 
 they furnish the most valuable wool in the universe. 
 They are termed vigonias, and are of two kinds, the 
 lamas and the pacos. The first are the stronger ; the 
 second more valuable on account of their fleece. 
 
 Chili became subject to Spain in 1535. Almasso 
 was the conqueror, who made himself master of it 
 without opposition. It contains 22,596 square leagues : 
 the population amounts to to 800^000 inhabitants. 
 This country is the terrestial paradise of Spanish 
 America, a fine soil, a temperate climate, the vine 
 and the fruits of Europe have succeeded there, all 
 kinds of animals have been naturalized in it with 
 great success, and the horse excels in beauty and 
 quality those of Andalusia^ to whom he is indebted for 
 his noble origin. 
 
 There are in some parts of Chili, as in all America, 
 a certain number of Indians who have resisted Spanish 
 domination, who occupy a considerable space in the 
 interior of the country : the Spaniards call them 
 Indian bravos. The islands of Chili and of Juan- 
 
THE COLONIES. 95 
 
 Fernandez are situated on the southern side of Chili : 
 the first is fifty leagues long and seven broad ; the 
 second, still smaller, has been rendered famous by 
 the recital which Admiral Anson gives of his stay in 
 that island : in reading it, one might fancy himself 
 transported into those abodes which the imaginations 
 of romance-writers have created for their amusement 
 at so little expense. 
 
 Paraguay was discovered by the Spaniards in 1513 : 
 they gave it the name of the river by which they 
 found an entrance into the country : they were not 
 established there before 1525 by Labat, and 1533 by 
 Mendoza. 
 
 This vast tract contains 143,000 square leagues, 
 and a population of 1 ,100,000 inhabitants. This great 
 country absorbs all its revenues, so as only to send 
 3,000,000 francs to Spain ; it is divided into three 
 great provinces, Paraguay, Buenos- Ay res, and Tucu- 
 man. The principal towns are Buenos- Ay res. As- 
 sumption, Rio-de-la-Plata, and Monte- Video. 
 
 The commerce of the country consists almost en- 
 tirely in the hides of the animals which cover the vast 
 plains of Paraguay. It also sends to Peru a great 
 quantity of horses and mules, and also of that herb 
 which is known by the name of herb of Paraguay, 
 in which the people of those countries delight, as 
 those of Europe and Asia do in tea and beetle. 
 
 Europe is filled with the history of the attempts at 
 government and civilization tried by the Jesuits on a 
 numerous nation, that of the Gnaranis, whom they 
 were enabled to collect together to the amount of 
 120,000. To what a height could that kind of re- 
 public of religious Platos have been raised ? Who 
 could settle it ? What is to be said as to what is sub- 
 2 
 
9G THE COLONIES. 
 
 stantially true in the thing itself, when it can be 
 learned from the narratives of interested persons alone, 
 and the historians of it are at the same time its heroes? 
 The association has ended with its founders, and the 
 Guaranis returned to their forests when their founders 
 returned to nothing. 
 
 The Spanish Colonies are so disturbed, their con- 
 dition is so uncertain, that we must wait for what is to 
 come before we are able to assign their colonial state 
 in the same manner as that of the other Europeans. 
 Spain is fighting to keep her Colonies ; we must, there- 
 fore, dismiss the subject till after the issue of the 
 contest, that we may know the place which she is to 
 occupy in colonial rank. 
 
 We shall close what relates to the European esta- 
 blishments in the two Indies, with some observations 
 upon those formed by Sweden and Denmark. Those 
 nations have been very late in entering into the colo- 
 nial career ; almost all the places had been taken when 
 they came, and, what is more, the commercial rela- 
 tions had been already established between all the 
 different nations : for it is always a troublesome busi- 
 ness to change the direction which commerce has 
 received. Sweden and Denmark are powers of the 
 third rank : their marine even, till very lately, was in 
 its cradle. Those states, especially Sweden, were 
 entirely taken up with continental wars : their position 
 is far north; only one part of their harbours looks to 
 the ocean, and for a part of the year sees nothing but 
 ice and other obstacles to navigation. All those un- 
 toward circumstances taken together are by no means 
 favourable to the establishment of colonial power ; for 
 which reason they have not, nor can they ever, become 
 colonial powers ; and, therefore, they have been able 
 
THE COLONIES. 97 
 
 merely to glean in the fields which others have reaped : 
 such will for ever be their destiny with respect to 
 Colonies ; but this very state, which besides is not 
 without its advantages to them, has thrown them into 
 another career. They have placed themselves, as it 
 were, in the rear of the colonial nations ; and, instead 
 of encroaching on their territories, they encroach 
 upon their markets, on their sales, on all their specu- 
 lations in whicli their position may enable them to 
 effect a reduction of price. Established every where, 
 in the midst of Colonies, shut against all others but 
 those of their own nations, the Swedes and Danes 
 have endeavoured to make amends for the impossibility 
 of introducing themselves openly, by creating in their 
 neighbourhoods facilities and attractions for the sale of 
 the commodities which the other Colonies possess. It is 
 even the exclusion of those iColonists which is the cause 
 why neutrals acquire riches in the Colonies : as they 
 are disqualified from becoming direct agents of their 
 commerce, they become so indirectly and by round- 
 about ways, and have opened marts for that purpose. 
 In a word, not being able to become conquerors in the 
 midst of Colonists stronger than themselves, they 
 have become smugglers on a grand scale, and have 
 concealed the justice of commerce, in order that they 
 may attach themselves solely to the balance of it. 
 Such is th^ real state of the Swedish and Danish Colo- 
 nies in America as well as in Asia^ and such is the 
 light in which we are to consider them : with regard 
 to territory, population, and productions, they are 
 infinitely small, mere evanescent points in the im- 
 mense space of other Colonies : as giving an impulse 
 to commerce, and as colonial accidents, they are 
 
 indeed something. 
 
 
98 THE COLONIES. 
 
 In the Antilles, Denmark is in possession of St. 
 Thomas, St. John, and Sainte-Croix : the last-men- 
 tioned was ceded by France, in 1733, for 758,000 
 livres. Those islands enjoy a free trade since 1754. 
 Saint Thomas, during those three last wars, has 
 become the entrepot of the bellegerent powers. 
 
 Denmark has given a precedent for the general but 
 gradual abolition of the slave trade to take place at a 
 fixed period ; a resolution which is dated from the time 
 that Count Bernstorf was minister. This innovation, 
 as far as Denmark is concerned, is inconsequential, 
 which in Colonies so very confined possesses but a"very 
 small number of negroes ; but it is and must be of 
 the greatest consequence with respect to nations which 
 are under the necessity of employing and watching 
 over a very large number. Such is the inconvenience 
 of those mixed possessions which in the midst of 
 common interests and common dangers have private 
 interests of their own, and are in an unequal position 
 with that of all their neighbours round about. 
 
 The principal Danish establishment, indeed the only 
 one which they have in India, is Tranquebar, in the 
 kingdom of Tanjore, on the coast of Coromandel, on 
 one of the branches of the river Cavary, a situation 
 for commerce very happily chosen : the soil is excel- 
 lent. This establishment was formed in l6l8. It 
 has to struggle against two exclusive Companies who 
 were as injurious to the settlement as they were to 
 themselves. They fell into utter ruin in 1730: a 
 third succeeded them in 1732, which has prospered. 
 It has been found advantageous to remove the Com- 
 pany's establishment in Europe from Copenhagen, 
 where it was placed, to Altona. This transfer brought 
 it nigher the ocean, to Hamburg, and the consunsers : 
 
THE COLONIES. 9^ 
 
 assuredly the Company must have gained considerably 
 by that arrangemeat, and it certainly must have a 
 foresight of it that influenced the maritime powers to 
 oppose it. Their interests were found to be in too 
 direct opposition with it not to throw every obstacle 
 in their power in its way ; those powers, as principally 
 interested in the commerce of India, ought to dread 
 and remove every thing which was likely to create 
 competition. It was from such motives that they 
 caused the Ostend Company to be suppressed by 
 authority, which was created by Prince Eugene in 
 1717: its success gave them offence: they required 
 and inforced its dissolution. The attempt of Joseph II 
 met with the same opposition, and experienced similar 
 success. 
 
 The Swedish East India Company, established in 
 1761, has also met with success, and for the same 
 reason as that given in the case of the Danish 
 Company, with the addition of some advantages which 
 it enjoys over the latter, such as the situation of its 
 principal establishment at Gothenbourg on the ocean, 
 and the exportation of certain maritime stores which 
 Sweden can always supply on better terms than Den- 
 mark. 
 
 The two Companies established at Embden by the 
 King of Prussia from 1751 to 1756 have not had the 
 same success. It was with difficulty that they reached 
 the year 1763, which was that of their own dissolu- 
 tion, and this trial should completely satisfy Frederic 
 that his country, like that of ancient Thrace, might well 
 be that of Mars, but could not be that of commerce, nor 
 of the deity which presides over it. 
 
 It was merely to omit nothing that we have men- 
 tioned those atoms of Colonies without territory^ with- 
 
 h2 
 
100 THE COLONIES. 
 
 out inhabitants^ and without marine. What other 
 name, in fact, can we give to establishments producing' 
 two, three, or four miUions of francs by the side of the 
 brilhant colonial empires which other nations have 
 formed ? 
 
 Italy, that fertile and populous country which managed 
 the whole commerce of Europe, with Asia, before the 
 discovery of the Cape of Good Hope — Italy has lost all 
 her ancient connections in the East, and has not acquired 
 any new ones in the countries discovered in the West : 
 Italy has no Colonies ; she can have none, on account of 
 her central position in the Mediterranean, without any 
 immediate connection, without any immediate passage 
 to the colonial territories. If Rome owed the empire 
 of the then known world to her position in the centre 
 of that sea, to that very sea does she owe her exclusion 
 from the Colonies at the present day. But let Italy 
 console herself for the want of those possessions, and 
 let her regrets be lost in the glorious recollections which 
 of right belong to her ; let her only reflect that it was 
 through her that the Colonies and the New World 
 were discovered, that she had the glory of giving it 
 the name of one of her children, that it was from her 
 that the Colum busses, the America Vespuccis, the Ve- 
 nerranis, and Cabots, went forth, and not only those 
 but a thousand other navigators, the predecessors of the 
 navigators of Holland, of England, and of France, 
 and the contemporaries of the Argonauts of Spain and 
 Portugal. Italy has done even more ; for, ever mother 
 of the arts and sciences, she has invented the mari- 
 ners's compass, w ithout which we perhaps might never 
 have had Colonies, and, by means of this happy inven- 
 tion, has furnished the hand of one riding on the 
 waves of the ocean with a thread more unerring than 
 
THE COLONIES. 101 
 
 that ok Areadne : she has given to the pilot the faculty 
 of directing his course amidst the labyrinths of seas, of 
 dispensing with the use of the stars of heaven, of elevat- 
 ing his course to all heights of latitude, to all degrees 
 that he might wish to arrive at ; has associated him in 
 in the empire of the Trident, and made him the rival 
 of Neptune. Such titles are equal to many Colonies 
 for a nation's glory. Thus Italy, though a stranger 
 to the Colonies, appears to have a just claim to their 
 gratitude ; for it may be said that she reaps these 
 without having had the expense of sowing. In fact, 
 the various colonial productions which constitute so 
 great a part of the luxurious consumptions of that 
 delicious climate are to be had there on easier terms 
 than in those countries who enjoy the right of pro- 
 prietorship. The Italian, without subjecting himself 
 to the dangers of the sea, or the murderous attacks of 
 tropical climates, expects and receives the harvests of 
 the Colonies at his own home, and regales himself 
 with their sweets at less cost than the nations that export 
 them, and who are lords of the soil where they grow. 
 
 CHAP. VII, 
 
 General View of the Product of the Colonies of 
 
 Europe, 
 
 After having given a sketch in detail of the co- 
 lonial establishment of the nations of Europe, it can- 
 not be foreign from our purpose to give the total pro- 
 duct of all the Colonies, and to include in the same 
 picture of the scattered tracts in the gallery through 
 which we have passed ; for we must not lose sight of 
 1 
 
102 THE COLONIES. 
 
 this circumstance, that it is in Europe and for Eu- 
 ropeans that we are writing. It would be pleasant to 
 lay at once before their eyes the sources of their riches, 
 the results of their labours, and the objects of their 
 future solicitude. It would be useful for them if one 
 could address them thus : " Behold what three cen- 
 turies spent in research, in combats, in plans, in la- 
 borious and painful enterprises, have cost you : your 
 previous labours had cleared away those thorns from a 
 soil, the fruits of which await you if you only take 
 care not to divert the course of the new sap. Behold 
 that from which you have already received too much 
 not to feel the strongest interest in retaining it." How 
 well would it be for the Europeans, were these words 
 to sink deep into their minds to prevent them from 
 slumbering over such great interests, and stop them 
 from enjoying, like absentee landlords, those proper- 
 ties, the loss of which can alone make them sensible 
 of their entire value ! 
 
 But how exhibit a table made up of a number of 
 details which it is necessary to mark down, of causes 
 and effects which it is necessary to perceive as well in 
 iheir principle as in the impulse which they mutually 
 give to each other ? for the object of our investigation 
 is not merely what the parent states derive from their 
 Colonies, but also that which the Colonies are the 
 means of making the parent state produce ; this reci- 
 procity doubles the product of the colonial establish- 
 ment. In fact, any thing which the Colonies require 
 of the rnother country, and force her in this friendly 
 way to add to her productions and her labours, is a 
 new property which the Colonies create in her bosom : 
 for instance, when a colony delivers over one hundred 
 wiUions of francs in produce to the mother country 
 
THE COLONIES. idS 
 
 for the fifty which it has received, in such case the 
 Colony is not to be stated as producing one hun- 
 dred milHons of francs^ but one hundred and fifty, 
 because it has produced fifty in labour in the mother 
 country ; which labour, were it not for the Colony, 
 would not have answered any object, and con- 
 sequently would not have existed. The Colonies and 
 the parent states, therefore, mutually re-act upon each 
 other ; and to Calculate the value of the Colonies cor- 
 rectly, it will be necessary to attend to this system of 
 action and re-action ; it will even be necessary to go a 
 step farther ; for, considering any Colony, when once 
 formed, under whatever kind of government it may 
 be, as the work of Europe, it will be proper to keep 
 an account of what those Colonies produce which have 
 ceased to belong to her, and which are no otherwise 
 connected with her than by that great and universal 
 tie which unites all nations, namely, commerce. It 
 is thus that the United States, though separate from, 
 and independent of England, do not cease to belong 
 to our present subject, inasmuch as, making a part of 
 the colonial creation accomplished by Europe, and 
 consuming largely her produce, those states remain 
 in connection with England and Europe by relations 
 which political changes, and that of sovereignty, can 
 neither interrupt nor destroy. In order, therefore, to 
 have a just idea of the value of the colonies, they must 
 not be considered simply in the light of what they 
 actually produce, but as the sources and efl[icient 
 causes of production. 
 
 Far be it from us to assert that the following account 
 is infallibly correct, so extended as it is in itself, made 
 up of various parts so difficult to be stated, and so 
 unsteady in their details : the object is merely to give 
 
104 THE COLONIES. 
 
 a general view of colonial revenue, and the probable 
 state of their situation with respect to Europe, and 
 that of Europe with respect to them, so as to compre- 
 hend, in a very concise table, every thing which may 
 help to convey information on this great branch of the 
 wealth and public happiness of Europe. 
 
 Francs. ' 
 
 Portugal receives from all her colonies 80,000,000 
 
 Of that sum the precious metals and 
 
 diamonds make 35,000,000 
 
 She sends to the Colonies in her own 
 
 merchandizes 1 0,000,000 
 
 The diamonds and precious metals are 
 the produce of her sovereignty. 
 
 The goods of Portugal are in the pro- 
 proportion of 1 to 44- in this trade. 
 
 Holland receives from her Indian Co- 
 lonies, after paying the expenses of 
 government, but 7,000,000 
 
 It is well known that, for the space of 
 ten years, the sales of the Dutch 
 Company amounted annually to . . . 42,000,000 
 
 But it is not known to what an amount 
 of goods this sale corresponds, be- 
 cause the proceeds are made up of 
 various branches, and because that 
 Holland, uniting sovereignty with 
 commerce, force with industry, has 
 included in the amount the proceeds 
 of arrangements made with petty 
 princes, who gave, almost for no- 
 thing, certain articles which were 
 sold at a very high price in Europe. ' 
 
THE COLONIES. 105 
 
 It is known that Holland, in the space 
 
 of fourteen years, exported to the 
 
 Indies, in specie 146,000,000 
 
 To the above proceeds must be added, 
 
 those of the Cape of Good Hope, of 
 
 Surinam, ofCuraqoa, and St. Eu- 
 
 statia, which cannot be stated at less 
 
 than 15,000,000 
 
 England is to take credit for one half 
 of the cargoes sent by Portugal to 
 the Brazils, which in the wljole 
 amount to the sum of. 20,000,000 
 
 Consequently, there belong to Eng- 
 land 10,000,000 
 
 Canada '. 38,000,000 
 
 Newfoundland and other fisheries. . . . 40,000,000 
 
 India, after paying all expenses 20,000,000 
 
 Carried home by Englishmen employed 
 
 in India 20,000,000 
 
 * English goods exported to India . . . 60,000,000 
 The trade from one part of India to 
 another, that of the Red Sea, and 
 Persian Gulf, must be added, which 
 cannot be taken at less than. ...... 30,000,000 
 
 •f-England carries on a great trade with 
 the United States : in 1801 the Eng- 
 lish exports to the United States 
 
 were as high as. 1 55,000,000 
 
 The English islands of the Antilles. . . 130,000,000 
 
 The carrying trade 15,600,000 
 
 The trade with the Spanish continent 50,000,000 
 
 * Humboldt, vol. iv. j- Ibid. 
 
loe THE COLONIES. 
 
 But England imports from the United 
 
 States 45,000,000 
 
 The Isles of France and of Bourhon 
 were a burden to France, as were 
 also the factories of India : she could 
 not reckon, as productive Colonies, 
 more than 
 
 Cayenne 3,000,000 
 
 Newfoundland 7,000,000 
 
 St. Domingo, Guadaloepe^ and Mar- 
 
 tinico 250,000,000 
 
 France consumed to the amount of 
 1 50,000,000 of colonial produce ; she 
 sold the remainder ; the amount of 
 that sale made the balance of trade 
 to incline in her favour annually to 
 the amount of 40,000,000 
 
 Spain drew from her Colonies: 
 
 Precious metals. 100,000,000 
 
 Merchandise 300,000,000 
 
 She sent back in domestic or foreign 
 
 goods 120,000,000 
 
 Danish and Swedish establishments. . 12,000,000 
 
 The contraband trade of all the Co- 
 lonies taken together 100,000,000 
 
 Total Colonial revenue belonging to 
 
 Europe 1 ,290,000,000 
 
 Europe acquired this truly surprising sum with a 
 return from her soil or her industry, of less than 
 500,000,000, and consequently enjoyed a net profit 
 of two hundred per cent, upon every thing which con- 
 5tituted a part of her commerce. 
 
THE COLONIES. 107 
 
 We must add, according to the principles before 
 laid down ; first, the commerce of the United States, 
 which has been created by Europe, which in I8O6 
 amounted in exports to 520,000,000 francs, — imports 
 200,000,000. Secondly, all the activity, commercial, 
 mechanical, and agricultural, which is produced by 
 the Colonies, as they are the object of it, and which 
 would never have existed without them. Therefore, 
 all that immense marine employed in war and com- 
 merce, which, for the purpose of keeping up the con- 
 nection between the Colonies and the parent states, 
 causes the sea to be inhabited like the land, is to be 
 added ; and that multitude of cities also, which the 
 Colonies have, in a manner, created, or ornamented, 
 on those very coasts to which they themselves are in- 
 debted for their existence, and by which, in turn they 
 have become founders in the very bosom of their pa- 
 rent states ; and that population which in both hemis- 
 pheres, either labours for the Colonies, or fills the 
 Colonies themselves, and adds a vast number of sub- 
 jects to the sovereignty of Europe. 
 
 The English reign in India over a po- 
 pulation of 32,000,000 
 
 In the Antilles and America 800,000 
 
 Spain, on the continent of America, 
 
 over a population of. 1 5,000,000 
 
 St. Domingo, the Havannah, and the 
 
 Philippines 22,000,000 
 
 France, in the island of Bourbon, in 
 
 India, and the Antilles, over 500,000 
 
 •St. Domingo should also be reckoned, 
 
 which she has peopled 400,000 
 
 The Portuguese, in Brazil 3,500,000 
 
 In their other Colonies 400,000 
 
108 THE COLONIES. 
 
 Holland, in Batavia and Surinam . . . 600,000 
 
 Sweden and Denmark 400,000 
 
 Total 55,600,000 
 
 To this number of subjects which the Colonies have 
 given to Europe, in the first place, the population of 
 the United. States should be added, which amounts to 
 7,000,000 men ; and, secondly, all the European po- 
 pulation, which, employed in labouring for the Co- 
 lonies, is indebted to them for existence, inasmuch as 
 that population receives its subsistence from that la- 
 bour which the Colonies create. If it were true, that 
 France reckoned on more than 5,000,000 of men set 
 apart exclusively to the production of such objects as 
 the Colonies stood in need of, namely, men engaged 
 in agriculture, in manufactures, in commercial pur- 
 suits, sea-faring men, men in civil and military em- 
 ployments by sea and land (the ties which unite coun- 
 tries so very interesting to each other are numerous, 
 and calculated to multiply services of every kind), it 
 would be found, by applying the same calculation to 
 the other nations of Europe which are in possession 
 of Colonies, that there are not fewer than 12,000,000 
 of men who owe their existence to the Colonies ; and, 
 by adding them to the colonial subjects of Europe to 
 the number of 63,200,000, there will be a total of 
 75,200,000 living in the Colonies for Europe, or in 
 Europe by means of the Colonies. 
 
 At sight of such a magnificent spectacle of popula- 
 tion and of riches, far from exclaiming with Raynal, 
 " Unhappy Europeans ! why have you Colonies ?" we 
 will exclaim, Happy Europeans ! is it possible to con- 
 gratulate you too highly for possessing Colonies ; for 
 having extended the limits of the earth by their 
 
THE COLONIES. 109 
 
 meaqs, on which earth you have been before in a state 
 of confinement; of reigning, by them, over a multi- 
 tude of unknown nations and climates ? Happy in 
 having found, by possessing Colonies, the want of, 
 and the means of acquiring, a thousand funds of know- 
 ledge unknown to your forefathers! Behold, and re- 
 cognize in every place the effects of these rich posses- 
 sions : they environ you on all sides ; they present 
 themselves in every part ; in physics as in morals, in 
 your sciences as in your arts ; in your cities and in 
 your fields ; in your workshops and in your ware- 
 houses ; upon land and upon the seas : compare your 
 present state with that which preceded those valuable 
 acquisitions ; mark what you were then, and what you 
 are at the present time ; you will not be unhappy in 
 having had Colonies until, inconsequence of mystify- 
 ing yourselves as to their nature and principles, and 
 with respect to the successive degrees of their growth 
 and of their force, the necessary consequence of that 
 growth, and consequently as to the obligation you are 
 under of adapting your conduct to those circum- 
 stances, you will suffer those disorders to become ge- 
 neral which afllict the greatest part of them : such are 
 your real dangers, with respect to your Colonies ; dan- 
 gers more near, perhaps, than you are aware of. 
 The interest of the grand scene which has filled the 
 last five-and-twenty years has been so transcendent 
 that it has absorbed the attention of all men ; there 
 was none for any other object. But now, when the 
 calm is nearly restored, hasten to turn your eyes and 
 your thoughts to the progress and the remedy of an 
 evil which you will not discover till it breaks out, and 
 when the opportunity of a cure will be already lost. 
 
THE COLONIES. 
 
 CHAP. vni. 
 
 Of Colonies in general. 
 
 On entering upon this important subject, which is 
 to occupy our attention, it will be necessary for our 
 more secure direction^ to commence with laying down 
 the principles which belong to all Colonies in general, 
 applying them afterwards to each, according to its 
 different species ; to confirm it by collecting all the 
 facts which are calculated to shew its principles — facts 
 drawn from the History of the Colonies themselves, 
 as from the very essence of the thing ; to class, in 
 proper order and method, a number of questions and 
 distinctions, which it is absolutely necessary to examine 
 and unfold ; in a word, from such premises to draw 
 the plan of a new colonial order of things, which 
 proofs, firmly established, will introduce without any 
 effort, and as the necessary consequence of antecedents 
 fully demonstrated. 
 
 Such is the order of the work, which the novelty 
 and importance of the subject both equally demand : 
 in proceeding to the examination of it, it is impossible 
 to be too attentive to method. * 
 
 The Colonies are children, which have left or been 
 carried from the houses of their fathers, for a thousand 
 different reasons. In one instance^, a father's anger 
 drives his children out of doors, and forces them to 
 seek an asylum elsewhere ; in another, an over-nume- 
 rous family separate to seek relief, and search, in 
 
 2 
 

 THE COLONIES. Ill 
 
 foreign lands, for that subsistence which the paternal 
 roof cannot supply : sometimes the misfortunes of 
 war, civil dissensions, the vengeance of one party of 
 men of the same country against another, the desire 
 of aggrandizement, or of wealth, give rise to Colonies. 
 
 Greece, no longer able, on a barren and contracted 
 territory, to furnish support to a superabundant popu- 
 lation, covers the fertile shores of Asia Minor with the 
 excess ; she founds Syracuse, peoples the part of Italy 
 known by the name of Magna Grecia ; sends into 
 Gaul that Colony of Phocians, from which opulent 
 Marseilles is proud to derive her origin. Tyre and 
 the Phoenicians proceed to estabhsh themselves on the 
 extremities of the world, as it was then known, at the 
 Pillars of Hercules ; cover with their shoots that Boe- 
 tica, which was the seat of the golden age, if it existed 
 any where. Troy gives birth to Rome ; Tyre to Car- 
 thage ; Dido, flying from a barbarous tyrant, enriches 
 Africa with a nation, which carry their industry and 
 unknown arts to her savage shores, to establish there, 
 in after times, the commerce of the world. 
 
 iEneas, escaping from the flames which consume 
 his country, founds an empire which was, one day, 
 to devour all others. Rome, sprung from the flames 
 of Troy and from war, always savours of its cruel 
 origin, and always lives in the agitations of the same 
 war which gave it birth. That destiny which placed 
 her opposite to Carthage, which she was one day to 
 destroy, seems to have sketched, in that allegorical 
 opposition, the pictures of Commerce and of War. 
 
 Europe, as soon as she becomes once acquainted 
 with the new climates of the Colonies, and the routes 
 which lead to them, thinks of nothing but of bringing 
 those newly-discovered countries under subjection, and 
 
 
112 THE COLONIES. 
 
 of joining them to herself, if we may use the expres- 
 sion, by peopling them with her own children. In a 
 few years all the Europeans fly towards the new dis- 
 coveries, fight, and mutually expel each other : these 
 countries become the object and the theatre of all their 
 quarrels ; such as find themselves inadequately en- 
 dowed in the division of the immense spoil, will always 
 remain in a constant state of relative inferiority to 
 their fortunate rivals. The Colonies become, in a short 
 time, the arbiters of power between the parent states. 
 Colonized Asia and America decide the.political, com- 
 mercial, and military destinies of Europe. 
 
 Sometimes it is neither the thirst for conquest, nor 
 for gold^ which affords an opportunity for the esta- 
 bHshment of Colonies. Men, hurried away by ardent 
 passions, incommoded by their fellow citizens ; others, 
 of milder manners, equally incapable of exercising, or 
 suffering, any persecution, transport themselves into 
 distant countries, to savage and uncultivated shores ; 
 seek an asylum there, that they may be able to deve- 
 lope their zeal in the cause of liberty, or to devote 
 hemselves quietly to their peaceable observances. In 
 this manner does America receive the various classes 
 of sectaries, which the Reformation brought forth in 
 England, and which persecution drove out of it; they 
 go forth under the banners of leaders, of all kinds, to 
 ask that liberty from the forests of the New World 
 which their country refused them ; and, in a few years, 
 pay for that hospitality which they afforded them, by 
 creating vast states within their bosom, which, from 
 that state of servitude, in which all Colonies are at the 
 beginning, separate at length from the parent states, 
 and give to other Colonies, by this grand act, the signal 
 and the model of their future destination. 
 
THE COLONIES. 118 
 
 But if the foundation of Colonies among the an- 
 cients, had almost the same kind of origin as among 
 the moderns, it must be confessed, to the glory of the 
 former, that their principles were generous in a degree 
 of which Europe has not conceived an adequate idea. 
 With them, a Colony was emancipated, of right; 
 Greece held no direct soveveignty over any part of 
 Asia Minor, of Italy, or Sicily, which were peopled by 
 her children. The relations which subsisted between 
 her and her Colonists were those between parents and 
 children, respectful and grateful. A connexion ce- 
 mented by blood, and fortified by all the ties which 
 are derived from community of origin uniting them 
 together, sometimes disposed the parent state to fly to 
 their assistance, as Athens and Greece frequently acted 
 towards Syracuse and Asia Minor ; but there was tio 
 instance of a nation, which had founded a Colony, 
 setting up any claim of sovereignty over it, and tiot 
 only of reigning over, but of appropriating the labours 
 of the Colony, and of forbidding any communication 
 with other nations. No traces of such a prohibition 
 are to be found in the history of any ancient nation, 
 no more than of exclusi^^e trading Companies. These 
 two inventions were reserved for modern Europe ; and 
 if the ancients, rising from their tombs, could see what 
 is passing among us, in the midst of so many novelties 
 that would divide their attention, the government of 
 modern Colonies would not be the subject of their 
 least astonishment. After rendering that justice to 
 our incontestible superiority in the arts, in com- 
 merce, in navigation, and in those other objects which 
 were unknown to them, which they themselves could 
 not refuse us, without being under the necessity of 
 humbling themselves, and lamenting their own in- 
 
 I 
 
lU THE COLONIES. 
 
 feriority, how would they be able to restrain the eX* 
 pression of their surprise at the sight of that domina- 
 tion which Europe exercises over the other parts of the 
 globe ? On finding, in one place, a nation, by no means 
 numerous, reigning over a population double in amount 
 to its own, spread over countries of a vast extent^ and 
 placed at distances equally removed from each other ; 
 in another place a different nation, possessing almost 
 the entire of America, and possessing it without any 
 advantage to itself, and in prejudice to those which 
 other nations might derive from it, powerless in every 
 respect in Europe, hardly able, or not knowing how, 
 to govern there, and domineering over vast countries 
 at a distance, which it only inoculates with the leprosy 
 of its own vices, and incurable laziness ; in another 
 part, very feeble and thinly-peopled nations, enjoying 
 Colonies, and in like manner possessing every kind of 
 superiority over the parent states, which are hardly 
 able to supply sufficient guards for their defence. But 
 what would, also, be the astonishment of those generous 
 ancients, when, in addition to the attribution which 
 Europe has made to herself of the other parts of the 
 world, they would see the exclusive and prohibitory 
 codes which she has imposed upon them ; so that, not 
 content with changing entire countries with which they 
 were previously unacquainted, into their private domains 
 and estates, she had besides imposed upon them^ as a 
 law, that they were to receive nothing but from her 
 hand, and to provide for their wants only through her 
 mediation, and to order Asia and America not to feed 
 and clothe themselves but from Europe, and in Eu- 
 rbpe ? Besides, if they were under the yoke of al 1 Eu- 
 rope, by the extent, it would become light ; but this 
 is not the case : it is only with that part of Europe to 
 
THE COLONIES. 115 
 
 which a Colony belongs, that the latter can have any- 
 thing to do, under all the inconveniences of such a 
 restriction. An institution of this harsh nature is mon- 
 strous in itself — its consequences are obvious. 
 
 The ancients, therefore, surpassed the moderns in 
 ideas truly colonial, as much as the latter surpass 
 them in extent of colonial possessions. We do not find 
 that Tyre and Greece derived less riches from their 
 Colonies, from not having governed them on the Eu- 
 ropean plan. They began with their Colonies, where, 
 from the nature of things, Europe will end with hers ; 
 they at least gained all the time they saved, as also 
 the expenses of blood and treasure to keep them in a 
 state of servitude, and in oppressing them. The owner- 
 ship of the Colonies, and the exclusive government 
 which they are under, are the two essential differences 
 between the ancient and modern Colonies. The first 
 were, from the beginning, independent and free: they 
 immediately became nations, or the sources from which 
 sprung other nations. The second are nothing more 
 than farms belonging to Europe, and, so far are they 
 from being independent as nations, their owners 
 think only how to prevent them from becoming so, 
 and to restrain the tendency which they have towards 
 this double object. 
 
 The nature of the European Colonies is, therefore, 
 most certainly to be nothing more than useful domains, 
 farms cultivated for the advantage of the parent state. 
 We must not lose sight of this distinctive attribute, 
 because it must frequently enter into that examination 
 which we are pursuing ; because it must serve as the 
 point of comparison with the measures which Europe 
 has adopted towards the Colonies ; and, finally, because 
 it must enter into the competition of that plan which 
 
 I 2 
 
litj THK COLONIES. 
 
 n to flow from the principles and facts which we pro- 
 pose to develope. 
 
 But those farms or estates which Europe holds 
 under the name of Colonies, like those of great pro- 
 prietors who reckon estates in different parts of the 
 same empire, or in many different empires, are sub- 
 jected to a multitude of forms which must, of course, 
 introduce some into that government to which they 
 belong. 
 
 Some are great, others little. The former constitute 
 entire empires, occupy countries of vast extent ; the 
 limits of others are, on the contrary, very moderate and 
 confined. To the first belong whole continents or 
 parts of continents : the second enjoy merely insular 
 positions. Some are covered either with an indigenous 
 or adventitious population ; others again consist of 
 freemen and slaves. In some Colonies the primitive 
 inhabitants infinitely exceed those of the foreign blood, 
 as in India ; in others the blacks exceed the whites ; 
 and who, in that proportion, exhibit a sort of masters 
 placed between hands too often enemies, and always 
 very much suspected. Sometimes the two popula- 
 tions rise or fall to the profit or disprofit of Europe, as 
 at Bengal and America : English blood does not suc- 
 ceed at Bengal, while that of Spain increases very 
 iBiUch in America. 
 
 The Colonies are also so circumstanced as sometimes 
 to require a great expenditure in the way of guard : 
 sometipfies this charge is a very light one ; for instance, 
 a part of the Antilles is guarded by a handful of men, 
 over which part nature has, in short, displayed those 
 peculiarities of which art takes advantage afterwards iix 
 the defence of the soil which contains them; while large 
 and open Colonies cannot be guarded but by the very 
 
THE COLONIES. ll? 
 
 same means which countries of a similai* extent always 
 require — means which the great distance of the Colonies 
 renders more expensive than in the parent states ; and 
 which, consequently, depreciate the farm (as farm and 
 Colony are synonymous). Each proprietor, that is, 
 each nation, will carry to the defence of the Colonies 
 the taint of their own character, and of that particular 
 thing in which they happen to excel. One proud of 
 its thousand ships, reaching at once all parts of the 
 globe in their winged citadels, which they seem to 
 know how to direct by instinct, will establish the 
 defence of his Colonies upon them, disdaining, more- 
 over, to shut himself up in those fortified enclo- 
 sures which perhaps he would despise less if he 
 were better acquainted with the manner of construct- 
 ing them. And another, on the contrary, in the 
 habit of making fortifications spring up in a manner 
 by striking the ground — in mastering all the inequa- 
 lities of ground, and of subjecting every kind of surface 
 to the calculations of experienced and never-erring 
 genius, will provide for the safety of their Colonies in 
 bulwarks erected with all the advantages which nature 
 may have given to the ground. The English, ascrib- 
 ing every thing to maritime superiority, will think of 
 nothing but their ships: the French endeavour to 
 make amends for the inferiority of their marine by 
 surrounding themselves with walls and fortifications, 
 similar to those which, in Europe, constitute their 
 defence against their neighbours. It sometimes hap- 
 pens that Colonies are more military than commercial 
 establishments, serving the parent states as arsenals 
 and as fortifications for her other Colonies, so as to 
 possess a relative, superior to their individual import- 
 ance, and rather calculated to hold a political than a 
 productive place in the Colonial order, contrary to the 
 
U8 THE COLONIES. 
 
 ordinary nature of such kind of properties. France, 
 for instance, preserved the isles of France and Bour- 
 bon as the outer fortifications of her Indian posses- 
 sions, and as alarm posts against those of England. 
 She expended annually on this object, exclusively 
 political, a sum which far exceeded the revenues 
 of those islands. St. Lucie and Martinique were 
 the arsenals of France in the Antilles for the pro- 
 tection of her other purely productive Colonies, 
 such as St. Domingo and Guadaloupe. Antigua and 
 Barbadoes perform the same functions for the English 
 Colonies. The Havannah discharges the same duty 
 with respect to Mexico. Every nation which enjoys 
 j extensive Colonial possessions was under the necessity 
 j of devoting establishments adapted to their preserva- 
 j tion, as well as their improvement; they must not 
 dread the sacrifice of some money, nor even that of 
 some parts of the Colonies, for the purpose of retain- 
 \}ng their empire more securely over the remainder. 
 
 Colonies, the nature and destination of which are 
 to be productive to the parent states, which, like ordi- 
 nary proprietors, do not consider their estates only 
 according to their utility or net produce, may also be 
 very burdensome ; either from the penury of the 
 Colony itself, or from the errors of the parent state, 
 which either knows not how, or neglects to, derive 
 advantage from them, and which, in condemning or 
 abandoning them to languor, condemns herself to 
 share the consequences of their sterility, and punishes 
 herself, together with them, for her own faults. Thus 
 the Dutch did not draw from a part of their possessi- 
 ons enough to cover the expense of some of their esta- 
 blishments in particular ; but knowing with much 
 ability to unite the unfertile to the productive islands, 
 that industrious people had formed a very profitable 
 
THE COLONIES. 119 
 
 whole, in which the advantages of the one made up for 
 _ the disadvantages of the other : while, on the other 
 hand, Spain, making no calculations, not regulating 
 any part of her possessions with a view of advantage 
 ^ to the entire, expended annually great sums in the 
 i Philippines, and on St. Domingo, for the purpose of 
 \ retaining possession, as uselessly for her Colonies as for 
 ^ herself, of two countries favoured with all the gifts of 
 nature, and which, in other hands, would have served 
 to establish and enrich the world : during 300 years 
 these two colonies have cost Spain more than (5,000,000 
 francs, of which two-thirds are for the expense of 
 guarding the country and the annual expense of 
 sovereignty ; the other third for wars in which they 
 happened to be engaged in support of the parent state. 
 The Colonies, like individuals of any class, pass 
 through different ages, the gradations of which it 
 behoves the parent state to follow, in order that she 
 may conform her conduct to these gradations with 
 respect to their possessions. But in Colonial language 
 age is not the measure of time and of duration alone, 
 but that of strength and manhood : one may say of 
 Colonies, as of individuals, that they are young when, 
 being still at no great distance from the epoch of their 
 foundations, they have not had time to acquire the 
 force which would enable them to do without their 
 parent states, still less to brave them ; but when time 
 has multiplied hands and riches in the midst of the 
 Colonies, they have acquired at once the means of in- 
 dependence and subsistence, and, above all, of resist- 
 ance: when the Colonies, peopled by men of courage 
 and reflection, have been able to discover their own 
 strength, and to measure their position with that of the 
 mother-country, they have already passed the age of 
 
1^0 THE COLONIES. 
 
 infancy ; the age of manhood is arrived : the parent 
 state, like a provident mother, should change her 
 relations with children whom the plenitude of their 
 youth renders too strong to have any occasion for 
 remaining in a state of tutelage ; then the family state 
 is broken off between the mother and her children, 
 who, in conformity to their natural wishes, aspire to 
 form one of their own, and on their own account. 
 To mark that stage is of essential importance on the 
 part of the present state, that she may not rank nations 
 absolutely different in the very same class ; an over- 
 sight which may be attended with most fatal conse- 
 quences. It was from that circumstance that England 
 lost her American Colonies, not having paid sufficient 
 attention to their passing from one state to the other. 
 In Hke manner Spain finds herself engaged in a gene- 
 ral war with her Colonies, because she has not pro- 
 fited by the lesson which England placed before her 
 eyes. 
 
 These distinctions are complete evidence and above 
 all contradiction : they form the base of every Colo* 
 nial state, and should be well comprehended and 
 retained in memory, that this state may be well under- 
 stood. It is proper to add that as these Colonies are^ 
 in the eyes of the mother-country, nothing more than 
 objects of produce, they should be considered under 
 the double view of receipts and expenses, so that the 
 mother-country would apply herself at once to increase 
 her receipts from her Colonies and their consumption 
 at the same time ; a calculation which would ensure 
 their mutual happiness, if justice presided in all their 
 transactions, and force did not hold the balance un- 
 feirly inclined between them ; in such a case the 
 profits of the mother-country would be doubled, but so 
 
 2 
 
TH£ COLONIES. 121 
 
 would those of the Colony, in like manner ; for the 
 latter could not consume but in proportion to her 
 produce, and their increase is always the measure of 
 her own consumption. Thus has nature formed be- 
 tween states, as she has between all her works, secret 
 but certain relations ; she has united them by the ties 
 of common interest, and of the most beneficent dispo- 
 sitions. She has desired that happiness, instead of 
 being isolated, should be shared ; and it is she that 
 has established that happiness is of an expansive 
 nature. 
 
 Europe and her Colonies are in inverse positions to 
 each other, without opposition of interests. 
 
 Europe, engaged in manufactures and mechanicaP 
 arts, is become a vast vvarehouse, which seeks chan- 
 nels of consumption in every quarter; above all, she 
 finds it to her advantage to send back articles in a 
 manufactured state which she received in an unprepared 
 one : her profit is, therefore, regulated on the degrees 
 of industry and economy which she knows how to 
 apply to the fabrication of those articles. For which 
 reason, as England has adopted the most ingenious 
 mechanical improvements, she is enabled to dispose 
 of the produce of her industry at a cheaper rate than 
 any other manufacturing nation, though the articles 
 are fabricated from similar materials to those which 
 other manufactories employ as well as England, but 
 with a degree of inferiority in the processes employed 
 by each : it is this which gives her that superiority in 
 all the markets of Europe, and almost of all the world 
 which is changed into empire, the more powerful too, 
 the more it is voluntary. The Colonies, on the other 
 hand, have nothing to give to Europe but the produce 
 of their soil ; all their riches are purely territorial ; 
 
 
 T3li;TVE^ 
 
152 THE COLONIES. 
 
 they are totally without manufactures : the scarcity of 
 hands would raise the price of labour to a height 
 which would not admit of any competition.) The 
 Americans are as yet merely calculators. The Euro- 
 peans are at once labourers and manufacturers. ( For 
 a long time to come the Colonies will not possess 
 manufacturers, consequently they will be depen- 
 dent on Europe for a long time to come for all articles 
 of art;) they will not redeem that dependence but by 
 means of that in which, in turn, they hold Europe, 
 namely, by that immensity of productions of various 
 kinds which custom and riches have placed in the rank 
 of articles of the first necessity. In such a state of 
 things, it is evidently the interest of Europe to extend 
 and strengthen the taste of the Colonies for the pro- 
 duce of her industry, particularly in proportion to the 
 progress which the consumption of articles of Colonial 
 growth is making among Europeans. There is a 
 struggle between European art and Colonial cultiva- 
 tion, that the one may not gain too great an ascen- 
 dancy over the other. This is an essential point in the 
 preservation of the kind of balance which exists 
 between the parent states and the Colonies. The object 
 of Europe will be fulfilled when, without impoverish- 
 ing the Colonies, she will find great vents for her m- 
 dustry among them, as she will have failed altogether, 
 should she have Colonies which would consume none 
 of her produce, and would, of course, want nothing 
 from her ; a supposition, almost metaphysical, which 
 cannot take place but in Colonies inhabited by savages, 
 or by a race that had no taste for any, except objects 
 of the lowest class in modern ingenuity. 
 
 As almost all the Colonies are situated at a great 
 distance from the parent states, and as the latter can 
 
THE COLONIES. 12S 
 
 hold no communication with them but across the 
 ocean and a vast expanse of seas, maritime power is at 
 once the base of Colonial power and that of the 
 superiority between Colonial powers themselves. Thus 
 England^ though she started last in the Colonial ca- 
 reer, has run the Colonial race with more rapidity and 
 fame than any other nation. She is indebted to her 
 marine for that superiority. Some she has totally, 
 others partially supplanted. She is now in possession 
 of the most productive part of the Colonies, and after 
 what has passed during the last twenty years of war, 
 $he had to choose between the personal possession or 
 the simple protection of the Colonies which detach 
 themselves successively from the parent states, with 
 which they were no longer able to hold any communi- 
 cation. 
 
 France lost her empire in India and Canada in the 
 war of ]756, from the want of a marine equal to that 
 of England. In the war of the revolution she has 
 met with similar losses, and on the same account. In 
 vain has she covered her Colonies with ramparts ; of 
 what use can they be when they cannot be defended 
 by the mother country, as she herself is in a general 
 and perpetual state of blockade, when no vessel can 
 leave her ports, and no succours be directed towards the 
 fortresses of the Colonies ? Do they not resemble those 
 places said to be impregnable, and which in reality 
 >vould be impregnable against any force, but which are 
 obliged to yield on account of the interruption of all 
 communication from without ? There is even this dif- 
 ference between the two states that naval superiority 
 gives, the power of blockading the parent state and 
 the Colony at the same time ; whereas continental 
 superiority is confined to the separation of the point 
 1 
 
124 THE COLONIES. 
 
 attacked from the body of that power to which it be- 
 longs. Thus, when the French were blockading 
 Luxembiirgh and Mantua, their armies, looking only 
 to fortresses, did not blockade the whole of Austria at 
 the same time, as the English fleets have blockaded at 
 the same time France, Holland, Spain, and their Colo- 
 nies. Naval superiority is therefore in its eft'ects much 
 more extended than power purely continental, Eng- 
 land with a small army but with a large fleet can keep 
 any part of the world she pleases shut up. Prussia, 
 Russia, and Austria, with great armies but with little 
 or no marine can extend the arms of their power only 
 to a few points within their reach. 
 
 The effects of maritime superiority are so evident, 
 with regard to Colonies, that they are sometimes ob- 
 liged to anticipate the wishes of the conqueror before 
 they are attacked, and to implore his assistance as 
 their liberator. The reason of this is evident. 
 
 TheColonies exist but to produce, and produce but to 
 afford them the means of consumption : this is their na- 
 ture and their end, their condition and their indefeasible 
 destination. The Colonies are not powers ; they are 
 nothing more than growers with the view of obtaining 
 articles of consumption from the parent states. When 
 they find themselves therefore implicated in quarrels 
 which are foreign to them and even contrary to their 
 nature, they are by the very act of hostilities in which 
 the parent is engaged and into which she drags them, 
 deprived, and that for a long time, of the assistance 
 and of the merchandize of the mother country ; re- 
 duced in consequence to cultivate without having a 
 market, and deprived of the articles of consumption, 
 they detach themselves at last momentarily from the 
 
THE COLONIES. 125 
 
 parent state ; and, without submitting to the enemy's 
 yoke, they are obhged to submit to his protection, who 
 assures them of a market for their commodities as well 
 as the means of obtaining whatever they may want. 
 Time will determine their future state as to sovereignty. 
 In the mean while they live, produce, carry on trade 
 under a flag which permits them to follow their natural 
 career. It was in this manner that Surinam and 
 other islands invited the English, we may say, to 
 their relief. The latter no longer thought of attack- 
 ing them ; but the Colonist, separated from the parent 
 state for many years, losing the hope every day 
 of renewing his connection with her, must have 
 thought of providing for his own subsistence which 
 the parent state could no longer furnish. One flag 
 alone is flying in the neighbouring seas and those 
 which encompass him about; it would be madness 
 in merchants (colonists are nothing else) to brave 
 it and to engage in hostilities with it. In like manner 
 it was evident that the long separation established by 
 the war between Spain and her Colonies would bring 
 the latter to adopt a similar resolution, and that they 
 would renounce from necessity a parent state which 
 sickened them by its impotence. 
 
 Let us collect all these principles together, and form 
 from them a complete table of the elementary orders 
 of all the European Colonies in themselves and in the 
 present state of the Colonies. 
 
125 THE COLONIES. 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 Constituent Principles of the Colonial Syste^n. 
 
 1. i^OLONIES grow up from various causes. 
 
 2. Dependance and exclusive trade constitute the 
 essential state of the Colonies belonging to Europe, 
 and the diiference between them and ancient Colonies. 
 
 3. The ancients were superior to the moderns iri 
 colonial institutions, and the moderns are superior to 
 them in colonial possessions, as well as in commerce^ 
 navigation, and arts. 
 
 4. The Colonies are nothing more than farms be- 
 longing to Europe. 
 
 5. The Colonies differ from each other, either in 
 importance, in the facility with which they may be 
 defended, or as military posts, as means of commerce: 
 they also differ in utility and age. 
 
 6. Age, in colonial language, is the measure of 
 strength, and not of time. 
 
 7. The Colonies are intended to be productive, in 
 order that they may be supplied with the means of 
 paying for the articles which they borrow from the pa- 
 rent states, ' 
 
 8. Free vents for their produce and good prices for 
 their articles of consumption, on cheap terms, are the 
 basis of existence, and the object of ambition, in ever/ 
 colony. 
 
 9. The Colonies are the growers of natural products, 
 and want manufactures. The parent states are at once 
 
THE COLONIES. 127 
 
 the labourers and manufacturers who are wanting to 
 Colonies. 
 
 10. The interest of the parent states is to cause a 
 speedy consumption of the objects produced by their 
 arts, and to compensate by their sale the expenditure 
 in colonial products. 
 
 1 1 . Action and reaction exists between the Colonies 
 and parent states, in such a manner that the happiness 
 of the one is the happiness of the other; the Colonies 
 command the labour of the parent states to the same 
 degree as the parent states command theirs. A part of 
 the population of Europe arises from the labour which 
 the Colonies provide for it. 
 
 12. Labour and the produce of the soil are in the 
 Colonies, as well as in Europe, the first and principal 
 riches: the precious metals are only the second, and 
 signs of the first. 
 
 13. The parent states have had an interest in re- 
 taining possession of the Colonies during all the time 
 of their youth ; now, they have no interest except in 
 their commerce and in the increase of their pros- 
 perity. 
 
 14. Exclusive Companies are, and always have 
 been, fatal to Colonies, 
 
 15. The exclusive commerce established by the pa- 
 rent states, with respect to their Colonies, have been 
 as fatal to themselves as to their Colonies :— it has not 
 fulfilled any object which was proposed by its esta- 
 blishment. 
 
 16. The Sugar Colonies of the Antilles could not 
 exist without negroes, and to keep them would also be 
 impossible, from the increase of the black population. 
 
 17. The difference of colour is a source of great 
 
\ 
 
 128 ' THE COLONIES. 
 
 embarrasment in every colonial question ; it etids by 
 deciding the fate of the Colonies. 
 
 1 8. The cessation of the slave trade was commanded 
 by the danger resulting to the Colonies from the in- 
 crease of blacks. 
 
 19. It is better to abandon Colonies^ such as St. Do- 
 mingo, which will continue to grow products for Europe 
 and to consume its manufactures, than to expose them 
 to devastation by an attack^ the object of which would 
 be to reduce them to a forced obedience to the mother 
 country. 
 
 20. The parent states ought to proportion the extent 
 of their Colonies to their population, as well as to their 
 other means of guarding and preserving them. 
 
 21. They ought to proportion their marine and their 
 Colonies to the Colonies and marine of other colonial 
 powers. 
 
 22. They ought to proportion their industry to 
 their capitals, to the wants of their Colonies, as well as 
 to the progress of other powers, in both these re- 
 spects. I 
 
 23. They ought to establish a proper government in 
 their Colonies, which would diminish, in behalf of 
 the Colonies, the necessity of addressing themselves to 
 the parent states. 
 
 24. Naval superiority is the first principle of colo- 
 nial power: it is naturally stronger than the superiority 
 of force purely continental. 
 
 25. The superiority of industry and capital is the 
 second principle of colonial power ; a tie which strong- 
 ly draws the Colonies to the parent states, as well as 
 a very powerful attraction to the Colonies of other 
 powers. 
 
THE COLONIES. 129 
 
 ^ 26. 'the Colonies are not guarded by fortresses, but 
 by ships, and by the constant communication kept up 
 with the mother countries. 
 
 27. War is more injurious to the Colonist than to 
 the European. 
 
 28. The interruption of communication with the 
 parent states destroys the Colonies, is equal to a 
 separation in fact, and leads to a separation of 
 right. 
 
 29. England is the sole colonial power, through the 
 union of all those attributes of which colonial power 
 is constituted. 
 
 30. The nation which enjoys a superiority in navi- 
 gation, in industry, and capital, is the owner of all 
 Colonies. That nation has no need to take them into 
 possession, but only to trade with thenl. 
 
 31. The stations which England has chosen on 
 every sea render her mistress of all Colonies, and lay 
 all other nations under an interdict as to naval power. 
 
 32. This state of things is very dangerous to 
 Europe. 
 
 33. All the navies of Europe, together, or taken 
 separately, are nt>t equal to that of England. 
 
 34. Europe can never have a marine, but in the 
 hope of an union with the marine of the Colonies, 
 when they have become independent* 
 
 35. All the fleets of the Colonies will be the natural 
 auxiliaries of those of Europe, against that marine 
 which has the ascendancy in Europe, to whatever 
 nation it may belong. 
 
 36. The powers which are inferior in their marine 
 and in Colonies ought to do nothing for their Colo- 
 nies; they should confine themselves to maintaining in 
 them such a force as is necessary for the good order 
 
 K 
 
\ 
 
 MO THE COLONIES. 
 
 of the interior, and by avoiding every expense which 
 would fall upon the mother country. 
 
 37. Every fortress, all colonial troops, belong to the 
 Ration which is superior in maritime power. 
 
 38. The Colonies have state questions which are 
 common to all. 
 
 Sg. These questions are, slavery and exclusive trade. 
 
 40. These questions cannot be decided by one 
 alone, nor by one weak in Colonies, against or without 
 the strong. 
 
 41. Exclusive trade ought to be maintained or abo- 
 lished every where at once. 
 
 4 42. Slavery ought to be maintained or abolished 
 every where at the same time. 
 
 43. Independence is innate in the Colonies, as the 
 separation of families is, in human nature, the first 
 principle of their independence. 
 
 44. The question of the independence of the Co- 
 lonies is not a question of the political, but of the 
 natural, order of things. 
 
 45. The independence of the Colonies is nothing 
 more than the declaration that they are of age. 
 
 46. The difference and inequality of colour is the 
 first principle of the attachment of Colonies to the 
 parent state. 
 
 47. Increase of population, when it suffices for the 
 Colony and against the parent state, is the second prin- 
 ciple of colonial independence. 
 
 48. The prosperity of the Colonies, the prevalence 
 of a single colour, and accelerating circumstances, are 
 principles and means of independence to the Colonies, 
 
 49. Colonies which are long separated from the 
 parent states find in that separation a principle of 
 independence. 
 
THE COLONIES. 131 
 
 50. Colonies that are badly provided for by their 
 parent states, find, in their wants, a principle of inde- 
 pendence. 
 \i 51. AH the faults which the parent states commit, 
 in their manner of governing their Colonies, form so 
 many principles of independence. 
 
 52. The Colonies of Europe have arrived at the 
 epoch of their separation froni all the parent states. 
 
 53. The changes which have taken place in the 
 condition of the colonial powers of Europe form a 
 powerful principle of independence for the Colonies. 
 
 54. The interest of the parent states, with regard to 
 the Colonies, changes sometimes, and passes from the 
 exclusive system to that of hberty. 
 
 55* Colonies which are exclusive and offensive points, 
 in the hands of the generality of the colonial nations, 
 cannot belong to the power which enjoys a maritime 
 9upremacy, without doing injury to those very nations ; 
 they ought to belong to the weak, or to land powers. 
 
 56. England emancipates every Colony w^iich she 
 cannot keep ; she abandons sovereignty for the com- 
 merce which emancipation gives her. 
 
 57' Colonies, separated from the parent states for a 
 considerable time, may be more successfully attacked 
 by measures of policy than by force. 
 
 58. Colonies may be attacked by the principles of 
 independence, in peace as well as in war. 
 
 59. The enemies of the Revolution in Europe have 
 been auxiliaries to the Colonies in procuring their 
 independence. 
 
 60. Colonies with slaves commence with revolution, 
 and end with independence. Colonies without slaves 
 confine themselves to independence, and have np need 
 of revolution. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 THE COLONIES. 
 
 61. The revolution of the Spanish Colonies deddcs 
 the fate of all the Colonies belonging to Europe, evert 
 in Asia. 
 
 52. Spain can neither reconquer her Colonies, nor 
 keep them after conquest. 
 
 63. Spain has no longer any interest in reconquer- 
 ing them. 
 
 64. Europe has a right to interfere in the war be- 
 tween Spain and America. 
 
 65. Every European Sovereign that has passed over 
 to America, becomes an American, and an adversary 
 to Europe. 
 
 66. He may become in America the enemy of him 
 whose ally he was in Europe, and the ally of one of 
 whom he was the enemy. 
 
 67. The separation of the Colonies from the mother 
 country ought to be prepared before-hand. 
 
 V4 68. A separation, without any previous preparation, 
 destroys the Colonists, the Colonies, and the parent 
 states, at the same time. 
 
 69. The form of government is a matter of indif- 
 ference in the system of separation, and with regard 
 to it alone. 
 
 70. Europe can no longer preserve Colonies, but by 
 giving up those she has> and by establishing others 
 on a regular plan. 
 
 71. The separation of the Colonies conduces to the 
 establishment of a great number of states. 
 
 72. Those states are more susceptible of just limits 
 than the states of Europe. 
 
 73. Those states, by their nature, are pacific. 
 
 74. The maritime position is their distinctive at- 
 tribute. 
 
THE COLONIES. 133 
 
 75. Their establishment would be a means of tran- 
 quillify to Europe. 
 
 76. They would be profitable to Europe in general, 
 to each power in particular, and to the ancient pos- 
 sessors. 
 
 ']'! , These states should make their internal arrange- 
 ments on regular and modern plans. 
 
 7^, Europe ought to form establishments suitable 
 to the principal wants of the Colonies, 
 
 79. She ought to provide for the increase of their 
 population. 
 
 80. She does not lose the inhabitants which she 
 gives them. 
 
 81. She has no interest in any population that has 
 not European tastes. 
 
 -4 82. She should apply herself, in her colonial dis- 
 coveries, to multiply European population and Euro- 
 pean tastes. 
 
 S3. The trade with India, burdensome to Europe, 
 which is inferior in products and industry, is carried 
 on by means of the precious metals, and acts as a drain 
 upon the silver which is received from America. 
 
 84. Silver never returns from India. 
 
 85. The right of sovereignty in India may sup- 
 ply the place of the exportation of the precious 
 metals. 
 
 66. The nation which is sovereign in India has an 
 advantage over the nations that are not. 
 
 87. She spares European capital in proportion ,a^ 
 she extends her sovereignty. . % 
 
 88. Europe has an interest in supporting the sovje- 
 reignty of that nation which has the pre-eminence i^ 
 Europe. 
 
5iM THE COLONIES. 
 
 89. The sovereignty of one alone, in that country, 
 is more useful to Europe than that of many. 
 
 90. The Europeans have been very imprudent in 
 thejr communications with the natives of India. 
 
 91. England will no longer have any interest in re- 
 taining the empire of India, when the trade between 
 Europe and India become equal. 
 
 92. The United States will separate from each other 
 as they become great and populous, or rather, they 
 will form themselves into a monarchy. 
 
 93. The embarrassments of the colonial system can 
 be terminated in no other way than by a Congress : 
 Europe has the greatest interest to hasten that deci- 
 sion — the first of all interests, humanity, demands it. 
 
 94. The prolongation of the disorders in America ex- 
 poses royalty to a complete abolition in that country, 
 and Catholicism to \ery serious inconveniences. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 Of tx elusive Commercial Companies. 
 
 When we cbtisider the use that modern nations 
 have made of exclusive Commercial Companies ; when 
 we contemplate that use, sanctioned by the consent 
 of nations and of ages, and compare it with the 
 effect which it has never failed to produce, and with 
 the expenses which it has dravt^n equally upon the 
 mother countries and the Colonies, we shake that in- 
 
THE COLONIES. 135 
 
 ward respect, which it is natural to feel for institutions 
 that have obtained a sanction, imposing on account of 
 the importance of their founders and their own anti- 
 quity. 
 
 For many centuries, Europe has known commerce 
 only through the agency of exclusive Companies ; and 
 has employed this method, especially towards her Co- 
 lonies, with an obstinacy and perseverance that must 
 astonish us, whether we look at those who suffer the 
 effects of it, or those who see them without under- 
 standing them, and daily resist the evidence of repeated 
 facts. The instituters and victims of exclusive monopo- 
 lies, that is, the mother countries and the Colonies, 
 are equally astonishing in this respect ; the latter from 
 their patience, the former from their impervious blind- 
 ness. There is no injury done to any individual, or 
 to society at large, when an exclusive privilege is 
 attached to the invention of any particular process of 
 industry, and a wisely remunerative law gives to the 
 inventor the full enjoyment of the fruits of his labour, 
 by granting them to him exclusively, and is at once 
 the security of talent and the spur to emulation, by 
 rendering that profitable which is always precious. 
 Society, on her part, performs a duty of justice in 
 protecting a property that has an equal right with any 
 other to her support. So far every thing is equitable. 
 Free Companies, that are only the means of uniting 
 intellect and consolidating capital, are very advan- 
 tageous to a state, and therefore worthy of its protec- 
 tion ; they can and ought to attain a much grander 
 and more extensive result than private individuals. 
 Their efforts are upon a larger and firmer foundation. 
 Associations of this kind are an advantage, the enjoy- 
 ment of which is not troubled by any inconvenience. 
 
 y^eLlgR> 
 
 fx^ Of rH£ ^ 
 
136 THE COLONIES. 
 
 But very different -is the case with exclusive Com-i' 
 mercial Companies, associations in which a small part 
 assumes the right of telling the rest of the nation, in- 
 finitely more numerous, that to these few alone belongs 
 such or such branch of industry, this or that opening 
 of commerce; that, being masters in the mother 
 country of the price of certain articles, they will also 
 be so abroad, and will thus enrich themselves by a 
 double monopoly. Such language is so very revolting, 
 that it never would have been suffered^ if it had been 
 held openly, instead of assigning those deceitful mo- 
 tives, upon which, in every country, the concession of 
 these odious privileges has been founded ; this, never- 
 theless, is their real nature, their necessary and un- 
 failing attribute. The system pursued by exclusive 
 Companies has been, and always will be, to buy of the 
 producer at a low price, and to sell to the consumer at 
 a high one, and to regulate the quantity, not according 
 to the want, but according to their own private in- 
 terest ; they are less attentive to the proper supply of 
 the places which have the misfortune to be subject to 
 them, than to the removal of those who wish to partake 
 of their profits. Competition is the only object of their 
 anxiety. The dragon, who watched the garden of the 
 golden apples, is their emblem, and it is only while 
 their vigilance is asleep, any body can hope to enter. 
 The advantages of exclusive commerce have been al- 
 ways held out as the palliation of the odious part of 
 it ; but the answer to these assertions is to be found 
 by connecting the words exclusion and advantage^ — r 
 Who can entertain the idea of a nation, excluded for 
 its own advantage. We must speak clearly, and 
 openly declare that the word, monopoly^ ought to be 
 banished from the language of every civilized people, 
 
THE COLONIES. 137 
 
 and exiled to Constantinople, and other places equally 
 enlightened. 
 
 Exclusion establishes a state of war between the 
 holder of the monopoly and those who are subjected 
 to it; the former labour to increase their profits ; the 
 latter to free themselves from the iponopoly. They 
 know too well that the high price of the commodity is 
 owing to the want of competition, to the barrier that 
 monopoly raises against all other traders. They know 
 this^ and to some effect; for all their endeavours are to 
 escape from the yoke. It is a continual source of 
 fraud, and consequently of immorality. 
 
 Monopoly places that part of the nation which is 
 excluded from the benefits of it in a state of hatred 
 and jealousy to those who are the holders of it. The 
 former look, with reason, upon the latter as robbers, as 
 an obstacle to their participation in advantages to 
 which they have an equal right. In every country, 
 monopolies have been constantly opposed by the most 
 judicious and most numerous part of the nation, espe- 
 cially by the merchants, who, being generally better 
 acquainted with the object of the monopoly than the 
 very persons who enjoy it, would know how to take 
 more proper means to accomplish that object. For 
 this we can appeal to history, that in every page affords 
 evidence of the violence of the opposition made by 
 nations to the encroachments of any of the members 
 upon the society, of which they form a part ; and this 
 opposition weighs as heavy in the scale of reason as 
 the practice of governments enslaved by custom, or 
 blinded by that darkness which has so long covered 
 the principles of commerce — principles which, it must 
 be said, are but just emerging from infancy in every 
 
138 THE COLONIE& 
 
 country, as will be proved in the course of this 
 work. 
 
 It is to be remarked that England, the country 
 where the elements of commerce have been developed 
 the earliest, has made a more obstinate resistance to 
 the establishment of exclusive monopoHes, precisely 
 in that part where they are most excusable, in the 
 trade to India. This people, who seem born with an 
 instinct for commerce, seem also born with a hatred 
 towards its natural enemy, monopoly. 
 
 We recollect all that happened on this account at 
 the commencement of the last century but one, when 
 the parliament, in the name of the nation, took up the 
 cause against monopolies, which being in vain pro- 
 tected by the court, could find no other resource 
 against the attacks of their competitors, than that of 
 admitting them to a participation. The same would 
 have happened in France, if commerce had possessed 
 legitimate and acknowledged organs for asserting her 
 claims ; the joy that has been shown by the commeiv 
 cial towns upon the fall of each exclusive Company is 
 a sufficient evidence of their sentiments. Very dif- 
 ferent would have been the case, if government had 
 consulted the subjects with respect to monopolies ; if 
 it had interrogated them upon the nature and extent of 
 their wants, and the manner in which they were pro- 
 vided for by the monopolists ; in a word, if government 
 had been willing to open its eyes to the effects which 
 have uniformly resulted from monopolies : it would 
 have been convinced, by the experience of every coun- 
 try, that monopolies were at once the scourge both of 
 the mother country and the Colonies. 
 
 Of the mother country, by only affording to the 
 
THE COLONIES. 139 
 
 consumers produce of the worst quality, and in the 
 smallest quantity ; a species of parsimony that has 
 reduced the exports of the mother country to a very 
 few articles. 
 
 Of the Colonies, in restraining their exertions by the 
 penury in which they are kept by the monopoly thus 
 exercised over them. ,For how could Colonies prosper 
 that bad only the worst and dearest articles of com- 
 merce offered to them ? Has not exclusion been the 
 greatest enemy to the developement of their powers r 
 and have not Europe and her Colonies been, at the 
 same time, deprived of the prosperity they ought to 
 have derived from each other by this prolonged course 
 of extortion? Can the millions and the possessions 
 be numbered, that have been taken from them by the 
 obstacles opposed to their prosperity ? Facts, in such 
 an abundance, come so much to the support of our 
 assertions, and so well justify the severity which we 
 have expressed against exclusive Companies, that we 
 shall not hesitate in offering a concise account of these 
 destroyers of commerce and the Colonies. -^ 
 
 The history of the Colonies presents fifty-eight • 
 Companies with exclusive privileges ; we have fol- 
 lowed their course to the end, and noticed their effects, j 
 Of this number forty-six have suffered a complete ruin ; [ 
 eight have been suppressed, or have voluntarily dis- f 
 solved themselves ; four only have escaped the same j 
 fate, and have prospered. So the chances against the i 
 success of Companies have been constantly as four to / 
 
 imii i" •-' 
 
 Holland has reckoned ten Companies ; they have all 
 perished, except that to India ; the real state of which, 
 however, is still a problem, the solution of which is 
 hindered by the number of interests being much too 
 
HO THE COLONIES. 
 
 great for us to pronounce definitively upon its fate ; 
 though, perhaps, the very veil with which it covers its 
 condition indicates, or at least affords a fair presump- 
 tion of its destiny. Of five Companies that subsisted 
 in England, four have been ruined, and there is now 
 remaining only that to India, the incredible success of 
 which has been occasioned by particular causes : the 
 first India Company, however, suffered .the common 
 fate. The Guinea Company is a fi-ee association, and 
 reckons among its members the richest merchants of 
 the most opulent cities ; so that it is rather part of the 
 commercial body than a Company properly so called, 
 
 France is of all countries the one that has most mul- 
 tiplied experiments of this sort ; for it has had twenty^ 
 one exclusive Companies ; and, accordingly, has sufi- 
 fered more from them than any other country ; and yet 
 in this number we only reckon one of the India Com- 
 panies that have been re-established many times with- 
 out ever experiencing better success ; we must add that 
 the length of their charter made them resemble an 
 alienation of lands more than a grant for the cultiva-^ 
 lion of commerce. France has tormented Canada, 
 Louisiana, and St. Domingo, with her exclusive 
 companies ; they have all been equally useless or 
 injurious ; however, if they had been only useless, 
 it would have been much better for themselves, and 
 for the Colonies ; but they have never failed being 
 destructive to both. 
 
 Spain, that has spent three centuries in altering and 
 varying the administration of her Colonies, and that 
 has managed them with the blindness of insanity, 
 reckons up eleven monopolies, of all of which the ca- 
 lamitous results are well known. Of this number, 
 four have ruined the Companies who held them ; two 
 1 
 
THE COLONIEa i4l 
 
 have been models of extortion and rapine to the un- 
 happy Colonies, which they have ruined in their turn ; 
 three have not been able to await the expiration of 
 their charters, which had become as burthensome to 
 themselves as to the Colonies. There is now but one 
 remaining, that of the Philippine Islands, the fate of 
 which is uncertain ; for as it is now about to be re- 
 established, it is impossible to pronounce upon its 
 destiny ; it will depend upon the manner in which 
 the great dispute is settled, that is now depending 
 between America and Spain, for the Company will 
 find itself involved in it, as the Philippine Islands 
 themselves will be, without having foreseen it, and 
 without the power of hindering it. 
 
 Denmark, with Colonies very limited in extent and 
 in produce, has had no less than four Companies, 
 which the usual wisdom of its government has not 
 been able to preserve from a calamitous end. 
 
 Two have been dissolved ; the third ruined ; and 
 the fourth prospers by the advantage of its situation in 
 India; an advantage, which, from another cause, is 
 nearly at an end, for reasons which we shall show 
 hereafter. 
 
 The two companies of Embden have experienced 
 the same fatality : dissolved or ruined, they only ex- 
 ist in recollection. 
 
 Those of Ostend have suffered a similar fate. 
 
 Portugal had the wisdom to exclude Companies from 
 those immense Colonies which it long possessed with 
 so much profit and glory. The want of them was no 
 more felt than the want of those boasted advantages 
 which have been the cause of their adoption by so 
 many nations; and, though Portugal gradually lost 
 all her settlements, it was not for the want of Com- 
 
142 THE COLONIES. 
 
 panics, but for the want of courage, wisdom, and 
 population. Latterly, its practice in this respect has 
 been more like that of other nations ; but, by a most 
 extraordinary inconsistency, it has begun the practice 
 at the very time they have left it off. The rage for 
 monopolies was every where abating, and by degrees 
 they were nearly every where abandoned, when, in 
 17^69 Pombal, who was their minister, thought pro- 
 per to introduce them into Portugal, when for the first 
 time, the valuable Colony of the Brazils was laid 
 under an exclusive monopoly; but it happily pos- 
 sessed other sources of prosperity sufficient to coun- 
 teract in part the mischief caused by this disastrous 
 innovation. 
 
 When the United States of America belonged to 
 England, they also had two exclusive Companies, 
 which they have since got rid of. We see that Ame- 
 rica, being free, has not submitted to such a scourge ; 
 that there every thing is free in^ fact as well as no- 
 minally, and that in the ideas of an American, liberty 
 and monopoly are no more consistent with each 
 other than independence and slavery. 
 
 Thus, there is a series of facts, and, we may say, 
 of experiments which have been tried, sufficient to 
 determine this question for ever. There is no getting 
 rid of evidence so clear as that which results from the 
 facts we have just exposed. Let them argue as long 
 as they please upon the consent and general practice 
 of all nations, the assent of facts is still more strong ; 
 it speaks louder, and is susceptible of but one inter- 
 pretation, without any extenuation, and without any 
 mistake. In ethics, universal assent is certainly in 
 some respects an irresistible argument ; but in politics, 
 and especially in commerce, it yields to facts, which 
 
THE COLONIES. 143 
 
 have far more weight : and they acquire a new force 
 from the consideration of the advantages that the li- 
 berty of commerce has always produced. If it is true, 
 that liberty, substituted for monopoly, would imme- 
 diately become every where a source of prosperity ; if 
 it is true that all that perished or languished under 
 exclusive commerce would have flourished in a free 
 trade, it will be clearly demonstrated that of all ad- 
 ministrations monopoly is the worst as well as the 
 most odious. This comparison, and so to say, this coun- 
 ter proof, renders unnecessary any thing further on the 
 question; and with it we will finish the subject of 
 monopolies. For it has been proved by a series of 
 facts equally incontestable, since they have passed in 
 the sight of the whole world, that we may every 
 where date the prosperity of the Colonies, and their 
 rise from penury and weakness into opulence and 
 power, from the time that free trade was substituted 
 for monopoly. To avoid too long an enumeration, it 
 will be sufficient to quote Saint Domingo, and the 
 Spanish Colonies ; two examples upon a grand scale. 
 Until the year 1122, Saint Domingo was given up 
 to three exclusive Companies, which produced the 
 same disastrous effects there as they have done every 
 where else. The Colony was in want of every thing; 
 scarcely sent back any thing to the mother country, 
 and still remained almost unknown in the markets of 
 Europe ; but freedom of trade at length shone upon 
 this land, which waited only for that to raise herself 
 to dignity; immediately the face of every thing is 
 changed, and life and animation pervades the whole. 
 Europe learns at once the existence and fertility of a 
 country which fills every market with its produce, in 
 quantity inexhaustible, and in quality beyond com^* 
 
H4 THE COLONIES. 
 
 parison superior to that of the other Colonies. Iti^ 
 fact, the sugars of Saint Domingo soon had the pre* 
 ference in those markets of which England had en- 
 joyed the exclusive supply. The case has been the 
 same with all the other Colonies ; their history may 
 be told in a very few words: crushed under mono- 
 polies^ but prosperous and flourishing under an open 
 trade. Could it have been believed, that ignorance 
 of the principles of commerce, the neglect of govern* 
 ments towards their Colonies, and the avarice of spe- 
 culators, could have so combined as to produce so 
 odd a disposition of things as the grant to an indi- 
 vidual of a monopoly over an immense Colony, of 
 which the fertility and very existence is at stake, and 
 which on that account demands the most paternal 
 care ? This is, however, what we have seen, and this 
 act of madness belongs to the eighteenth century, 
 though suitable only to the darkness of the tenth. 
 Yes, we have seen in the last century a private indi- 
 vidual have the impudence to solicit for himself alone, 
 the exclusive monopoly of the trade to Louisiana, a 
 tract of many hundred leagues ; we have seen the go- 
 vernment have so little regard for itself and for the 
 Colony as to grant it to him. A complete ruin has 
 been the reward of his impudent temerity, as justice 
 and example required ; but that the Colony should be 
 the victim of it, as well as the mother country from 
 having received nothing from her Colony thus ren- 
 dered barren, is truly deplorable, and worthy the ani- 
 madversion of every age. 
 
 Until the year 1778, the Spanish Colonies were 
 tinder the yoke of a monopoly still more capricious, 
 and more complicated than any which have ever ex- 
 isted ; for it was not only personal, but also local, as 
 
THE GQLONIES. UB 
 
 it confined commerce and intercourse to certiain places^ 
 and certain persons. Thus, not content with having 
 excluded from the trade to America, one part of her 
 subjects, as well as stranger^ settled in Spain, and 
 supporting the languor of the Spanish commerce by 
 their activity ; not content with having limited the 
 number of trading vessels, with having regulated their 
 cargo, and time of setting sail, and finally, with hav- 
 ing interfered in every transaction between the mother 
 country and her Colonies in a way that nothing could 
 make its escape and suit its own convenience, go- 
 vernment had wished to fix the places which should 
 take any part in this trade ; and as if it had feared 
 that commerce should make too great a progress, or 
 that the Colonies should be too well supplied, it had 
 conceived the precious idea of confining to one port 
 the right of trading to the Spanish Colonies, and re- 
 ceiving the returns. Seville was at first this fortunate 
 mart ; but the harbour getting choked up, it was 
 moved to Cadiz, which, in fact, is a much better 
 situation. The rest of the Spanish Peninsula, though 
 encircled with ports inviting commerce, could not take 
 any part in its operations ; so that Spain imported 
 scarcely any thing from her Colonies, and sent out to 
 them but a very small quantity of her own produce ; 
 how could it have been otherwise, when to one man 
 alone was reserved the supply of these immense Co- 
 lonies, which would not have been overstocked if they 
 bad been supplied through a thousand channels? She 
 had the heart to continue this plan, as lucrative as it 
 was bright, for three hundred years ; and neither the 
 lessons of experience, her own poverty, or the ex- 
 ample of other nations, who by degrees had left off 
 the use of Companies and monopolies, had been able 
 
 L 
 
146 THE COLONIES. 
 
 to persuade her to relinquish this ruinous practice until 
 the year 1778, when at length freedom of trade was 
 granted to all the ports of the Peninsula, except Gui- 
 puscoa^ though still under such restrictions as showed 
 a grudge, or at least regret of the change. It was not 
 long before the effects appeared, as can be judged from 
 the following table : 
 
 Francs. 
 
 In 1778 the exports from Spain to 
 
 America amounted to 19,000,000 
 
 Returns to Spain 18,000,000 
 
 Duties 2,000,000 
 
 In 1778, ten years after this epoch, 
 the exports from Spain to America 
 
 amounted to 76,000,000 
 
 The returns to Spain 201,000,000 
 
 Duties J 5,000,000 
 
 The returns exceeding the exports by 125,000,000 
 
 So that after ten years, not of real freedom, but only 
 of its shadow, in spite of the shackles still subsisting, 
 and the natural slowness of the Spaniards, this im- 
 mense improvement took place. And it would have 
 been still greater, if it had not been for the wars in 
 which Spain has been latterly involved ; and would 
 have happened long since, if Spain had begun where 
 she has ended. Of what resources has she not de- 
 prived herself? Of what riches has she not deprived 
 the whole world, a necessary co-partner in that pro- 
 duce which has remained so long buried by a blind 
 attachment to customs for which no reasonable motive 
 can be founds and which, originating in error, have 
 been brought forth in calamity r Reason falls before 
 the prolongation of this injurious delirium, which, on 
 account of the injury that it has done, calls instantly 
 
 V 
 
THE COLONIES. W 
 
 for examination, and its natural consequence, reform ; 
 for we cannot suppose that men with their eyes opened 
 to their interests would voluntarily persist in a course 
 which hurts them, and that they would not endeavour 
 to free themselves as soon as possible from a situation 
 which a most fatal experience has shown to be dia- 
 metrically contrary to those very interests. 
 
 We have, without doubt, sufficiently proved our 
 assertion, that a change from monopoly to freedom of 
 commerce has always been the means of prosperity : 
 so that we could not add to the two examples which 
 we have just stated, without running the risk of weak- 
 ening their force. 
 
 In vain have we sought, in vain must we seek, the 
 motive for the favour which Companies and mo- 
 nopolies have enjoyed ; not a single plausible reason 
 suggests itself. Could it be the riches of these asso- 
 ciations? But if the commerce which they engaged 
 in was in itself lucrative, could they think that specu- 
 lators and capital would ever be wanting ? Has any 
 branch of commerce been deserted or rejected ? If 
 any parts of the trade are beyond the means of any 
 particular individuals, would they not understand how 
 to unite and form themselves into voluntary asso- 
 ciations, as well as they understand how to form them- 
 selves into exclusive Companies ? For any thing that 
 can be gained, this is sufficient ; the genius of com- 
 merce will do the rest. Is it wisdom that has been 
 looked for from these Companies ? But the answer of 
 Labourdonnaye applies to every Company as well as 
 to that of India ; when this company. Comparing 
 with sorrow the respective condition of each of their 
 affairs, reproached him on account of it ; "I have 
 managed your affairs according to your instructions," 
 
 L 2 
 
us THE COLONIES. 
 
 answered this great man, " niy own according to my 
 judgment.". This speech says every thing; it con- 
 tains the history of all these so much boasted in- 
 stitutions. 
 
 Moreover, it is not the whole Company, that is, the 
 aggregate number of persons concerned in it, who 
 have the management of the affairs, but only a certain 
 number of directors chosen by them, almost always 
 by those means which constantly prevail in every 
 association. The subaltern agents never act with the 
 same zeal and economy as those of private persons, 
 because they are less watched, and are less under the 
 direction of those whose affairs they manage, and 
 always partake a little of those ideas of dissipation and 
 luxury which are generally attached to great institu- 
 tions. They too often derive their taste and inclina- 
 tion for them from these Companies themselves, which 
 are, almost every where, ostentatious in their esta- 
 blishments, as if their outward splendour was the proof 
 of the inward condition of their affairs, and as though 
 e^^ternal brilliancy was a solid foundation in commer- 
 cial matters ; appearances may serve for some time to 
 make dupes, but ere long every thing is discovered, 
 and all falls to pieces. The expenses, moreover, of 
 establishments and management absorb part of their 
 funds and produce ; so that almost every Company, on 
 its dissolution, only leaves its moveables, and the in^ 
 ventory of its effects contains no other property than 
 that, which, among the English shepherds, has been 
 the origin of a proverb well known in England. 
 
 If Companies could be tolerated under any circum- 
 stances, it could be only for that kind of commerce, 
 the seat of which is placed in countries very distant 
 from Europe, and separated from it by a great dif. 
 
THE COLONIES. 149 
 
 ference in manners, language, and customs, which, 
 bearing no affinity to Europe, require a particular 
 knowledge in the trading agents for forming connec- 
 tions with the natives of the country, and for the 
 choice and sortment of merchandise, both in buying 
 and selHng. This trade being very expensive, owing 
 to the distance delaying the returns, and to the value 
 of the cargoes being great, as no others would pay for 
 their carriage, requires an advance of capital which 
 private individuals are not able to make, and therefore 
 mihtates in favour of Companies. This, without 
 doubt, is the most plausible reason which can be 
 urged for them, but yet these motives are far from 
 being sufficient ; for private persons, united together 
 voluntarily, and without any exclusive privileges, would 
 have equal success, and results exactly the same. On 
 the first discovery of India, when this country and its 
 manners were entirely new to Europe, there was a 
 necessity for associations, whose exertions and risks 
 should be indemnified by a monopoly ; but now that 
 usage and acquaintance with the country have rendered 
 us familiar with this commerce, acquainted with all its 
 particulars, the necessity for monopolies has ceased on 
 the progress of that knowledge, the want of which had 
 rendered it expedient to establish them ; and there 
 cannot be the slightest reason for retaining them now, 
 when the substitute offers itself on every side. In 
 vain do they insist upon the example of England, and 
 the prosperity of her India Company; it depends en- 
 tirely upon other causes than the monopoly. 
 
 The principal are ; first, the national superiority at 
 ■sea, which protects the navigation of the Company, 
 and renders it secure from those accidents to which 
 the navigation of other Companies would be exposed. 
 
150 THE COLONIES. 
 
 Secondly, the sovereignty over opulent countries, the 
 revenues of which belong to the Company : in fact, 
 the English Company enjoys these two great advan- 
 tages exclusively, for they are possessed by the Com- 
 panies of no other nations ; there is nothing there 
 which could give them equal support and secu- 
 rity. But these advantages are not personal ; they 
 are caused, in fact, by the government, and would 
 not subsist the less if the Company was dissolved. If 
 the nation grants to it the sovereignty, and protects it 
 at once by sea and land, we must not ascribe to the 
 Company those resources which do not belong to it, 
 nor suppose it to be the cause of that, of which it is 
 only the object. Sovereignty could be exercised by the 
 nation in the same manner as it is by the Company ; 
 the army, the courts of justice, and the other attri- 
 butes of sovereignty, could be under the direct juris- 
 diction of the English Government, as they now are 
 indirectly under that of the Company. The only 
 thing for which it appears more necessary is, on ac- 
 count of the trade; yet stillit is easy to conceive, that 
 in a country so rich and enlightened as England, suf- 
 ficient capital and information could now be found to 
 accomplish this object with the same success that has 
 attended the Company. Its own servants, for the 
 most part very conversant in the knowledge required 
 for this trade, would be the first persons concerned 
 and engaged under another system. Experience alone 
 can prove this conjecture to be false, and unfortu- 
 nately it is yet to be made. If, together with the 
 dissolution of the Company, it would occasion the loss 
 of that transmission of knowledge which is the pro- 
 perty of Corporations, the removal of those evils which 
 also attend them would make ample amends. More- 
 
THE COLONIES. 151 
 
 over, we see the principles of commerce wandering or 
 lost in the hands of individuals. Interest and neces- 
 sity are two faithful trustees, that always go together, 
 and are far hetter than those of exclusive commerce. 
 To speak the truth, the English India Company is not 
 a simple trading Company ; it is one of the arms that 
 the potency of England stretches over Asia ; it is co- 
 sovereign with England itself, and a part of the very 
 power which protects it. The Company, in this kind 
 of half-sovereignty which it exercises over vast tracts 
 of land, and many millions of men, presents an ex- 
 ample unique in the annals of the worlds and a phe- 
 nomenon which cannot be too much wondered at : if 
 England was to take the place of the Company, she 
 would only take back that which she has granted, and 
 by this recall of her power to herself, she would render 
 that single which is now double ; and would go on as 
 well in this new method, as she does in that which she 
 now pursues. 
 
 The French India Company, instead of giving as- 
 sistance to this kind of administration, has on the con- 
 trary been an obstruction to it; for without taking no- 
 tice of the unfortunate end it has twice had, we may 
 very fairly call to mind the opposition it has always 
 met with in the nation, the immense expense it has 
 occasioned, and the inextricable embarrassments in 
 which it has never ceased to involve the ministry. It 
 was as domineering at Versailles as at Pondicherry, to- 
 wards the government of France as towards her tribu- 
 taries, and as jealous of the ports of France as of those 
 of England. In some respects, the English Company 
 is the same : that also is a thorn to the government. 
 Thus Burke, in his eloquent and judicious Letters 
 upon the French Revolution, has not failed to remark 
 
15^ THE COLONIES. 
 
 the weight with which this vast corporation presses 
 upon the government, and upon the constitution it- 
 self. 
 
 The laws and the decrees which have been extorted 
 from the government by the French India Company, 
 or have been voluntarily granted to it, form an im- 
 mense collection, with which a head, the nlost used 
 to business, could not help being confused : it is a maze, 
 as ridiculous now as it was then inextricable. Go^ 
 vernment would not have experienced any of these 
 evils, if this branch of commerce, like every other, 
 had been carried on by private persons ; it would have 
 been as great a gainer in tranquillity, as the trade it- 
 self would have have been a gainer in extension, in se- 
 curity, and in riches. *'^^^ V- 
 
 Thus the argument for monopolies, drawn from the 
 trade to India, the last resource of this system, is far 
 from being beyond a doubt. It is even probable, that 
 if seriously examined, it would turn to their condem- 
 nation ; and consequently there now remains nothing 
 which can be urged in favour of this system, wliich 
 universal practice has caused to be abandoned, in the 
 same manner that universal practice caused it to be 
 adopted. Let us hope that the sad recollections it 
 has left in the memory of men will prevent them from 
 ever reviving it. * 
 
 % 
 
THE COLONIES. 153 
 
 A Brit 0-]? ^ ;^r^ '^^■irm : 
 
 ■ ii 
 CHAP, XI. 
 
 Of the excluswe Trade of Mother Countries with 
 their Colonies. 
 
 JiiVERY mother country has monopolized the trade 
 with her Colonies. To be the only people who sell to 
 them or buy of them, the only people who supply them, 
 and the only sellers of their produce, has been the sys- 
 tem conceived by Europe, and followed by every 
 mother country to secure to herself the advantages of 
 the possession of her Colonies. 
 
 This idea escaped the ancients, among whom we 
 never «aw Tyre or Athens compel Carthage, Boetica, 
 (Syracuse, or the coasts of Magna Grecia, or of Asia 
 Minor, to clothe themselves only with their manufac- 
 tures, and to send their produce only to their ware- 
 houses. An ancient colony was left to follow the bent 
 of its interest, and we have not seen that the mother 
 countries and Colonies lost any thing by so doing. 
 History does not show that the freedom of trade en- 
 joyed by Carthage and Marseilles impoverished Phoe- 
 nicia or Greece ; on the contrary, it shows that they 
 were favourable to the prosperity which this freedom 
 of trade produced in their Colonies. We can then op- 
 pose the authority of ancient examples to the exam- 
 ple of the moderns; and if the question is to be decided 
 by authorities, that of people so much enlightened, 
 would weigh quite as heavy as that of people ignorant 
 
154 THE COLONIES. 
 
 of commerce and its principles; for such were the Eu- 
 ropeans at the time of the discovery and settlement of 
 their Colonies. Descendants of the barbarians, who 
 for 900 years ravaged Europe, governed by the laws of 
 these rovers, who were acquainted with nothing but 
 fire and pillage, the inhabitants of Europe lived in the 
 most profound ignorance of the principles of society, 
 especially relative to commerce. At this epoch, the 
 end of the fifteenth century, Europe was barbarous in 
 its laws, civil and political, and especially in those of 
 finance; it is not long since light shone upon these 
 matters, and many others are still but very little re- 
 moved fi-om darkness. The Europeans suddenly 
 found themselves in the possession of immense coun- 
 tries, the customs and constitution of which they were 
 entirely ignorant of; they were surprised, one may 
 say, with the extent of their riches ; and as becoming 
 richer did not make them more enlightened, they be- 
 gan to manage their Colonies in the same way they 
 managed their territories in Europe. Between the 
 European nations, at that time, there was every where 
 a barrier and division, not any communication, hatred 
 and perpetual war. They carried to their Colonies the 
 system which prevailed in Europe, and established 
 monopolies and exclusion there, because they had been 
 established at home. At that time all trade and in- 
 dustry rested upon these two excellents pivots : for 
 nothing further was known. A King of England had 
 caused the teeth of a Yorkshire Jew to be drawn for 
 the purpose of drawing from him some money. At 
 that time all money business was transacted by the 
 Lombards, Jews, and other usurers, who were alter- 
 nately banished and recalled; they are the predecessors 
 of that herd of money-dealers, who have largely drawn 
 
THE COLONIES. 151 
 
 the teeth of the people, fallen under their heavy hand, 
 and who have almost all ended in having the same 
 protector. Law. The art of gaining money honestly 
 and in abundance, and of gaining it abundantly be- 
 cause gained honestly, was not then known, and has 
 not yet much passed beyond the Straits of Calais, at 
 the time of the establishment of the settlements in the 
 Colonies, which was in the reign of Henry VIII, and 
 of Elizabeth. England, which is become the land of 
 finance, as well as liberty, had not the slightest know- 
 ledge of the principles of the science of finance. Fran- 
 cis I was a great restorer of learning, but not at all of 
 finance; and Charles V, and his son Philip II, had no 
 other financial secret than that of dying of hunger, po- 
 litically speaking, with the treasures of America still 
 untouched. 
 
 So that, in order to judge properly of the establish- 
 ment of colonial monopoly, it is necessary to take no- 
 tice of the time when they were established; it is not, as 
 has been generally thought, the result of calculation or of 
 system, but simply the eifect of the ignorance in which 
 those by whom it was established were living. As 
 men are always more ready for action than for reflec- 
 tion; as their idleness induces them to prefer continu- 
 ing in an old track to examining a new one, they have 
 transplanted to their Colonies that which existed at 
 home, and they have never endeavoured to do more 
 for them than they were doing for themselves ; and as 
 each had done as much for themselves at home, the 
 Colonies were laid under a general law of monopoly, 
 the nature and effects of which we must now ex- 
 amine. 
 
 When the barriers which were raised between every 
 state, and between the members of the same state, had 
 
' \Be THE COLONIES. 
 
 made Europe, by bristling it with toll-houses and 
 custom-houses, what Paris was on the day of the bar- 
 ricadoes ; when all the science of government was li- 
 mited to stretching chains across the avenues to each 
 dity and each state, was Europe in a more flourishing 
 condition? Certainly not. Fromwhat time must we date 
 its new life and new opulence? It is from the time that^' 
 portcullises and drawbridges having been nearly every 
 where knocked down, nations have been taught to know* 
 one another, and to communicate their information and 
 their riches, so as to form one common stock, from 
 which every one has the power of drawing according 
 to the degree of his industry and labour. In this me-i 
 thod, London has caused Paris to flourish, and Paris 
 has caused London ; Hamburgh has given life to Ca- 
 diz, and Cadiz has done the same for Hamburgh ; aH 
 have been connected, and all have prospered. Let us 
 apply these principles to Colonies: what are Colonies? 
 They are fields of cultivation without manufactories for 
 their produce, having to receive from Europe the ar- 
 ticles of their consumption in exchange for their pro-* 
 ductions. Consequently the cheaper they obtain these 
 articles, so much the more can they increase their 
 means of cultivation and consumption. The colonist, 
 who can buy of other persons for ten pounds that 
 which he cannot get from the merchants of the mother 
 country under twenty pounds, has, in the former case, 
 ten pounds to add to cultivation and to his consump- 
 tion, which are taken from him in the second. Low 
 prices tend, in themselves, to the increase of consump- 
 tion and of cultivation. Since sugar has been reduced 
 to the price of two shillings the pound, 26,000^000 in 
 France consume more of it, than the 42,000,000 of 
 subjects of the French empire did, when this same af- 
 
THE COLONIES. 157 
 
 tide cost six shillings the pound. In the same man- 
 ner, at Mexico, the working of the mines increases or 
 decreases in proportion to the price at which the 
 miner obtains gunpowder and quicksilver. 
 
 Mother countries have established monopoly for the 
 treble purpose of strengthening their dominion, securing 
 their profits, and recovering the expenses of protection 
 and establishment which their Colonies put them to. 
 The possession of a Colony, as of an estate, is not al- 
 ways profitable ; for the expenses of establishment and 
 protection almost always exceed the profits of the sor 
 vereignty: those of commerce, or of private persons, 
 form no part of them. Thus St. Domingo, the Ha- 
 vannah, the Isle of Bourbon, and the Philippine Islands, 
 cost much more than they yield by the revenues re- 
 sulting from the sovereignty, such as those taxes 
 which affect the land, or those which are commonly 
 dialled indirect taxes. But the mistake of the mother 
 countries will appear evident in the treble object they 
 have proposed to themselves. 
 
 In the first place, monopoly, far from contributing 
 to the strength of the dominion of the mother country, 
 is the very thing which renders the colonists and all fo- 
 reigners itS; enemies: the former are always ready to 
 make themselves independent of it, and the latter to 
 attack it. 
 
 The colonist feels his chains doubled by monopoly ; 
 for h^ is not only under the government of the mother 
 country, but is also under that of each of her inhabi-r 
 tants, as being his exclusive tradesman. He is de«. 
 prived of that right which nature has given to every 
 ^^n, of choosing his own tradesman and his own 
 articles. Monopoly assigns to him both the former 
 and the latter, without his consent, and against hit 
 
158 THE COLONIES. 
 
 wish ; and he is not able to free himself from this ob* 
 ligation : can there be any thing more capable of 
 making him hate the dominion of the mother country 
 than his feeling it press upon him with so heavy a 
 weight, and his being curbed by such laws ? And what 
 proves it incontrovertibly, is the violent contradiction 
 into which this capricious system forces the mother 
 countries that are the most jealous of their own mono- 
 poly, and renders them most indefatigable in infringing 
 that of others. Thus England, that entirely mono- 
 polizes her own Colonies, is incessantly endeavouring 
 to infringe those of other nations, by sending her 
 manufactures into their Colonies. Ever since there 
 have been Spanish Colonies, she has never ceased to 
 undermine their exclusive system ; she engaged in the 
 war of 1740, in support of her smugglers. In the 
 twenty-five last years she has done still more ; for she 
 has rendered every place independent, or assisted it to 
 make itself independent, on condition that the mono- 
 poly, as against her, should be abolished : what else 
 has she been doing for these last ten years on the river 
 Plate, and on the whole coast of South America ? 
 
 The exclusive system confines the Colonists to cul- 
 tivate without the power of disposing of their produce. 
 It is certainly a most singular system, and cannot be 
 sustained, except under two suppositions, equally im- 
 possible ; those are, a perfect equality in the colonial 
 possessions of the Europeans, as also in their industry 
 and capital. In these two cases, commerce being per- 
 fectly equal, the Colonies would find no more advan- 
 tage in the trade with strangers than in that with their 
 mother countries ; but as such a supposition is as far 
 from reality as possibility, this system necessarily car- 
 ries in itself the principle of its own destructioHj 
 
THE COLONIES. . 159 
 
 which, on other accounts, is for the interest of the 
 whole world. The Europeans being very unequally 
 possessed of Colonies, and industry and capital being 
 very unequally distributed among them, there neces- 
 sarily follows an inequality in commerce, which carries 
 him who has the superiority to that place where he 
 will have the advantage over a competitor who is in- 
 ferior to him, and which, in like manner, leads the 
 consumer to him who offers the best bargain and the 
 best commodities. But see the conflict monopoly at 
 once causes in the Colonies. The people who have 
 the superiority in commerce present themselves there 
 with every advantage they possess ; the Colonists, on 
 their side, invite them with all their wishes ; the mo- 
 ther countries alone stand opposed to all the rest. 
 Moreover, the European Colonies lying very inter- 
 mixed in their geographical situation, their proximity, 
 or, if we might say so, their juxta-position, affords 
 great assistance to illegal intercourse ; it invites it, and 
 it favours it in every manner. Over coasts of an im- 
 mense extent, such as those of Spanish America, no 
 watch can be kept sufficient to maintain an exclusion, 
 embracing so great a surface. Monopoly, far then from 
 strengthening the dominion of the mother country, 
 establishes and keeps up a continual state of war be- 
 tween it and the Colony, as much at home as abroad, 
 and occasions a continual wish for independence. If 
 a free trade was substituted for the exclusive one, and 
 if commerce might be carried on with all the Colonies 
 of a country as it is with its provinces in Europe, these 
 motives of separation would immediately cease. There 
 are few other real motives for a Colony to desire a 
 separation from its mother country, and strangers 
 would have no more interest in separating them. If 
 
 
jeo THE COLONIES. 
 
 Spanish America was open to all the flags of Europe, 
 it would sigh less for independence, and those who 
 wish to establish it would have fewer pretensions to 
 avail themselves of against a mother country, which 
 did not thwart them in the gratification of their most 
 essential wants. For we must not deceive ourselves 
 on the subject ; it is much less against the sovereignty 
 of Spain than against the monopoly of Cadiz, that 
 America has taken up arms ; and it is because the 
 sovereignty of the one never presents itself but as sup- 
 ported by the monopoly of the other, that America has 
 the same dislike of both, and at once rejects them as 
 the cause and the effect. 
 
 The first object^ then, which the mother countries 
 have proposed, in the establishment of monopoly, has 
 not been realized. 
 
 While they endeavour to secure to themselves the 
 profits of their Colonies, they ought not to throw out 
 of their consideration the prosperity of these very 
 Colonies, and they should calculate whether these Co- 
 lonies, if rendered more thriving by being left to 
 themselves, would not yield as much and still more 
 than when they are shut up, and on that very account 
 less prosperous. A simple calculation would solve this 
 problem : it is reduced to the knowing whether the 
 Colonist would produce more under a monopoly than 
 under a free trade. If the Colonist, under a mono- 
 poly, produces commodities of the value of 10,000/. 
 and draws from the mother country, in articles of 
 consumption and of manufacture, but 5,000/. in 
 what would the mother country be a loser, if the for- 
 tune of the Colonist was improved by a free trade, 
 so much as to enable him to import to the mother 
 country to the amount of 15,000/. and to export 
 1 
 
THE COLONIES. 161 
 
 from it to the amount of 10,000 j3ounds ? How would 
 it be injured by this change? But can we have the 
 least doubt of its producing this effect, and of its 
 adding infinitely to the wealth of the Colonist the very 
 moment it should be made ? Has not Martinico 
 twice owed her riclies toher release from the monopoly 
 of the mother country, and to the substitution of the 
 English and neutral commerce, which took place in 
 the wars of 1756, and in those of the revolution? 
 Who can doubt that the Colonies, with the freedom of 
 choosing their instruments of agriculture, their clothes, 
 and their provisions, wherever a cheap market and 
 good commodities invited them, would not find in this 
 freedom of choice the means of producing still more, 
 and still more enriching themselves than they can do 
 when they are able to go only to one market, and to 
 monopolists forced upon them ? That is the great dis- 
 pute always existing between the Colonies and the 
 mother country : the latter does nothing but drain her 
 Colonies, and honestly thinks she renders them pros- 
 perous at the very time she is preventing them from 
 becoming so. It seems never to have been understood 
 that when the Colonist is richest, he will neces- 
 sarily consume most, and that his demands on the 
 mother country will be in proportion to the riches 
 arising from the free scope of his industry; as we ob- 
 serve in the states of Europe, which always take the 
 produce of their neighbours in proportion to their 
 own internal prosperity: it is the same with the Colo- 
 nies. Leave the Colonist to the free choice of the 
 means of augmenting his fortune, and you will see 
 that he will consume a greater quantity of the wines 
 of Bourdeaux, and stuffs of French manufacture, and 
 of every article which industry creates, either for ne- 
 
 M 
 
163 THE COLONIES. 
 
 cessity or for luxury. The laws of motion have been 
 established with respect to riches and happiness among 
 the interests of men^ as among physical bodies, no one 
 of which can be displaced without the rebound being 
 felt along the whole extent of the chain which nature 
 has formed between them, to unite, and not to bind 
 them, as has been nearly every where done. 
 
 The calculation of the mother countries, in the 
 establishment of exclusive trade, has not been more 
 happy in the second object they proposed than in the 
 first. 
 
 The same reasons have also deprived them of the 
 advantages which they hoped to receive from the 
 third. 
 
 Monopoly, by obstructing the complete develope* 
 ment of the powers of the Colonies, is an obstruc- 
 tion to their wealth, on which account the mother 
 countries have been able to derive much less from them, 
 than they would have done under a system which 
 should not carry with it the same causes of sterility : 
 we prosper only among the rich, we impoverish our- 
 selves among the poor. If Colonies which are open 
 possess riches double or treble those of Colonies which 
 are shut up, as cannot be doubted, the mother countries, 
 in drawing upon a fund double or treble in value, 
 would have at their disposal twice or three times the 
 wealth. We must always go back to first principles : 
 what are the means by which a Colony grows rich ? 
 Exclusive trade, or free trade ? Colonies and mother 
 countries have both an equal interest in the solution 
 of this problem. If the Colony is impoverished, the 
 mother country suffers; if the former prospers, the 
 latter partakes of its prosperity : such is the law of 
 their union, which nothing can or ever will be able tCK 
 
THE COLONIES 163 
 
 violate with impunity. The only thing, then, 13 to disr 
 cover which side of the question has the advantage. 
 If, before the revolution, St. Domingo, under an ex- 
 clusive trade, produced by taxes a revenue to the 
 mother country of 1 ,000,000 ; and if, with a free trade, 
 it would have produced 2,000,000 or 3,000,000, a$ 
 there is no doubt it would, was France guided by a 
 very sound judgment, when, in the choice of system 
 under which her Colony was to be managed, she pre- 
 ferred that which yielded only 1 ,000,000, to that which 
 would have yielded three or four times as much ? Tliis 
 is the solution of the problem ; apply it to all the Co- 
 lonies in the world ; add to which, that the mother 
 country, receiving two or three times as much more, 
 would be put to two or three times as much less ex- 
 pense ; for there is no system so expensive as that of 
 exclusion, and there is nothing cheaper than that of a 
 free trade. Exclusive trade requires armies of guards,] 
 of judges, of gaolers, and of executioners, while liberty y* 
 goes quite alone ; like truth, goes entirely naked. It \ 
 is truly deplorable to see societies of men spending 
 their money on their own fetters, and the best part of 
 their fortune going in the purchase of chains for them- 
 selves. Ignorance, with its usual attendant, prejudice, 
 has been the means of confusing so simple a thing; 
 and in this, as in many others, men have been em- 
 barrassed by a thoughtless choice, while a very little re- 
 flection would have extricated them from the difficulty. 
 We do violence to ourselves, and have overcome some 
 feelings of shame, in urging this examination; but 
 experience has shown us many men, who stand out 
 against violence, on whose minds it makes no more 
 impression than the light of the sun does on the eyes 
 of one who is blind : men confined to that track in. 
 
 M 2 
 
164 THE COLONIES. 
 
 which they have been placed, without knowing any 
 more of the way in than they do of the way out. It 
 has been our lot to meet sometimes with minds of this 
 sort, especially among the Colonists, people animated, 
 in other respects, with honorable sentiments, but into 
 whose head the first principles of colonial oeconomy 
 cannot enter, and who resist, with all their might, the 
 demonstration of the means by which they might 
 double their own wealth, as well as that of the Colony 
 to which they belong, and who would brand with the 
 name of Anti-colonist any one that attempted to raise 
 his income from 5,000/. to 10,000/., and perhaps 
 much more. 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 Sla'very in the Colonies. — Saint Domingo. 
 
 X HIS subject is an abyss ; its principle is horrible, 
 inasmuch as it is associated with the violation of all 
 the rights of humanity — with the violation of every 
 notion of justice. The celebrated Pitt has said that it 
 contains an enormous mass of vice and crime. The 
 consequences are frightful, and nevertheless they are 
 inevitable : the evil exists, it is fully established, it 
 threatens to spread wider every day : the principle 
 cannot be rooted out : it exists in fact and it is neces- 
 sary in itself: it cannot be tolerated without the most 
 serious inconvenience. Such is the labyrinth which 
 this formidable subject presents, and such is the un* 
 fortunate situation in which the Colonies^ peopled with 
 
THE COLONIES. 165 
 
 slaves, are placed, and, in turn, place the parent states, 
 by obliging them to participate in their danger. 
 
 Here, we feel the necessity of collecting all our 
 strength: speaking upon this subject, as we do, entirely 
 divested of all feelings of affection, of hatred, as well 
 as of all personal interest, should we notwithstanding 
 happen to offend the feelings and interests of many 
 persons, let it not be made a matter of charge against 
 us : we have no personal concern whatever in this 
 question ; every thing arises from the nature of the 
 subject. 
 
 One million six hundred thousand slaves inhabit 
 the Colonies among a population of l6o,000 whites, 
 and 150,000 men placed at different degrees from that 
 colour which is marked with the seal of slavery. 
 The first are the means by which the second carry on 
 their husbandry and acquire their riches. The latter 
 are deficient in the quality of strength which belongs 
 to the first, and which renders them alone fit for the 
 cultivation which cannot become fruitful but by their 
 hands, and which remains barren under all others. 
 The ancient population of the Colonies has entirely 
 perished, sinking under the weight of labours too dis- 
 proportionate to the feeble organization of their frames 
 to enable them to bear up against them. The labour 
 of the negro is therefore indispensable to the Colonies, 
 he is the necessary inhabitant of those countries. As 
 soon as Colonies are taken possession of, a choice 
 of two things must take place, negroes, or to abandon 
 the Colony. We could no more represent to our- 
 selves Saint Domingo without negroes, than Beauce or 
 Brie without ploughs. 
 
 . But if this principle of colonial existence and co- 
 lonial cultivation was indispensable, the consequences 
 
166 THE COLONIES. 
 
 in turn were inevitable. Let ns lay it down as a cer- 
 tainty, that nothing happens but what ought to happen, 
 and that a man gathers only according as he has sown; 
 but from the same seed which he may have taken by 
 chance and sown with his eyes shut, the most salutary 
 substance, and the most baleful poison may equally 
 spring up ; the gifts of Ceres, and the soldiers of 
 Cadmus : this is what has happened in the Colonies. 
 During 300 years nothing has been thought of but 
 collecting slaves. Riches, increasing from their labour> 
 have led to the increase of their number, as the 
 more slaves any man had, the more sugar had he also ; 
 and the more sugar the more slaves. — Such was the 
 snare. 
 
 Avarice, which is bad at calculation, never perceived 
 it; never reckoned any thing but hogsheads of sugar, 
 and forgot the nature of man and of things. The 
 hands that she destined to the cultivation of the sugar 
 fields, have dug in them graves and a bottomless 
 pit. As soon as that multitude of slaves were able 
 to reckon their own number they were masters, and 
 the former masters were undone ; indeed it was only 
 necessary for them to look about them to be convinced 
 of it. Enfranchisement therefore exists in the germ 
 in a state of slavery, as independence does in coloni- 
 zation. Collect together a quantity of slaves in num- 
 ber infinitely superior to their masters, and you will 
 have them enfranchised ; in the same manner as in 
 forming great Colonies you are forming indej^endent 
 states. The same principle acts equally in both cases, 
 but with still greater force in the former than in the 
 latter : for a man torn away from his country, from 
 his family, and his liberty, has wrongs of a far dif- 
 ferent kind to redress than the man who, although 
 
THE COLONIES. 167 
 
 placed under the government of the parent state, is 
 not however wounded in points so very essential. 
 
 The multiplication of negroes must of necessity 
 have led to such scenes as have taken place in the Co- 
 lonies for twenty years back. Rome had to contend 
 with her slaves ten times : Spartacus put the city 
 in danger; and yet these slaves were Romans like 
 their masters, or prisoners of war ; but not, like the 
 negroes, objects of traffic, torn from one continent 
 to cultivate another, for the profit of masters living 
 on a third : for such is the true state of colonial 
 slavery. It was therefore evident a long time ago, 
 that the accumulation of negroes would he the loss 
 of the Colonies, and that the first favourable oc- 
 casion for breaking their chains would be the last 
 hour of their carrying them. And what proves the 
 assertion in the most decided manner is, that the cruel 
 discovery took place precisely in that Colony which 
 was afflicted with the greatest black population. Saint 
 Domingo placed her glory in the number of the 
 slaves she could reckon up : what then was the conse- 
 quence ? It was the very thing that was working her 
 destruction ; her destiny was written in these two 
 words : 500,000 blacks, and 25,000 whites. It is of 
 no consequence for any one to say that this order of 
 things bad lasted 100 years. But 8aint Domingo did 
 not begin at first with 500 000 slaves, that number 
 was the successive progress of time ; it was therefore 
 in consequence of this order of things being old, that 
 it Was about to come to an end. Is it not necessary for 
 every thing to arrive at the period which is fixed for its 
 maturity ? What renders it secure is that it has been 
 deferred till the proper season. They who have made 
 slaves of negroes, and peopled the Colonies with those 
 
168 THE COLONIES. 
 
 slaves; they who have collected 500,000 slaves at 
 Saint Domingo, are the persons therefore who have 
 delivered it up to them ; in the same manner as they 
 who peopled the United States with 3,000,000 of men 
 are the very persons who have deprived England of 
 those states ; as they who have given 15,000,000 of 
 inhabitants to Spanish America have taken that coun- 
 try from Spain. 
 
 Certain individuals form a horrible institution for 
 their own profit : they place their fellow-creatures in 
 the most revolting situation : a combat immediately 
 commences between nature and that state: it cannot 
 be maintained but in iron and with iron. Ferocious 
 and tortured creatures are, in their turn, not sparing 
 of their outrages against their oppressors ; then it is 
 that those human butcheries take place, where death 
 is called in to the support of the reign of terror every 
 time they perceive themselves threatened : behold the 
 circle of horrors in which this whole question, worthy 
 the reign of darkness, turns. Be silent, cease your 
 inconsiderate accusations, which are only excusable 
 on account of those misfortunes which impel them 
 who suffer, to attack every one of those from whom 
 their sufferings come ; you who impute the disasters 
 of the Colonies, and the loss of your fortunes, to 
 those who are called friends of the blacks, (as if it 
 were necessary to^ have friends of the blacks, in order 
 to enable the slave to feel his misfortune, and to dis- 
 pose him to get rid of it, and to become free the very 
 moment that he could obtain Jiis freedom) do you 
 think he has ever renounced the rights which beholds 
 of nature and which are of a much more remote and 
 higher date than that of the day and hand from which 
 he became a slave ? Say if there never has been an 
 
THE COLONIES. 169 
 
 insurrection among those slaves before the time of the 
 Amis des Noirs, and have you never heard of the 
 councils contained in these insurrections? Nature 
 is more ancient than the Amis des Noirs, and has 
 no occasion for their assistance to enable them both to 
 feel and act. Do you think that Toussaint Louver- 
 ture and Christophe had any occasion to take lessons 
 in the school of Abbe Raynal ? I myself would lay 
 any wager, that his name and writings never reached 
 them. The Amis des Noirs have neither done all 
 the good, or all the evil, which have been imputed 
 to them. They have neither merited all the enco- 
 miums nor all the reproaches which have been heaped 
 upon them. If the language of some of them has 
 been fiery, have not those flames rather arisen from 
 the nature of the subject, than from their mouths ? 
 How is it possible to speak in cold blood of millions 
 of men stolen from their country — torn from all those 
 afl'ections which made existence dear — dragged over 
 the seas to be given up to toil and labour all their 
 lives, loaded with eternal hatred, as well they them- 
 selves, in their own persons, as the offspring which 
 interested calculation will allow them to beget ; and 
 all this to be employed in clearing the fields of 
 some man of whom they know nothing, who calls 
 himself their master, who enjoys the fruits of their la- 
 bour ; the colour of whose skin is sufficient to keep him 
 at an infinite distance from them ? For such are the 
 whole of his titles, and his entire merit. Wrong has 
 not been done by those who have seen this state of 
 things, and who have raised their voices against it, 
 but by those with whom it originated. Did they then 
 expect that it would never be noticed ? There are, in- 
 deed, a very strange kind of gentlemen in the world ! 
 5 
 
170 THE COLONIES. 
 
 They will deny themselves nothing which may happen 
 to please their fancies, or which may suit the purposes 
 of avarice or ambition ; and when one comes to remark 
 upon this state of things, and to redress it, they cry 
 out that they are not treated with sufficient respect. 
 You are cultivating your fields with tigers, and will 
 you not one day or other be devoured. You transport 
 Guinea to the Colonies, will it not one day or otherendea- 
 vour to become mistress in turn ? Inconsiderate men ! 
 it is of no use to start back at the sight of the fruit 
 which you have grafted ; you should have looked to 
 this before. 
 
 There are two principles which are incontestible : 
 the first is, that the Colonies cannot do without ne- 
 groes ; the second, that the Colonies cannot fail to 
 be swallowed up by negroes ; the time when has 
 nothing to do in the business ; sooner or later it must 
 hapi>en. Give me vast Colonies, covered with a po- 
 pulation of slaves, scattered in habitations at a distance 
 from the means of repression, and I will tell you, al- 
 most to the very hour, the day of their enfranchise- 
 ment. Virginia, Carolina, the Brazils, and St. Do- 
 mingo are similarly circumstanct^d; the last-mentioned 
 has already fulfilled its destiny, the others have expe- 
 rienced repeated attempts at insurrection within these 
 twenty years, all marked with the same seal — a bap- 
 tism of blood for the masters, a general enfranchise- 
 ment for the slaves. Colonies of small extent, and un- 
 der the protection of military establishments, such as 
 Martinique, St. Lucia, Barbadoes, and Antigua, are 
 less exposed; and, notwithstanding, many of these same 
 Colonies have experienced attempts similar to those 
 which we have cited. And as if the principle of dis- 
 order, originating with the negroes, was not sufficient 
 
THE COLONIES. 171 
 
 in itself, the mixed race happened to add to the em- 
 barrassments produced by the black population, and to 
 the dangers which threatened the existence of the 
 whites. Avidity has multiplied the number of the 
 blacks ; a voluptuousness, still more imperious in the 
 Colonies than in any other climate, has multiplied 
 those of mixed blood. The latter surpass the whites 
 in physical force, and the negroes in intellectual facul- 
 ties ; they participate at once the attributes of Europe 
 and of Africa. The mutual animosities of those kinds 
 of population is extreme : since the revolution, they 
 have not ceased to precipitate themselves, each party 
 in its turn, on to renew the scenes of brothers en- 
 gaged in hostilities with each other. When the negro 
 Toussaint Louverture appeared at the head of the slaves, 
 the mulatto Rigaud showed himself at the head of the 
 people of colour ; and since the negro Christophe has 
 sat down on the new throne of Hayti, the mulatto 
 Petion has raised himself to the command of another 
 part of that territory and of the population of the 
 island. The armies and fleets of the two competitors 
 are always in the presence of each other, and the rival- 
 ship of the two colours has troubled both sea and land, 
 the two elements upon which this rivalship displayed 
 itself. 
 
 Matters then have been so settled in the Colonies, as 
 to place power in the weakest hands ; that the negro, 
 forming almost the whole of the population, is made 
 the lowest step in the social ladder; and the white, who 
 hardly reckons in this population, occupies the first 
 place. The white is nothing in the Colonies but an 
 exception, and at the same time he is every thing. 
 Doubt, if you can, after this, if the Colonies can avoid 
 being subverted one day or other. It is proper to add, 
 
 2 
 
11 f THE COLONIES. 
 
 that slavery* is a tiling so very perverse of itself, that 
 it is as dangerous to speak of a remedy as of the evil 
 itself; that it is a state of things so very outrageous, 
 that as soon as one speaks of lightening the weight of 
 their chains, there is danger of seeing them broken, 
 and changed by ferocious and irritated hands into in- 
 struments of destruction. Could the genius of evil, 
 trying all his strength and wishing to torture mankind, 
 have been able to imagine any thing more inextri- 
 cable ?^_._,- — " '"'"'-r?"-^,,^ 
 
 This manner of viewing the question changes its 
 face altogether ; it clears, if we may use the expres- 
 sion, a vast field, by removing every thing with which 
 this question has been choked up by a crowd of idlers 
 or declaimers on the legitimacy of slavery, on the 
 faculties of the negroes and Europeans, compared to- 
 gether, and a thousand other fooleries of the same 
 kind, such as that vast tribe of weak or wrong headed 
 men always lay hold of, v^ho never touch a subject 
 but on its weak side, vague theories which belong 
 to every one else, as much as to themselves ; and 
 
 * By inquiring into the treatment which the slaves experienced 
 from the Colonists, we find that their state was better among the 
 Spaniards than the other Colonists: their condition rather approachied 
 that of domestics among Europeans. This humanity has met with 
 its recompense, for there have been fewer plots in the Spanish 
 islands than in any other. It is truly remarkable, that the Spaniard 
 who has exterminated all the ancient population of the Antilles and 
 a very great part of that of America, has treated the negroes in a 
 mild manner, and that the least advanced in civilization of all the 
 Europeans would have been their superiors in humanity. The 
 Erench come next after the Spaniards : slavery was more rigorous 
 among the English. 
 
 France possessed half of the black population of the Antilles^; 
 England possessed, at most, one third of that of France. 
 
THE COLONIES. 175 
 
 vyho always shun the strong hold of the argument, 
 in which consists the application and the ordinary 
 view. Every thing of this kind which has been 
 written is almost reducible to this question, namely, 
 Whether an inhabitant of London, Bourdeaux, or 
 Lisbon, has a right to go and seize men in Africa to 
 work at their sugar manufactories, between the tropics ? 
 Men must have a great deal of time to throw away, 
 who amuse themselves in proving, with M. de Bonald, 
 that the negroes are not in a state of slavery, and that 
 after all it is better to sell six men than to kill one* — 
 to establish, with M. Barre de St. Venant, that idle- 
 ness being the mother of all the vices, and the ne- 
 groes, of all men living, most tainted with and con- 
 victed of this most terrible failing, it is necessary to 
 transplant them to the Colonies, in order to cure them 
 of it; and that they who are habitually idle, not being 
 
 * Concerning Slavery among the Ancients and among the Moderns, 
 by M. de Bonald ; French Spectator of the Nineteenth Century ^ 
 page 259. 
 
 The same M. de Bonald has said, in page 6, of his Primitive 
 Legislation, published in 1802*: Absolute power is built on fixed 
 and fundamental laws, against which, says M. de Bossuet, every- 
 thing which any one may do, is in itself null. 
 
 In 1807, the same gentleman said, page 34?8, Vol. xxix. of the 
 Mercury. Every society, or every power, well constituted ; that 
 is to say, founded on natural, reasonable, legitimate laws, ought to 
 be, and in fact is, independent of men, and consequently absolute; 
 for if good sense, according to M. de Bossuet, is master of things, 
 reason should be queen of the world. Wherefore, one may say, the 
 reason of power is the power of reason, and power should meet with 
 no opposition ; for, to speak philosophically, where would be the 
 reason of opposing reason ? 
 
 And a few lines lower down: It must he confessed that this 
 scheme of policy is not that of false philosophy, — and still less that of 
 good sense. 
 
174 THE COLONIES. 
 
 of themselves sufficiently disposed to resign themselves 
 up to those expurgatory labours, the constraint which 
 is applied on those occasions is considered in itself the 
 most lawful thing in the world, and the most salutary 
 with respect to the persons to whom it is applied. 
 Behold, according to the luminous and humane prin- 
 ciples of M. de Barre, all nations possessed of the 
 right of inforcing mutual transportation, until they 
 shall all have attained the highest possible degree of 
 activity and labour. Should ever those principles come 
 to prevail, the Spaniards, and other nations who wor- 
 ship indolence, the favourite goddess of their climates, 
 are directly threatened. The black population amounts 
 in the entire European Colonies of the Antilles to 
 1,600,000 men, that of the mulattoes to 300,000 : the 
 first is distributed in such a manner as to be most 
 numerous where the white population is the least. 
 St. Domingo, for instance, reckoned but 25,000 whites 
 amidst a population of 500,000 blacks. All the Colo- 
 nies of the Antilles are in the same state. This reU* 
 tive superiority, by diminishing the means of defence 
 and repression, redoubles the dangers of the inhabi- 
 tants of those countries. For which reason they have 
 been the theatres of the first great excesses. The ne- 
 groes of the United States, V>eing spread through a 
 great white population, are much less dangerous, and 
 can be brought into a state of subjection much more 
 easily. This distinction between the different shades 
 of colour is the key of all colonial questions. 
 
 Slavery having become the condition of an infinite 
 number of individuals, and being very important on 
 account of its influence upon cultivation and com- 
 merce, and very dangerous by the consequences re- 
 sulting from the strength o^ the black population ; 
 
THE OOLONIEa 175 
 
 slavery, we repeat, could not fail to become an object 
 of most serious consideration with such men in all 
 countries as can see and reflect, as well as a subject of 
 great attention with governments who have to direct 
 the movements of such great and complicated machines 
 as they preside over. For which reasons both those 
 descriptions of men have for half a century past been 
 much taken up with the subject of slavery : the first 
 have written a great deal ; the others have groped 
 about a great deal ; but both have equally laboured in 
 vain, because so perverse is the nature of the question 
 that to raise it is to destroy it ; to touch it is to spoil it. 
 The evil cannot here be separated from the remedy; 
 and, like an invenomed wound, to lay hands on it is to 
 excite an irritation. Reason finds the evil to exist in 
 the very essence of slavery ; it is so bad in itself, so 
 heavy for those who lie under it^ that they have and 
 can have but one way of viewing it, that is with hor- 
 ror ; and but one desire, namely, that of being freed 
 from it. It is not the same with him who has nothing 
 more than to speak about it, as with the person who 
 has to endure slavery. The subtilties, the balancing 
 of interests, the measures of prudence which may 
 occupy or strike Europeans, quietly discussing the sub- 
 ject of slavery in a state of freedom, are nothing to 
 the slave : he suffers, and of course he exerts himself 
 with all his force to put an end to his sufferings. He 
 hears of a change, of an end to be put to it ; he, who 
 understands nothing of all those contrivances, sees 
 nothing in them but his freedom ; because a negro, 
 hke other men, is not inclined to believe but as far as 
 he wishes and as far as he has occasion to see realized. 
 He hears something said about bettering his condition ; 
 he interprets this report as the signal of weakness or 
 
176 THE COLONIES. 
 
 of fear in his master. He magnifies the object^ hef 
 adds to the urgency, he sighs after the result, he 
 wrests every proceeding which has the same tendency 
 jfrdrri its natural meaning to the meaning which he 
 chooses to give it, and consequently to that which is 
 most dangerous. Have we seen any thing else since 
 the commencement of the troubles? And in these 
 latter times, has not the conspiracy in Barbados 
 arisen from the circumstance of the registering of the 
 negroes in that island being represented to them as 
 the signal of approaching enfranchisement ? We may 
 be well assured that there exists but one question with 
 the negro, and among the negroes but one thought 
 alone, namely, slavery. Shall I continue in a state of 
 slavery ? This is the only thought which occupies the 
 negro's mind during his whole life, and it is by show- 
 ing his chains that he answers them who talk to him of 
 their rights and of his happiness. This state is so re- 
 volting that intentions the most generous and the most 
 pure, as well as the most prudent views, cannot be al- 
 ways separable from an appearance of imprudence, 
 that, though highly commendable in their principle, 
 they may have become fatal in their results, and the 
 authors of them have not been able to escape from the 
 animadversion of the Colonists. Pitt, adored in Eng- 
 land, was an object of horror in the English Antilles, 
 for haying taken the lead in many measure relative 
 to the negroes ; and Mr. Wilberforce is not much less 
 hated at Jamaica or Barbados, than Brissot was at 
 St. Domingo. At this very moment, the English Co- 
 lonists are hurling the most determined defiance 
 against the Methodists, and the other associations, 
 whether religious or civil, that give themselves any con- 
 cern about slavery. 
 
THE COLONIES. 177 
 
 There is right on both sides and from the same rea- 
 son — the nature of slavery, which most justly excites 
 the horror of one party, and which at the same time 
 cannot be discussed without the greatest inconvenience 
 to the other ; for as soon as the fatal question is start- 
 ed, every Colonist sees his life and fortune exposed ; 
 and notwithstanding it is that which immediately pre- 
 sents itself to the negro at the very onset, who will 
 not suffer his thoughts to wander from the subject and 
 then to the owners of the Colonies, for that state is 
 the primitive question of all Colonial organization. 
 The Constituent Assembly could not get rid of the 
 subject ; Napoleon was brought back to it when he 
 sent General Leclerc to 8t. Domingo. It presents 
 itself incessantly, and every where will prove the 
 torture of all persons who will have any thing to do 
 with the Colonies, and it not only includes the Colo- 
 nists and slaves as separate individuals living in pre- 
 sence of each other, but more it concerns the whole 
 body of all the nations which enjoy colonial posses- 
 sions ; because it is a state question, the discussion of 
 which is not confined to those to whom it may locally 
 apply, but it extends also to all those who find them- 
 selves on the same line of position and interests. 
 Slavery is by its nature such that it cannot be abo- 
 lished by one and maintained by the others without 
 the greatest inconvenience to these last ; for it is a 
 principle which does not bear two different decisions or 
 two different applications : slavery cannot be abolished 
 in this place and maintained in that, without the part 
 where it is maintained being affected by the example 
 of that where it is abolished. The cause is common, 
 the result should be so likewise. For instance, when 
 Denmark abolished, in 179^, not only the carrying 
 
178 THE COLONIIla 
 
 trade, but slavery altogether, by fixing the epocli of 
 this double abolition to commence after a period of 
 twelve years, she arrogated to herself the right of 
 taking an initiative of the most dangerous and illegi- 
 timate nature. A nation whose colonial possessions 
 were very circumscribed, and, consequently, by no 
 means rich in slaves, might without any inconvenience 
 to herself give them their liberty, reserving to herself 
 the means of keeping them under other restraint. That 
 nation might act thus in remote seas, in possessions 
 quite insulated from Colonies belonging to other na- 
 tions; but it could not do it in the midst of large 
 European Colonies covered with slaves, because that 
 being a complex act — being at once from authority 
 and example of a political and moral nature, the latter 
 part does not belong to that nation alone : the ex- 
 ample being susceptible of a general application, and 
 prejudicial to a great number of interested persons, 
 may consequently extend the sphere of its action to 
 neighbours v^rho have not been consulted, whose rights 
 ought to be respected, and whose interests ought to b« 
 so much the more attended to, inasmuch as they, com* 
 paratively speaking, are much more extended than those 
 of the nation from which the action proceeds which 
 establishes such a precedent. These acts are reduci- 
 ble and analogous to the laws of vicinage or neigh- 
 bourhood, from which it is not allowable to deviate. 
 A man is perfectly at liberty to form a body of doc- 
 trines and principles subversive of the society in which 
 he lives. As long as he confines them within his own 
 breast, or within his own house, that society has no 
 right to know any thing of them ; but as soon as he 
 propagates them, he is amenable to its jurisdiction, 
 as being an interested party, and susceptible of feeling 
 
THE COLONIES. 179 
 
 the effects. A man could not possess the horrible 
 right of giving himself the plague in any place ; but 
 still less so in the centre of inhabited places, because 
 every thing which is expansive by nature falls under 
 the jurisdiction of society at large, whose right and 
 duty it is to attend to the effects of communication, of 
 whatever nature it may be. That of an example 
 having the same results is subject to the same laws. 
 That the example is confined to a limited or extended 
 object is a matter of indifference, for it is not by its 
 bulk that we should value it, but its expansive quaHty. 
 The precedent being of a moral nature stretches to 
 every possible degree of extension^ because morality 
 does not derive its attributes from usage but from its 
 principle, which in quality of principle knows ho 
 limitation. 
 
 The enfranchisement pronounced by Denmark 
 was directly applicable to her own slaves alone : 
 but from the example its influence was reflected 
 on those of all the Colonies ; and it could not be lost 
 upon them : it became the subject of their reflexions, 
 the object of their thoughts, the end of all their 
 wishes. That law, from its coincidence yvith the ideas 
 relative to the blacks, acquired from that circumstance 
 new tone and danger. Slavery being an object of 
 common interest, it consequently followed, that it did 
 not belong to the party least interested to take a dan- 
 gerous initiative, and that the example which it might 
 give, without any danger to itself, or any personal 
 inconvenience, might be very injurious to those who 
 were in a different situation, from the number of their 
 slaves ; but, in a similar one, as to the principle of 
 slavery. She should have stopped at the view of such 
 
 n2 
 
180 THE COLONIES. 
 
 considerations;* to act otherwise was to behave as if 
 they were the only colonial power, and as if the others 
 had no slaves whatever -^ as if the cause of the slaves 
 were not a common cause ; to despise such legitimate 
 motives of hesitation, to hoist the signal of enfranchise- 
 ment to the negroes, upon such trifling possessions, 
 was to hoist the signal of a general enfranchisement, 
 which ought to be, and which has been perceived at a 
 distance. Isolated in the midst of similar interests, 
 this act, colonially s])eaking, is anti-social ; there are, 
 in Colonies as these are, every where objects of common 
 interest, upon which it does not belong to one interest 
 alone to pronounce, but where the sentiments of all 
 which make up the community are indispensable. 
 Slavery is certainly an object of that nature ; and so 
 long as it is common to all the Colonies, as long as an 
 
 * Great care should be taken not to draw any conclusions from 
 those considerations of a general nature, unfavourable to the inten- 
 tions which influenced tlie government of Denmark, when pro- 
 nouncing the abolition of slavery in her own Colonies. The term 
 which was assigned to effect this change in the condition of the 
 slaves allowed sufficient time to prepare them to receive liberty, 
 and to use it without any danger to their masters : that act had a 
 reference to the epoch of the subversion of St. Domingo, and me- 
 naced the other Colonies too closely not to make it an incumbent 
 duty on them to employ tliemselves \n searching for a remedy, or 
 at least some preservatives. Besides, it very rarely happens, that at 
 the very moment when great revolutions break out, men of the 
 greatest experience in business can seize at once the principles, the 
 extent, and result of them. It is in politics as in new distempers, 
 which destroy a great number of victims before observation and 
 practice can assign their nature, and before art can arrest their 
 progress. The name of the great minister, the author of the act to 
 which we allude, Count BernstorfF, is sufficient to guarantee the 
 views which inspired it. 
 
THE COLONIES. 181 
 
 act which relates to it may also be attended with con- 
 sequences common to all, a resolution could not be 
 adopted in private, by one member of the community 
 alone, without a violation of the rights which belong 
 to the whole community. If some Colonists were to 
 choose to carry and support in the Colonies a kind 
 of insect which would gnaw the sugar-canes, would 
 not all the other Colonists have a right to oppose it ? 
 And why should not the same rule be adhered to 
 when applied to something infinitely more important 
 to them than the cane, namely, to the very prin- 
 ciple of its production ? The states which hold but 
 a very trifling proportion of colonial possessions, but 
 which have, notwithstanding, certain equalities in 
 common with the more amply endowed proprietors of 
 those countries, in the midst of greater inequalities, 
 are and will be long a subject of great embarrassment 
 to them, until a better order of things establish among 
 them, upon common objects, that hierarchy which 
 their inequality demands. 
 
 England, on her part, opened a scene entirely novel, 
 and did not contribute, in a smaller proportion, to 
 widen the breach which was already made in the in- 
 stitution which governed the Colonies. The end, it is 
 true, was grand ; her motives were noble, her fore- 
 sight was large, but such is the nature of this question, 
 that to touch it in any manner is to ])oison it. The 
 evil principle which threatened the Colonies could not 
 escape the vigilant eye of the minister that presided over 
 the councils of England, and it was not such a genius 
 as that of Pitt, which could be mistaken with respect 
 to the innate principle of destruction to the Colonies 
 contained in the slave trade, as well as the necessity of 
 anticipating its ravages, which were readv to break out. 
 
 6 
 
183 THE COLONIES. 
 
 He had perceived that it existed in the multiplying 
 of slaves, and that there was no safety but by striking 
 at the very root of the evil, and by cutting it through. 
 He then applied his efforts to accomplish the pro- 
 scription of the slave trade. The suppositions^ the 
 base and interested accusations vvith which it was 
 sought to tarnish this enlightened act, are well known : 
 we must lament the state of those men who are always 
 disposed to ascribe shameful motives of conduct t6 
 other naen : they should be cautious how they disclose 
 the secrets of their own hearts by such means. This 
 resolution was so much the more generous on the part 
 of England, inasmuch as she enjoys the greatest por- 
 tion of colonial possessions, and' that she alone carried 
 on more than the half of the slave trade, and that she 
 sold the greatest part of these slaves to the Colonies of 
 other nations ; that the produce of her fisheries sup- 
 ported them ; but she had wisely judged, that these 
 advantages, great as they certainly are, could not be 
 placed in the balance against the dangers resulting 
 from the accumulation of blacks in the Colonies ; that 
 each fresh cargo was equivalent to a barrel of gun-* 
 powder thrown on a mine, which was already over- 
 charged ; and that, in future, to preserve the Colonies, 
 it would be necessary to make all haste to stop the 
 increase of the black population, and to endeavour to 
 substitute civilization in the place of that rape which 
 had feeen put in practice for ages on the coast of 
 Africa; that enfranchisement would follow the march 
 of that moral amelioration^ which they would be under 
 a necessity of producing among the slaves ; and that 
 their hands should be unmanacled, i» proportion as 
 they would afford sufficient assurance that they would 
 be employed for the advantage of society, and th^t the 
 
THE COLONIES. i«8 
 
 Safety of those who were to live in the midst of them 
 was no longer threatened. Surely such a course was 
 the most noble and most enlightened that could be 
 traced out, in so complicated a labyrinth. It is noble 
 to extricate one's self from a difficulty, to the advantage 
 of humanity and reason; and to such glory is England 
 justly entitled. On such a plan she has never ceased, 
 for twenty years, to direct her institutions and heir 
 proceedings : from it have sprung her African institu- 
 tions, her religious and civil associations to extend the 
 light of Christianity on the coast of Africa, and to 
 naturalize in those countries the husbandry of Europ6 
 and the taste for work, as it prevails in Europe. 
 Finally, in these latter times, after getting rid of the 
 greatest war and the greatest dangers to which she had 
 ever been exposed, England has made use of that pre* 
 ponderance which her services gave her in Europe, 
 especially over the powers which have colonial posses- 
 sions, to induce them to pronounce the abolition of 
 the slave trade ; doubly grand and generous in drying 
 up the source of the crimes of Europe against a part 
 of Africa, and those of a part of Africa against a part 
 of Europe : in one hundred years hence it will be 
 asked how one or other could have existed. By this 
 act England has shewn herself the Guardian of the 
 interests of Europe, and her defender in the Colonies, 
 even in opposition to her own passions. She has led 
 to it by the sacrifice of secondary, but valuable, inr- 
 terests, to the preservation of superior interests, — 1» 
 the preservation of the Colonies themselves. The so- 
 vereigns who have seconded those views have sur- 
 passed what Montesquieu expected from them, when 
 he demanded of Ihem to suffer pity and humanity to 
 be considered as something in their treaties ; they have 
 
184^ THE COLONIES. 
 
 stipulated^ at the same time, in favour of humanity 
 and morals, for the wealth of both hemispheres : there 
 never was any thing more worthy of them, more de- 
 serving of the benedictions of the universe. 
 
 Some powers have refused to sanction the adoption 
 of this measure before the expiration of a term of five 
 years ; these are France, Spain, and Portugal. * The 
 former has restricted the extent of the territory af- 
 fected at the treaty ; Spain and Portugal deliver 
 themselves up with redoubled ardour, as if to profit 
 by the last moments of the liberty of this commerce. 
 Very imperious necessity must have obliged these 
 three powers to follow alone a route absolutely aban- 
 doned by every people, because in the situation in 
 which the things of the Colonies are, they have thought 
 they should be able to add to the black population yet 
 existing ; but in following always the nature of things, 
 the only calculation that never deceives us, it is very 
 probable they sought after new brands to set fire to 
 their Colonies ; and we should willingly say to them, 
 remove, remove from your borders these buildings 
 that you falsely believe will carry into your fields new 
 instruments of culture : they engender something worse 
 than the pestilence; human industry may triumph 
 over the latter, and prescribe its bounds, but who will 
 triumph over those millions of instruments of destruc- 
 tion that the most unforeseen avidity makes you unite 
 in the midst of you ? Contemplate Saint Domingo ; 
 they reasoned as you do. Those who were demand- 
 ing, at the mouths of the Senegal and the Niger, Tous- 
 saint-Louvertures and Christophes, thought, like you, to 
 have acquired only arms which should serve them, and 
 
 * This relates to the first treaty of Paris, with respect to France, 
 for by the second she has renounced it. 
 
THE COLONIES. 185 
 
 they only found those which would cut their throats ; 
 they were seeking their successors, the spoilers who 
 should form the barrier which will eternally rise 
 between them and the property they sought to fertilize: 
 let them go and take it back to that crowd of Spartans 
 who employ it for their own account ! 
 
 The state of slavery, then, is fixed now by the pub- 
 lic law of Europe, under the shadow of which Africa 
 reposes. If what had been increased is not abolished, 
 at least what is human is bounded and stopped. If 
 the abolition is not general and simultaneous, it will 
 be the fruit and reward of the slave's perfectioning. 
 The coasts of Africa will not be depopulated : industry 
 and the products of Europe will induce man to traffic 
 no more with his own species ; but will present them- 
 selves upon these bounds, henceforth settled and 
 cleared, only as the reward and encouragement of la- 
 bour. All in this walk is humane, generous, regu- 
 lated after the surest of all rules, the walk of Nature 
 herself. By tliis enlightened return to the principles 
 of nature and justice, Europe has carried back to her- 
 self the most magnificent triumph. If the abolition 
 of slavery is made one of the first titles of the Chris- 
 tian's glory, the end of that of the negroes should be 
 made one of the titles of honour in our century, and a 
 monument of the superiority of modern over ancient 
 Europe. Reason has brought this triumph of huma- 
 nity, it is of the number of those that opinion alone 
 can produce, and which will never fail her at length. 
 What nobler use can she make of her strength ? In 
 that Europe has conquered ancient Rome. After 
 having triumphed ovei Sparta, Rome knew^ not how to 
 profit by the lesson c( ntained in this great atchieve- 
 ment ; she never knew any thing but how to multiply 
 
186 THE COLONIES. 
 
 slaves and rivet their irons ; she never tried to do any 
 thing for their moral education. It would be interest- 
 ing to see whether the crimes of this crowd of enfran- 
 ehised beings who proceeded from the bosom of sla- 
 veiy quite disgusted with corruption, and who sur- 
 rendered themselves with such eagerness to the insti- 
 gators and executors of the forfeits of tlie Roman 
 Em]>erors, do not take their source from the negli- 
 gence that Rome always shewed to the moral condi- 
 tion of her slaves ; and if, when she was lost, she did 
 any thing but remain swallowed up in the midst of 
 vices from which she had forgot to disembarrass her- 
 v<?elf5 her loss w^ould then have been herchastisementki' 
 The world is full of the dreadful recital of the 
 frightful scenes which have ensanguined, desolated, 
 and finally ravished 8aint Domingo from her fortunate 
 mother-country. There insurrection is on the throne ; 
 the excesses which have followed it have been what 
 we might expect from the unchaining of 500,000 
 slaves; the result has been what it was too easy to 
 foresee from the numerous superiority of the negroes; 
 it has brought immediately dominion to them, and 
 exclusion to Europeans. Guadeloupe has, for some 
 time, presented the image of a camp ; the military 
 appearance she has put on has induced the enemy to 
 attack her. Her corsairs have covered and desolated 
 the seas of the Antilles. Saint Domingo, half burned, 
 enraged, too vast to be easily kept by England, who 
 has not armies corresponding to the extent of her 
 Cblonies, was evacuated after an occupation of some , 
 years, arid abandoned to the negroes, who imme- 
 diately began to figiit againsj them as well as against 
 the men of colour, the persevering object of their ani- 
 mosity. In the course of the former years which sue- 
 
THE COLONIES. IBt 
 
 ceeded the insurrection, the situation of this country 
 remained equivocal ; independence existed without her 
 name being pronounced; the deputies of Saint Do*-' 
 mingo protested their fidehty to Paris ; in their turn 
 the commissioners of Paris at Saint Domingo made 
 protestation of the tenderness of the mother country 
 to the Colony, and from protestation to protestation 
 they came to fighting and exterminating each othenr 
 A French army was sent to put an end to this reheK 
 lious fidelity, and put the Colony under the law of 
 France. If the expedition had obtained any success, 
 we may conjecture that the same hand whidh iii the; 
 mother country put all under the yoke would also 
 have had strength to fold the Colony under that of the 
 metropolis. On these accounts the loss of Gend*al Le 
 Clerc's expedition is one of the greatest misfortunes, 
 that has yet happened to France. After Toussainfc 
 Louverture we could not have seen Christophe ; th& 
 expedition failed, the French army exterminated, the 
 negroes having made a trial of their strength, the 
 field of battle and the fields of culture remaining ta 
 them, the separation has been pronounced, and the 
 throne of Hayti set up. Now Christophe and his 
 black cohorts occupy in force Saint Domingo; the 
 mulatto Potion holds one part of it ; and it is on ac- 
 count of this double enemy that it must be taken 
 again. ■^•♦' -^ ' JiU^J'rr: 
 
 Here '^eveval t[iiekT6ns present themselves. 
 
 First. Can St. Domingo be re-conquered? 
 
 Second. In what state will it be found ? 
 
 Third. What is to be done with it ? 
 
 Two things are necessary for retaking Saint Do- 
 mingo, armies and money. Two things are also ne- 
 cessary for preserving St. Domingx), armies and money. 
 
185 THE COLONIES. 
 
 Before embarking in such an enterprise then, we 
 must begin by reckoning. In a country like France 
 the Minister of War is neither embarrassed nor embar- 
 rassing : it is the Minister of Finance who is both at 
 once, and the budget must be consulted before every 
 thing. As nothing is more expensive than a maritime 
 expedition for a distance, and made on a large scale ; 
 in order to retake Saint Domingo it will be necessary 
 at first to count by millions, and hundreds of millions ; 
 and to preserve Saint Domingo it will still be necessary 
 to count by millions ; for Saint Domingo having ne- 
 ver repaid, even in the most prosperous times, by the 
 rights of sovereignty, what it cost, will return much 
 less in the latter case in costing infinitely more ; for 
 Saint Domingo re-conquered ; will never be the for- 
 merly submissive, laborious, and rich Saint Domingo, 
 but the Saint Domingo of twenty -five years' revolu- 
 tions, wanting a strong and expensive watch. If a 
 large Army of Occupation has appeared necessary in 
 France against some phantoms of Jacobinism, created 
 bv unskilfulncss or fear, an army of the same nature 
 will be still more so against those fatal realities whose 
 return, from their long agitations of Saint Domingo, 
 will be long dreaded. 
 
 The expedition and tlie prolonged surveillance of 
 Saint Domingo must be calculated then on a very 
 large scale, and the expense reckoned in the same 
 proportion. But as it is not Saint Domingo in ah- 
 stracto that is sought for, but Saint Domingo with her 
 fruits ; so it is not for the pleasure of overthrowing the 
 throne of Christophe that France will arm (for it would 
 be as well worth while to dethrone the King of 
 Congo), but to bring back to her the current of riches 
 that Saint Domingo holds in her bosom, it will be ne. 
 
THE COLONIES. 189 
 
 cessary at first to balance the profits with the expense, 
 and see, on retiring from the expedition, what it will 
 have cost. But in order to be governed correctly in 
 this appreciation of advantages and losses, we must 
 begin by acquainting ourselves with the dispositions 
 of the chiefs and directors of Saint Domingo. 
 
 We shall find there a cluster of accomplices united 
 by the most pressing interests. France has long been 
 fed with reveries on the divisions that were ready to 
 burst forth against the chiefs to the profit even of the 
 mother country, on the facility of seducing and bring- 
 ing back some of them, of opposing Petion to Chris- 
 tophe, * and the mulattos to the negroes. They 
 have celebrated the happiness those would enjoy who 
 possessed all, when they would yield them a part; 
 they have even said that negroes would not resist the 
 happiness of living under a legitimate government. 
 All these illusions, the fruits of inconsiderateness or the 
 produce of personal interest, must be dissipated long 
 before the very otherwise powerful consideration of 
 interests that negroes have in resisting with all their 
 might. This truth is very painful to express, because 
 it must be alienated from all that passes in the Colo- 
 nics, to figure to ourselves that men, one on the throne, 
 the other established in possessions, surely very un- 
 worthily acquired, but held in force by them, will go 
 of their own accord to give themselves to degradation, 
 
 * If any doubt had remained on this head, it would have been 
 dissipated for ever by the success of the attempt lately made with 
 Petion, who answered to this article of the constitution'of his country: 
 
 " No white can be either master or proprietor of Saint Domingo.*' 
 When a negociation is opened with such preliminaries, the conclu- 
 sion is no more to be expected than the return is tempting. 
 
 After that, every white going to St. Domingo has no other pros- 
 ppct than of becon>ing a )iegro. 
 
190 THE COLONIES. 
 
 and to offer themselves to a new slavery ! For if they 
 remain free and in their rank, of what use will St. 
 Domingo be to France? and what interest has she in 
 retaking it ? We cannot proceed but with a view to the 
 restoration of the authority of the mother country and 
 the reintegration of the whites, and we cannot suppose 
 what St. Domingo would beshared between negroes and 
 whites, between free negroes and negroes the slaves of 
 white men. There is a problem that resists all defini- 
 tion, and which would be eternally opposed to the use 
 St. Domingo would be of either to France or the blacks. 
 There is no medium : the throne of Christophe must 
 cither fall or be acknowledged : the empire of Hayti 
 must remain with the blacks, or the true St. Domingo 
 with the whites. But it is in this disjunction that the 
 inevitable necessity of war is placed. Are we to beheve 
 that the possessors of Hayti will deceive themselves; 
 that they will cease one single day to watch France, 
 and consider every movement on her part as any thing 
 but.vthe arrest of their degradation ? are we to think 
 they will be divided ? does not reason, on the contrary, . 
 shew them all united at the first signal of attack, and 
 pressing round the common cause ? Common danger 
 would absorb all particular quarrels. It is not with 
 the negro as witli the European ; in war the latter at 
 most defends the rights of a city ; the negro has to 
 defend the rights of man, the rights of nature : the 
 European is threatened at most with the change of a 
 political master; the negro is threatened with a 
 change from that of master to slave. Let the na- 
 ture and degrees of his resistance be calculated upon 
 that. The Go\:ernment is completely organised at 
 Saint Domingo ; it has every thing that is found in 
 those of Europe ; by a former triumph the negroes 
 
THE COLONIES. 191 
 
 have learnt to know their strength ; they have seen a 
 French army cut up; they have learnt to calculate 
 upon the kind of defence most fatal to their enemies ; 
 they have had given them time to fortify themselves, of 
 bringing their means of resistance nearer ; they will 
 not be surprised ; tor the announcing of an expedition, 
 the time for preparation, will make them or let them 
 know all. Then every means of destruction that the 
 necessity of defending themselves can create, let us not 
 doubt, will be put in use by men threatened in their 
 most vital interests ; then it is too probable Saint Do- 
 mingo will have ceased to exist. The whites who have 
 come from Europe will massacre the blacks; the 
 blacks in their turn will massacre the whites ; Heaven 
 will dart upon them its devouring eyes ; the earth will 
 load them with its murderous exhalations ; they will 
 have to fight at once with nature and with men;* 
 the animal destined for cultivation will have perished, 
 devoured by hunger by one, or refused by others for 
 the subsistence of their enemy ; the habitations con- 
 sumed by flames, and, in the last result^ the war will 
 deliver up to the vanquishers and the vanquished but 
 a heap of ashes steeped in blood. Such is the pic- 
 ture of every waf made with the blacks in Saint Do- 
 mingo, and the inevitable result of all brought against 
 them. But, in this case, we do not see that France 
 can employ her money and her soldiers to a worse 
 
 * We have read in the public papers that an epidemic disease 
 had appeared at Barbados in consequence of the corruption of the 
 carcases of the negroes executed in such numbers at the dose of 
 the insurrection, and left unburied in this burning climate. Na- 
 ture ! how art thou outraged, and how art thou revenged ! 
 
 [There is no foundation for the statement here referred to by 
 the author,— T.] 
 
192 THE COLONIES. 
 
 purpose. This consequence is dreadful, doubtless ; it 
 costs us infinitely to announce it, but it is not our 
 choice; it proceeds so visibly from the nature of 
 things, that it would be inexcusable to be stopped by 
 any pretended management from disguising this im- 
 portant truth. True wisdom is that which stops on the 
 edge of the precipice, and not that which leaves flatter- 
 ing and delusive hopes to fall through its false lights. 
 The question is not how to please, but how to be useful. 
 With negroes killed, scattered, established in ma- 
 roonage, animals and habitations destroyed, what 
 will they do with St. Domingo ? The new law of 
 Europe is opposed to her repeopling by the ordinary 
 way of treaty : when this prohibition would not exist 
 in the public right of nations, it would be found in 
 the poverty of the settlers^ who have not wherewith to 
 purchase the legions of negroes their renewed habita- 
 tions stand in need of; the settlers would be like emi- 
 grants, who, by their defect of fortune, have not been 
 able to retain their property. Besides, what a num- 
 ber of negroes would be necessary ; if there are few, 
 what is to be done ? To have many, what a capital it 
 would require ! From whom are we to ask them ? For 
 nobody has any. To what a pitch the value of the 
 negro will be raised, if required in such great num- 
 bers. How could the proprietors of habitations, re- 
 created with so many efforts, rival the planters of other 
 Colonies which have remained inactive, and without 
 having to repair the same losses ? Tlie proportionate 
 equality would be broken between them. We must 
 say so : we do not perceive the bounds of such a ca- 
 tastrophe : and yet such is the present state of slavery, 
 that the toleration of the triumph of this black insur- 
 rection is a decree always operating against the Colonial 
 
THE COLONIES. 193 
 
 system. On one side we cannot overturn the throne 
 of this insurrection ; on the other we cannot tolerate it 
 on the side of those that Europe still occupies in the 
 Colonies : there is but the choice of evils. This is 
 where the long distractions of Europe on what passed 
 in the Colonies is brought to. We have suffered an 
 order destructive of colonial order to be invested : 
 now that it rests on a long possession, on a strong or- 
 ganization, on the same danger ihat there would be to 
 attempt to extirpate it by iron and fire, one knows 
 not what to resolve, divided, as we find ourselves to be, 
 between the inconveniences of the evil and those of 
 the remedy. The latter are born from the nature of 
 things, to which we must alv^ays come back. In re- 
 ality what are Colonies? Fields of cultivation ? or rather 
 fields of battle ? You go and plant your camps in 
 the midst of your crops : it would be better not to sow. 
 If, then, we can only enter again on the ruins of Saint 
 Domingo, in place of Saint Domingo itself, it is better 
 not to go : we shall spare at least the expenses of de- 
 struction. If we were at liberty to indicate what com- 
 bination, preservative against such a catastrophe, we 
 thought we could perceive in a conduct like that whidi 
 Europe has just held with regard to the Barbary 
 States, in uniting to present themselves in a body, 
 the colonial powers might perhaps make those arms 
 fall from the hands of furious men, that they were 
 not afraid to employ against a single one ; the aspect 
 of so imposing an appearance would perhaps prevent 
 the effects of their despair, and they would return to 
 reason through inabihty to deviate from it. In order 
 to obtain this salutary effect, it would be necessary to 
 take many previous steps : first, that Europe should 
 make the most formal expression of her intentions of 
 
 o 
 
It94; THE COLONIES. 
 
 putting an end to the anti-colonial state of Saint Do* 
 mingo ; secondly, that all succour and all refuge to 
 those who endeavour to resist should be entirely pro- 
 hibited ; thirdly, that the most favourable stipulations 
 should be made to the chiefs and inhabitants of the 
 island, under the guarantee of all the European powers. 
 Without this is understood, which is expressed with 
 extreme diffidence, there appear only evils, and such 
 evils that it would be much better to leave Saint Do- 
 mingo to itself, than to precipitate it into an abyss of 
 misery which would render it still more unproductive 
 to France than it is in its present state, a state more- 
 over which is not formed for an everlasting duration : 
 for in short, however s|d may be the change which 
 has happened to Saint Domingo, it does not destroy 
 those means of wealth, which are the object of all 
 Colonies and of their connections with the mother coun- 
 try. Saint Domingo has neither changed its soil or 
 its climate with its change of masters ; it continues 
 and will continue its production and consumption : 
 consequently it will continue to buy and to sell, to 
 export and import ; and consequently France will still 
 be able to take her share in this commerce, and Saint 
 Domingo, like every other country which produces 
 and consumes, will again become useful to her. France 
 will receive from it, and France will make returns to 
 it; this exchange certainly will not have the same 
 extent or the same advantages as formerly : but in 
 short they will have a part of it, which is much better 
 than a destruction, which would occasion a complete 
 barrenness at once to the Colony and to the mother 
 country. 
 
 If the insurgents of St. Domingo continue to be 
 victorious, and end in remaining in possession of the 
 
THE COLONIES. 195 
 
 island, the two bases of the colonial system are 
 sapped at their foundation, slavery and the exclusive 
 trade of the mother countries. 
 
 First, with regard to slavery, how can it be main- 
 tained in the other Colonies, consistently with the 
 emancipation of half of the black population in these 
 countries, who, by their insurrection, have procured 
 themselves liberty, and raised themselves to the throne, 
 while those who remain slaves, will see those who 
 have thus enfranchised themselves in the enjoyment 
 of honours and situations, contemplating their ancient 
 masters, from whom they have freed themselves, on 
 their knees before them. The illusion of colour is 
 dissipated ; the white is no longer a man of a superior 
 order in the eyes of the negro ; the charm is vanished : 
 it perhaps will never be created again. The Mexicans 
 ceased to look upon the Spaniards as demigods, when 
 they were convinced that they were subject to death as 
 well as themselves. If a slave is the disciple of free- 
 dom, while his slavery lasts, does not this slave en- 
 franchised, when he throws off his chains, become 
 the apostle of this same freedom ? Is it not necessary 
 for him to spread it, to surround himself, as we may 
 say, with so many ramparts to his own freedom ? He 
 endeavours to add to his own, by adding to that of 
 others : one serves as the guarantee of the other. 
 Have we seen any thing else for these last twenty-five 
 years ? Who has contrived al! th'e plots which have 
 come to light first in one Colony, next in another, 
 over the whole continent of America and in the West 
 Indies ? And it will not be the last time that the Co- 
 lonists will have to watch against plots, and to prevent 
 an explosion ; so much does the flame of these dange- 
 rous designs still exist among them. Was it not from 
 
 
 Ifli"*" 
 
196 THE COLONIES. 
 
 Hayti that the missionaries came, the forerunners of 
 tlie insurrection in Barbadoes ? Was it not from Hayti 
 that the armaments issued, which have been contest- 
 ing America with Spain, and which began by setting 
 free the slaves of the kingdom of Terra Firma ? Is it 
 not from the same shores that the new flag has sailed 
 which infests the seas of the West Indies, and which 
 with rising audacity scours the seas that are astonished 
 at these unknown navigators,, pursuing peaceable 
 traders, who fly before these formidable freebooters, 
 the successors of those who formerly terrified these 
 same shores by their untameable and ferocious courage ? 
 How can we escape these dangers during a time of 
 trade and peace, when we had so much difficulty to 
 preserve ourselves from them under the shield of the 
 precautions authorised by war, during a suspension of 
 the ordinary rights of liberty, and under the strong 
 jjrotection of martial law? We cannot sufficiently 
 inculcate the following truth ; that we can have no 
 idea how Colonies can exist, which contain in the 
 midst of themselves other great Colonies existing 
 under laws entirely contrary in their essential and ele- 
 mentary parts. We cannot even figure to ourselves 
 what they will have to suffer from them ; and, finally, 
 how they will be able to resist them : for they are per- 
 fectly incompatible with each other. 
 
 Secondly, if the termination of slavery is the first 
 wish of the whole black population, the termination of 
 monopoly is the second. It is the difference which 
 is to be remarked between the Colonies with slaves, 
 and Colonies without slaves : in the latter, the only 
 wish of the Colonist is to free himself from the yoke 
 of the monopoly, while the wish of the neecro is to 
 buu*t at once both the one and the other. As soon as 
 
THE COLONIES. 197 
 
 he has obtained the first point, he goes to the second : 
 such is the gradation marked out by nature. They 
 begin with freedom of person, and then aim after 
 freedom of trade ; this was observable in St. Domingo : 
 as soon as the negroes were free, they opened the 
 ports. Consequently, if the present system continues 
 to prevail, St. Domingo will continue her connexions 
 with all the commercial nations ; St. Domingo will 
 become the free port of the West Indies. There never 
 existed a finer one ; but will this freedom of trade in 
 so great a Colony be compatible with the trade of the 
 other Colonies ? How will their closed ports be able 
 to stand a competition with the open ports of St. Do- 
 mingo ? Do France and Spain, while they insist, with 
 new vigour, upon the re-establishment of their mono- 
 poly, ask of themselves what they intend to do with 
 St. Domingo ? Its freedom will be the freedom of the 
 West Indies, as its liberty will give liberty to the rest. 
 Le Blanc himself, a man so jealous upon the article 
 of personal freedom, is necessarily the supporter of all 
 freedom of trade. The very persons who shut their 
 own ports, run to the open ports of others, and endea- 
 vour to partake of the benefit of them. This is the 
 point in which the whites and blacks touch ; and, 
 separated in every other, they meet here. 
 
 Nevertheless, in the midst of all these inconve- 
 niencies, however great they may be, and even because 
 they are great, it is necessary to come to some deter- 
 mination : by always deliberating, and never resolving, 
 we make no progress. What, then, is to be done with 
 St. Domingo? We will be bold enough to speak, iii 
 this general interest, and in this silence of all private 
 interest, and we will speak with confidence. Leave it 
 as it is, and endeavour to bring those men into a 
 
19S THE COLONIES. 
 
 general intercourse and community^ whom we must 
 otherwise kill. And as we are not able to conquer it 
 for France,* let us conquer it for the world at large ; 
 let us leave them to human nature, and endeavour to 
 bring them to it, as much as shall be in our power. 
 
 Thus will be realized what Raynal demanded, in the 
 first edition of his work : *' In order to overthrow the 
 edifice of slavery, which has been established by au- 
 thentic laws, we must not strike off the irons of those 
 unhappy people, who have been horn in slavery^ or 
 who have grown old in it. These stupid men, who 
 vs^ould not be prepared for this change of condition, 
 would be incapable to act for themselves : their life 
 would be but an habitual indolence, a series of crimes. 
 The great gift of liberty ought to be reserved for their 
 posterity, and that even with some modifications " 
 
 He afterwards said to the Constituent Assembly : 
 " You have done much more for the Colonies than 
 policy permitted you to do, without having done that 
 which humanity required you should do " 
 
 The duty which we have imposed upon ourselves 
 of disguising no truth, whether it is in our favour^ 6r 
 whether it is against us, dictates to us the two reflec 
 
 * In pointing oUt this bold resolution, we cannot separate public 
 policy from the most attentive care of the interests of the pro- 
 prietors, who have been dispossessed. We ought not to lose sight of 
 them, in the arrangement which circumstances will necessarily bring 
 on with the insurgents of St. Domingo ; for we cannot remain in a 
 continual state of half- tolerance and half acknowledgment, which 
 produces a part of the evils of war, and deprives us of a part of the 
 benefits of peace. When reason shall cause us to take this step, 
 then will be time to take care of the interests of the Colonists, and 
 it can then be done with advantage. France will then receive part 
 of the fruits of this debt payed to justice and huma^nity; and it is 
 impossible to acquire riches in better company. 
 
THE COLONIES. 109 
 
 tions with which we shall terminate this article. The 
 first will be an homage to the Colonists, among whom, 
 before the revolution, slavery had at once lost its rigour 
 and its indocility; it had become at the same time 
 more submissive, and softer: the master had nearly 
 jevery where ceased to be a cruel tyrant ; and the slave 
 ,tp be rebellious and threatening. In proportion as thie 
 chain became lighter, the slave found it so, carried it 
 with greater ease, and showed less desire to break i(:. 
 The slave became daily more of a domestic servant; 
 his hardships disappeared amidst treatment generally 
 niore humane ; and he occasioned less fear, in pro- 
 portion as he had less to fear himself. The proprietors 
 were, for the most part, aware how much their interest 
 was connected with the good treatment of their slaves : 
 some of them w^ere fathers, as much as masters to their 
 slaves, and the negroes most usually repayed them out 
 of affection, with a just return of fidelity and loye. 
 There are a thousand examples of it, as honourable to 
 the master who could inspire these sentiments, as to 
 the slave who felt them. Great habitations, and that 
 frequently, presented a picture of an immense family, 
 where the white man resembled a patriarch, whose 
 goodness he imitated ; and the slaves, on their part, 
 united around him, recalled to mind the first tribes in 
 the golden age of society. This picture was becoming 
 .every day more common in the Colonies, so that the 
 crimes of masters against their slaves, and those o|f 
 slaves against their masters, were becoming very r^re, 
 and the proverbial expressipns, as well as ,tbe exaggera- 
 ted pictures of the condition of the negroes^ ^ were 
 become false, and were absolutely destitute of truth,: 
 they belonged to other times, and did npt at all agrcje 
 with the present. It ^annot be ,^oub ted, that tl^rc 
 
200 THE COLONIES. 
 
 are still hard masters, unmerciful governors, and iron 
 hearts, in the superior and commanding class; as well 
 as that there are in the inferior and obeying, some 
 who are unsusceptible of the feelings of affection and 
 attachment arising from good treatment: but the 
 number of these was very much diminished, and espe- 
 cially was very small, in comparison with those who 
 had adopted another conduct ; and it is of the latter 
 only that we must speak, since they make the majority, 
 and nearly the whole. The positive state and general 
 tendency of the condition of the negroes was inclining 
 towards a continual but gradual amelioration ; and 
 this system was certainly, both for the Colonies and 
 for the slaves themselves, the best adapted to fulfil 
 adequately their extensive wishes; for being voluntary, 
 and arising from manners, and not from laws, it had 
 a tendency more natural and more gentle, though 
 more powerful and more extensive, than that which 
 positive laws could produce ; because laws are, in their 
 nature, restrained and limited, and their object is fixed 
 and determinate : while, on the other hand, manners 
 embrace every thing, and apply to a multitude of de- 
 tails, which the law could never perceive or reach, and 
 \yhich are either beyond it, or evade it. Slavery had a 
 tendency to that point, to which the most enlightened 
 reason would endeavour to bring it, in default of the 
 power of abolishing it, I mean the common ameliora- 
 tion of the condition both of the master and of the 
 slave. 
 
 The master was living without terror and without 
 reproach, the slave without fear and without danger ; 
 the one was accustomed to command without harsh- 
 ness, the other to obey without regret ; and this con- 
 dition by being general, and customary, had lost, in 
 g 
 
THE COLONIES. 201 
 
 the eyes even of the slave, a part of its horror : he 
 bent himself more willingly to the yoke which was 
 shared by so great a number of necks. The master, 
 on his part, by being among thousands of other mas- 
 ters, as the population was always increasing in the 
 Colonies, was losing those inflated ideas which the 
 ancient masters, being more insulated, had contracted, 
 far away from the observation of witnesses ; the gra- 
 dual extension of the connexions with Europe, and 
 the adoption of her manners, had introduced and 
 strengthened among the Colonists the amelioration of 
 their conduct towards their slaves. They were in the 
 sight of too great a number of people to wish to ap- 
 pear in an unfavourable light, or to wish to be exposed 
 to the contempt and detestation which a cruel conduct, 
 when contrary to the general custom, could not fail to 
 inspire. We like to remark this change, equally to 
 the praise of the Colonist, and of civiHzation, which 
 is evidently the cause of this improvement in the con- 
 dition of the unhappy Africans. And yet, this ameli- 
 oration has not been sufficient to restrain the slave, 
 when he had the power, from breaking his chains, 
 so heavily do they press upon him. 
 
 We shall not have the same pleasure and satisfaction, 
 in making the second observation which we alluded to 
 above ; but the interest of the public, and perhaps, 
 even the state of the Colonies do not permit us to be 
 silent upon it : it is to advise the greatest caution in 
 receiving the plans which may be recommended by 
 the Colonists. When they are consulted upon the 
 cultivation of their Colonies, and the minute particu- 
 lars of those countries, they should be listened to, as 
 they have the authority of experience and local know- 
 ledge on their side : but in every thing which is be- 
 
202 THE COLONIES. 
 
 yond this line, in every thing which relates to pubHc 
 policy, with respect to the regulating and restoring the 
 colonial system, we must take great care not to give 
 them any admittance ; because together with them we 
 should admit the illusions, and the considerations of 
 hatred and interest, which could only mislead us i|i 
 our search after truth in this question. ^rg 
 
 There is a fatality attached to the name of exilq. 
 Since there have been exiles (and which is now long 
 enough,) in every country, and in every time, they 
 have always been the same ; as they have a uniform 
 wish, they must have an uniform spirit. They have 
 always represented their return to their own country 
 as the easiest thing possible, and their dominion as 
 quite indispensable ; they have always said that they 
 were wished for, invited, and necessary to the good of 
 the country from which they are banished. From the 
 emigrants of Athens down to those of France and the 
 Colonies, they have held but one language, and had 
 but one spirit : the spirit of the Colonist is exactly the 
 spirit of the emigrant. If you believe these latter, 
 their return to France was the easiest thing : they 
 were expected, and wished for ; we have seen in an 
 hundred places the result of these illusions, which, 
 owing to the enterprises that were formed on th^ir re- 
 presentation, have left the most mournful recollections. 
 Little plots, quite secret, and quite obscure, were, ac- 
 cording to them, to strike at the very heart of the 
 power of their enemy. We have seen the agents of 
 the Colonies promising, trying, and acceding in the 
 same manner. The discourse, and even the writings of 
 the Colonists are all marked with the same sourness f 
 
 * See the work of the Count of St. Mary's, in which many (K 
 these writmgs are given. 
 
THE COLONIES. m% 
 
 and illusions which characterize those of the emi- 
 grants. The spirit of the Colonist is not less incom* 
 patible with the Colonies, than the spirit of the emi- 
 grants has been, is, and always will be, with France, 
 This spirit has cost her dear ; from the beginning, it has 
 irritated France, startled foreigners, and deterred them 
 from labouring to place France in hands which offered 
 so little security for the restraint of their passions and 
 the justice of judgment. This spirit, which was mute 
 and trembling during the empire of him who had 
 opened those gates which they had never been able to 
 burst, has resumed its course and made a trueinvasiorl 
 on France, which owes to it a part of those evils which 
 have obscured an epoch when tranquil happiness might 
 have served as a consolation for the loss of so much glory 
 and power. It is the same with the Colonists : with 
 them, as with the former, most honourable sentiment^, 
 and the most pure intentions, two things which it 
 pleases us to acknowledge, are very much separated 
 from wisdom fit to judge properly of the state of 
 things, and to guide them in the choice of remedies 
 required ; even their virtues are dangerous to them, by 
 causing them to cherish feelings of hatred and severity 
 which would still be an imprudence, and menace 
 troubles, were it even possible to carry them into ex- 
 ecution. There is a saying that no man can be a 
 judge in his own cause; that kind of principle has 
 confirmed the old adage, by showing the same men, 
 from whom much might be gained if consulted on 
 different subjects, deprived all at once of the faculty of 
 reason as soon as any question is touched upon in 
 which their own interest is found to be included. The 
 observation is applied merely, in a general way, to the 
 
204 THE COLONIES. 
 
 manner of feeling of Colonists and emigrants. Therft 
 are many very honourable exceptions to be found 
 among them of men equally fortified against arrogance 
 of mind as the deviations of reason ; some of whom 
 have lost great fortunes and have submitted to severe 
 privations with such firmness of soul as would have 
 done honour to the school of Zeno ; and as if elevation 
 of sentiment attended that of rank, it is among the 
 higher classes that the most exalted disinterestedness 
 and the balm of moderation are most frequently to be 
 found ; as if in the moral as in the physical order of 
 things the air is breathed in greater purity in propor- 
 tion as we ascend from the earth, and found to be 
 more gross in proportion as we redescend. 
 
 Table of the black population^ of the Antilles and 
 en the continent of America. 
 
 Antilles 1 ,600,000 
 
 Brazils 1,500,000 
 
 Spanish America 600,000 
 
 The United States in 1810 1,377,310 
 
 Total. . 5,777,310 
 
 The black population of the United States is almost 
 entirely concentrated in the southern states ; the 
 northern are not included in the account. 
 
THE COLONIES. 20i 
 
 CHAP. xni. 
 
 The Constituent Principles of the Colonial System 
 compared with those which have been followed by 
 the Europeans, 
 
 J OUR principles constitute the colonial system and 
 power. 
 
 1. To establish a proportion between the Colonists 
 and the inhabitants of the mother country, either on 
 the principle of extent or population. 
 
 2. To proportion the marine to the colonial posses- 
 sions and to that of other maritime and colonial na- 
 tions. 
 
 3. To proportion the industry and capitals of which 
 labour is the source to the wants of the Colonies, so 
 that they may not be too strongly attracted towards a 
 communication with foreign nations. 
 
 4. To give to the Colonies such a government, with 
 respect to their internal affairs, as will diminish the 
 necessity of having recourse to the mother country. 
 
 We shall add, that those principles of colonial life 
 should, in the same manner as those of the inhabi- 
 tants of the parent state, be placed under the aegis of 
 a constitution which, in the bosom of the parent 
 state, enlivens, strengthens, guarantees, and confirms 
 every branch of the colonial system — a guarantee 
 which is indispensable, without which no colonial esta- 
 blishment can be of long duration, or be attended with 
 any solid and extended effects as we shall prove by a 
 
206 THE COLONIES. 
 
 comparison of the colonial state of England and of 
 France ; the one of which, from her constitution, has 
 always gone on increasing ; and the other, from want 
 of a constitution, has been always in a declining state, 
 until at length it has entirely disappeared. 
 
 The colonial possessions of the different nations of 
 Europe are not in proportion to their weight in the 
 scale of European power, nor to the extent of their 
 European territories respectively, no more than to the 
 parts which they acted in Europe before they took 
 possession of the Colonies. On the contrary, the pos- 
 session of those Colonies has enabled them to change 
 the parts which they had been playing hitherto ; for 
 the nation which has lost or acquired important Colo- 
 nies bears no resemblance to itself before those losses 
 or acquisitions. Riches are, at present, the basis of 
 power, and Colonies being indubitably the most abund- 
 ant source of modern riches, they are consequently that 
 of power also : it is they that bestow the balance of 
 power through that of riches, and which hold that of 
 Europe, as it were, suspended over the seas which 
 separate it from that region, as well as other countries 
 ^ whose destinies they govern. 
 
 The first European establishments in the Colonies 
 observed neither rule nor measure : to take possession 
 of every thing that suited their convenience, though 
 beyond all proportion to their means of preserving 
 them ; to court and seize the settlements of others ; to 
 call in the natives, most imprudently, to assist in car- 
 rying their projects^ into execution, and to initiate them 
 in the terrible secret of European tactics and arts — 
 secrets, which they should have kept to themselves 
 alone. Such has been the march which the Europeans 
 have continually followed, and carried into practice, 
 3 
 
THE COLONIES. 207 
 
 in their establishments. This country first touched by 
 an European, became his domain from usage and 
 consent, it ripened into law, which, perhaps, necessary 
 in itself, was found to be a source of many disorders ; 
 for while nothing more was necessary to give the rights 
 of possession than to arrive before others, men 
 thought of nothing, or could think of nothing, but of 
 running to make discoveries; excursions were multi- 
 plied merely for the purpose of acquiring a more ex- 
 tended superficies, without thinking of any proportion 
 between their wants, or the sum of the means which 
 they would employ in guarding them. It was from 
 this principle that the immense establishments of some 
 nations originated, which, always pushing forward, 
 concluded with the invasion of whole continents, with- 
 out examining any of them, and with confining them- 
 selves to the shores which had received them. It was 
 this general inconsideration, which knew no limits, 
 that gave rise to the celebrated line of demarcation, 
 which dividing the earth into two zones of ownership 
 or property, as nature has divided it into zones of cli- 
 mate, consigned one half of the globe to one nation, 
 and the second to another. It adjudged one half 
 of the globe to a nation which hardly occupies a sen- 
 sible point on its surface, and which though too much 
 at large, within the narrow limits of her domestic ter- 
 ritories, even now aspires to invade immense territories 
 belonging to others. This thirst for invasion and con- 
 quest, realizes the sayingof a celebrated moralist, namely, 
 that if the world were divided between two men, they 
 would nevertheless go to war about their frontiers. It 
 has pleased some to represent this act of pontifical 
 power, as the highest degree of confidence in his own 
 authority, as well as of the obedience which was then 
 
208 THE COLONIES. 
 
 paid to that authority. It has been made a continual 
 subject of crimination and rejjroach. Good mindsshould 
 have spared these last; but they would have found no 
 difficulty in pointing out other occasions for them. 
 
 The Portuguese, who first arrived in Asia, thought 
 of nothing but of extending their conquests; they, on 
 all occasions^ neglected the elementary principle of not 
 embracing a greater surface than they had the means 
 of retaining, of doing nothing disproportioned, of not 
 placing a swollen apoplectic head on a slender and 
 weakly body, no more than they would add a body of 
 colossal size to the head of a dwarf. In the political 
 as well as in the physical order of things, every thing 
 should correspond ; and the disproportion of parts, in 
 both cases, is equally injurious to the proper organi- 
 zation of the whole taken together, as well as to the 
 working of the springs. The Portuguese gave Europe 
 a bad example, which she has too faithfully imitated : 
 they themselves soon perceived the consequences of 
 their want of moderation, for they found themselves 
 at once too weak against the natives and against the 
 Europeans. In proportion as the latter arrived in the 
 Colonies, the Portuguese were obliged to make way 
 for them, from neglect in not having firmly esta- 
 blished themselves any where : they lost their settle- 
 ments one after another, from the want of sufficient 
 means of defence. Their armies, their fleets, their 
 garrisons, every thing was incomplete, or far inferior 
 to the wants which they felt. Nothing could resist an 
 enemy more numerous, better provided, and who, ar- 
 riving after them in Asia, had not time to feel the 
 attacks of the climate, and to sink into effeminacy 
 as the first conquerors had done. In the mean while, 
 Portugal was exhausted in endeavouring to provide for 
 
THE COLONIES. 209 
 
 the expense of such a great extent of conquests. She 
 could no longer maintain them, except with the dregs 
 of the nation, or by means of foreigners, who devoted 
 themselves to her service. Here we may behold the 
 real cause of the decline of the Portuguese establish- 
 ments. The parent state was not in a condition to 
 support them ; there was no proportion between her 
 and her Colonies. What a difference ! If Portugal, 
 consulting her own strength more accurately, mea- 
 suring her protection and her resources more correctly, 
 raising herself above that blind cupidity of coveting 
 and grasping at every thing, had known how to adopt 
 some principles of self restraint, to have halted in her 
 conquests, to make ^some choice in the possessions 
 which presented themselves to her, and to confine her- 
 self strictly to this choice, and, content with that which 
 she would possess in security, to abandon the remain- 
 der! She would, by such a course, have avoided 
 ruinous wars, the loss of settlements which was the 
 consequence of these wars, and that state of weakness 
 in which she has remained ever since. Portugal, from 
 her ambition for over large Colonies, has ended with 
 losing all she had ; for, having wished for a complete 
 ascendancy, she has been entirely effaced from the co- 
 lonial system. Portugal, too weak to keep her Colo- 
 nies, was not sufficiently powerful at sea to maintain 
 the force which is necessary for a colonial nation ; and 
 which, by her maritime power, makes up for the de- 
 ficiency of her continental, as is the case with England. 
 The Portuguese have had great success, and great re- 
 nown, before the creation of the modern marine ; but 
 since, the Hollanders, the French, and, above all, the 
 English have become great naval powers, since the 
 time that by the number of their ships, and their 
 
 p 
 
210 THE COLONIES. 
 
 ability in managing them, they have been able, from 
 v^ being masters at sea, to become masters on land. 
 The nations which have not followed the progress of 
 their age remain in a state of great relative inferiority, 
 j and every thing in their settlements which was found 
 to suit the purposes of their more powerful neighbours 
 '"^ became an easy prey. Thus have the Portuguese lost, 
 almost without resistance, every thing which any body 
 has attempted to take from them, and now possess 
 i only what it may please the more powerful to leave 
 \ them. This nation, as if exhausted by the efforts 
 which it made during a century, has fallen into a state of 
 lethargic carelessness; nothing has been able to remove 
 it, nor to make her shake it off. Divided between the 
 superstition of a degrading bigotry and the volup- 
 tuousness of her climate, she has forgot her ancient 
 glory, and, content with her recollections, has made 
 no further attempts to refasten on her brows any share 
 of those laurels which shaded the heads of her fore- 
 fathers. Where now are to be found the descendants 
 of the Gamas, the Albuquerques, the Castros, the 
 Athaides, and so many other heroes who rendered the 
 Portuguese name so formidable ahd illustrious ? How 
 recognise the race — -the shoots of the conquerors of 
 Asia — in that degenerate species, which wanders over 
 the Portuguese settlements in Asia, which still remain 
 to her, and which, like ruins, seem destined to show 
 the places where the Portuguese establishments once 
 existed, rather than the places where they are still to 
 be found. Similar to those brilliant but unsubstantial 
 meteors, which shine for a moment and become im- 
 mediately extinct, Portugal once exhibited a vivid and 
 most luminous splendour, and since that time has suf- 
 fered a total eclipse. Her whole political life, different 
 
 6 
 
THE COLONIES. 211 
 
 from that of other empires, inseparably connected with 
 a certain period of time, and with the existence of 
 certain individuals^ has terminated with them, and \ 
 what remains of it may be compared to the warrior [ 
 represented by Ariosto as already dead, though still 1 
 walking from the force of long habit. ^ 
 
 Portugal has remained stationary in the midst of 
 the general progress of knowledge and industry among 
 other nations ; she has not regulated her march by 
 the advances which they made ; and, in consequence of 
 not having followed their paths, has remained far be- 
 hind them. While the other nations were emulously 
 collecting all the materials of maritime power in their 
 arsenals and in their ports, Portugal confined herself 
 to what was absolutely necessary in that as well as in 
 every other department of government. Other nations 
 sought by every means in their power the extension 
 and the advantages of commerce ; Portugal abandoned 
 hers to the management of England : she placed her- 
 self under the direction, and, as it were, under the 
 tutelage of that power ; there she has vegetated, con- 
 fining herself to the maintenance of certain habits, 
 and an almost monastic degree of regularity in her 
 dominions, contented with holding her place in the 
 last rank on the great theatre of the world. 
 
 Such dispositions are not well adapted to make a 
 nation masters of very flourishing or very powerful 
 Colonies. In what state, therefore, do those of Por- 
 tugal appear to be ? Those of Asia strike us with 
 horror : They are the shreds of the former power of 
 Poi'tugal. Brazil has, by her fertility, struggled against 
 the neglect of the mother country, and has wrought 
 the miracle of getting the better of it. Portugal is 
 indebted to England for the preservation of her Colo- 
 
 P2 
 
21« THE COLONIES. 
 
 nies, who will always prevent that state from being 
 robbed whose affairs she manages for her own interest; 
 in the neighbourhood of Spain which is next neigh- 
 bourhood to Portugal, in America, as well as in Eu- 
 rope. Spain is satisfied with acting on the defensive, 
 and with repelling the attacks of every kind to which 
 her immense possessions hold out so many invitations, 
 in place of meditating any against the possessions of 
 others. She has had the good sense to perceive that 
 her possessions are sufficiently large already, that new 
 acquisitions do not suit her, that Portugal was not a 
 more troublesome neighbour in America than in Eu- 
 rope, and that, in short, every enterprise against her 
 would commit her with England her most formidable 
 adversary.— All these considerations have been pro- 
 ductive of a long peace between Spain and the Portu* 
 guese Colonies. 
 
 The other nations were neither in a condition, nor 
 were they disposed, to attempt such a conquest as that 
 of Brazil. They would have met the English there, 
 and their deficiency in naval pre-eminence forbade 
 them to think of it. The enterprise of Du-Guay- 
 Trouin against Rio Janeiro was a fortunate attempt on 
 the part of that celebrated seaman ; but had nothing 
 of the nature of an enterprise undertaken with a view 
 to a settlement ; for there he would have met with the 
 English. He might have been able to mask his plan, 
 and to steal a march, that is always practicable by sea ; 
 but when once fixed on a determinate spot, he would 
 have drawn all the force of England against him, 
 which either by itself, or by the interruption of all 
 commerce with the mother country, would soon have 
 obliged him to renounce his projects. 
 
 Portugal has therefore been deficient in two essential 
 
THE COLONIES. 218 
 
 points of colonial government ; she has neither pro- 
 portioned her Colonies to her population, nor her ma- 
 rine to these Colonies, nor to those of the other mari- 
 time powers of Europe : she has not bestowed suffi- 
 cient care on the augmentation of capital, nor of her 
 fabrics by which she might be able to supply this 
 means of providing for the wants of her Colonies, and 
 for their amelioration. We can speak only of those 
 ^f Brazil. Bit the proceeds of that Colony are in- 
 sufficient to CDver the importations to which the infe- 
 riority of her cultivation and of her fabrics force Por- 
 tugal to have recourse ; for that country receives every 
 year especially from England a mass of imported 
 goods, which absorbs the 75,000,000 francs which it 
 draws from Brazil. For which reason so completely 
 has Portugal impoverished that country, that Brazil, 
 so very productive of gold, possesses no more of it 
 than the mother country ', so that, as the last result, 
 Portugal no longer governs Brazil, but for the advan- 
 tage of England and the other commercial nations of 
 Europe. The Portuguese Colonists are in want of an 
 internal government, and are governed by the parent 
 state upon her own model. Brazil is therefore govern- 
 ed by a vice-roy, with subordinate governors under 
 him for each of the provinces, which are nine in num- 
 ber. This is the repetition of what passes in Portugal, 
 in which the king causes the provinces to be ruled by 
 governors, directing immediately under his own orders 
 all the parts of the administration without any inter- 
 vention of popular authority. 
 
 That government being of the number of absolute 
 governments does not contain any of the principles of 
 duration, of improvement, or such security, as a state 
 governed^by a constitution presents ; the bases of 
 
21* THE COLONIES. 
 
 /which are fixed, and which leads the government to 
 act agreeably to consecutive' plans always pointed out 
 by the national spirit, which in its union with govern- 
 ments preserves it, and is preserved by it, in turn. 
 
 Portugal was about to receive the punishment of all 
 her negligence, when the flight of the king to Bra- 
 zil changed its colonial condition, by separating it 
 from that valuable Colony by changing itself into a 
 Colony, and this Colony into the parent state. Had 
 not the king passed to Brazil, Portugal would have 
 lost it in two ways : — 1st, By the attack which the 
 English would have made on that country, under the 
 pretext of a war with Portugal in a state of subjection 
 to France ; 2d, From the independence which that 
 exclusive country, when separated from the parent 
 state by war, could not fail to establish in like manner 
 as the Spanish Colonies, and for the same cause, and 
 with the same success. 
 
 Holland, more than any other nation in possession 
 of Colonies, had measured her steps, and proportioned 
 her desires to her means. Were we permitted to recog- 
 nise some marks, some traces of plan in the formation 
 of the Colonial establishments of any nation, the 
 honour certainly could not be disputed with the people 
 of Holland : they seem to have carried into the regu- 
 lation of their Colonies some portion of that metho- 
 dical and just understanding for which they are distin- 
 guished. Instead of rambling over all the accessible 
 parts of the globe, as was then the general custom, 
 the Hollanders fortunately established themselves at 
 the Cape of Good Hope, and in»the Moluccas. They 
 were strong enough to keep possession of those settle- 
 ments, and their ambition was satisfied with the pos- 
 session. Holland, has in this manner, observed the 
 
THE COLONIEa 515 
 
 first principle of colonial organization ; namely, that 
 of a proportional equality between the Colony and the 
 
 FTHother country ; but the population of Holland did 
 ot correspond, for which reason her Colonies were 
 (but very indifferently guarded. The re-union of Bel- 
 gium with Holland has corrected that disproportion, 
 and hereafter the kingdom of the Low Countries will 
 suffice : there will be no occasion hereafter to confide 
 the defence to men engaged for that service by ways 
 too vile or too violent to be attached to it : or to have 
 recourse to the outcasts of Europe, rather destined to 
 fill the tombs of Batavia, than to defend its ramparts. 
 Neither had Holland attended to her marine with 
 sufficient care. That neglect might have been the 
 consequence of the particular position in which she 
 found herself placed. Though she had not placed 
 herself in a state of subjection, or declared herself 
 the vassal of England, in like manner as Portugal had 
 done, Holland enjoyed her protection and counted on 
 her assistance, and that which served to aiford her 
 complete security, and to lull her to sleep was the 
 certainty of sheltering herself behind the segis of 
 France, should England abandon her. Those two 
 powers were her natural auxiliaries, the one against 
 the other ; for which reason it had become an esta- 
 blished usage to restore to her in peace every thing 
 which she might have lost in war. England has 
 always regarded the States General as an object of 
 greater importance to herself. Long alliances had in 
 a manner identified the two countries. In these latter 
 times, England has directed her views and her efforts, 
 in some degree, to the strengthening of Holland, in 
 order to oppose her to France, and to make her a 
 barrier to the north. England has done this by creating 
 
2ie THE COLONIES. 
 
 the kingdom of the Low Countries, a work entirely her 
 own. 
 
 Holland has recovered no more than a part of her 
 Colonies, leaving the most valuable in the hands of 
 England ; namely, Ceylon and the Cape, the loss of 
 which makes the others which remain of no value, and 
 completes the colonial domination which England 
 exercises over Holland, as well as over all other na- 
 tions, which are in possession of Colonies. 
 
 With respect to wealth in capital and commercial 
 industry, Holland had the advantage of all nations : 
 for which reason, far from fearing the competition of 
 any of them in the Colonies, it was Holland that made 
 them fear on her part ; because^ from navigating her 
 ships on easier terms, and being satisfied with a smaller 
 profit, she was able to supplant all her competitors, in 
 every market, and to obtain a complete ascendancy, 
 as she does in every place where she is admitted. As 
 soon as piention is made of capital and of commerce, 
 the name of the Hollanders spontaneously assumes the 
 very first rank. 
 
 It is unfortunate that Holland has committed a 
 similar fault to that with which we have reproached 
 the Portuguese, in neglecting to give their Colonies a 
 proper form of government, which would have exempts 
 cd them from any direct dependence on the motheit 
 country. But Holland could not give her Colonies 
 that which she had not herself; namely, a constitu- 
 tion. It was a difficult matter to define the government 
 of that country ; too republican for the monarchical 
 part, too monarchical for the mixture of republicanism 
 which it exhibited ; too aristocratical for the demo- 
 cratic, and too democratic for the aristocratic part : the 
 elements of it were not mixed in their just propor- 
 
 5 
 
THE COLONIES. 217 
 
 lions. The ^qyermnent jvas somewhat chaotic ; and. j 
 as it is in a state^ darkness that men usually strike i 
 against each other, the long contentions betweeii^^^^^^ 
 monarchical and republican party, each supported by 
 the elements which entered into the composition of 
 that singular constitution, led to the revolution which 
 took place in 1794, and which was introduced and 
 accepted by one faction of Hollanders, as an expiation 
 of that which had taken place in 1787, by means of a 
 foreign force, the Prussian. This is a kind of revenge, 
 which factions can never deny themselves. The nation 
 found itself divided, because it was badly constituted ; 
 it was shipwrecked, because improperly ballasted : it 
 would have perished, and have been effaced from the 
 list of nations, if the state which had conquered it 
 had itself a constitution to defend its own existence, 
 together with its conquests, as will be shewn here- 
 after. 
 
 England, as well as the other nations, had sinned 
 against the elementary principle of proportion between 
 a parent state and her Colonies. This observation 
 shall be found applicable to her three Colonies, and in 
 the course of time to the fourth. 
 
 These are, 1st, The United States; 2d, India; 
 3d, Canada ; 4th, The Cape. 
 
 The United States were too extended, and suscep- 
 tible of acquiring too great a population to remain long 
 the property of England ; wherefore she was not able 
 to retain them one hundred and fifty years. As soon 
 as they found that they had acquired a population 
 amounting to 3,000,000, they declared themselves 
 free, braved the mother country, and shook off her 
 yoke. The thing was unnatural : three millions of 
 Americans felt themselves strong enough to resist, with 
 
218 THE COLONIES. 
 
 their whole mass, the detachments which England 
 could send against them. England could only put a 
 
 ' fracture of her population — a very particle — in motion. 
 
 ' America could defend herself with all hers : she had, 
 therefore, no need to be equal to England in popula* 
 tion, but only in that part of that jx)pulation which 
 was disposable against her : these never amounted to 
 more than ten or twenty thousand English that could 
 proceed to attack her ; and, on her side, it was with the 
 whole of her population that she was enabled to repel 
 the attack. The former were under the necessity of 
 making a long voyage, under all the disadvantage at- 
 tached to maritime expeditions ; the American popu- 
 lation was at hand iti the country. The parent state 
 could not displace herself, in a body, as a nation ; a 
 nation, on the contrary, can defend herself with the 
 advantage of the presence of all its members on the 
 theatre of war. The issue of the contest could not be 
 doubtful, and never will be doubtful against propor- 
 tions so very diiferent. In all this there is but one 
 thing which should astonish us, and that is, that a 
 people so enlightened as the English, ever engaged in 
 such a contest. 
 
 The same will also happen in India, in the course 
 of time : we may safely trust in the nature of things ; 
 it never deceives us. England is so far from India, 
 and India so near ; India is so large and populous, 
 when compared with England, that India cannot be 
 defended but by Indians themselves. The English 
 have hitherto, with extraordinary good fortune, sup- 
 plied the insufficiency of their population in India, by 
 employing the inhabitants, embodied and disciplined 
 after the European fashion. 140,000 Indians are 
 officered by 3,000 English, and are joined to 17^000 
 
THE COLONIES. 219 
 
 English troops : such disproportion speaks for itself. 
 The English have had the art to induce Indians to 
 serve against themselves for the advantage of foreigners, 
 come among them to be their masters, and to enslave 
 their country; but all this will have an end: the mo- 
 ment will arrive sooner or later^, but it will arrive. It j 
 is not difficult to perceive the end of that empire, in I 
 its increasing extent, and in the progress which its T 
 inhabitants will make in the manners of Europe. The 
 first Indian General that will be formed in the ranks 
 ■of an Anglo-Indian army will be the last Indian who 
 will serve England against India ; and who will say 
 how many Hyder Allys, or Tippoo Saibs, are already 
 enrolled, or are ready to enter their army ? Twenty 
 years ago who thought of Toussaint Louverture, of 
 Christophe, or of all those chiefs of banditti, or of the 
 councils which enjoy St. Domingo, or which govern 
 it? Who can determine to what lengths ambition, the 
 love of liberty, and all those sentiments which raise 
 the minds of some men, and turn them from their 
 duties, muy carry even Englishmen to conceive, con- 
 cert, and carry into execution, this grand event ? India, 
 enslaved by Englishmen, may be indebted to English- 
 men for its freedom. Whatever may happen, at what- 
 ever hour the inevitable blow may be struck, England 
 has equally violated the elementary principles of colo- 
 nial organization ; namely, of never extending posses- 
 sions beyond their natural proportions. It is easy to 
 form an idea of the embarrassment in which England 
 will be placed, from inattention to that principle, if 
 three or four colonial continental wars, for which her 
 colonial possessions can supply theatres, should happen 
 to take place at the same time. It is not contrary to 
 probability but that England m^ have to fight, at the 
 
220 THE COLONIES. 
 
 same time, in India, in Canada, in the great Colony of 
 the Cape, the population of which, as well as that of 
 Canada, is different from her own ; they are two con- 
 quered nations. Assuredly, a war in Europe, and with 
 the United States, would march in front of those three 
 insurrections ; it would be necessary to face about in 
 all directions, and that would be difficult, dear, and 
 dangerous. England has been singularly fortunate in 
 not having, as yet, felt any inconvenience from arming 
 blacks, which, contrary to all the rules of prudence, 
 she has done in the face of the insurgents of St. Do- 
 mingo. This temerity has not ceased to be fortunate, 
 but these are things upon which we must not calculate. 
 England has no occasion for any thing but ships to 
 defend insular Colonies of small extent, thinly peopled, 
 and awed by strong military positions ; and so long as 
 she will have ships^ such Colonies as these will remain 
 in a state of subordination. 
 
 In return England has, by means of her marine, 
 fulfilled all her destiny. Never has any nation equally 
 united the elements of naval power, the genius which 
 vivifies, and the art which directs it. The English 
 are essentially a marine nation : they are also a com- 
 mercial nation, and consequently they are, above all 
 others, a colonial nation. To what an eminence have 
 they not, therefore, risen by their Colonies. We have 
 sketched the astonishing picture of their greatness, and 
 this greatness is of a nature to improve and increase, 
 as a matter of course ; for the English, having no 
 longer any rivals at sea, consequently can have none 
 in Colonies ; though inferior to the Spaniards in the 
 richness of their territorial possessions, they hold them 
 by a much more solid tenure ; for they can always 
 enter upon the Spanish settlements : they can choose 
 
THE COLONIES. 2«1 
 
 such of them as they find most to their convenience, 
 as they have done in the affair of Trinity, and as they 
 seem ready to do with respect to the PhiHppine Islands; 
 whilst the Spaniards, inferior in naval power, can never 
 insult the English possessions, reduced as they are to 
 the necessity of maintaining the regulations in their 
 ports, and the most strict defensive system in all their 
 Colonies. Matters have even arrived at that point, 
 that there is not one Colony of them which England 
 may not convert to her own advantage, whenever she 
 pleases ; and there is none that can oblige her to act in 
 the same manner, as is evident from the conclusion of 
 the two last wars. Such is the eminence to which 
 maritime superiority leads, and to which it has led 
 England. It makes amends for the defect in her po- 
 pulation corresponding to the extent of her Colonies : 
 she guards them more efficaciously by her ships than 
 others do by their battalions ; for she prevents with 
 her ships those battalions from landing in the Colonies; 
 and blockading, at the same time, the entire envelope 
 of the parent state, and all her Colonies, she makes it 
 impossible for them to hold any communication. This 
 is what she has carried into execution, on a grand 
 scale, during the long course of years that the two last 
 wars continued, which have exhibited her regularly 
 besieging all the ports of Europe, all the shores of the 
 Colonies belonging to her enemies, and tracing a line 
 of demarcation between them, which nothing was to 
 violate. Such are the effects of maritime superiority : 
 it makes England amends for the disproportion be- 
 tween the parent state and her own Colonies, and 
 those of others ; and without that marine which makes 
 her omnipresent and onmipotent by sea, how could she 
 reign from Hudson's Bay to the Mouths of the Ganges? 
 
222 THE COLONIES. 
 
 Continued success makes any defence of her vigilance 
 and attention to her maritime power superfluous. — 
 England, with a population inferior to that of France, 
 by almost one half, but with a marine infinitely su- 
 perior, has finished by driving France from all her 
 Colonies : she has, not to mention her ships, attacked, 
 demolished, and annihilated her fortresses, in which 
 the security and the glory of France consisted. France 
 had the advantage over England, in India, in the 
 priority of time, as well as in the pre-eminence of 
 force : her fortune under Dupleix had ascended to 
 that height which Eno-land has now attained. The 
 English marine has destroyed that brilliant edifice, 
 and established on its ruins the pow^r of the parent 
 state. 
 
 Such have been and such will ever be the result of 
 maritime superiority in the affairs of Colonies. 
 
 It was reserved for the revolution to enrich England 
 at the expence of the ruin of the whole world, to 
 labour in elevating and crowning the fortune of that 
 power when she was destroying every other power be- 
 sides. This phenomenon was the result of her naval 
 superiority alone ; the English were under no mistake 
 in acting thus. Having nothing to oppose to the 
 enemy by land they commenced a war against the 
 Colonies, and their success corresponded with that of 
 the enemy upon the continent. To every continental 
 conquest of the French the English opposed a colonial 
 one : but those two kinds of conquests differed in their 
 nature, and the difference was the same as that be- 
 tween the two conquering powers and the two theatres , 
 of their exploits ; for those of France were preferable 
 in their nature, whilst those of the English were not : 
 the reason will be found in the different character of the 
 
THE COLONIES. ^23 
 
 two powers and in that of the elements upon which 
 they exercised it. However excellent the French 
 troops may be, they might be opposed with others 
 equally good ; but there was nothing to be seen which 
 could be opposed against the fleets of England ; for it 
 cannot be disguised, that all the fleets of Europe put 
 together were not equal to those of England alone. 
 Where then could the means be formed of tearing any 
 colonial conquests from her. War is no longer the 
 method by which she can be deprived of them ; peace 
 alone can oblige her to make restitution ; and negocia- 
 tions, more efllicacious than force, have in these latter 
 times obtained that which force could never have ex- 
 torted ; it is only under certain circumstances that 
 men are able to judge of many things : for this pur- 
 pose it is necessary that matters should be carried to 
 the very extreme. Before these latter years, for in- 
 stance, we could have formed an idea of the maritime 
 power of England and of its influence on the colonial 
 system in general, but we could not have represented 
 that power to ourselves in the extended point of view 
 in which it has really appeared. In reality, the marine 
 of England had been observed in some wars, parti- 
 cularly in that of 1 756, to display a great superiority 
 over that of its enemies as well in Europe as in the 
 . Colonies ; but, on no occasion, had it displayed so de- 
 cided an ascendancy, a power so very preponderant ; 
 never had she been observed embracinoc all the shores 
 of Europe, on her thousand arms, all the accessible 
 points of the Colonies, and, like a wall, placing 
 herself on the seas as a barrier between all pa- 
 rent states and all Colonies, forbidding all commu- 
 nication between them. It was necessary that mat- 
 ters should be carried so far to give a correct idea of 
 
^52* THE COLONIES. 
 
 the naval power of England. If it may be considered 
 a paradox, or as flattery addressed to England to as- 
 sert, that all the fleets of Europe are not equal to her's 
 alone ; we beg leave to observe, that to confine our- 
 selves to the consideration of the elements of the 
 forces by looking at the maternel alone, is only look-*- 
 ing at the weaker side ; that it is necessary, above all, 
 to take the moral dispositions into account, which are 
 requisite by their union to that physical force, its full 
 development and all its action. For v^'hich reason, to 
 be in possession of ships and materials for ship build- 
 ing, and of hands to navigate them, is not enough to 
 make a state powerful by sea : who can be prevented 
 from obtaining such elementary materials of force ? 
 \ But that which should give them their impulse is the 
 good dispositions of all the parties destined to put 
 / them in motion^ — the proper direction which they 
 ( know how to impress, and, above all, the facility with 
 I which their movements can be carried into execution* 
 ^^Flere, as every where else, physical force fulfils its in- 
 variable distinction, that of being subservient to moral 
 force. Therefore, though Europe might be able, by 
 joining all her fleets, to count a greater number of 
 ships than England ; although she should be more rich 
 in means of building others, nevertheless, as her forces 
 are scattered and as she has not that unity of interest, 
 and consequently of will, in those who dispose of those 
 ships and in the arms which navigate thenni,in the places 
 which contain them ; the unity which belongs to Eng- 
 land alone would compensate for her inferiority in 
 point of number, her moral would destroy material 
 superiority, and, it is very possible, that this creature 
 of the imagination, a coalition of all the fleets of 
 Eiurope against England, should a war happen to be 
 
THE COLONIES. ^2^ 
 
 realized, we will venture to say, that it is extremely 
 probable that it would serve no other purpose than to 
 establish her superiority, and to raise to her glory a 
 monument unknown in the history of the world. We 
 have seen a sample of this in the vigorous manner in 
 which she suftbcated the armed neutrality of 1801, 
 even in the very port of Copenhagen ; and to strike 
 the blow sh6 was not under the necessity of taking a 
 single vessel from the ordinary stations. 
 
 This very superiority of maritime power forms be- 
 sides such ties between England and her Colonies as 
 are well adapted to keep them united together, and to 
 act as a guarantee for the fidehty of the Colonies and 
 of all the advantages resulting from them to the 
 mother country : for, in consequence of that superio- 
 rity, the Colony at all times enjoys the blessings of 
 peace, and its state, it may be said, is that of perpetual 
 peace. The Colonist, in the state of things in which 
 he is placed, can have nothing to do in the quarrels of 
 the parent state ; they never concern him directly: yet 
 as soon as they take place they fall with all their weight 
 upon him in spite of all he can do. His happiness is 
 interrupted, his essential condition compromised; for as 
 that cannot be any thing else but a productive state, 
 in order that he may have a source of consumption, 
 every thing that stops that desirable motive, which, 
 like that of the heart, is the principle of colonial life, 
 as that is the principle of life in the animal world, 
 every thing which interrupts relations so very necessary, 
 is injurious to the Colonist, and, by continuance, be- 
 comes the cause of his misfortunes and his ruin ; it can- 
 not be beheld by the Colonist in any other light than 
 as an obstacle to his happiness, an obstacle which it is 
 his duty to remove whenever it is in his power. Such 
 
f25 THE COLONIES. 
 
 is the wretched condition pf Colonies that belong ta 
 states whose maritime power is of an inferior class. 
 As soon as a war breaks out the great artery of their 
 commerce is cut; no longer any circulation, no longer 
 any clearances or entries ; cultivation languishes in the 
 midst of a barren abundance, which cannot now be 
 made use of to supply the wants of the growers. The 
 route of the parent state is stopped, the communica- 
 tion of the whole world with the Colony interrupted ; 
 the enemy may land, take possession, and dispose of 
 it, as he pleases. Nothing of this kind either troubles 
 or menaces the English Colonies : war carries on his 
 ravages around them, its brazen voice thunders at their 
 gates, sounds vain and idle ! useless efforts ! The fleets 
 of England are there for the protection of her Colo- 
 nies. Under the shelter of her triumphant flag, the 
 English Colonist cultivates and reposes in perfect 
 security, as the French cultivator does in France be- 
 hind the triple rampart which covers at once his farm 
 and his country. While other Colonists groan in pri- 
 sons and see the fruits of their useless labour going to 
 waste, the English Colonist sees his own increasing ; 
 he appropriates the misfortunes of his neighbours, and 
 prospers from their calamities. The ocean is always 
 open for the conveyance of his commodities, for the 
 arrival of the transports belonging to the mother 
 country ; and the English fleets, embracing every sea, 
 cover all their routes for the purpose of maintaining in 
 favour of their colonial commerce a regularity of com- 
 munication equal to that which the continent main- 
 tains between its difl'erent parts ; and the posts between 
 London and Dublin do not pass and repass with 
 greater regularity than the fleets between England and 
 India, between London and Jamaica, This advantage 
 7 
 
THE COLONIES. 227 
 
 is immense, and completes in the colonial order, every 
 thing which might be expected from maritime power. 
 
 To this first and capital advantage England joiiis 
 those which result from' the superiority of capital and 
 industry. 
 
 As England abounds in riches, and as the minds of 
 her people are entirely turned to trade, the English 
 can embrace every branch of commerce, the advances 
 for which they can readily furnish, while other nations 
 are unable, and are frequently under the necessity of 
 applying for them to England herself. This advantage 
 puts the English in a situation of not declining to 
 engage in any enterprise, or of refusing any demand 
 on the part of others, and of tempting, in all parts, 
 the trader and consumer, by the advances which they 
 make to the one, and the credit they offer to the other. 
 The bait is too tempting not to be strong, and when 
 once allowed, it is no easy matter to get rid of it, be- 
 cause the English possess the art of entangling their 
 customers, in a manner that prevents from breaking 
 oif when they please. Their advances and cheap bar- 
 gains introduce them into every business, and when 
 once they have made their ground good, it is no easy 
 matter to dislodge them. 
 
 When the consumers have tasted the sweets of 
 credit and cheap bargains, which the English go about 
 offering every where, it cannot be conceived how they 
 will return to the high prices of other merchants ; high 
 prices which must progressively increase, even from 
 their very poverty ; for in proportion as money^ the 
 raw materials, and hands, become scarcer with them, 
 the expense of commerce, which is made up of those 
 three elements, must necessarily augment, and place 
 the natipn which sells at a higher rate in a state of 
 
 a 2 
 
228 THE COLONIES. 
 
 relative inferiority with that nation which sells on 
 better terms, and consequently must lower the oae 
 and raise the other, in the same proportion, in all the 
 markets of the world. 
 
 The EngHsh, masters, by means of their Colonies, 
 of the soil which produces some of the articles most 
 sought after, in all the processes of finishing, are in 
 possession of the means of adding a value to their 
 fabrics, beyond all comparison with their primitive 
 value : they have the art of adding to it one hundred 
 fold. The cotton which grows on the English Colonies, 
 purchased at a low price in Asia, in America, in Africa, 
 acquires, under their industrious hands, the most en- 
 chanting forms, assumes the most pleasing colours, out- 
 striding even the nimble-footed goddess, called Fashion. 
 The EngHsh are before her in every taste and com- 
 mand, even when they seem to obey her. The cottons 
 of England have triumphed over their ancient rivals, 
 the silk manufactures of France: Manchester has 
 conquered Lyons. From whence come those cloths, 
 which, from one extremity of Europe to the other, 
 adorn every counter, invite purchasers by the freshness 
 and brilliancy of their colours, and are worn by per- 
 sons of all ages, sexes, and conditions ? The people 
 every where will dress only after the English fashion. 
 They will have nothing but what is English. Where 
 is the seat of this universal empire ? Is it not in the 
 number and the industry of their manufactures, in 
 which invention and simplicity of process abridge both 
 time and manual labour ; where taste is every day 
 creating new patterns ; where it bestows such lustre, 
 texture, and polish, on every fabric, as to present too 
 striking a contrast with the samples which the industry 
 ^f other nations produce, to allow of any competition t 
 
THE COLONIES. 29.9 
 
 This superiority in quality and in taste has forced the 
 manufacturers of many other countries to have recourse 
 to imitation, without which they would find themselves 
 deserted. It is only under the mask of English that 
 the greatest part of their goods can show themselves, 
 and that they can find a market. But their clumsy 
 art, and the constant slightness of the fabrics of other 
 nations, throw them far behind those whose name they 
 borrow — the disguise cannot deceive any eye of the 
 least experience. 
 
 This double superiority of capital and ingenuity has 
 carried matters to the same height, in a commercial 
 point of view, as their maritime sujieriority has in a 
 political. England no longer has any competitors on 
 the one side more than on the other, and she can 
 no more be rivalled in manufactures than in fleets : 
 foreigners cannot excel her, except in such articles of 
 consumption as are the growth of their own soil, and 
 with which England is not provided. Thus it happens 
 that France, Spain, and Italy, have productions for 
 common consumption which England has not, but 
 that is all ; for when they return to manufactures, or 
 to goods for foreign markets, England resumes her 
 rights and her superiority. It was upon such a basis 
 that she built her commercial treaty with France. She 
 opposes her manufactures to articles of primary con- 
 sumption ; and as the former afford the means of much 
 more extended profits, the superiority of a manufac^ 
 turing over a growing nation cannot be disputed : 
 cotton, for instance, can acquire, in a manufactured 
 state, a value thirty tinqes superior to that which it had 
 in its primitive state : the productions of the soil, on 
 the contrary, always remaining the same as in their 
 natural state, consequently remain at a price too steady 
 
230 THE COLONIES. 
 
 to admit of any change, but such as results from those 
 trifling oscillations, which are the consequence of either 
 an abundant or a deficient crop. A measure of wine 
 is not sold thirty times above its ordinary and natural 
 price ; but a pound of cotton, in a manufactured state, 
 is equal to thirty times its price in a brown state. 
 Labour is productive of gain in the one article; it is 
 unproductive in the other ; the value of one it reduces, 
 the other it increases ten-fold : the state of nature is 
 what suits the one; the other, in order to reach perfec- 
 tion, must depart from it as far as possible. 
 
 Now, to apply these principles to the Colonies and 
 to return to our subject, we shall ask, in the first 
 placCj if superiority in capital and industry is not an 
 additional safe-guard for the English Colonies ? Sec- 
 ondly, if it be not an additional arm raised against the 
 Colonies of other nations, so that it may very well 
 happen, that England may have occasion for no other 
 defence for her Colonies but that which her own in- 
 dustry and capital will afford, nor for any other means 
 of attack against 'the Colonies of other nations but 
 what result from this very capital and this same in- 
 dustry? To be convinced of this, nothing more is ne- 
 cessary than to re-ascend to the elementary principles 
 of every Colony. What is a Colony in itself? A field, 
 a farm, a magazine of native productions, which it 
 keeps for the purpose of exchanging them for such 
 articles of consumption as it has not, and which.it can- 
 not do without. The Colonies produce articles of pri- 
 mary necessity which cannot find any market except 
 in the parent states ; but it is only in those states that 
 the Colony can be supplied with such commodities as 
 it has not in itself: as good bargains are to Colonies as 
 to every consumer^ the only rule which they consul tj 
 
THE COLONIES. 2Si 
 
 the only motive of discrimination and of choice, that 
 parent state wliich offers them this advantage is sure of 
 a preference, and from that circumstance alone should 
 become the country of their adoption. The English 
 Colonies ought therefore to remain with their natural 
 parent state, because it is, at the same time, that of 
 their choice, and that which supplies them ; because 
 no other can give them the same advantages^ and be- 
 cause they are attached to her as much by the tieS of 
 interest, as by those of right and of blood. Nay more ; 
 should even England declare them independent, they 
 would not be eager to embrace the offer, and would 
 maintain their relations with her; the only thing which 
 to her is a matter of any importance. Perhaps with 
 respect to some articles of consumption prohibited, or 
 exclusively monopolized by the parent state, the Eng- 
 lish Colonies might gain by the separation ; but it 
 would be confined to that alone. As to the separation 
 of the sovereignty, it would by no means draw with it 
 that of a separation of interests, which is the only thing 
 to be considered with regard to Colonies ; for a state 
 retains Colonies only to derive profit from them ; and 
 if that take place, by one way or the other, either by 
 sovereignty or commerce, what does it signify, where 
 is the difference, and how is the parent state injured? 
 England, therefore, retains her Colonies by the ties of 
 their interests ; she has that advantage over parent 
 states whose Colonies, for the same reason, have the 
 greatest interest in a separation ; for, as their thoughts 
 are exclusively occupied with their personal interests, 
 as in the case with individuals, they must have a 
 leaning towards that power that enables them to find 
 it ; and as it is England alone which offers it to them, 
 they are attracted to her, aqd it is her superior capital 
 
232 THE COLONIES. 
 
 and iudustiy which creates that attraction. England 
 has besides derived a third advantage from her Colo- 
 nies, namely, that which results from an excellent in- 
 ternal administration. All the different nations are 
 established in their Colonies agreeably to their peculiar 
 
 f- genius, and ujdou the model of that government which 
 
 I was established over them in Europe. Despotism and 
 arbitrary government have fallen to the lot of the Colo- 
 nies which belong to the southern kingdoms, which 
 
 ; are devoted to absolute governments. Liberty has 
 been the portion of the English Colonies, peopled and 
 established by iji free country. The English Colonists, 
 
 ^ whatever may be their distance from the parent state, 
 have not entirely to lament the loss of the government 
 of the country from which they came. The only 
 
 ; thing they have to regret is the soil itself; the govern- 
 ment and its paternal laws live in the midst of them ; 
 they are in full vigour there as well as in England, 
 The Colonies of the Antilles and of Canada govern 
 themselves ; the Colonist is his own legislator. This 
 
 \: 
 
 is a strong tie, because it leaves no room for any dis- 
 
 agreement between the mother country and the Colo- 
 nies. When the latter possess the judicial authority, 
 they have no grounds of complaint against the mother 
 country which governs them in a manner which they 
 can hardly feel, and which, except in concerns of 
 common interest, abandons them to their free will. 
 This happy regulation, by exempting them from a 
 number of services, inherent in the condition of a vas- 
 sal, freeing them also from the obligation of having 
 recourse to a distant country, on account of their ordi^ 
 nary wants ; this regulation, I repeat, exempts at 
 the same time the Colony from discontent against the 
 mother country and the mother country from the im- 
 
THE COLONIES. 233 
 
 portunity and complaints of the Colonies. One cannot 
 see how, unless from extraordinary cijcumstances, the 
 good understanding which subsists between them can 
 be interrupted ; for they have the least possible cause 
 for coming to any misunder&tanding : different from 
 other Colonies, which, having no government of their 
 own, but being governed in every point, and that from 
 a distance, have to suffer at once from the change, and 
 the ignorance of their governors, as well as from the 
 necessity under whicli they lie of going to a great dis- 
 tance to expose their wants and to make their com- 
 plaints. Let any one calculate how burdensome such 
 a position is to the Colonies, and fatiguing to the pa- 
 rent state. What time and trouble it must take to 
 make known the truth to men in other climates in 
 any matter that concerns the Colonies. What perse- 
 verance is requisite to overcome the disgust, the for- 
 malities, and the tediousness of those men, to fix their 
 attentions upon interests so very remote, to obtain jus- 
 tice against the inhabitants of the mother country, 
 often times against the very agents of the authority 
 whose justice they are imploring. This, however, is 
 the state in which are the Colonies of all the states of 
 Europe, with the exception of those of England. The 
 aversion of the mother country must, therefore, neces- 
 sarily increase with the increase of power in the Colo- 
 nies, with the progress of knowledge ; but, above all, 
 after the example of the separation of America, and 
 the success with which it was attended. 
 
 England has this additional assurance with regard 
 to her Colonies ; they have this one motive less for 
 wishing to separate. A new bond is therefore formed 
 between the parent state and the Colony by attending 
 to the principle of giving an internal government ca- 
 
234 THE COLONIES. 
 
 pable of providing for their wants, and of lightening 
 the weight of tliat chain which ties them to the mother 
 country. 
 
 But who has created in England, and for England, 
 the principle and the means of that colonial prosperity, 
 and those immense successes ? Are they the work of 
 chance, the fruit of the labours of certain individuals, 
 the effect of some fortunate circumstances, or of false 
 steps made by the enemy ? Assuredly not : all these 
 fortuitous circumstances have favoured other nations^ 
 as well as England ; fortune or chance is not attended 
 with a steadiness of this description ; and see too at 
 what a distance she has left them all behind. The 
 reason is, that she had, which they had not^a consti- 
 tution which has given a degree of stability to all her 
 plans that other nations under arbitrary governments 
 could not attain to. The English constitution has 
 done every thing for England : her uninterrupted pros- 
 perity is dated from the moment that it presided over 
 her destinies. The one may be measured by the 
 other ; by such means has she been exalted in the 
 ^ame proportion as her rival, unprovided with the same 
 support, has been sunk. 
 
 /* After all, men do not act of themselves in a strong 
 and durable manner, but by means of their institu- 
 
 "1 tions. France has produced as many, even more, 
 great men than England, but from the want of the 
 cement of durable institutions their work has perished 
 at the same time that the labours of the English, tied 
 together by their institutions, became in a manner 
 identified with them, and participated in their dura- 
 tion. It was the English constitution that built the 
 fleets which gave her the Colonies, because it was that 
 constitution that collected the trea^sure, and main* 
 
THE COLONIES. 2SS 
 
 tained the credit, which paid for those conquests: 
 the fleets and the warriors were the arms of that con- 
 stitution ; it is to that constitution they are lent, be- 
 cause by it has England been defended, and remained 
 uncontaminated by the touch of an enemy; or by 
 bankruptcy — two things veiy common in every state 
 not defended by the same bulwark. The English 
 constitution, by giving the English every thing which 
 gives Colonies, has given the Colonies themselves; 
 and it is by the same moving power which preserves 
 them in their island that they reign over so many 
 others. The English are at present the most power- 
 ful nation in the universe, from this circumstance 
 alone, that they have been the first who enjoyed a 
 constitution ; their superiority affords a motive and 
 source of consolation to other nations; it belongs 
 equally to them as to th^ English ; and they cannot 
 be humiliated by the comparison, since, in order to 
 equal it, they have only to imitate it. 
 
 There was a time when the names of France and 
 the Colonies were joined together with the softest 
 bands, and the most delightful harmony. . . . Alas! 
 this source of happiness is become a source of tears ! 
 France, colonially speaking, is no more; she holds 
 the lowest rank in the colonial system : it is not a 
 century ago that she held the first, that very rank in 
 which fortunate England now rules over the universe. 
 France was then in the possession of Canada, Acadia, 
 Newfoundland, Louisiana, Guiana, a part of the West 
 Indies, Senegal, Madagascar, the islands of France 
 and 'Bourbon; and, finally, India, nearly in the same 
 degree that England is at present in possession of 
 them ; for Dupleix and the other French commanderi 
 
236 THE COLONIES/ 
 
 in India sepni to have traced out the plans, and laid 
 down the routes which have hecn followed by Lord 
 Clive, Hastings, and the other civil and military con- 
 querors whom England has had in India, Siam, Co- 
 chin China, and China were open to the French trade; 
 England possesses no more. What has become of this 
 opulent and brilliant edifice ? What has destroyed it ? 
 Certainly it is not, as in Portugal, want of population ; 
 it is not, as in Spain,want of industry, or aversion from 
 business and labour : there must be then other causes, 
 and where can they be found but in the non-observance 
 of the principles of the colonial system, which are laid 
 down above ? France wished for Colonies, without 
 wishing for that which creates and preserves them, a 
 navy ; she desired the effect, but not the cause ; she 
 well felt the value of Colonies, but does not seem to 
 have known what they depended upon ; she wished 
 for the fruit, and turned away her eyes from the tree 
 on which it hung. France also has always governed 
 her Colonies without their concurrence, and often di- 
 rectly contrary to their wishes ; she wanted that which 
 could cement these valuable possessions to her. Was 
 there need of any thing further to bring her to that 
 destitute state to which she has fallen, and to reduce 
 her from the first to the last rank in the colonial 
 system ? 
 
 Far from us is the wish to afflict France by the pic- 
 ture of the change which she has suffered ; but the 
 interest of the subject is so great, that it will serve as an 
 excuse for the details which it obliges us to enter into. 
 
 Of all the European nations, the French would least 
 feel the inconvenience of a great extension of Colonies, 
 because the extent and population of France exceeds 
 
THE COLONIES. 237 
 
 those of all the nations who possess Colonies. She 
 has within herself abundant means to provide for 
 them ; she contains 25,000,000 of inhabitants, while 
 England, with her three kingdoms, scarcely contains 
 12,000,000j Spain ten, and Portugal three. What a 
 rich fund for a good and solid establishment of Co- 
 lonies ; but France having neglected her navy, the 
 members were separated from the body, its arms were 
 not able to defend it, and the branches have been 
 lopped from the trunk with which they had ceased to 
 communicate. The navy is the channel through 
 which the colonial sap ought to circulate, and when 
 this circulation is interrupted, death, that is to say, se- 
 paration, cannot fail to follow. But see what France 
 has experienced from a multitude of causes. 
 
 France is a vast country, and of a great depth, in 
 which, however great may be the extent of her coasts, 
 the chief part of the people live far from the sea, and 
 dread rather than like it, being terrified by the stories 
 of shipwrecks, and the dangers of navigation, much 
 more than they are attracted by the statement of its 
 advantages. The capital is situated in the centre of 
 the state, distant from the sea; few sailors were seen 
 there, and they had no pre-eminence ; in the interior 
 of the provinces they were rare, and except in those 
 which lay upon the coasts, they were never seen in 
 any number. All the attention of the government 
 was directed towards the army, upon whom all fa- 
 vours were bestowed : this was the consequence of 
 the continental system, and a country cannot fol- 
 low two systems at the same time. The navy in 
 France has always been affected by having an in- 
 ferior rank assigned to it, as the army in England^ 
 has suffered from a like degradation ; because in all 
 
2S8 THE COLONIES. 
 
 countries every cause acts according to its own nature* 
 The French do not appear, by history, at any ttrne to 
 have seriously turned their attention to the navy. At 
 the timf^ of the crusades, the fleets of Venice and the 
 ItaHan Repubhcs, conveyed them to the tombs which 
 they went to seek for in Syria and in Egypt. Since 
 then they have been engaged in wars against Flanders, 
 against England, against Austria, against the sovereigns 
 of Italy, and against the Protestants ; but, in all this 
 length of time, they never once turned their thoughts 
 to a navy. Louis XIV. wished for one, and Colbert 
 created it by a word ; but as this creation had the 
 rapidity of lightening, it had also its fleeting duration. 
 The French navy, a brilliant, but passing meteor, was 
 destroyed at Cape La Hogue and at Vigo : some for- 
 tunate and splendid actions did not restore it, because 
 a branch of power like this does not consist in a few 
 acts without connection and without consequence. 
 The French King, engaged in the defence of his in- 
 vaded frontiers and threatened capital, was not able 
 to give any attention to his ngivy. The Regency, di- 
 vided between debauchery and bankruptcy, between 
 the quarrels of the parliament and the bull of Unigeni- 
 tiC6, was not quite in a fit state to restore it. Cardinal 
 Fleury, when he quitted Frejus, had forgotten Tou- 
 lon, and seems not to have known that there were 
 ports in France. Moreover, he was too careful of 
 keeping on good terms with England to give it any 
 subject of jealousy. Thus, when the wars of 1 740 
 and of 1756 commenced, England, who had turned 
 her attention to the navy in proportion as her rival had 
 neglected it, had no difficulty in driving her enemy 
 from all his Colonies, and made him purchase, with 
 the renunciation of his great settlements, some Co- 
 
THE COLONIES. 2St 
 
 lonies of which she only granted the temporary enjoy- 
 ment, while she waited for a favourable opportunity to 
 retake them, which lias just happened.* Was it for 
 want of numerous or skilful armies that France was 
 not able to preserve India, Acadia, or Canada ? What 
 at that time were the armies of England, in com- 
 parison with hers ? Was it owing to a want of sTcill or 
 of enthusiastic courage on the part of her sailors ? no ; 
 France reckons illustrious names in this oareer; even 
 the history of the English navy does not offer any 
 which can be placed above those of Tourville and Du- 
 quesne. In all engagements between single vessels, a 
 French ship has never been afraid of entering the lists 
 with an English one. In the American war, the na» 
 vy, which was raised up by Louis XVI. appeared 
 again with honour upon the seas astonished at her 
 unexpected presence. But all these efforts, or rather 
 all these experiments, though satisfactory to the ho- 
 nour of the nation, were insufficient for the effectual 
 protection of great Colonies. France might have 
 learned what she had to do, when she saw England 
 never deviate from the fundamental rule of keeping 
 her maritime power proportionate to her colonial do- 
 minion : the example was before her, she had only to 
 follow it ; by having fleets like England, she would 
 also have had Colonies equal to hers. It was not Clive 
 or Wolf who drove the French out of India and Ca- 
 nada, but it was the English Admirals and fleets, who, 
 acting together with the army against the Colonies, 
 formed a chain which it was impossible to break, while 
 the Colonies and armies of France, always separated 
 from it, owing to the want of fleets, ended in yielding 
 to an enemy who was relieved, without any obstacle, 
 by succours from the mother country^ 
 
240 THE COLONIES. 
 
 France was also deceived in two important points^ 
 which she then thought would make up for the defi- 
 ciency of her own navy. 
 
 First, She reckoned upon the co-operation of the 
 Spanish navy; a co-operation which only embarrassed 
 her, and was of use only to enervate every thing by the 
 want of action, or to ruin every thing by acting as at 
 Trafalgar and at Ferrol. The three last wars have 
 been sufficient to cause the danger and the inutility of 
 it ta be perfectly felt. 
 
 Secondly, France also relied, for the defence of her 
 Colonies, upon the fortresses with which she had gar- 
 risoned them ; a defence which was insufficient, since 
 the navy could not support them : and this want of 
 support delivered them up to the enemy in course of 
 time, from whom it is consequently more difficult to 
 take them. The French government have shown a 
 want of judgment, in thus pursuing, in the Colonies, a 
 system of defence which is proper for France. For- 
 tresses protect this country very well, because they are, 
 in their turn, protected by the French armies, which 
 are always present on the spot ; while, on the other 
 hand, the French fleets were always insufficient, and 
 absent from the spot which they ought to have de- 
 fended. So that, as there was not the least resemblance 
 between the two objects themselves, there could be 
 none between their accompanying properties, which 
 they so improperly referred to the same standard. It 
 was this mixture of negligence and forgetful ness, of 
 false confidence, and of false judgment, which 
 brought the Colonies of France to an unhappy end, 
 while England has not made one false step in the same 
 career. 
 
 The French Colonies were governed, like the pro^ 
 
THE COLONIES. 2*1 
 
 vinces of France, by officers sent from the mother 
 country, and appointed by her. It was nearly a ge- 
 neral rule never to admit the Colonists even to the 
 most subaltern situations : this system was oppressive 
 to the Colonist, and very unfavourable to the Colony, 
 from the reasons which we shall hereafter show. ^ 
 
 France, moreover, never having had a regular go*' j 
 vernment, or what could be called a constitution, has / 
 suffered all the mischiefs that are attached to the un-/ 
 certainty of that kind of government which is con- j 
 centrated in a single man, who orders certain men to 
 rule, in his name, over all the others. In France there-' 
 have always been great men, but never great designs ; 
 the latter result from an idea being followed up, and 
 from a system being formed which is connected in all 
 its parts. But how could there be any sequel or con- 
 sistency, when every thing was subject to that incon- 
 stancy which is a necessary property of the human 
 mind, and to those variations which necessarily follow 
 any change of the agents of this arbitrary authority, and 
 even to those alterations which are to be observed in 
 the same man, according to the degree of his age, 
 health, or fortune : for a man is always three different 
 persons in youth, in maturity, and in old age, bearing 
 not the least resemblance to each other. Look at 
 Louis XIV, how different he was at these three pe- 
 riods ! A good constitution is the only thing which can 
 secure us from the mischiefs inherent in the changed 
 which form part of the nature of man. A constitution 
 is the ballast which gives regularity to the motion of 
 the vessel, and helps it to carry sail ; it is also the an- 
 chor which fixes it in port, and which, by keeping it 
 always near the shore, protects it from dangers, and 
 from the violence of the wind and the teipp^st. 
 
24.2 THE COLONIES/ 
 
 France has always been very badly off for institu- 
 tions ; while England had them in abundance : the 
 former has been a loser in the same proportions that 
 the latter has been a gainer. The causes, in the two 
 nations, have been followed by their necessary effects : 
 one nation has fallen, tl>e other has been aggrandised, 
 and France, abandoned to all the vicissitudes which 
 follow the want of a constitution, has lost all her Co- 
 lonies ; while England, resting upon the firm ground 
 of a good constitution, has strengthened herself by co* 
 lonial conquests so much, as now to be the entire mis- 
 tress of all the Colonies. France, though much better 
 provided with the means of supporting immense Colo- 
 nies than any of the other European powers, ha» not 
 been able to keep herself in that high rank which she 
 had obtained, owing to having neglected the princi- 
 ples upon which the colonial system depends. 
 
 We have never blamed the industry and the capital 
 of France for the ruin of the Colonies. She has never 
 wanted, nor ever will want, capital or industry, when 
 they are not obstructed by this system of things, which 
 restrains them or drives them away^ which suppresses 
 them or causes them to disappear. 
 
 If we want to point out a state actively employed for 
 the benefit of its Colonies, and Colonies useful to the 
 mother country, we must quote England and her Co- 
 lonies ; if, on the other hand, we wish to point out a 
 state inactive and of no advantage to its Colonies, and 
 Colonies entirely useless to the mother country, Spain 
 and her Colonies must be named. What a spectacle, 
 in fact, does not that nation offer with respect to her 
 Colonics, both in the Old and in the New World ; a 
 much more miserable one, even, than it does in Eu- 
 rope, for European Spain is a prodigy, in comparison 
 
THE COLONIES. 243 
 
 with the Spain of America or of Asia. This state of 
 languor, this universal decline, arises from the dispro- 
 portion of the mother country to the Colonies, from 
 the inferiority of her navy, and from the nature of 
 her government, both in Europe and in the Colonies. 
 
 No country has ever carried so far as Spain the 
 abuse of extending Colonies too much. In Europe 
 she possessed only 25,000 square leagues ; while, in 
 her Colonies, she was in the possession of 120,000, 
 twenty times as much as in Europe : this speaks every 
 thing. 
 
 A nation which, in Europe, wanders over a country 
 almost a desert, though only 240 leagues in length 
 and 200 in breadth; a nation which, in Europe, beholds 
 its villages deserted, its manufactories abandoned, and 
 its fields without cultivation, requiring hands which it 
 cannot furnish, has had the unthinking audacity to 
 invade, to keep, and to attempt to cover with popula*- 
 tion, countries in which it would be entirely swallowed 
 up. It was unthinking enough to burthen its chil- 
 dren, though so thinly scattered already in the Old 
 World, with the charge of peopling the new one : and, 
 by thus dividing its blood and its strength, it can only 
 form out of the weakened parts a body languishing 
 and equally without energy all over. And the time, 
 moreover, which Spain chose for this disastrous greedi- 
 ness, was after seven years of war against the Moors, 
 after the expulsion, according to Bleda, of about 
 29,300 of them, and in the midst of wars which were 
 incessantly bursting out again, and with possessions 
 scattered over the whole surface of Europe. Spain was 
 at that time in the possession of the Low Countries, 
 Franche Compte, Sardinia, Sicily, the Duchy of Milan, 
 Naples, and Portugal. Such dominions were a con- 
 
 K 2 
 
2i4 THE COLONIES. 
 
 / titiual eause of war ; for war was then nearly habitual 
 / to every nation : and this prodigious dispersion of pos- 
 \ sessions, by making Spain a neighbour to all the world, 
 \ made her also always quarrelling with all the world, 
 I Thus there is not a single page of the history of Spain 
 j which is not stained with blood, nor a single period at 
 ' which she was not engaged in war, and in a war al- 
 ways equally unfortunate for her. Her armies, which 
 were always incomplete, were scarcely sufficient for 
 the defence of her European dominions, to which they 
 were far from proportionate ; and every year beheld 
 some of her possessions either threatened or destroyed; 
 Spain was weeping in Europe, and nevertheless, at the 
 same time, spreading herself over the whole surface of 
 America, and part of Asia. The inhabitants of the 
 Colonies were perishing in crowds, owing to the cli- 
 mate and the employment of grubbing up the new 
 lands being so very unhealthy, and owing to the igno- 
 rance of the manner of living which was proper in 
 these new countries ; for the settlers, composed chiefly 
 of adventurers, were a very bad class of people. The 
 climate, riches, and the pride of power introduced 
 vices of every kind among the conquerors, which added 
 greatly to the causes of mortality that naturally 
 existed in the Colonies ; they decimated the miserable 
 Spaniards, who, however, only thought of extending 
 their dominions : an inconceivable madness, an inex- 
 plicable passion which, transforming a whole nation 
 into misers, left it no other desire than that of increas- 
 ing its riches, even without knowing how to enjoy them. 
 How different would Spain have been if, confining her 
 desires within the bounds of her ability, she had pre- 
 scribed to herself a voluntary limit ; and if, out of these 
 vast acquisitions she had made that choice which her 
 
THE COLONIES. 243 
 
 interest would have dictated, and abandoned all the 
 rest ! The proper knowledge of her interest would 
 have been taken for magnanimity, and Spain would 
 at once have derived both honour and profit from this 
 resolution ; and would have avoided those mischiefs 
 which she has voluntarily brought upon herself, from 
 mere avidity without any real advantage. 
 
 How different even would Europe in general have 
 been, if Spain, by making this relinquishment, had 
 left for other nations that place which she holds with 
 no advantage either to herself or others. They would 
 have made use of it, and would have turned to profit 
 that variety of productions which nature seems created 
 to impart; their population, both more numerous and 
 more active^ would have embraced, have covered, and 
 have cultivated this happy land, which has remained 
 unfruitful and barren owing to the impotent laziness 
 of the Spaniards. How much treasure, how many 
 articles of use and luxury would Europe, in that case, 
 have enjoyed, of which it is now deprived, and of 
 which it is now ignorant, owing to a proprietor having 
 the exclusive possession, who is as devoid of the will 
 as of the means of searching for them. As the pos- 
 session of two extensive Colonies has exhausted and 
 ruined Spain, it has also, beyond doubt, prevented 
 Europe from acquiring wealth ; and, without making 
 any compensation, has deprived it of immense advan- 
 tages which Spain was not in a condition to make use 
 of: one has been ruined, the other has been precluded 
 from advantages, and the monopoly of America by 
 Spain has been equally a scourge to the New and to 
 the Old World. Such is the effect of this kind of mo- 
 nopoly, which, by rendering the owner dispropor- 
 tionate to his property, leaves the property unattended 
 
 2 
 
246 THE COLONIES. 
 
 to, and the owner without a fortune corresponding with 
 the extent of his domains. The property goes to ruin, 
 and the owner derives no benefit from it ; when, if the 
 property had been more proportionate to his capacity, 
 it would have afforded him as much wealth and far less 
 trouble. The land would have gained by passing into 
 hands which- would have come near it, arid the public 
 would have gained by this homage to the elementary 
 principle that every thing should be in proportion. 
 This applies as much to political economy, as to do- 
 mestic economy. It is as true with regard to states, as 
 with regard to individuals, the former can gain no 
 i more than the latter by giving farther than their na- 
 \ tural proportions will allow ; and history, that unex- 
 jceptionable and incorruptible witness, has shown that 
 Iruin has always followed both when they have en- 
 deavoured to go beyond their means. 
 
 The navy of Spain has always been in a low con- 
 dition, notwithstanding all the means she has taken to 
 acquire a naval superiority. From the time of her in- 
 vincible Armada she has never been able to arrive at 
 the formation of great fleets, and still less of very 
 active fleets, for with however great a number of ships 
 she fills or decorates her naval register it is not 
 the less true that she has never had more than fifty in 
 a condition for service. It is equally true that Spain, 
 with a population nearly equal to two thirds of that of 
 the three kingdoms, with at least an equal number of 
 ports, and with the advantage of its situation upon the 
 two seas, has not a quarter of the number of sailors 
 that England has. This disproportion renders Spain 
 so feeble with regard to maritime power, that a war 
 with Spain has always been a subject of public re- 
 joicing at London, and an opportunity offered to Eng- 
 
THE COLONIES. 247 
 
 land of acquiring riches ; Spain is always looked upon 
 }ess as an enemy than as a prey. Since the time of 
 Cromwell, the Spaniards have never enpjaged singly 
 with the English without being conquered ; tiiey have 
 always been led in triumph at London ; and from 
 Drake and Blake, to Nelson, to attack and to beat the. 
 Spaniards were synonymous to the English. They 
 have been not a little supported hy uniting with the 
 French fleets ; yet this junction, which was reckoned 
 as the master piece of the two navies, after it had been 
 effectuated by laborious combinations, never terminated 
 in any tiling very great. In the American war, the 
 combined -fleets wearied the seas of England and Ire- 
 land by their number ; they took, however, only a sin- 
 gleEnglish vessel which had missed her course, and they 
 neither could n6r would attack the shores which they 
 threatened ; neither were they able to attack Gibraltar, 
 nor to prevent supplies from reaching it, or to punish 
 the English for attempting to supply it ; and they were 
 neither able nor willing to combine in America, in 
 order to attack Jamaica and wipe off the affront of the 
 twelfth of ApriL 
 
 Let us see what part the navy of Spain has played 
 in these last wars : it was a prisoner at Cadiz, and only 
 left this prison for that of Brest, its destruction was 
 begun at Ferrol, and completed at Trafalgar ; it re- 
 ceived the most mortifying blow from Admiral St. 
 Vincent, and all the talents of Massaredo only ended 
 in preserving Cadiz from a bombardment, and nature 
 did still more for the defence of the place than the art 
 of Spain did : and finally it abandoned Trinidad to the 
 English, and its vessels to the flames. This naval in- 
 feriority of the Spaniards, is so much the more preju* 
 dicial to them, owing to thq immense extent of Colo 
 
248 THE COLONIES. 
 
 nies they have to defend : for which all the power of 
 England would hardly be sufficient. Thus all their Co- 
 lonies, while the war lasted, were at the mercy of their 
 enemy ; and if they have escaped, it was because 
 whoever took them would have been at as much trouble 
 to preserve and defend them as the Spaniards them« 
 selves were. It was for this reason that the English 
 confined themselves to the attack of places easy to be 
 protected, such as Trinidad, which place was also ad- 
 vantageous to them from its vicinity to the Spanish 
 continent ; but though the English did not seize upon 
 the Spanish Colonies, they blocked them up as well 
 as the mother country ; they cut off all communica- 
 tion between them : for six years nothing entered into, 
 or went out of Cadiz. The great Spanish Colonies 
 have passed many years without hearing from the 
 mother country : every thing that has endeavoured to 
 break through the barrier has been stopped and seized. 
 The only means of communication was through some 
 neutral powers, but this was an imperceptible filtra- 
 tion ; it was only a drop of water in comparison with 
 the quantity which America felt the want of. Spain, 
 on her part, did not suffer less ; the owners of Mexico 
 and Peru were not able to touch the treasures which 
 were accumulated in their Colonies : we have seen them 
 even applying to America to send them to this 
 country, and so much humbled as to smuggle their 
 own treasures in order to pay for the expence of their 
 carriage to Europe. Like Midas, the Colonies were 
 dying of hunger in the midst of their gold. The 
 mother country, like Tantalus, was not able to touch 
 the spring which would have quenched her thirst ; the 
 Colonies, while they wallowed in metals, were perish- 
 ing for the want of articles necessary for working and 
 
THE COLONIES. 249 
 
 mantifacturing them ; and the mother country was in 
 the same condition for want of metals^ while she was 
 wallowing in manufactures. To this state has an in- 
 feriority at sea reduced Spain, and thus kept it chained 
 up for fifteen years ; for she was no more able to make 
 peace, than she was fit to make war ; and after this, 
 need we ask the cause of the American independence. 
 The answer is simple, it was the blockade of Cadiz. 
 Spain, like France, thought she could make up for the 
 insufficiency of her navy by erecting and multiplying 
 fortresses in her Colonies. In this she made the same 
 mistake as France, and, like France, has thrown away 
 her time and money, for want of knowing upon what 
 the defence of the Colonies depended, and how great 
 the difference was between fortresses in the Colonies 
 which were supported by the fleet, and fortresses des- 
 titute of this support. 
 
 In the war of 1756, Spain was very slow in deter- 
 piining to take a part, on account of her family com- 
 pact : this war cost her the Havannah and Manilla, 
 where the English made an immense booty. What 
 conclusion did she draw from this ? Why, that these 
 two possessions were not sufficiently fortified, and im- 
 mediately began to work in the Havannah and at 
 Cavita, at an immense expense. What could she expect 
 to get by this ? Did she think that Colonies can be 
 defended by ramparts, without ships, or else by ships, 
 without ramparts. There was a strange mistake in this 
 calculation ; for, through the want of the supplies 
 which these vessels alone could bring them, fortresses 
 must surrender, in the Colonies as well as in Europe, 
 when they are not victualled, and this has always been 
 the case. 
 
 On the other hand, Spain, far from having proper* 
 
*i50 THE COLONIES. 
 
 tioned her agricultural labour and her industry to the 
 size of her Colonies, has always laboured in a contrary 
 direction ; she, in this light, presents a spectacle really 
 remarkable. Spain finds herself suddenly in the pos- 
 session of an immense extent of territory. What does 
 she do ? Does she turn her views towards their pros- 
 perity, which ought to be her own ? Does she endea- 
 vour to cherish and excite in her own bosom the fire 
 necessary to kindle the activity of labour, whith must 
 provide for the wants of the New World that has 
 fallen to her share? She takes care not to do that: 
 this course might be proper for the English, or for the 
 French ; but the Spaniards act in quite a different 
 manner. They, in the first place, begin by extermi- 
 nating those, with whom they ought to have formed a 
 connexion, and whom they would have supplied with 
 all the articles of consumption ; but in every way they 
 would have beon too well off: they, therefore, hasten 
 to prevent it by killing every body. Having made 
 this first step in their luminous and humane career^ 
 what do they next do r Do they endeavour to render 
 prosperous the country which they have secured pos* 
 session of? Oh no, they act quite in another way ; 
 they must guard it, like a miser guards his barren 
 treasures, and, like him, must have nothing else in 
 their mind than the fear of losing it. Let us follow 
 this course. The Spaniards, astonished and frightened 
 at the extent of their new possessions, were immediately 
 in fear that they should slip from them. From that 
 time all their cares were directed, not to fertilize them, 
 but to render then barren ; because a country, much 
 impoverished and crushed, is more submissive under 
 the yoke, than one which possesses nearly every thing 
 [that it wants. This is a quintessence of tyranpy. 
 
THE COLONIES. 251 
 
 never before known in the world. But as nothing is 
 more bUnd and unproductive than tyranny, it has 
 come to pass, by means of this logic in governing, 
 which has been followed for two centuries, that Spain 
 has done nothing for her Colonies ; and that her Co- 
 lonies, in their turn, have not been of the least use to 
 her. All that has come from them has only passed 
 through her; nothing has stopped. Spain, never 
 trading with her Colonies from her own stock, has only 
 served as a channel for the commodities of strangers, 
 for the produce of the fields and the manufactories of 
 foreigners. Spain is, in a great measure, only the 
 broker of Europe, or the place of residence of the fac- 
 tors between Europe and America. If we ever saw 
 any system more whimsical in itself, we never have 
 seen any one less lucrative to the mother country. 
 The conduct of Spain towards her Colonies has always 
 been, not to raise them together with herself, but to 
 lower them to her own level, to secure their sub-j 
 mission bj keeping them in poverty, and to weaken 
 them in order to be sure of the possession of them : 
 she seems to have regretted not being able to bury 
 them entirely. The Spaniards, far from having made 
 use of the discovery and possession of their Colonies, 
 to increase their labour and industry, have only con- 
 sidered them as the means of augmenting the amount 
 of their bullion : they have seen nothing in them, ex- 
 cept that precious metals may be found and extracted : 
 they have taken the effect for the cause, and have 
 wished to possess the object, without the means which 
 produce it and to have the money before the labour, 
 when, in the order of nature, it ought only to come 
 after it. This mistake, by putting Spain in a wrong 
 road, has placed her in the same condition she would 
 
 7 
 
^52 THE COLONIES. 
 
 be in, if she possessed no Colonies : for what does it 
 signify whether she has them, or not, if she derives no 
 advantage from them, or only derives it for the benefit 
 of others. The consequences of this system have been 
 such as would naturally be expected. Spain, though 
 she has received from her Colonies sums, which can 
 be reckoned only by millions ; and, under a more en- 
 lightened system, would have received even twice as 
 much, is, of all the countries of Europe, the one where 
 money is the least plentiful, and where the government 
 is the poorest, the people the most naked, manufac- 
 tories the most scarce and most imperfect, and where 
 all the comforts of life are the least known. From 
 this we may judge of the goodness of the system 
 which Spain pursues towards her Colonies, and whe- 
 ther they are in the wrong in wishing to separate 
 themselves from her. 
 
 The government of the Spanish colonies is in every 
 respect like that of the mother country. Prefects are 
 sent out from Spain, whose stay in these countries is 
 regulated by the jealousy of the mother country, and 
 the greater part of whom have intrigued for or ob- 
 tained their situations with a view to personal interest ; 
 and these are the only persons Spain sends to her Co- 
 lonies to provide for her wants. For every thing else 
 they must apply to her ; they must go to Madrid to 
 seek justice or the redress of injustice, employments, 
 and favours. We can well conceive that Spain, who 
 is suspicious of the fidelity of her Colonies, does not 
 give them the shadow of any thing, which, by uniting 
 their strength, would teach them the amount of it, 
 and induce them to make use of it ; she has laid every 
 restriction upon them, which it was in her power to 
 do, and has abandoned them, as we may say, to the 
 
THE COLONIES. 253 
 
 council of the Indies, which is the supreme tribunal 
 and governor of those countries, which it rules over 
 from Madrid, upon a system which, for three centuries, 
 has struck the Colonies with barrenness, and has redu- 
 ced them to despair, and, finally, to insurrection, by 
 taking the usual road, injustice, which leads to inde* 
 pendence. 
 
 If Spain has carefully kept her Colonies from a good 
 government, she was without the same thing herself, 
 and she could not give them what she had not got. 
 This country has almost always been that of despotism 
 and of sleep, two things which, though they seem to 
 exclude one another, nevertheless go very often toge- 
 ther, as we see in Turkey. This^kind of government 
 either does nothing, hinders every thing from being 
 done_j|,or wishes every„thing^Jo be done by itself alone. 
 The system is, to maintain whatever is existing, 
 whether good or bad ; they are firm, owing to their 
 timidity: any change would require action, which 
 their laziness rejects, and their despotism represses 
 with the sword, the bow-string, or the dungeon. This 
 slothfulness both in the chiefs and in the people, 
 causes every thing to flag, and unbends all the springs 
 of a nation. This vice, which is felt throughout the 
 whole of Spain, must much more affect the Colonies 
 so far removed from the eye of the master, and aban- 
 doned to prefects wlio have an interest in deceiving 
 him, and whom the mother country too often supports 
 out ofjL feeling of false dignity. Since Spain, though 
 lying directly under the eyes of a government present 
 in its centre, and easily embracing the whole extent, 
 has nevertheless always presented the most miserable 
 spectacle, how could the Spanish government be vigi- 
 lant, enlightened, and attentive, towards Colonies far 
 
254 THE COLONIES. 
 
 distant and extensive, and which it was scarcely ac**^ 
 qliainted with ? Such an hope was beyond all proba- 
 bility. The Spaniards, individually possessing the 
 most manly and estimable qualities, when taken in a 
 body, form a nation indolent and without energy, al- 
 though with much courage, and without any taste for 
 the enjoyments of life, though with the means of pro- 
 curing them all, and of receiving them from their de- 
 lightful climate, their fruitful soil, and from their in- 
 numerable and rich Colonies ; they live in the midst 
 of so many advantages vrithout perceiving them, any 
 more than they do their privations, in which they 
 seem to glory more than in their opulence. The go- 
 vernment has unhappily partaken of this general pro- 
 pensity, instead of exciting the nation to resist it, it 
 is itself involved in it. The marks of their weakness 
 are to be found every where ; they are written upon 
 too great a number of monuments for us to enumerate 
 them here : is not the condition of Spain itself a la- 
 mentable evidence ? The fate of Spain has been sin- 
 gular, owing to the direction which the public spirit 
 took. Eight centuries of fighting against the Moors, 
 made it a nation of warriors, a nursery of soldiers, 
 and a people of heroes. Spain was changed into a 
 vast camp, and became a forest of lances. Every 
 place bristled with spears, there was an universal 
 clashing and fighting ; the Moors and the Christians 
 spent 700 years in slaughtering each other, and in 
 moistening that land with their blood for the posses- 
 sion of which they were disputing, and in thus seal- 
 ing the faith for which they were fighting. The 
 length of this contest finisfied to inflame the imagina- 
 tion of the Spaniards already so ardent ; chivalry and 
 its prodigies were established amongst them ; men. 
 
TH£ COLONIES. ^S^' 
 
 ahtiost romantic, arose in this country, and realised 
 the times of fable, and surpassed the actors in them. 
 The Spaniards driven into the remote parts of the As- 
 turias, burst forth to reconquer their country foot by 
 foot, to unite each part successively to the crown of 
 their sovereign, and, out of these dispersed members, 
 to form the Spanish monarchy. This great work took 
 up SOO years of the greatest and most painful labour ; 
 at length they accomplished it, and the Spaniards, 
 issuing from this trial like gold from the crucible, 
 were then the first nation in the world, and the pre- 
 dominant power in Europe : the greatest fears were 
 entertained of their acquiring an universal dominion, 
 for they did not even take the trouble of concealing 
 their designs. At this juncture a new career was 
 opened to them by the discovery of America ; tliither 
 they ran ; and America, by dividing their attention 
 and their forces, in all probability saved Europe from 
 the universal invasion which would have been attempt- 
 ed. America found the Spaniards the same as they 
 bad been at home, as terrible to her children as they 
 had been to the Moors. The same courage was not 
 required, for the Indian had none of the intrepidity of 
 the African : the country was more formidable than 
 the inhabitants ; our astonishment at the atchievements 
 of the Spaniards arises less from the victories than 
 from their incursions, less from the men than from 
 the country itself. In fact, it required much more 
 courage to cross the Cordilleras by unknown paths, 
 and to penetrate into Peru over burning deserts and 
 uninhabited regions, than it did to subdue people who 
 fled before their conquerors,* whom they regarded as 
 demi-gods, and who prostrated themselves before the 
 thunder that was hurled against them, and fell under 
 
256 THE COLONIES. 
 
 the feet of the coursers that rode over them. The 
 Spaniards were gratuitously ferocious in America, for 
 there was no occasion for it; they had never been so 
 in Europe. We do not know to what we ought to 
 attribute the horrible excesses which they suddenly 
 abandoned themselves to, as though by an instantane- 
 ous and general inspiration, unless they are to be attri- 
 buted to the pride of power, to the nature of the men 
 who were their leaders, and to that sort of fury which 
 sometimes suddenly seizes upon, and transports a na- 
 tion ; a frightful crisis, which, by always leading in 
 the end to shame and remorse, causes a nation for a 
 long time to blush for itself. 
 
 The conquest of their own country from the Moors, 
 and the conquest of America, are the two great epochs 
 of the glory of the Spanish nation ; they seem only to 
 have waited for this moment in order to be eclipsed, 
 and they seem to have thought that they had then ga- 
 thered sufficient laurels to have a right to repose them- 
 selves, for centuries, under their unperishable shade. 
 From the time that they had no more enemies at 
 home, and were rich abroad, they suddenly stopped, 
 and seem to have lost those brilliant qualities which 
 had been the means of their acquiring their ancient 
 ilominions in Europe, and their new ones in America; 
 as soon as they were able to rest themselves, they fell 
 
 But, while the mother country was wasting itself in 
 sleep, were the Colonies prospering? Were they attached 
 to the mother country, by a feeling of welfare, as the 
 English Colonies are ? Were they defended against 
 enemies, and the enticements of strangers ? Did the 
 plans which were formed for them originate in accu- 
 rate inquiry, or in public spirit ? Or were they sup- 
 
THE COLONIES. 257 
 
 ported with steadiness rather than with obstinac}^, mo. ) 
 dilied according to circumstances, quahfied by a wise i 
 knowledge of the times, and pursued with vigour, ei- I 
 ther against the obstacles which nature threw in their 
 way, or which were raised by competitors ? But such 
 a system is rooted too deeply, and too extensively, to be 
 entirely the work of men ; it can only be the work of ^'' 
 established institutions : and as Spain has never had li-. 
 even one, it follows that she must have ruled her Colo- 
 nies at random, against their nature, and against their j 
 interests, in a manner that has occasioned the total | 
 downfal of the building on which she relied for the ^ 
 preservation of the thing that she had taken so much 
 trouble to destroy. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 The Conduct of the Europeans in the Colonies, 
 
 X>y exhibiting already some of the errors into which 
 the Europeans have fallen, with respect to the Colonies, 
 we have done nothing more than anticipate a part of 
 that mournful task which remains for us to fulfil, in 
 setting forth that kind of administration which they 
 have introduced into them, and in which they still per- 
 severe, even in opposition to their own interests. They 
 have met, from others, with a sufficient share of re- 
 proach for these crimes, of which the Colonies have 
 been the theatre, and of which pictures, frightful 
 enough, have been given ; we shall confine ourselves 
 to a representation of those errors which retarded, and 
 
 \ unjvj:ksity 
 
258 THE COLONIES. 
 
 which do still retard the procuress of the Colonies, and 
 which, to this very day, have deprived the mother 
 countries of the full amount of their produce, and of 
 the advantages which they might have derived from 
 them. We shall see whether affairs could have been 
 managed worse, and whether it was possible, at the 
 same time, to thwart, in a greater degree, the libe- 
 rality of fortune and of nature. The Europeans have 
 sinned against the elementary principles of the Colo- 
 nies, as much as against those of their management ; 
 and each of these faults contains, in its kind, a great 
 number of others, of a particular description, and of 
 circumstances resulting from them. 
 
 The Europeans have never given, nor thought of 
 giving to their Colonies, any thing which could de- 
 serve the name of organization. The word orgamza-^ 
 tion implies, at the same time, proportion, agreement, 
 and harmony between the parts destined to form a 
 whole ; but it is impossible to perceive any thing like 
 this in the colonial regulations of any European nation. 
 So far from any thing deriving sure principles from 
 them, and appearing to belong to a fixed order, every 
 thing, on the contrary, seems to have been done 
 without plan or method ; as it were in the way of 
 hazard^ the irregularities and uncertainty of which are 
 visible. 
 
 -.- The first fault, and that which led to many others, 
 was avidity ; we have spoken of it already. The ob- 
 ject every where first thought of was, to take posses- 
 sion of countries, without considering how that pos- 
 session was to be maintained— without making any 
 distinction between what was useful and what was 
 burdensome; between the produce of a more contracted 
 but better cultivated, and that of a more extended 
 
THE COLONIES. 259 
 
 but neglected space of territory. From this blind ea- 
 gerness to seize upon every thing, some nations found 
 themselves surcharged with Colonies, for .which they 
 could not provide ; while others found themselves de- 
 prived of those which would have just suited them. 
 In the first case, they remained in a barren state ; in 
 the second, they were deficient in that fecundity 
 which other hands offered. This prodigious inequality 
 in the position of the advantages which the discovery 
 of the Cape of Good Hope and of America had be- 
 stowed upon Europe, placed her in a false position 
 with respect to her Colonies ; one nation possessed too 
 much; another not sufficient; another nothing what- 
 ever. The wealthy was the object of the inquieting— 
 perpetually stirring the ambition of the poor: injus- 
 tice was practised by some, because they would not be 
 entirely disinherited from the Colonies ; wars and all 
 the disorders which follow her train were the conse- 
 quences . 
 
 Although it may be impossible to suppose j in oppo- 
 sition to usage unhappily too general, that nations 
 are at once enlightened^ and generous because en- 
 lightened, yet the supposition of a very extended 
 degree of generosity may not be chimerical ; and we 
 may easily believe in that which interest dictates. 
 There is nothing, for instance, ridiculous in supposing 
 that the Spaniards, embarrassed with their too exten- 
 sive possessions, tired with wandering through im- 
 mense deserts, might have thought of concentrating in 
 the parts which they found most convenient; and that 
 they would have abandoned the excess toother nations, 
 leaving to them the care of fertilizing aud peopling 
 them. Peter the Great had formed such a design for 
 his vast territories, which most certainly had less need of 
 
 §2 
 
260 THE COLONIES. 
 
 it than America ; why was it not executed there where 
 it was so necessary. In this way have the Europeans 
 every where violated the rule of doing nothing against 
 proportion ; they have been grevousiy punished for 
 such transgressions, as well those who have been 
 guilty of them, as those who have not husbanded 
 such resources as England was in possession of: such 
 have placed themselves in a position of never being able 
 to ryiake the Colonies of use, either to themselves or 
 to the mother countries. 
 '^ ^ The second fault of most parent states was their 
 neglect of their marine, and their neglect in propor- 
 tioning it to the wants and the growth of their Colo- 
 nies, All, England excepted, have fallen into the same 
 negligence. Thus Portugal has become weak in her 
 marine, in proportion as she ha? become rich in Co- 
 lonies. The same is the case with Spain ; instead of 
 > increasing her marine in proportion as her Colonies 
 were becoming more extensive and powerful, and in 
 proportion as other nations were increasing theirs, she, 
 on the contrary, has suffered her marine to sink in an 
 inverse proportion, and has voluntarily reduced herself 
 to a complete nullity. France herself, though more 
 vigilant, is not entirely free from reproach in this re- 
 spect. 
 
 England alone has not departed from the funda- 
 mental law of proportion between maritime and colo- 
 nial power: and it is to th e ttention which she has given 
 to this subject, as she herself knows very well, that 
 she is indebted for that brilliant glory which shiners 
 around her, for the riches which she enjoys, and the 
 part which she plays on the great theatre of the world. 
 Her fleets have given her every thing, and they havfe 
 it still in their power to give her^ with respect to Co- 
 
THE COLONIES. 26V 
 
 lollies, every thing which she may either fancy or 
 have occasion for ; she will sooner exhaust her own 
 wishes than their services. 
 ^ The third capital error to which the Europeans have 
 abandoned themselves, in the organization of their 
 Colonies, consists in their total inattentioii to the na- 
 ture of the population : they have united^ on this head, 
 two things which seemed incompatible^ namely, in- 
 activity and carelessness. Thus, while they were run- 
 ning from all parts to make new discoveries, whilst 
 they were searching every where for new territories, of 
 which they might take possession, and which territories 
 they were mutually tearing from each other, whilst 
 they were killing each other for the possession, they 
 never thought of the means of enjo^qng them, of which 
 means the most essential, beyond all contradiction, 
 consists in the materials of which the population is 
 composed : for a Colony is sure to savour of the vices 
 of the primitive inhabitants, as families do of those 
 from whom they are descended. The Colonies have, 
 however, in this respect, received from Europe none 
 but the thoughtless and the outcast : they were ge- 
 nerally regarded as the sink of the parent states, and 
 consequently of Europe. In one country deportation 
 to the Colonies became the ordinary punishment, or 
 the only fund of population furnished by the parent 
 state for the nse of her Colonies ; she sent them her 
 criminals, discharged from jails, or such as escaped 
 from the scaffold or eluded the vigilance of her laws. 
 In another, fanaticism lying under some constraint in 
 the mother country, or too straitly confined by the 
 order of other sects of lunatics, flowed towards the 
 Colonies in a stream impregnated with a great numr 
 her of particles so entirely divested of all colonial qua- 
 
062 THE COLONIES. 
 
 litres as to be of no use whatever as Colonists. Of 
 what use in colonization, or what resemblance to Co- 
 lonists would those austere Presbyterians exhibit, those 
 atribilious Puritans, those maniacs of every kind which 
 England discharged on her Colonies, doubtless esteem- 
 ing herself happy in having got rid of the burden ? 
 Saint Domingo itself, that opulent Saint Domingo, 
 which has since lorded it over Europe by the richness 
 of its harvests, has it not been, during a hundred 
 yearSj nothing but a band of robbers, who, if they 
 had the audacity of birds of prey, were equally as 
 useless ? What would have become of it had it re- 
 mained as it was, consigned over to freebooters and 
 buccaneers, if the eye of a more vigilant administra- 
 tion had not at length been turned towards its hidden 
 treasures, and if the civilization of its ancient inha- 
 bitants, and tlie introduction of new, had not restored 
 to this land the faculty of developing the germs of 
 fecundity with which its bosom was filled without 
 fruit or utility to any one. Saint Domingo still had 
 been the terror of the Colonies, the Algiers of the An- 
 tilles : civilization has rendered it the Peru, the foster- 
 father and benefactor of France. Such is the result 
 of the difference between these two kinds of population. 
 To this negligence, with respect to the Colonies, 
 was added a kind of contempt, which, now that all 
 their utility is known, we can hardly conceive pos- 
 sible. In reality, those Colonies, the discovery and 
 possession of which was prosecuted with so much 
 ardour, when once possessed, lost all estimation : ta- 
 ken, evacuated, retaken, ceded, sold, they appeared 
 to excite only disgust and embarrassment to the pro- 
 prietors. The sums for which the French Colonies 
 were sold to individuals, or to corporations, would. 
 
THE COLONma 263 
 
 seem ridiculous at present. Colbert alone took up the 
 subject like a true Frenchman^ and endeavoured, by 
 a speedy redemption, to wash away that stain from 
 the nation. Some of them were eeded to the indi- 
 viduals as simple fiefs : a Colony was given^ as a favour 
 or pension. An English and a French Monarch gave I 
 Saint-Lucie at the same time to their favourites. Mar* 
 shal Meilleray sold Madagascar as a portiop of his pa- 
 trimony. Charles V, sold large provinces in America 
 to merchants of Augsburg ; the United States, at pre- 
 sent so flourishing, were partly consigned over to in- 
 dividuals, to enjoy them as personal property. In 
 other places, whole Colonies have been purchased for 
 money, and became patrimonial property under a 
 kind of patriarchal government, the head of which was 
 both proprietor and legislator as far as his property 
 extended. Fair Pennsylvania, centre of American li-- 
 berty, cradle of the liberty of the world ! thou hast no 
 other origin ! 
 
 Spain, drained of men, no longer sends any others 
 to her Colonies than those who have escaped from 
 prison, or from the scaffolds of the holy-office. To 
 the Castilians belong the exclusive privilege of trans- 
 porting themselves to America, that is to say, to the 
 inhabitants of the most unpeopled part of Spain, and 
 even to that part of all the Spanish population the 
 least adapted to make it of any value ; for if the Cas- 
 tilian is the gravest of all the Spaniards, he is also the 
 most indolent, and far inferior in point of labour to 
 the other inhabitants of the Peninsula. Persecution 
 gave the first cultivators to the Brazils, by the emi- 
 gration of friars vrho were flying from persecution at 
 Lisbon. After this, can we be astonished at the 
 trifling progress which so m^ny Colonies have made 
 
26* THE COLONIES. 
 
 when they have been arrested in the principle of their 
 developement from the want of a suitable population? 
 Europe has caused to flow in their veins no other than 
 the bad blood which she drew from her own. If 
 any thing has a right to excite astonishment after this, 
 it is not their backward state but their progress. 
 
 What a difference between this population, vicious 
 in itself, and unable to produce any other than feeble 
 shoots, and the population which the robust sons of 
 Germany have introduced into the United States, 
 which cover a part of their territories, and which their 
 excellent cultivation alone suffices to mark out! What 
 a difference between them and those English planters, 
 who, too confined in their native country, have trans- 
 ported their capital and their industry to America — 
 the funds which give to cultivation the advances which 
 it demands, and the proceeds which centuple its profits 
 by their simplicity ! What a difference between them 
 and the laborious Hollanders, who, in the sinks of Su- 
 rinam, in the infected marshes of Batavia, have re- 
 newed those prodigies which have drawn their country 
 from the bosom of the waves ; who have fertilized and 
 embellished it, and who have made it a spot of earth 
 unique in the world — those Hollanders, who enable 
 us to discover new Amsterdams and new Hagues in 
 every country where they could take root, and who 
 would arrange the world in a line were it to be con- 
 signed to their genius and to their indefatigable arms ! 
 Such are the descriptions of population qualified to 
 produce mutual advantage between the parent states 
 and the Colonies, and by no means that vagabond and 
 idle population which vice vomits forth ^n lands that 
 require nothing but industry and labour, and which, 
 equally ill adapted towork and to establish themselves. 
 
THE COLONIES. 265 
 
 to support the inconveniences of transplantation, those 
 of foreign cHmates, of the exhalations of lands newly 
 opened, perish on a soil which devours them, and 
 which, intended to become fertile from their sweat, is 
 only fattened with their carcases, and covered with 
 their bones. Such are the fruits of violating the ele- 
 mentary principles of Colonies, generally forgotten by 
 Europeans. Let us see whether they have been more 
 fortunate in the secondary principles, namely, those 
 ^. of administration. -' 
 
 V The domestic government of Colonies is generally 
 yuiodelled upon that of the parent states, which to some 
 has proved a benefit, as, for example, to those of 
 England ; to others quite the reverse, a very scourge. 
 In order to afford room for assimilation, in this re- 
 spect, it would be necessary that there should be a 
 resemblance in others, the contrary of which was al- 
 most universally the case. And what community, in 
 effect, existed between some of the parent states and 
 the Colonies, with respect to localities, manners, cli- 
 mate, productions^ and language? If the Colonies had 
 no influence whatever on the form of government in 
 the mother country, why should the latter desire to 
 have any influence over that of the Colonics, from 
 which it could, independent of that circumstance, de- 
 rive considerable advantage ? For why cut garments 
 rather to their own shape than of the persons who 
 were to wear them, and keep them always in a con- 
 strained position, and, as it were, prisoners in gar- 
 ments which did not fit their shape ? For this is what 
 the parent states of Europe have done in clothing the 
 Colonies situated beyond the seas, without any physi- 
 cal or moral uniformity, with the same forms of go- 
 vernment which they themselves at the distance of a 
 
266 THE COLONIES. 
 
 ibousand leagues had adopted for their own use, and 
 in most cases, a thousand years before the Colonies 
 Were known. Such inadvertence, such reluctance to 
 ^ sear<;h for what is convenient in a subject so very im- 
 i portant, is a charge against the government of idle- 
 ness and contempt for those possessions ; for a just 
 . feeling would proceed in a different manner. For in- 
 l stance, Colonies have been seen, and are still to be 
 seen, of immense extent — of greater extent than many 
 of the states of Europe, governed by one man alone. 
 Canada, five times the extent of France, had no more 
 than one governor ; Mexico has no more than one 
 viceroy,' and that viceroy reckons in his government 
 provinces which, as the audience of Guatimala, are 
 300 leagues in length ; Peru is 600 leagues in length, 
 Chili 700, Paraguay 600, the Philippines almost equal 
 Spain in extent. Well ! Spain expects to govern this 
 large extent of country by one man, a viceroy, or go- 
 vernor, and all because this is her own establishment 
 at home ; and because it would cost too much to 
 search fo£, or to invent any thing else than what was 
 I iSund in Spain when America was discovered. It 
 was necessary that Mexico should be governed like 
 the kingdom of Castile, and the realm of the Incas 
 like that of Charles V. Of which proportion, one 
 man is to have the govern n)ent, and he a stranger to 
 the country, to its manners and to its usages, often 
 destitute of the information preparatory to his mission, 
 and always of local knowledge, looking upon his post 
 as a place of exile, or a resting place ; how can a man so 
 circumstanced see, weigh, hear, investigate every thing 
 which can supply him with the information which is 
 necessary for his employment ? How is he to apply it 
 tp the countries intrusted tp his care ? In Europe we 
 
THE COLONIES. 267 
 
 find ministers beyond all proportion unequal to the 
 work which they have to perform, let the employment 
 be ever so trifling in itself, and notwithstanding the 
 facility which documents of every kind collected to- 
 gether a long time before must afford in the admi- 
 nistration of such an office, and can men be considered 
 as qualified for the administration of immense Colonies, 
 who are transplanted into countries of which they know 
 nothing, where every thing is to be done far from the 
 aid of the parent state and the eye of the master. 
 " GocVs dwelling is *very high, the King is far awayy 
 md I am master here^ This expression, used by an 
 agent of those distant authorities, is an abridgment of 
 the history of all the governors placed at a distance 
 from the observation of a master. The grievances which 
 excited the complaints to which this pithy sentence 
 was an answer, are repeated almost always in the same 
 situations. Some governors are, doubtless, above such 
 a reproach, but cannot accomplish a part of their tasK 
 which evidently surpasses their strength. The good 
 which they do not do, and the evil which they cannot ^ 
 prevent, all comes from the same source, namely, 
 from want of a due proportion between the workman 
 and the wor^Tie is to perform.; and this double de- \ 
 ficiency impeaches the institution of a vice which nul- ; 
 lifies the talents and the virtues of better citizens; j 
 The number of this latter description is so very small! ^ 
 why then throw difficulties in the way of those whom \ 
 we have the good fortune to meet, and blunt their zeaj 
 by repulsive institutions? 
 
 To that inconvenience must be added one much 
 greater in itself; namely, that of the frequent change 
 of governors, a frequency of change which is founded 
 on the very nature of things, inasmuch as it is not 
 
 n 
 
268 THE COLONIES. 
 
 possible to meet with more than a very limited number 
 of men, to whom transplantation to such distant regions 
 can be convenient, or who are able to support it. Now 
 this frequency of change, with respect to men, neces- 
 sarily introduces that of measures. It destroys the 
 succession of ideas, of plans, and of enterprises — all of 
 them of the greatest importance to be maintained in a 
 successive series : it leads the supreme authority into 
 errors, which must unavoidably fluctuate between the 
 reports, ever contradictory, of successive agents ; for 
 those who succeed to the government of the Colonies 
 are not copyists of their predecessors, who stand in the 
 relation of their brothers of Europe. What a system 
 of useless trials and experiments must be the conse- 
 quence I How is it possible to erect any thing solid on 
 a sand bank, perpetually shifting ? 
 
 The redress for which the Colonifts are obliged to 
 resort to the mother country, in all their affairs, is 
 
 j also a great source of vexation. They are obliged to 
 travel a thousand league* to demand justice, or to 
 
 / solicit what is termed a grace or favour. They are 
 obliged to interest distant countries, always unknown 
 to those to whom they address themselves, only con- 
 sidered in the light of useful property, and as net 
 produce^ in other respects looked down upon with that 
 kind of contempt which is ever attached to a condition 
 so very inferior. The Colonist was obliged to wade 
 through all the detail which arises from the distance 
 of place — ^through all the labyrinth of intrigue, so 
 difficult to unravel, and to defeat, at such a distance. 
 How was it possible not to feel the effect of such in- 
 conveniences ? For which reasons the deputies from 
 the Colonies were constantly observed to be rejected 
 with scorn, when serving on those missions, as painful 
 
THE COLONIES. ^e9 
 
 *s they were unprofitable. In France, before the Ret- 
 vobation, the inhabitants of the kingdom complained, 
 and justly, of the too great distance of the springs of 
 administration, or of justice, which obhged them to 
 submit to a change of residence, for a long time ; how 
 much better founded were the complaints of those 
 Colonists, who did not come, like the former, from a 
 distance of forty or fifty, or more than a hundred 
 leagues, but of more than a thousand leagues, across 
 seas, and through every kind of danger. The mutual 
 benefit of the mother country and of the Colonies 
 demanded that the cases in which the Colonist should 
 quit his fire side, to search in the mother country for 
 that which he could not find at home, should be re- 
 duced to the lowest possible number. 
 
 On the other hand, governments had not taken any i 
 measures to establish and settle inhabitants in the Co* I 
 Jonies : they were generally considered in the light of 
 halting places, and where fortunes were to be made ; 
 as sponges, from which all the juices that could pos^ 
 sibly be squeezed out were to be eagerly conveyed to < 
 the parent state: such instability gave roomjfor^ijiei^ 
 petua]_suGC^sion of adventures, and of men who spe^ 
 culated on the fortunes which might be made in the 
 Colonies---all of them, men destitute of colonial quali- 
 ties, and who frequently excited troubles in them, by 
 introducing the vices of Europe. 
 
 Besides, a considerable degree of animosity subsisted 
 between the inhabitant of the parent state and the 
 Colonist. The former, looking upon himself as lord 
 paramount, lets fall the whole weight of his disdain oa 
 the Colonist, which he considered himself, of right, 
 entitled to do towards men whom he saw so rhucfe 
 his inferiors. The Colonists were generally considered 
 
270 THE COLONIES. 
 
 by the Europeans as working men, destined to labour 
 for the advantage of the mother country, and nothing 
 more. Between the European and the Creole, a dis^ 
 tance was placed, about equal to that which the latter, 
 in his turn, placed between himself and the other casts 
 of the Colony. The Colonists were deeply wounded 
 by this prolonged injustice, they felt their own im- 
 portance, and supported with great impatience the 
 weight of that contempt, from which their usefulness 
 alone should have exempted them. In some countries, 
 not to say in all, the jealousy of him who came from 
 the parent state removed all the inhabitants of the 
 Colonies from the administration. All the inhabitants 
 of the mother country were admitted into all the de- 
 partments of government. The English Colonies, by 
 reason of their local government, modelled upon that 
 of England, were alone exempt from that curse. The 
 practice was attended with a thousand inconveniences : 
 it mortified the Colonies in the most sensible manner ; 
 it deprived them of the advantages which local know- 
 ledge confers on men in the employment of govern- 
 ment; it deprived them of the effects of that zeal 
 which one applies in the pursuit of his own interest; 
 of the effects of that emulation which the suffrages of 
 his fellow citizens inspire ; of that name which one 
 raises, and leaves in the midst of them — all of these 
 advantages, which can only belong to men who reside 
 in those places, who are fixed there, who attach them- 
 selves to the country by the services which they render 
 it, whilst a foreign and transient administrator will 
 always be indebted for his ignorance of all local infor- 
 mation to that double character, and also for that want 
 of all interest, which a man does not feel for a place 
 where he is only a sojourner, and which no man can 
 
THE COLONIES. 271 
 
 feel, in the same degree, as he who has estabhshed his 
 residence in it. It is necessary that a man should be 
 fixed upon the soil, in order to be attached to it ; a 
 kind of marriage should take place between them, 
 which serves as a guarantee of their mutual fidelity. 
 
 Europe has been very sensibly impressed with that 
 state of estrangement in which she has held her Co- 
 lonies, and with that mistrust, of which that estrange- 
 ment was the pledge. That insulting disposition 
 towards her Colonies has excited many disquietudes 
 among them, in which the authority of the mother 
 country has been sometimes compromised. 
 
 It seemed as if the Europeans were to behold, in 
 the Colonies which the bounty of Heaven had dis- 
 covered to them, nothing but the produce to be ex- 
 tracted from them, and the additions of which that 
 produce was capable ; in a word, nothing but farms to 
 be laid out and improved. They were to investigate 
 every means of repairing the inconvenience under 
 which they lay, by their distance from the Colonies, 
 and to confine themselves to the encouragement of 
 production and consumption. Well ! those fields, 
 destined to cultivation alone, they converted into fields 
 of battle. What an absurdity ! It seems as if two pro- 
 prietors of estates were to establish the theatre of their 
 controversies in the midst of their corn fields. And 
 what has been the consequence ? 
 
 Hardly has war broken out in Europe, often before 
 the Colonist had time to be informed of it, before he 
 finds himself already attacked, invaded, and, for the 
 most part, infallibly ruined. He has no interest in 
 the quarrel, the burden of which he is to bear. He is 
 essentially a cultivator — behold him a party in poli- 
 tical controversies ; he is a tliousand leagues from 
 
272 THE COLONIES. 
 
 Europe— behold him iiiveloped in the midst of her 
 quarrels. Differently from an European proprietor, 
 who, even in a state of war, is not affected in point of 
 fortune, but in a very slight degree, the Colonist sees 
 the sources of his fortune immediately dried up, by 
 the interruption of the only channel through which he 
 used to dispose of it; namely, the mother country. 
 Then he calls to his assistance neutrals, and all the 
 resources which self-interest and fraud can have re- 
 course to, against shackles which they find too heavy 
 for them ; he becomes immoral that he may not be 
 ( ruined altogether. If the proprietor of lands in the 
 Colonies Hve in the mother country, the war strikes 
 him with the same severity; therefore, when war 
 breaks out, there is nothing more common than to sec 
 men, whose properties are of that description, fall into 
 that state in which we have seen the French emigrants. 
 War was to the Colonists, in both Worlds, a time of 
 mourning and of misery, whilst, at most, it was no- 
 thing but a season of some slight privations to their 
 fellow citizens, whose possessions lay in Europe. There 
 was no kind of parity between the two conditions. 
 But that which each individual suffered in detail each 
 state suffered in mass, by taking upon herself the sum 
 total of all individual misfortunes. What, therefore, 
 became of those wealthy towns during those absurd 
 colonial wars, which derived all their riches from the 
 Colonies — those millions of arms, occupied in furnish- 
 ing them with articles in exchange for their wares ? 
 What stagnation in their ports, in their workshops, in 
 their cultivation! Behold the end of that madness, 
 which caused the Colonies to enter into all the quarrels 
 of Europe, which had nothing to do in these quarrels ; 
 who were strangers to and should have been exempted 
 
THE COLONIES. 273 
 
 from them, on the simple calculation of interest. 
 Maritime power, that powerful agent of colonial, is 
 not even sufficient to defend the unfortunate Colonists; 
 for, from the want of ability of appearing with honour 
 in the ranks of the combatants, the weaker has recouse 
 to privateering : he skims over the main which he 
 cannot keep ; he disguises that flag which he dares no 
 longer employ, and by a thousand manoeuvres makes 
 amends for his inferiority : as a pirate, he does that 
 injury which he can no longer do as a soldier. Thus 
 w^hen the military marine of Louis XIV had dis- 
 appeared from the seas, the privateers of St. Maloes 
 toqk no fewer than four thousand merchant vessels 
 from the English ; and, during the last war, which 
 certainly was the check of the perigeon of the French 
 marine, by what obstinate incursions did not the 
 French privateering system molest the English com- 
 merce ? Into how many habitations in the Colonies 
 and families in England, has it not carried misery and 
 mourning ? Such are the consequences of that want 
 of consideration, on the part of the Europeans, with 
 respect to this very subject, so interesting to the Co- 
 lonists. But where their evil genius breaks out every 
 day, where he seems to triumph, is in those laws upon 
 matters of detail^ which they have scattered with such 
 profusion, over those wretched dependencies of their 
 blind power. One might say, that they had imposed 
 on themselves the task of going contrary to nature, to 
 stop the progress of the Colonies, and to deprive 
 themselves of the advantages which they proposed to 
 themselves, by acquiring the possession of them, in 
 establishing and re-establishing them with such avidity. 
 To be so ardent in desiring, and to neglect what one 
 has acquired with such eagerness, appear to be irrecon* 
 
 T 
 
274 THE COLONIES. 
 
 cilable. That, nevertheless, is what has been done, 
 during three centuries that the Colonies have existed, 
 for Europe. Let us point out the most prominent 
 features of the picture : they do not belong to the 
 Colonies exclusively. The inhabitants of the parent 
 states will also be included, for Europe regulated those 
 Colonies on her own model : they have not to reproach 
 her with having turned the dark side of the column 
 towards them, whilst she held the bright side towards 
 themselves. At that time Europe was no better go- 
 verned than her Colonies, and her good luck and 
 ignorance are equal. 
 
 Two nations, which we do not often meet on the 
 same road, namely, the Spaniards and the English, 
 shall furnish us with striking examples of the most 
 obdurate ignorance of the simplest principles of eco- 
 nomy, of the first elements of commerce, of the ad- 
 ministration and direction of Colonies. Matters have 
 been carried so far that in searching for the era in 
 which these nations have deserted those customary 
 and blind practices, in examining the degree in which 
 they are still maintained, one is induced to believe 
 mankind to be much younger than they say, or that 
 they have lost much time. Facts shall prove this as- 
 sertion, which in a general application may appear a 
 bold one. 
 
 We cannot speak of Spain and England but from 
 the end of their long civil wars ; such as those of the 
 two roses and of the Moors. Up to that period na- 
 tions knew nothing except fighting. The country was 
 a listed field, and the government a herald at arms, 
 always occupied in summoning the warriors and 
 sounding the charge. That was, all men knew how 
 to do in those ancient times which some would so 
 
THE COLONIES. 275 
 
 strongly recommend to our veneration. But in the 
 time of Henry VH of England, and of Ferdinand 
 and Isabella of Spain, matters began to assume a dif- 
 ferent face. The civil state began to approach closer 
 to the military, and to follow it, although at a dis- 
 tance, waiting for the time when it might confidently 
 address it in these words: Cedant arma togce. Men 
 began to suspect that other business might be done 
 besides fighting, and that the world is not an amphi- 
 theatre for gladiators. This epoch of regeneration, 
 however, produced nothing more than some commer- 
 cial regulations or laws, all of them stamped with 
 evident marks of insanity ; and what is most astonish- 
 ing is, that the author of those laws was the most en- 
 lightened prince of his time. It is evident that 
 he was commanded by the age, and that it was it 
 which spoke through the medium of this prince, 
 Henry VII. 
 
 It was then forbidden for any man to apprentice his 
 children unless he possessed twenty-two pounds ten 
 shillings a year, property in land. The price of eata- 
 bles, of articles of the first necessity, and of work- 
 men's wages, were equally regulated. Monkish notions, 
 introduced even into commerce, represented interest, 
 the soul of trade, as favourable to usury, and caused it 
 to be proscribed. 
 
 All exportation of money was then prohibited. The 
 foreign merchant was obliged to insert the price of 
 those articles which he imported into England in 
 Enghsh merchandise. As if such a law could ema- 
 nate from any other tribunal than that of the balance 
 of trade, and the definitive settlements which two com- 
 mercial countries make at the end of each year. Agri- 
 culture, in like manner, was not better understood. 
 
 T2 
 
'276 THE COLONIES. 
 
 Horses, with which England abounded, were forbid- 
 den to be exported. The rearing of that animal, 
 whose valuable fleece is the support of the English 
 fabricks, and consequently is a great part of her trea- 
 sure, instead of being encouraged in proportion to its 
 utility, was on the contrary loaded with shackles 
 sufficient to crush it. The legislature had descended 
 to the most trifling details, even to the nhmbering of 
 the flocks, having ordered that the most numerous 
 should not exceed two thousand. Men did not then 
 know that the measure of liberty and will was nothing 
 else but that of power. What, therefore, was the state 
 of England ? That power which now covers the seas 
 with her ships, which by their means embraces at once 
 the four quarters of the world, reckoned no more than 
 ten thousand sailors, when now are reckoned more than 
 two hundred thousand, of which one hundred thou- 
 sand are constantly employed in her ships of war. At 
 that time those merchant vessels were occasionally con- 
 verted into ships of war : they were not, as they are in 
 the present day, the natural guardians of commerce, 
 but were rather an injury to it by depriving it of that 
 source to which it had called them. Besides these 
 vessels were not built by the hands of Englishmen ; 
 the Hanse Towns were in the habit of supplying them. 
 Those superb dock yards were not then in existence — 
 those immense arsenals which now behold that vast 
 multitude of ships of which England is in the posses- 
 sion, built and armed within their bounds. It is really 
 singular that England, which is powerful and enligh- 
 tened enough at present to establish ship building in 
 the heart of Russia, in India, and in America, was so 
 low in this respect at the time we are speaking of as 
 Jiot to be able to do without the assistance of the Hanse 
 1 
 
THE COLONIES. 277 
 
 Towns. Agriculture felt the influence of this bad ar- 
 rangement to such a degree that England was obhged 
 to have recourse to the BaUic, in order to make up for 
 the habitual deficiency of her harvests. This very 
 country is now that where the cultivator possesses the 
 greatest share both of knowledge and riches ; whose 
 cultivation is favoured by the appropriation of the 
 largest capitals, by the greatest number of experiments, 
 and by the amplest rewards, and, above all, by the cer- 
 tain profits derived from that kind of labour. A far- 
 mer of respectabihty in England, derives as much as 
 he pleases from the produce of his industry, and raises 
 a great fortune with ease. But it was in their manu- 
 factures, in particular, that the English were so back- 
 ward — the nation that has become, above all others, 
 manufacturers for the whole world, and is continually 
 creating embarrassments to other governments by ob- 
 liging them to exert themselves against the effects of 
 their industry. Though her lords were seated on wool- 
 sacks, so great was her ignorance of England, and so 
 wretched was her state, that she had not skill enough 
 to manufacture any other than the coarsest kind of 
 cloth, and that she was absolutely ignorant of the art 
 of dyeing her cloth : she was in the habit of receiv- 
 ing from the hands of the Hollanders that process 
 which every one is acquainted with at the present 
 day, which England possessed in a high degree of 
 solidity but in an inferior degree of lustre from 
 that which other nations know how to give her. 
 What a difference between the confined state of 
 the manufacture as it stood then, and six hun- 
 dred thousand packs of wool which are annually worked 
 up in England, as it appears from the debates in Par- 
 liament upon the subject of the union with Ireland. 
 The manufacturers were alarmed from the apprehension 
 
27S THE COLONIES. 
 
 of the injury which the manufacture might sustain 
 from certain commercial clauses of the act of union ; it 
 was asserted on that occasion that the number of six 
 hundred thousand sacks of wool, so far from exceeding 
 the demands of the manufactures, was not equal to 
 their means, and it was said, that if the manufacture 
 stopped at that point it would be rather from the want 
 of raw materials than from the want of means of 
 fabrication. Enghsh commerce has always its eyes 
 open to this part of the administration of public affairs 
 and of the national riches ; on this head we never find 
 their minds wander from the point, nor compromise 
 admitted. Thus, while the entire nation was silent 
 on the affair of the union, and looking with an eye of 
 indifference on the discussions of the two Houses in 
 both countries, while purely of a legislative character, 
 it awoke from its slumber, it took fire, respecting one 
 clause purely commercial which was the oply one 
 which seemed to excite any interest in the entire of 
 that great act ; each conceived his own personal in- 
 terest to be attacked, instead of considering the union 
 of Ireland with Great Britain, the fusion of one legis- 
 lative body into the other, as a question purely specu- 
 lative, which does not concern any one in particular, 
 or at least at a very distant date, which allows of time 
 for inquiring and for disposing of one's means or busi- 
 ness. Add to all those inconveniences of detail that 
 of the exclusive Companies to which, in conformity 
 with the spirit of the age, all the commerce of Eng- 
 land was delivered up, as indeed was the case every 
 where, and you will have a sketch or outline of the 
 manner in which England then behaved towards her 
 commerce, and a just means of comparing it with the 
 principles which direct it at the present time. 
 
 While England was labouring so effectually in the 
 
THE COLONIES. 279 
 
 work of self destruction, as far as regarded her interior, 
 what was she about with respect to her Colonies ? Let 
 us take, for example, those of America. England, 
 having been so fortunate as to establish them indepen- 
 dent of Negroes and of Indians, and, consequently, 
 having much less embarrassment than the nations 
 which had to manage natives and slaves at the same 
 time, had nothing to occupy her attention but the in- 
 crease and improvement of her Colonies ; thus circum- 
 stanced, she had it in her power to realise the first 
 object which should be kept in view with respect to 
 every Colony, namely to make it produce in order to 
 enable it to consume. Is this what she has done ? 
 The following statement will answer that question. 
 
 Her Colonies were, at first, consigned over, for the 
 most part, to exclusive Companies for commercial 
 purposes, and to some favourite individuals in parti- 
 cular. The Companies went to receive ; the private 
 individuals surrendered or transferred their rights ; 
 every thing returned to the civil or colonial state. But 
 the parent state with her laws of iron soon interfered. 
 She was apprehensive that the Colonies might become 
 great : their fertility gave offence : she, at first, began 
 to express her doubts and suspicions as to their future 
 loyalty ; they must be kept in subjection by penury, 
 and that state of subjection be confirmed by priva- 
 tions. The mother country becomes a step-mother, 
 full of fears of her over-grown children, and engaged 
 entirely in preventing the develo]3ement of their fa^ 
 culties. Therefore confining her Colonists to cultiva- 
 tion, she attaches them exclusively to the soil ; she 
 does not permit them to manufacture, except exclu- 
 sively for themselves ; she raises a barrier between 
 each of the Colonies, she treats them as foreigners, 
 forbids th^m to hold any correspondence with e^ch 
 
28a THE COLONIES. 
 
 other 111 the way of trade, and debars them from ex- 
 changing their productions. The work of the artisan 
 is regulated, not by its perfection, but by the time 
 which he has employed or lost in qualifying himself; 
 at all events he must devote seven years to it. Neither 
 his fortune, his industry, or the favour he may enjoy, 
 can regulate the number of his apprentices. The law 
 unavoidably confines them to two, whether he be an 
 tft^tistrious or ignorant tradesman, whether he be a 
 young or an old man ; or whether, in places where 
 employment, and a vent for his wares is to be found, 
 or in places where he can find neither. 
 
 America, covered with forests, with a bosom that 
 perspires iron, was the fittest country in the world to 
 supply the mother country with the produce of that 
 valuable metal, which is indispensable for so many 
 purposes. She could have derived considerable benefit 
 from the overplus; Well! England granted America 
 m^erely the liberty of extracting it, and carrying it to 
 England J where from a strange fancy, the delivery 
 was confined to the distance of ten leagues around 
 London. The American was under the necessity of 
 going to England to obtain that metal in a manufac- 
 tured state, which he extracted from his own soil ; he 
 was forbid to keep any instrument in his possession 
 which could be used for manufacturing purposes. The 
 celebrated Chatham has been heard to exclaim in full 
 parliament, " England is lost the day that America 
 shall make even an iron horse shoe nail ! " jFalse 
 oracle, ill boding augury, which the American revo- 
 lution has changed into a source of prosperity even to 
 England herself! The American ports were open only 
 to Enghsh ships ; foreigners never cast anchor there, 
 and Ireland herself, considered in the same light by 
 her good sister England, had no more privileges than 
 
THE COLONIES. 281 
 
 they, and was driven from the American ports in the 
 very same manner: such v^as the state of things then. 
 The parhament of England, metamorphosed into a 
 chamber of commerce, had taken charge of the direc- 
 tion of it; and, as the proper spirit of executive govern- 
 ment never belonged to a body of men, the interven- 
 tion of parliament was only of use to smugglers and 
 fraudulent dealers, more clear-sighted and more vigi- 
 lant than any legislative body ever has been. 
 
 As lone: ^s the Enolish Colonies of the Antilles 
 
 CO 
 
 were free, their trade belonged almost exclusively to 
 the Dutch, then superior to the English, both in 
 knowledge and commercial means. The Colonies 
 were following the natural bent of things on that oc- 
 casion, which carries them to the vent which is most 
 open and advantageous. It was to be expected as a 
 matter of course, that the supremacy of the present 
 state would supply her deficiency in point of industry, 
 and bring back the Colonies to herself: the first navi- 
 gation act made its appearance, and England then 
 took the place of Holland : the progress which she 
 has made since that time exempts her from the fear of 
 losing them once more. That act enabled England to 
 furnish sugar for all the North; she would have fur- 
 nished the entire South also, were it not for the ab- 
 surd law which interdicted her traders from carrying 
 them there before they had touched at England, a 
 proceeding which, by doubling the expense of freight, 
 doubled the price of the article, and operated in the 
 favour of those who had good sense enough not to 
 condemn themselves to make the same circuit. St. 
 Domingo was not then in existence as a sugar Colony, 
 and it is only since 1740, that her sugars have ob- 
 tained a general preference, and replaced those of En- 
 gland. 
 
282 THE COLONIES. 
 
 What could have been the moving principle of 
 England in every thing that we have stated^ and what 
 was her object ? 
 
 As to the first, no man can allege even one which 
 can be called reasonable ; as to the second, it was di- 
 rectly contrary to the end she aimed at ; for with a 
 little reflection, she could not conceal from herself 
 that such rigid constraint, at most only useful in the 
 infancy of her Colonies, could not be extended be- 
 yond that, and, that by increasing in population and 
 strength, they were taking the very road to withdraw 
 themselves from it; that their inhabitants/with English 
 blood in their veins, would participate in all the qua- 
 lities which distinguish it — in that spirit of observation 
 which meditates, views, and compares ; in that of jus- 
 tice, which discerns and judges ; in that of liberty, 
 which becomes irritated by a prolonged oppression. 
 England should have seen that it was very difficult to 
 keep men under a yoke, who expatriated themselves 
 for no other reason than to withdraw themselves from 
 one ; and, lastly, that the contradiction was rather too 
 strong between the Englishman, so jealous of his 
 liberty in England, and the Englishman so distrustful 
 with respect to this very liberty, when exercised by 
 an Englishman in America. Reflections so very sim- 
 ple as the above should surely have brought England, 
 with regard to her Colonies, to adopt such conduct as 
 might have been mutually profitable to them, and 
 which, by drawing the ties still closer which united 
 the mother and her children, would have prevented 
 them from scandalizing the world by the sight of 
 their quarrels. 
 
 Spain has even gone beyond any thir.g which we 
 have as yet seen ; she has tried, like all countries, ex- 
 clusive companies ; she has experienced the same efr 
 
THE COLONIES. 283 
 
 fects ; but, that is not all, she conceived the idea of 
 excluding the greatest part, or rather almost the whole 
 of her inhabitants from any communication with her 
 Colonies. At first she opened no other vent than 
 that of the port of Seville : when it was filled up, she 
 substituted that of Cadiz ; but, in both cases, she re- 
 served no more than one point of communication with 
 countries of immense extent, and closed up from 
 them, as well as from herself^ all those with which 
 the shores of the Peninsula are so abundantly provided. 
 This w^as clearly imposing a restraint upon their mu- 
 tual relations, and rendering every article dearer to 
 the closed ports, which they were obliged to draw 
 from Cadiz, prevented as they were by the exclusive 
 privilege from drawing them directly from America. 
 Cadiz then united the exclusive commerce of Spain 
 with America to that of America with Spain, and 
 was at once the monopolist of the Colonies and of the 
 mother country. 
 
 The foreign trader, established in Spain, fulfilling 
 his duties to that country and performing his obliga- 
 tions as a citizen, by kindling the languor of com- 
 merce by his activity, had not the privilege of taking 
 a part in it. The number of ships, the time of their 
 departure, their route, their nature — every thing was 
 regulated by government. And those arrangements, 
 become habitually the objects of intrigue and favour, 
 were fabricated at court, and purchased in the public 
 offices of government. A ship was obtained in the 
 manner of promotion or a step, as an honorary dis- 
 tinction. The custom-houses completed this heavy 
 load of bonds, by the complexity and heavy rate of 
 the duties, with the augmentation of which they were 
 filone acquainted ; as if by raising them above their 
 
 (5 
 
284? THE COLONIES. 
 
 real rate, they did not, from that very circumstance, 
 fall short of it ; as if they did not immediately lose on 
 the one hand, what they had the appearance of gain- 
 ing on the other. It is not very long since it has been 
 discovered that two and two, in financial subjects, do 
 not always make four ; and the lateness of the period 
 at which this grand discovery has been made is not 
 the most honourable trait in the character of modern 
 governments. Spain, though the balance of trade was 
 every where against her, had forbidden the exporta- 
 tion of all the metals, as if it were in her power to ex- 
 onerate herself from the payment of the balance of her 
 trade; as if foreign commerce were under an obliga- 
 tion to provide for her expenses, for the wants of 
 Spain, or as if she had endeavoured to get rid of it. 
 Her wishes must have been confined to one or other of 
 those three things ; and the two first are so absurd, 
 that we can only stop at the third, and which is rather 
 an effect, than the end to which Spain has been 
 brought, without forming any project but from the 
 force of her first dealings alone. This restriction, the 
 infraction of which subjected to capital punishment, 
 continued till 1741, when it gave place, at first, to the 
 tax of three per cent., a rate much too high, and fa- 
 vourable to smuggling. For which reason, the trade in 
 silver with Spain was very lucrative, and enriched the 
 provinces of France along the Spanish frontier. That 
 power has never been fortunate in the manner of rating 
 the duties, not even since she has become enlightened 
 as to the principles of commerce, and has given it 
 freedom. The tarift' of 1778, on the suppression of 
 the exclusive privileges of Cadiz, gave an opening to a 
 fraud of sixty per cent. ; and that of 1720 to a frau- 
 dulent advantage of cent, per cent. The extent of the 
 
THE COLONIES. 285 
 
 loss was not a reason sufficiently strong to prevent 
 Spain from suffering it to continue sixty years. Spain 
 as well as England had interdicted her Colonies from 
 trading with each other : she kept them separate, as 
 if they had been foreign and hostile provinces; she did 
 not grant them the liberty of supplying themselves 
 either as to the quantity or the places, in such manner 
 as their wants and advantages demanded. Such a 
 great Colony as the Havannah has passed whole years 
 without receiving a ship from the parent state, or at 
 most but one. All Chili was to provide herself from 
 Peru, and was even prevented from importing more 
 than one cargo. 
 
 Are not such regulations an insult on common sense, 
 a judgment of very long duration against the Colonies ? 
 And if we ought to be astonished at any thing, is it not 
 that they have notperished, that theyhavenotfallen under 
 a load, as heavy as it was ill calculated? And while Spain 
 was so obstinately opposing the progress of the Colo- 
 nies by positive laws full of absurdities, she also added 
 every kind of neglect, which could not but deprive her 
 of the rich produce which their own fertile bosom pro- 
 fusely presented. Thus, Spain is condemned to pay 
 a tribute of from ten to twelve millions, in furnishing 
 herself w^ith spiceries which she can draw when she 
 pleases from America, where they grow spontaneously 
 in the valleys of the Cordilleras. Silk was also a pro- 
 duction of those countries, and possessed all the qua- 
 lities which fitted it for the most profitable purposes : 
 it is entirely lost. How many other productions are 
 neglected in a similar manner, lost, or arrested in their 
 develope'ment, and always from the same cause — the 
 inattention of those who have that direction which cor- 
 responds, in every degree, with jthat of a proprietor and 
 
286 THE C0L0NIP:S. 
 
 of masters ! Matters were carried to such lengths, that 
 Spain, which is covered with vines, and whose inha* 
 bitants are the most sober of all Europe, did not ex- 
 port annually, before 1743, more than 1741 tuns of 
 wine or brandy, to such an immense market as Ame- 
 rica ; and when, at the same time, her exports to the 
 same places, in European goods, amounted to 6,6 12 
 tons. 
 
 What, therefore, was the condition of Spain at that 
 time ? Could any one have possibly recognised under 
 the rags w^hich covered her, in the misery in which 
 she was steeped, the proprietor of an extent of ground 
 upon which the sun never sets ? Who could ever dis- 
 tinguish in this beggarly Spain the owner of the 
 country of gold and silver ? Spain remained unpro- 
 ductive with all her treasures, without action or with- 
 out any consideration in the midst of Europe, which 
 took advantage of her indolence in not attending to 
 her own improvement as she had that of the Indians 
 in neglecting to improve America: for which rea- 
 son she was reduced, even as early as the time of 
 Charles V, to the shameful condition of bankruptcy. 
 Her debt, under Philip H, amounted to 1,000,000,000 f. 
 Philip IV, by an act of his sovereign powder gave to 
 copper the value of gold, and the successor of Philip V. 
 thought himself authorised to violate the engagements 
 made by his father, and, in a manner as shameful as 
 the sum was trifling. It was only a matter of 
 160,000,000 francs, a sum equal to the expense of 
 building St. Idelfonso, and to the sum of which his suc- 
 cessor, Ferdinand IV, died possessed of : a double coin- 
 cidence, very singular in the history of that monarchy. 
 Spain had found out the scent of possessing, not only 
 without any advantage whatever but with some loss. 
 
THE COLONIES. 287 
 
 such Colonies as St. Domingo and PhiTippines. It is 
 only within a short time that she has derived any thing 
 from Porto Rico. Havanna is supported by Mexico. 
 Spain has twice driven the French population and the 
 refugees of Acadia from Louisiana and Florida, as if 
 she was afraid that these immense deserts would be- 
 come over populous in too short a time. It is there- 
 fore probable that, if Spain has received immense 
 sums in metals and in merchandise from America in the 
 space of two hundred and twenty-four years, she might 
 have received an infinitely greater sum, if one may 
 judge from the difference in the produce during ten 
 years of liberty, during which they have increased from 
 the sum of 105,000,000 in the precious metals, to 
 170,000,000f ; and from 75,000,000 in other produce 
 to 206 ,000,000 f, in such case Spain would have pre- 
 served some of that immense amount instead of serving 
 only as the medium through which it passes, perform- 
 ing the functions of a canal and no more, which is 
 only charged with the distribution, but which is not to 
 retain any thing itself. It is in fact, astonishing that 
 Spain, which draws all her metals from a fund belong- 
 ing to herself and receives them in Europe, does not 
 possess a greater metallic sum than 1,000,000 ,000 f., 
 while France, which does not possess one mine, not 
 one vein of gold or silver, can enumerate a currency of 
 2,000,400,000 f. The difference of the two sums is ex- 
 plained by the difference of character in the two pro- 
 prietors. 
 
 It appears also that the Europeans would have 
 created very ample means for promoting their own 
 good as well" as that of the Colonies, by the formation 
 of establishments truly colonial, of which no trace, ap-, 
 pears among any nation of Europe. Surely, if well 
 
288 THE COLONIES. 
 
 understood, it would be equally for the interest of tlie 
 parent states as the Colonies to put the young men of 
 the Colonies in a way of finding methods of instruc- 
 tion adapted to the state of the Colonists. The parent 
 state would have an interest in taking them to her 
 bosom ; the Colonists would have as strong an interest 
 in cultivating those young plants and in initiating her 
 children in the arts and sciences of the mother country: 
 that arrangement would be profitable to all parties. 
 To form subjects destined exclusively to carry relief to 
 the Colonies for those maladies which are peculiar to 
 them has been never before thought of. The Colonies 
 resemble our climates in no one particular : produc- 
 tions, temperature, habits; every thing exercises an 
 influence over the body for which nothing that we see 
 in Europe can prepare us. The ablest physician in 
 Europe knows nothing of the nature of colonial dis- 
 tempers, in consequence of not meeting them in the 
 course of his study and of his practice. Why have 
 not schools been erected entirely set apart to acquire 
 a knowledge of those maladies, and for the instruction 
 of the practitioners who were to be sent there ? Why, 
 in the same manner, were not one or two schools also 
 established for communicating information on all colo- 
 nial subjects, their productions, their interests, their 
 administration, &c. ? Such a course of colonial in- 
 struction should have been formed long ago ; and from 
 among those who would distinguish themselves in it 
 a corps should be established destined to become a 
 nursery to furnish men fitted for every department of 
 colonial administration. From this three-fold moral 
 oversight, Europe has at the same time rendered her- 
 self guilty of ingratitude and negligence towards the 
 Colonies ; of ingratitude, for she had received enough 
 
THE COLONIES. 289 
 
 from them to merit some attention on her part ; of 
 neghgence, for the losses which the Colonies have ex- 
 perienced by those omissions which have fallen upon 
 her, as is the case with every negligent proprietor who 
 deprives himself of every thing which he withholds 
 from his estate, which from want of care has few re- 
 turns to make, and consequently he himself power to 
 receive. 
 
 In the pubUc attempts which the Europeans have 
 made to naturalize some of the productions of their 
 Colonies, they have neither used a greater degree of 
 discernment nor of method. A transplantation of this 
 kind requires that the nature of the soil, and the in- 
 fluence of climate which the transplanted subjects 
 have left, should be consulted ; it requires that spots 
 should be selected over the whole extent of the parent 
 state, such as would have the greatest affinity with 
 their own. Instead of this, and as if the capitals had, 
 from no other title but because they were the capitals, 
 the properties of all sorts and of all climates, it has 
 always been in them, that productions extracted from 
 soils and temperatures entirely different have been 
 heaped together. What, in consequence, has become 
 of those cargoes so pompously announced as about to 
 enrich the Old World with the spoils of three kingdoms 
 of the New ? What remains of them ! Nothing, or 
 almost nothing ; and that which remains from the 
 common destruction satisfies vain curiosity in pom- 
 pous gardens and costly collections, filling with its 
 outlandish nomenclature the voluminous lists, and 
 such heads as are large enough to make room for the 
 names of those useless strangers. 
 
 u 
 
290 THE colonie;^. 
 
 CHAP. XV, 
 
 Recapitulation of the present State of the Colonial 
 Powers, 
 
 JLiET us collect the heads of the long account which 
 we have given into one small picture of the gallery, 
 if we may use the expression, which we have just sur- 
 veyed. 
 
 Portugal has no longer any Colonies -, she has be- 
 come one herself. The parent state is no longer in 
 Portugal ; hereafter we must look for it in the Brazils, 
 She has passed into America, and the Colony has re- 
 mained in Europe. 
 
 This revolution (for what other name should be 
 given to an event oif such importance) completely 
 changes the relations of Brazil with Portugal and those 
 between Portugal and that country. But, more than 
 that, it changes the condition of Portugal, considered 
 in itself, as well as with regard to Europe, 
 
 As to the former relations subsisting between the 
 Brazils and Portugal, it is very clear that they are en- 
 tirely inverted. The government, which has passed 
 over to the Brazils, will no longer see the treasures of 
 the Brazils in Portugal ; but will keep them to itself 
 and will consume them on the spot. Those tributes, 
 however, served to clear the balance of trade which 
 was against Portugal, to the amount of more than 
 60,000,000: she will in future be obliged to meet 
 that expense wiih the produce of her own industry, 
 7 
 
THE COLONIES. 294 
 
 If the government of Portugal, when a parent state^ 
 took very little concern in the condition of the Brazils, 
 a Colony ; in turn, the gov<?rnment of the Brazils, be- 
 come a parent state, will not give much more attention 
 to Portugal falletl to the condition of a Colony. Trans- 
 portation to a country entirely new in itself, as well as 
 tentirely new to it ; in which every thing is to be done ; 
 where everything is vast, rich ; where nature is grand, 
 fruitful, imposing ; where the population already sur- 
 passed that of Portugal, and from its mixture demands 
 particular care and attention ; the government of the 
 Brazils will not have much time t^ give to a distant 
 country which will appear very inferior in every re- 
 spect to thdt which it occupies. The great, the men 
 who have occasion for courts will not they pass front 
 Portugal to Brazil ? Will Portugal, when reduced to a 
 Colony, having to receive her laws from a distance, 
 impoverished by the withdrawing of the contributions 
 from Brazil, by the suppression of the expenses of the 
 tourt and of the great, familiarize herself to a change 
 in v^^hich she will find herself so grievously wounded ? 
 Will she be content always to remain in a dependent 
 colonial state, to support whatever is most humiliating 
 and burthensome in all the parts of administration ? 
 Will not the two fractions of the same government get 
 tired of such distant relations> so slow, so incommodi- 
 ous ? And will not Bra:sil be as unfit to manage the 
 affairs of Portugal as Portugal was to manage those of 
 Brazil? But^ furthermore, will Europe always look 
 upon Portugal, a Colony of Brazil, with the same eye 
 with which she looked upon the kingdom of Portugal, 
 the parent state of the Brazils, a European co-estate 
 of all the members of the sovereimi association of 
 Europe ? Will not the sovereign of the Brazils neces- 
 
 u 2 
 
292 THE COLONIES. 
 
 sarily exchange his European affections and feelmgs 
 ^r American feehngs and affections r He cannot fail 
 to become entirely American, and anti-European as 
 soon as he has become extra-European. Placed at the 
 centre of the grand movement which puts that vast 
 continent in motion, he will very soon be more taken 
 up with what is passing at his doors than with what is 
 passing at a distance from him. This change, this 
 transfer of the government of Portugal to America, 
 <!hanges in principles the colonial state of Portugal ; 
 .OF; rather by reducing her to a Colony has left her 
 without any Colonies whatever. 
 
 Assuredly it must be on account of Brazil that the 
 Portuguese government has insisted on preserving the 
 slave trade; one can easily perceive the interest which 
 Brazil has in it ; but we cannot perceive any on the part 
 of Portugal ; for Portugal has Colonies no longer, and, 
 in such a state, the trade no more concerns her 
 than it concerns Austria or Prussia. The new distance 
 of Portugal classes her among the extra-colonial 
 states. 
 
 i; Holland, wise and moderate in her colonial ambition, 
 as she is in all her inclinations, enjoyed, with the as- 
 sistance of France and of England, a sort of conven- 
 tional power. The fact is, it was the impossibility of 
 leaving her . Colonies to the discretion of one or 
 other which secured her in the possession. By the 
 new order which has created the kingdom of the Low 
 -Countries, that state, by taking the place of Holland, 
 lias gained in the point of means for preserving her 
 Colonies in the East Indies ; but she has lost her most 
 in^portant possessions, and with them the out-works 
 which covered and defended tl^em. The Cape of Good 
 Hope belongs , to her no longer, it has passed into the 
 
THE COLONIES, 293 
 
 hands of too fortunate England. The latter, besides, 
 fs in possession of the island of Ceylon : her power has 
 absorbed every thing in India. This new order of 
 things entirely changes the colonial condition of the 
 kingdom of the Low Countries : to say the truth, that 
 kingdom has no Colonies, for a state has no Colonies 
 when those which she holds are in such a state of de- 
 pendence that they are only held at the good pleasure 
 of another, when we are assured that they will be lost 
 every time they are attacked, and convinced that they 
 always will be so — in a word, when the fear of losing 
 them causes the owners to live in a constant state of 
 dependence and subordination. Such then is the state to 
 which the loss of the Cape and of Ceylon, together 
 with the prodigious elevation of the English marine and 
 empire in India, have brought matters with respect to 
 the Colonies of the new kingdom of the Low Coun- 
 tries : deprived of those two most important points of 
 support, the Colonies possess no other means of de- 
 fence. In every war, they will be the objects at which 
 England will strike her first blow, and will, of neces- 
 sity, become her prey. The imminence of the danger 
 will always have an influence on the measures of the 
 new state ; and at the point to which things have ar- 
 rived, she has no further occasion for her troops in her 
 Colonies except for the purpose of maintaining good 
 order in the interior and against the natives of the 
 country, for all the troops which she might set apart for 
 their defence would not retard the capture of the place 
 by the English twenty-four hours. The Colonies of 
 the kingdom of the Low Countries are in the same 
 «tate as those of France ; they are no longer any thing 
 but warehouses and farms, but in no respect any 
 means of power ; and as they defend nothing they. 
 
29* THE COLONIES. 
 
 ought not to be defended. France and the Low 
 Countries should follow the same line of conduct with 
 respect to their Colonies as well in peace as in war. 
 The kingdom of the Low Countries is therefore ntx 
 longer a colonial power : her Colonies should be 
 reckoned only as factories or country houses for the 
 purposes of commerce and exchange. This is So 
 inuch the more unfortunate, as the Hollanders, who as 
 yet compose the only colonial people of the kingdom 
 of the Low Countries, are most eminently colonial—- 
 the people in whom all the qualities calculated to make 
 a Colony flourish most appear. Economy, perseverance 
 in labour, and industry, moderation in their desires, 
 calmness unalterable ; these elementary qualities of all 
 good order, but particularly of the colonial, are found 
 in the very highest degree among the Dutch : let any 
 man behold what such admirable qualities have ac- 
 complished in the works which they executed at 
 Batavia, at Surinam, and at the Cape of Good Hope. 
 What other nation could have borne the sight of such 
 labours, would have presumed to establish themselves 
 m such forbidding places — would have kuown how 
 to substitute iri the room of noisome marshes, the re- 
 treat of reptiles, smiling cities, and harvests, the rich- 
 iiess of which has been purchased at the expense of so 
 much sweat I The English are better adapted for the 
 conquest and for the political government of large 
 Colonies, but they are not endowed vyith that economy, 
 that tenacity of labour which make the Dutch a nation 
 by themselves and distinct from all others, and which 
 in the end constitute colonial superiority ; for in Co- 
 lonies, as well as in every thing else, that superiority 
 belongs to labour, and, in the last resort, ends with re- 
 inaining with her. The Frenchman is too fond of 
 
THE COLONIES. S9fl 
 
 luxury and of his enjoyments as also of the rapidity 
 of fortune, to unite in his own person many of the 
 quahties which form that aptitude to make Colonies 
 flourish ; we are not to judge of him from St. Domingo, 
 a privileged land if ever there was one, for what would '^ 
 not the Hollanders have done there. The Frenchman 
 would deprive Fortune of her wheel in order to fur^ 
 nish her with wings. The Spaniard has no colonial 
 qualities : he has avoided labour in America as he 
 flees from it in Spain ; he ran to the mines instead of 
 running to cultivation. In every place where mines 
 were not to be found he ran off as if he had nothing 
 to do there ; he has continued in his indolence, and has 
 substituted the sterile economy of denying himself all 
 enjoyments in place of the productive economy of 
 the Hollanders, which adds to labour by labour, and 
 to riches by riches. The Spaniard is the Midas of 
 the Colonies changing every thing into gold, and 
 dying with hunger in the midst of his gold. 
 
 England is the colonial power distinguished above 
 all others by the pre-eminence of her marine, by the 
 greatness of her capitals, and the extent and fertility 
 of the Colonies over which she reigns. In fact, she 
 reigns without a rival, and without fear of having any 
 in all India, and the seas of Asia. She keeps the keys 
 of them, by holding possession of the Cape and the 
 Isle of France : she lords it over all the seas of Asia, 
 by occupying Ceylon, Malabar, and the Coromandel 
 coast. In the Antilles, her possessions share the chances 
 created by the new condition of the negroes, and by 
 the kingdom of St. Domingo. In Canada nothing 
 has shaken her, and nothing menaces — the time is not 
 as yet come. England, therefore, occupies too high a 
 rank in the colonial order not to merit being classed 
 
296 THE COLONIES. 
 
 by herself: nothing can be compared with her : she 
 has not her peer in all the world ; and between her 
 place and that which is next in succession, there is not 
 one interval alone — there are a thousand. 
 
 France has lost the Isle of France and St. Domingo : 
 the loss of the one blots her out of India ; the loss of 
 the other annihilates her in the Antilles. Martinique 
 without St Lucia is good for nothing : Bourbon is 
 nothing more than an isolated farm in the midst of 
 seas ; the Isle of France was its protection. If that 
 island was of little account in a commercial view, it 
 was very important in a political one, and in contem- 
 plation of a war. Its position made it the outworks 
 of the French establishments in India, the resting- 
 place of their ships, the arsenal of their squadrons, and 
 their alarm-post against the English establishments. 
 Its properties began to be known in 1735, and the 
 celebrated Bourdonilaye was charged with commencing 
 works upon it agreeable to that view. That extra- 
 ordinary man raised the island from nothing, and he 
 executed or prepared every thing which could fulfil 
 the intentions of his government : that government, 
 continued its attentions, and fortified it, under the 
 direction of the able engineer d'Arcou. In that con- 
 dition the Isle of France possessed the double property 
 of protecting the French establishments, and disturbing 
 those of the English, by annoying their navigation ; 
 and has perfectly answered that destination in the 
 American war, as well as in the two last; during 
 which this establishment, at the extremity of the world, 
 without any aid from the parent state, and cut off from 
 all communication with her, was seen supporting a 
 blockade with admirable constancy, which, for many 
 years, exposed it to the severest privations. The inha» 
 
THE COLONIES. 297 
 
 bitants have been seen^ notwithstanding their distress, 
 harassing the EngHsh commerce, insulting the coasts 
 of Asia, and, joining mihtary courage with civil 
 energy, resisting at once the enemies of their internal 
 tranquillity, as well as the enemies of their indepen- 
 dence^ — the English, on the one side ; and, on the other, 
 the Commissioners of the French Assemblies. For it 
 is but justice to say, that the Isle of France arid of 
 Bourbon had no less right to complain of France than 
 of England, and their zeal was so much the more 
 meritorious, as their motives for showing any were 
 very few, and as they might have derived great ad- 
 vantages from the embarrassments of the mother 
 country, by withdrawing themselves from her yoke, 
 and living in a state of independence, which would 
 have turned entirely to their interest, and also to that 
 of France ; for the Isle of France, independent, would 
 be much better than the Isle of France in the hands 
 of England. Now that France has lost it, she has no 
 means whatever of setting a foot in India, nor even of 
 supporting the trifling establishments which have been 
 restored to her by the peace. What, in fact, are a few 
 insulated points^at the distanceof four thousand leagues 
 fi-om her, and, as it were, lost in the immensity of the 
 English possessions? It is almost the same as if France 
 held three or four villages in England. Would they 
 be worth the expense ? Would they add to her real 
 power; and if they would cost much money, as the 
 French establishments in India do, would not the 
 money of France be employed in the very worst way 
 possible ? For states should calculate how they, lay out 
 their money, as well as individuals. While France 
 had any share of power in India, or any prospect of 
 recovering her power, the probability of success might 
 
298 THE COLONIES. 
 
 alone have justided the expenditure of the nioriey 
 which she would employ on her Colonies in the East ; 
 but since she has lost the Isle of France, and that all 
 India belongs to England, her calculations should 
 follow the change which the objects have undergone 
 to which they were formerly applied. France ought 
 not any longer to maintain a single soldier in India, 
 nor expend upon it a single crown piece. 
 
 The French Colonies of the Antilles have assumed 
 a new face by the revolution at St. Domingo, and the 
 cession of Martinique to England : the latter nullifies 
 the military establishment of Martinique. Besides 
 it is without any object, since St. Domingo no longer 
 remains with France ; for it was not formed for Mar* 
 tinique : it would not have been worth the trouble, 
 and would not have paid the expense, ; but Martinique 
 was the war port, and the arsenal of the rich St. Do- 
 mingo. Martinique and Guadaloupe are, therefore, 
 no longer any thing but two farms, productive, it is 
 true, but which in future can be considered in no 
 other view than that of utility, and not that of power. 
 Every armament, got ready with any view to these 
 Colonies, which would go beyond the necessary inten- 
 tion of maintaining internal tranquillity, would be a 
 loss of money as injurious to the parent state^ as it 
 would be useless to the Colony. 
 
 France should, therefore, no longer be considered 
 as a colonial state. 
 
 Spain, which lately was the first colonial power in 
 superficial extent, the second in riches, is on the eve 
 of becoming the very last ; for in future, if she would 
 have Colonies, she must commence by reconquering 
 them. Her colonial state is, therefore, enveloped in 
 thc^loud^ of a most gloomy futurity, and promises ta 
 
THE COLONIEa 29$ 
 
 give an opening to the greatest revolution that the 
 world has ever yet witnessed. If no fortune has ever 
 been more colossal, never will any fall be more heavy; 
 if none has ever possessed more, none will ever have 
 lost more, and that by a succession of faults^ the extent 
 and obstinacy of which neither admit commiseration 
 nor excuse. We assert, that Spain will lose her Colonies 
 with a different effect from that of England, which was 
 enriched by the loss of the United States ; because 
 Spain will not retriev e by her commerce that which 
 ^^■^-yilLA^X^ ^Qst by her sovereignty, in the same 
 manner as England, which receives from her com- 
 mercial relations with the United States more than she 
 received by her sovereignty, and without finding her. 
 self under the necessity of paying the expense of their 
 establishments and guard. That is what marks the 
 difference between an industrious and an idle people, 
 enemies to labour. When a loss takes place the latter 
 find themselves without the means of making a repa^ 
 ration, while people of industrious habits have provided 
 all the means of repairing all the losses whieh they 
 may happen to experience. 
 
 To conclude, of the five colonial powers, (for we do 
 not reckon Denmark and Sweden), one alone is firm ; 
 all the remainder shake, and hold by nothing. Whaf, 
 a spectacle! How deserving attention! Especially 
 when one comes to think that this immense change is 
 the work of the last twenty years, during which time 
 the germs which concealed the colonial institutions of 
 all the nations have been fully developed, have acted 
 with all their force, and have ended with introducing 
 an order of things which we shall have to examine. 
 The nations which have regulated their conduct agree- 
 ably to the principles of the colonial order, have pre 
 
3oa THE COLONIES. 
 
 served their Colonies ; they who have departed from 
 those principles, have lost theirs. Effects have cor- 
 responded exactly to their causes; and, as is just, the 
 parties have ended by reaping as they have sowed. 
 
 CHAP. XVI. 
 
 Consequences of this State : its Dangers, 
 
 XT follows from the demonstration which we have 
 already established, that Colonies and a marine exist 
 only under one power alone, which is England. 
 
 We must take our departure from this point, as from 
 the first upon which the whole question turns, and 
 with it the interests of the commercial and colonial 
 world. The subject, we may see, is well worth the 
 pains of examination. Let any one take the trouble ta 
 follow this deduction, and he will see what steps Eng- 
 land has taken to draw the meshes of that net close 
 together, in which she has enveloped the world. We 
 presume to use the figure, at the same time asking 
 pardon for the liberty. 
 
 The first link of the chain is attached to Helygo- 
 land, and the second to Jersey. By that chain England 
 commands the Elbe and the Weser, the two great 
 estuaries of Germany, watches the Sound, intimidates 
 Sweden, terrifies Denmark, and lies a dead weight on 
 \\ie coasts of Holland and France. In the centre of 
 this kind of circumvallation, the body of the English 
 power raises itself, interposed between the South and 
 
THE COLONIES. SOI 
 
 the North of Europe, cutting the communication be- 
 tween these two grand divisions of that region of the 
 earth, waiting in tranquilHty for the rash adventurers, 
 who, in attempting to brave her shores, would only 
 offer themselves up as victims to her vengeance. It 
 is this singular, position of England, eccentric with 
 respect to Europe, in an intermediate position between 
 its parts, which are obliged to piass under her pbinted 
 cannon, from Plymouth to the Downs, which makes 
 the maritime power of England the tyrant of the seas 
 of Europe. 
 
 In Gibraltar, England carries the keys of the Medi- 
 terranean ; in Malta she occupies the centre of it; in 
 Corfu, she has one eye on the Adriatic, and the other 
 on Greece ; at the Cape of Good Hope, and the Isle 
 of France, she commands the road to India; in Ma-/ 
 labar, in Ceylon, and the Coromandel Coast, she, in a 
 manner, clasps opulent India in her arms, from tW 
 Indus to the Source of the Ganges ; at St. Helena, shl 
 is placed between the seas of Africa and America ; W 
 means of New Holland, she will become in time m^ 
 tress of the South Sea; in Trinidad, she has one fat 
 on the Spanish Continent ; at St. Lucia, she nulliis 
 and curbs Martinique ; by means of Antigua and Bar- 
 bados, she watches the Havannah and Porto Rico pn 
 fine, by the occupation of Canada and Newfoundlid, 
 she closes that immense chain of posts, which shaias 
 drawn round the globe, to subject it to her domiion 
 and her commerce, two things which she never ppa- 
 rates, and for which she has formed arsenals and /are- 
 houses every where- — the double base of her nwer. 
 Behold the state into which a profoundly coniinedl^^ 
 system, followed without deviation, favoured ^ the 
 immense faults which France has been comiAtting 
 
S02 THE Colonics. 
 
 fot one hundred years back, and the habitual torpor of 
 Spain, have brought the World — a state which^ from 
 its singularity, presents nothing similar, either in 
 ancient or modern history — a state, calculated upon 
 the defensive systems which some of the powers of 
 Europe had adopted for their frontiers^ and which 
 gives England a double line of maritime posts, behind 
 which she can equall;^ defend herself, and pounce upon, 
 her enemy, who is not able to return her attacks. 
 The traces of this plan are too plainly marked in the 
 care which England has taken to place herself right 
 opposite all the fortified points, which belong to other 
 powers, so as that none can mistake her views. In 
 this manner has she established herself at St. Lucia, 
 at tl>e Isle of France, and at Ceylon, for the purpose 
 of nullifying every thing which might be opposed to 
 her. 
 
 This advantage, in point of situation, fortified by 
 an immense superiority in her marine3 her capital, 
 ^nd colonial possessions, gives an idea rather than the 
 jUst measure of the colossal proportions which England 
 has acquired — proportions, which in colonial rank re- 
 duce every thing about her to the state of dwarfs or 
 pygmies, and which is the reason that there is no such 
 thing as existing coloniallyj but under her guardian- 
 ship, or as she pleases. 
 
 Europe must be told (and we should not be under 
 any apprehension of exciting, for her good, some sa- 
 lutary terrors in the midst of her) that she is under 
 Ihe yoke of England ; and it is not Europe alone that 
 is under her yoke. During five-and-twenty years the 
 nations exerted themselves very much against the su- 
 premacy of Fratice, against the yoke imposed by Na- 
 poleon : it was the fashion of the day. That yoke 
 
THE COLONIES. 305 
 
 was hard, we must acknowledge, and still more mor- 
 tifying than hard ; but that of England, clothed in 
 appearances less repulsive we must confess, is it less 
 real, or less hard ? is it more easy to be shaken off, 
 does it bear upon fewer interests ? Assuredly not. A 
 coalition against Napoleon was possible, and he could 
 be brought down ; but how is a coalition to be formed 
 against England, and how are we to lay hold of her ? 
 Fie who has taken Dantzic, will he take Gibraltar? 
 He who has made all the French fortresses, from the 
 Cattaro even to Hamburgh, to fall as if at the touch oi 
 a magic wand ; will he, in like manner, cause all the 
 fortified and insulated stations of England to disappear, 
 protected as they are by her squadrons, present every 
 where? for we must not deceive ourselves in the present 
 day ; the power of flags exceeds that of battalions, and the 
 birth-day of the Admiral who is to ascend to London 
 Bridge will not follow the death of the General who 
 mined the bridge of Jena, till after a long revolution 
 of years, probably of ages. 
 
 France possessed a treasure in Saint Domingo, which 
 gave her the balance of trade, and with it that of 
 riches, and by that, that of power ; for this is the scale 
 upon which the degrees of modern power must be 
 reckoned. Among the Tartars it consists in horse- 
 men and horses ; among civilized Europeans it is 
 found in labour and in riches. Saint Domingo was 
 to other Colonies as the diamond is to the other pro- 
 ducts of the bowels of the earth ; but France has lost 
 that jewel, and with it her commerce, with her com- 
 merce her preponderance ; she has ceded the Isle of 
 France, consequently she no longer has any thing to 
 do in India, for she can no longer find the way to it. 
 She lias given up Saint Lucia, and with it the key of 
 
so* THE COLONIES. 
 
 Martinique ; but, still worse, not only is Saint Do- 
 mingo no longer profitable, it is even hostile. There 
 a different population holds sway, all whose attentions 
 are directed to remove the ancient possessors, and 
 which threaten to answer, to every attack by devasta- 
 tion or by flames. Saint Domingo for the Blacks, or 
 in ashes / 
 
 However, a nation such as that of France, whose 
 power is necessary to all Europe, and which will every 
 day become more so, in the new state of Europe, after 
 having been in possession of rich Colonies, and having 
 flourished by their helps, will she be reduced to the 
 disinteresting spectacle of that happiness which their 
 full enjoyment will produce to England ? And will not 
 she be affected in the most sensible manner every 
 instant by the sentiments and the effects of that su- 
 periority to which a complete disinheritance from the 
 Colonies will condemn her ? 
 
 Let it, then, be taken into consideration, that France 
 is a nation peopled with nearly 30,000,000 of inha- 
 bitants ; that her genius, her soil, and her climate, 
 are not separated from her with the new members 
 which have been dissevered ; that, if this country 
 no longer attracts attention on the political map, she 
 is absent but not effaced from it ; that the chances of 
 fortune may still return, and that they who laugh at 
 her sorrows now may, on a future day, have recourse 
 to her for support, and may be very glad to find 
 France at the post which nature has assigned her. 
 Let us entertain no doubts on the subject : political 
 France, no more than civil France, will not remain in 
 ihe state in which we see her ; that state is not a na- 
 tural one, no more in the one scale than the other-— 
 yet a few days and she will recover her spirits. 
 
 1 
 
THE COtONIES. 3^05 
 
 Spain, oil her feide, is falling from the summit of 
 colonial opulencie to the most profound abyss-^to the 
 iridst absolute nudity. Yesterday, every thing in 
 Spain was gold, by means of her Colonies ; to-day, 
 every thing is rags, by reason of their loss. A mother 
 rejected by her robdst and full grown children, ac- 
 cusing her decrepitude, her remoteness, her weakness, 
 her incapacity to provide for them, to govern, to de- 
 fend them, exhausts herself to bring back her eman- 
 cipated family ; and in this unequal, blind, protracted 
 contest, exterminating at the same time her American 
 childi'en by the hands of those of Europe, and those 
 of Europe by the hands of her American, in the same 
 act joins suicide with parricide, her depopulation, and 
 her ruin. But besides, what a loss ! Mexico and Pe- 
 ru, America of the south, America of the north ; ex- 
 pulsion from the straits of Magellan, as far as Cali- 
 fornia ! What a disgrace ! The flag of Castile is chased 
 over every sea by flags which the ocean has not as 
 yet known, which the acknowledgment of no nation 
 has as yet legitimatized. The ships of America, with 
 extraordinary presumption, shaping their course to- 
 wards the shores of Europe, have the boldness t6 
 brave Spain on her very coast ; Buenos Ay res block- 
 aded, Cadiz, the Carthagena of America, affrights the 
 Carthagena of Spain, and her interdicted commerce is 
 self banished from seas infested by swarms of enemies 
 vomited forth against her by the very ports into which 
 she carried life, and from which she carried back 
 riches. In future these ports, so long fraternal, will 
 be no longer open to Spain but under the conditions 
 Which reciprocity of interests confer ; all superiority 
 between them having come to an end. 
 
 X 
 
306 tAE COtONIES- 
 
 Portugal has done still more, for so far from con- 
 tinuing to liave Colonies, she has become one herself. 
 
 Holland, raised in Europe to a degree of power and 
 of titles superior to those which had formerly belonged 
 to her, has lost in her Asiatic Colonies the only ones 
 which were worth mentioning — the possessions which 
 might have served for their defence, and to give and to 
 add to her own consideration. In future she will have 
 no other safeguard but by observing a passive obedience 
 to England — the very shadow of opposition would de- 
 stroy her. 
 
 We see, from the whole of the changes which hav* 
 taken place in the Colonies, that the state of Europe, 
 which is intimately connected with it, is not less af- 
 fected by it than the colonial state itself. The conse- 
 quences of such an order — an order in which one acts 
 the part of tyrant, and all the others that of slaves ; 
 a source of riches to the former, and of ruin to the 
 latter ; are too closely connected with the general in- 
 terests of Europe not to excite that sensibility of pain 
 and affliction which every constrained state produces 
 as well among nations as individuals, and which im- 
 pels the one as well as the other to get rid of it with 
 that energy which the feeling of oppression always 
 inspires. In reality, how can an order of things be 
 borne which adjudges to one people alone all the hostile, 
 isolated, and impregnable points of the whole world. 
 Do not common sense and the common safety dictate 
 that points of that nature ought not to belong to one 
 alone against all ; that is, from the very circumstance 
 of these posts being so very strong that they should 
 not be the appanage of one who is already strong, and 
 too strong without general servitude being the result; 
 
THE COLONIES. SOT 
 
 that the strength of the place ought to be compensated 
 by the weakness of the proprietor ; and that from such 
 combination, aud from such alone, a general security is 
 derived r Europe did not suffer because the sovereign- 
 ty of Malta was held by a religious and military order, 
 the head of which was as much isolated as the rock 
 which supported him, and the members of which, 
 scattered over the surface of Europe, were accountable 
 to it for the use they might make of Malta. But who 
 will answer for the ill use which England may make 
 of it } Holland at the Cape, France in the island of 
 hev own name, nay, more^ in Martinique ; Spain in 
 Trinidad, troubled nobody. The chance which alone 
 seemed to have presided over that distribution of pro- 
 perties^ appeared to have watched over the liberties of 
 Europe, and to have served thetn better than politics 
 have done. If Europe already felt the vveight of one 
 Gibraltar, will it not be crushed down by a chain of 
 Gibraltars drawn round the globe, which makes all 
 the inhabitants prisoners within an enclosure, of which 
 one jailor alone keeps the key. 
 
 How blind is hatred in her madness ! Into what 
 an error does she fall by fixing the eyes of all to one 
 point ! During twenty years France alone has been the 
 object of general attention-— France extravasating 
 herself in her own neighbourhood, striking right and 
 left at thrones, strong or weakly supported, replacing 
 them in open plains with sorry fabrics, destitute of all 
 uniformity of plan ; and, during all that time, Eng- 
 land admitting or spreading the delusion, delivering 
 np her rival to public clamour, advancing with trident 
 in hand, and taking firm stations on the shores of the 
 four quarters of the globe, and establishing her facto- 
 ries and her sentinels around her. The world will 
 
 X 2 
 
308 THE COLONIES. 
 
 one day find itself caught in a net, concealed undef- 
 the appearance of succours, offered by the ingenious- 
 hands which have woven the thread of it, the keeping 
 of which has been consigned to the real Neptune— to* 
 the English Neptune. Such is the state in which we 
 find ourselves — a state which cannot fail to produce 
 new troubles, and which cannot be ameliorated, but 
 by a combination of measures, such as will give a new 
 face to the colonial order; for the ancient no longer 
 exists, or could have no connection with that whidi 
 does exist. 
 
 CHAP. XVII. 
 
 Of the changing of Mother Countries into Colonies, 
 and Colonies into Mother Countries. 
 
 A. NEW scene has opened in Europe, that which the 
 Dutch proposed to carry into execution when Louis XIV 
 thundered at the gates of Amsterdam ; that which 
 Philip V was projecting when adverse fortune seemed 
 to deliver up Spain to his rival; that which the reso- 
 lute and clear-sighted Pombal pointed out, when Lis- 
 bon, swallowed up with her inhabitants, seemed des- 
 tined to no other repose than what she could enjoy 
 over an abyss ; that which Charles IV, perceiving too 
 late the fate which awaited him, was on the point of 
 undertaking, has been carried into effect by the Prince 
 of Brazil, in compliance with that invitation his title 
 seemed to hold out. He is no longer in Europe, and 
 it is from him that the exam])le is derived, which is 
 
THE COLONIES. 309 
 
 given to the sovereigns of Europe, of leaving it for 
 America: and of passing from the parent state to the 
 Colony, inverting their mutual relations. All the 
 great changes or transfers of empire have changed its 
 face. Constantine destroyed Rome by transferring the 
 seat of the Roman empire to Byzantium. He com- 
 menced the Lower Empire— pale twilight of that of 
 Rome ! Rome remained alone with her Tiber and an- 
 cient divinities ; her power and her altars crumbled 
 away together, and her Jupiter could no more defend 
 the Capitol, than the Temple of Victory ; the Roman 
 eagle refused to pass over to the Hellespont: the Greek, 
 now become sophist and bigot, replaced the con- 
 querors of Marathon and the soldiers of Macedon ; 
 cloisters, the Portico, and the Lyceum : the empire, 
 delivered over to disputes, as unimportant as unintel- 
 ligible, fell pn every side; and cenobites, very pious 
 but very idle, disputing about the light of Tabor, 
 soon introduced Mahomet into Sancta Sophia, 
 r The going over of the King of Portugal to Brazil is 
 an event of the same nature, calculated to exercise the 
 greatest influence on the destinies of the world. The 
 ship which carried him to the Brazils, had obtained, 
 among the ancient Greeks, more honour than that 
 which carried Jason and his Argonauts. That Prince 
 has given the first example of the changing of a Co- 
 lony to a mother country — the residence of an Euro- 
 pean sovereign.* 
 
 * " During my stay at St. Paul's, we learned the Prince Regent 
 had quitted Lisbon, and embarked for the Brazils. This news was 
 received with much satisfaction by the Brazilians, because they con- 
 sidered that their country would henceforward be inhabited by a 
 sovereign who would pay all his attention to it, and render it more 
 flourishing. The bishop of St. Pavil ordered public prayers, to ask 
 
810 THE COLONIES. 
 
 Let us examine what the consequences of this rne- 
 tainorphosis will be, whether affecting the two coun- 
 tries or Europe. This change is, in the nature of 
 
 ^ things, applied to every Colony, greater, richer, and 
 more populous than the mother country. It may be 
 brought about in two ways: by force or choice. Thus 
 in nearly all the cases specified above, the passage to 
 the Colonies was forced : while it was free and volun- 
 tary in Pombal's plan. We find that a Colony which 
 infinitely surpasses the mother country in riches,, in 
 population, and extent^ possesses, in itself, a powerful 
 attraction for the sovereign who resides in the mother 
 country, where objects meet his eye, which only strike 
 or wound it by their inferiority to those be knows he 
 can view elsewhere. The irresistible inclination of man 
 for his welfare urges him continually to seek and to 
 seize it wherever it can be discovered. In this case, 
 the sovereign, residing in the mother country, will be 
 ^always strongly affected towards the Colony : for ex- 
 ample, could the Kings of Spain and Portugal, m 
 comparing their European states with those of America, 
 be insensible to the effect of this comparison? and 
 
 ' when they have visited these vast and delicious resi- 
 dences, would they think of quitting them for the 
 confined habitations that Spain and Portugal would af- 
 terwards offer ? It would be like exchanging a palace 
 for a cottage. 
 
 Heaven to favour the voyage of the Royal Family, and to shed its 
 blessings over the new Brazilian empire. Ten days after it was 
 known the Court had arrived at Bahia, the joy was universal ; it 
 was manifested by thanksgivings, processions, and feux de joie. 
 The sum of 12,000,000 was oifered by the city of St. Salvador, to 
 build a palace, if the Prince consented to fix his residenqe there.'' 
 Matct^i Travels in the interior qf Brazil, Vol. J. 
 
THE COLONIES, SIl 
 
 On another side, policy and necessity finish the 
 work begun by personal satisfaction. A sovereign, at- 
 tentive to every branch of his government, watching 
 in his march the progress of the parties who attach 
 themselves to him, capable of looking forward and 
 remarking the superiority that the Colonies cannot fail 
 to acquire over the mother country, will necessarily 
 conclude by giving them the preference, and cannot 
 avoid* being, in some measure, taken by surprise. 
 
 The consideration of their superiority will operate 
 as a law upon him, in causing him to be where his 
 greatest interests are to be found. These, in public as 
 well as private affairs, can never pass the eye of the 
 master. Colonies, such as Mexico and the Brazils, 
 must cease, then, by drawing to them the sovereigns 
 of Europe — inevitably so : the states in this latter 
 country having all, more or less, arrived at a point of 
 perfection, are not susceptible of those improvements 
 for which there is such scope, in a soil as it were yet 
 new. For instance, what progress could Portugal 
 make in population, culture, or riches, compared with 
 those which are manifested year by year, on the pure 
 and unbroken ground of the Brazil? How would Spain 
 rise to prosperity, the elements of which so energeti- 
 cally develope themselves at Mexico and South Ame- 
 rica ? The Colony, leaving its established order, will 
 some day, then, become superior to the metropolis ; and 
 this day will bring the European sovereign very near to 
 her. This necessity will be augmented still more, if 
 the Colonies are strongly affected by a mixture of blood, 
 the complication of which is always troublesome, and 
 often even dangerous to the existence of the planters 
 as well as the Colonies. The sovereigns, consequently 
 will feel an obligation to watch themselves these p ' 
 
 7 
 
3jl? THE Cpf.QNIESr 
 
 ciples of discard. The emigration of European sove- 
 reigns to great Colonies is then possible; that of others 
 to srr^aller Colonies may also be brought about by cir- 
 cumstances. The Dutch emigrated when pressed by 
 ..tiOuis XIV, and many other princes would have fol- 
 lowed the example of the sovereign of Portugal, when 
 threatened, like him, with the rod of Napoleon, if they 
 had had Colonies. 
 
 But in this case, what would become of the habi- 
 tual political state of Europe, if Charles IV, (arrested 
 at Aranjuez in the rout he had already taken towards 
 America) was joined to the Prince of Brazil ? Spain 
 and Portugal would lose their direct relations with Eu- 
 rope, and Europe with these states. Henceforth they 
 must go to America ; consequently the affairs of Eu- 
 rppe, with a part of its members, must no longer be 
 transacted in Europe, but in America. W^e leave 
 people to think what the consequences of this change 
 would be. What a difference for Europe altogether, 
 and for each European state in particular, in having 
 habitually to treat of the affairs of Europe, wi^h au- 
 thorities of inferior rank in Europe, but who in Ame- 
 rica are sovereigns ? To what delay would not business, 
 be continually exposed ? What coldness would not th^ 
 disaffected occasion between the courts and inhabitant;s 
 of two different worlds, and which would be produced 
 by this new order of things ? It is evident the incon- 
 veniences of these new relationships would be felt in 
 such a ma,nner, as to make it desirable to court ano- 
 ther. Let us not forget to observe what the dignity of 
 Europe would suffer by a transposition of power, which 
 would show it receiving the laws of another hemis- 
 phere, even from those to whom it once gave them. 
 One cannot conceive how it cpuld submit to this de- 
 
THE COLONIES. »13 
 
 gradation, and the care of its honour lends its assis- 
 tance to its poHcy, in pointing out the remedy for this 
 evil. 
 
 The last conclusion of all is, that each should con- 
 duct its own affairs. 
 
 Let the affairs of Europe be transacted in Europe, 
 and those of America in America, and all will be well. 
 
 CHAP. xvin. 
 
 Of the Dependence and Independence of the Colonies. 
 
 JN ATURE is the model of every thing : always great, 
 always true, always like herself, economical of her ef- 
 forts and resources : to speak from the constancy of her 
 laws, w^e should say, that this immortal work-woman 
 had paid all her attention to one work alone ; that she 
 bad but one single thought, one only end; and, in spite 
 of the abundance of wealth, she has sown with so liberal 
 a hand, in confining herself to the uniformity of her 
 wprks, one would be tempted to accuse her of sterility. 
 To be born — to grow — to die-r^comprise the history 
 of the world, as far as nature may be said to operate : 
 the rest is the work of man. Every being at its birth 
 stands in need of shelter, protection, and nourishment; 
 then the string of dependence is tied by the hand of 
 nature, who inclines the strong to protect the weak; 
 apd, by the same feeling of necessity, binds the pro- 
 tected tQ the protector. The plant is born in the midst 
 
SU THE COLONIES. 
 
 of a multitude of coverings, from which it extricates 
 itself in proportion as its growing strength permits it 
 to be exposed to the effects of the air, and to sustain 
 the shock of the surrounding bodies. From the lion's 
 vvhelp to the noble son of the eagle, alt arc either nou- 
 rished by the breast or sheltered under the wing of the 
 mother, until the different means of defence, disposed 
 by nature in the contexture of their organs, are suffi- 
 ciently strengthened to render them in want of assis- 
 tance no longer. Man is subject to the same laws of 
 dependance — he participates in the same taste for free- 
 dom. When an infant, he cUngs to his parents for 
 support, whose labour supplies his helplessness, and 
 from whom he receives strength to his weakness, 
 light and experience to his ignorance, and protection 
 from objects which, at his tender age, might en- 
 danger his existence ; but with age bis body extends, 
 his limbs become hardened, his eyes clear: he sees, 
 hears, retains, and compares. Then the infant gives 
 place to the man : he is mature when the fires which 
 lighted the flame that gave him birth circulate in his 
 blood ; he hears the voice of nature which calls him to 
 continue the chain of beings she has formed, in the 
 prospect of an uninterrupted succession among all that 
 exist. Then man becomes the chief of a family, which, 
 at the same epoch, will spring from him ; and, like 
 the bird which, when properly fledged, leaves the nest 
 that has nourished its infancy, departs from the pater- 
 nal roof which has fostered him. 
 
 But what relates to men, may be equally appHed to 
 the Colonies and mother country. Nature has sub- 
 jected them to the same laws, and consequently to the 
 efiects of these laws; for she has not, as men too often 
 
THE COLONIES. 815 
 
 do, separated the effects from the causes, but has ren- 
 dered the fulfilment of the law inseparable from the 
 law itself. 
 
 Three things principally constitute the dependence 
 of the Colonies. 
 
 First — ^The defect of population. 
 
 Secondly — ^Their youth, which may be called their 
 weakness. 
 
 Thirdly — The species of their population. 
 
 In proportion as a Colony is weak, that is, thinly 
 peopled, of little extent, not rich, nor provided with 
 the means of repelling an attack, there exists between 
 it and the mother country this kind of inequality, 
 which constitutes the submission of one to the other, 
 and hence follows its dependence. So before the Span- 
 iards were accustomed to the climate and spread in 
 America, how could they have resisted Spain? The 
 disproportion was such, that the one could not dream 
 of comparing itself to the other. And the same may 
 be said with regard to India: how could a few English- 
 men, passing through the country, think of shaking off 
 the yoke of three kingdoms? They feel themselves 
 crushed under their own weight, but when the popu- 
 lation of the Colony is increased ; when, without cor- 
 responding to the extent of the country it occupies, 
 any more than to the population of the mother coun- 
 try ; it shall possess nevertheless a sufficient strength 
 to meet what may be opposed to it by the mother 
 country, then the hour of independence is arrived for it, 
 in the same manner as the independence of man arrives 
 to him when he finds himself on an equality with his 
 parents ; and if then the independence still continue, 
 when the necessity which first created it is ended, it is a 
 patter of courtesy, paid ta the mother country, which she 
 
316 THE COLONIES. 
 
 may congratulate herself upon; but it is not the continu- 
 s^nce of ancient affinity that could unite her to the Co- 
 lony. It is that sort of independence that has taken 
 place at Mexico and the United States ; it is that which 
 could not fail to occur in the Brazils. . This result is 
 such, which, in the nature of things, cannot but happen 
 tQ the Colonies, any more than an acorn can fail, in 
 time, to become an oak. 
 
 The defect of population, then, constitutes the first 
 degree of dependence of the Colonies on the mother 
 country* , .. ,f\ovi ion .inv; 
 
 The second, is,, their weiakness. By this word, we 
 ai'e; to understand the want of knowledge and of every 
 means ^f resistance. 
 
 When we are ignorant— when we have neither re- 
 fleeted nor compared — when we are slaves to preju- 
 dices and laabits ; and have made no deviation from 
 tlie established order of things — however vicious our 
 governors may be, wei are more contented with the 
 yoke than, when new light having cleared the mind, 
 and fortified and refined it, there is open to us a new 
 universe, in which we in our turn read, and are di- 
 rected by our own judgment. 
 
 This is the case with man when a child; he believes 
 all his father says to him ; by degrees, he begins to 
 see, compare, and judge for himself; his mind is freed 
 from the dependence that the ignorance of youth had 
 <;reated ; in time he goes into the world and conduct3 
 himself alone. Colonies do the same. When in a state 
 of infancy, they belong altogether to the mother 
 country; older, that is to say, stronger, they look 
 around them : they seek what best suits their own in* 
 
 TJbcijiyn^ted States did not begin with Adams, 
 
THE COLONIES. S17 
 
 Franklin, and Washington ; they are the creation of 
 time, the produce of their own growth ; they are the 
 United States arrived at Manhood. It is so, and it 
 will be the same with all Colonies. They begiti with 
 dependence, the fruit of their infancy : they continue 
 during yonth, which is the time for developing their 
 faculties; they end with manhood, which is their in- 
 dependence. Whilst they are ignorant, they are led ; 
 as soon as they get knowledge they run alone, and at 
 their own discretion. 
 
 The third principle of the dependence of the Colo- 
 nies, and their attachment to the mother country, is' 
 the difference of population and the distinction of 
 colours. ' ■ 
 
 The Europeans, in establishing themselves in every 
 quarter of the globe, find the indigenous population 
 spread over the surface of these countries in proportion 
 more or less strong. Sometimes they have added to 
 the local population an importation of inhabitants of 
 strange countries, such as negroes. The mixture of 
 planters with natives, as well as those imported, has 
 formed a mongrel race. Here, European blood thrives 
 as in every part of America ; in other places it fails, as 
 in Bengal. There the population of Europe reigns : 
 farther off they are nothing, like St. Domingo and In- 
 dia. In some places European blood is predominant, 
 as in the United States ; in others it is mixed in equal 
 parts, as in the Brazils ; more remote, the population 
 is formed of another blood, namely, of those who have 
 not peopled the Colony, but have conquered it, like 
 Canada and the Cape of Good Hope, whose population 
 is French or Dutch, and mother country England. 
 What will the Colonies do in such various situations ? 
 They will conduct themselves in proportion as their 
 
 2 
 
SIS THE COLONIES. 
 
 necessities require the assistance of the mother coun-* 
 try, to which they will remain attached, by reason of 
 their want of defence ; and, as self-preservation is the 
 first law, and the mother country showing this pre- 
 servation, they will cling to it as to existence itself. 
 
 Thus, when the Spaniards were settled on the vast 
 surface of America, and found themselves opposed to 
 the indigenous inhabitants, they saw the necessity of 
 strongly attaching themselves to the mother country, 
 whose assistance, and the fear she inspired, maintained^ 
 them in the conquest, and secured them against the 
 natives. In proportion as they multiplied and ruled 
 over the indigenous population, they had less need of 
 the mother country ; consequently they proceeded to 
 the consideration of their own interests, and fell at 
 length into independence. 
 
 The Brazils arrived at it in the same way. The 
 Portuguese, small in number at first, as is always the 
 case at the commencement of a conquest, ended by 
 accustoming themselves to the climate, and forming 
 associations numerous enough to come from Portugal, 
 without any fear of the indigenous population. Get- 
 ting rid of this fear had almost induced them to sepa- 
 rate from Portugal, when the arrival of the King of- 
 fered them what they were going to procure for them- 
 selves : for there is no doubt that Brazil would have 
 separated from Portugal, if Portugal had not just re« 
 united herself to Brazil. 
 
 The English empire in India reckons more than 
 30,000,000 of subjects among the natives ; there 
 are not 50,000 English in all India. The dis- 
 proportion is such, that the latter are compelled to be 
 firm to the mother country under pain of death : be- 
 sides, the Englishman does not inhabit India; he goes 
 
THE COLONIES. 313 
 
 there and quickly makes a large fortune, but he is not 
 attached to the soil. The Spaniard, on the contrary, 
 is attached to that of America, and so is the Bra- 
 zilian. 
 
 The Moluccas are in the same situation. What in 
 effect arc one part of these islands ? Points in the 
 ocean, scarcely inhabited or covered with an indige- 
 nous population, against which it is always necessary 
 to be on the look-out. What kind of independence is 
 to be found here for Europeans ? The only island 
 adapted to them, and which should be thcir's by good 
 right, is Batavia ; but Europeans do not form its rul- 
 ing population ; they are the indigenous whom it is 
 always necessary to watch. The Dutch planters have 
 too much need of Holland to leave it, for it is she who 
 protects them, and keeps up a force in the Colony 
 like themselves ; a force that they could not find with- 
 out her. The Europeans are concentrated in the city 
 of Batavia and its environs, the remainder are aban* 
 doned to the natives and Chinese : in this state would 
 not that independence which would deprive the Dutch 
 planter of the assistance of Holland be foolish? Is 
 not, on the contrary, an union with the mother coun- 
 try his first necessity ? 
 
 At the Cape of Good Hope, when the Dutch had it, 
 it was quite the contrary : he might come from the 
 mother country, but he could not resist it because the 
 population, although sufficient for the indigenous in- 
 habitants, was too weak against Holland. So, in 
 order to measure the degrees of independence of the 
 Colonies, we must begin by examining how they are 
 for population, whether as it respects the mother comu 
 try or the indigenous inhabitants. 
 
 Whilst the latter is in fear of the European, he feeU 
 
320 THE COLONIES. 
 
 himself obliged to be attached to the mother country, 
 which is his safeguard. 
 
 In proportion as he multiplies, so as to rival the 
 indigenous inhabitants, his attachment to the mother 
 country is slackened, and as soon as he rules over the 
 natives in number, his bonds are on the point of being 
 broken. If an equality proportionate with the mothet 
 country happens to be joined to that he already pos- 
 sesses with the natives, then nothing is wanting to the 
 means of independence ; then the Colony is ripe for 
 liberty ; its bonds with the mother country have 
 changed their ,nature ; those of duty and affection re- 
 maiuj those of necessity have disappeared. The ab- 
 sence of indigenous population has singularly faci- 
 litated the separation of America. She was not charged 
 with this inconvenient watching, consequently she 
 had no need of the mother country : every thing was 
 equal between the Colony and mother country. The 
 separation was like a family-parting, or, at most, a 
 purely domestic quarrel^ without any strange mixture — 
 at was pure Englishmen who asked other Englishmen 
 to authorise their remaining separate from them, and 
 who made their streng^th the motive of their demand 
 as the means of not feeling the effects of a refusal. 
 
 The Colonies of the Antilles are in a very dif- 
 ferent position ; one part is infinitely small, whose 
 metropolis would chastise at leisure the most insigni- 
 ficant signs of disobedience ; some are only military 
 posts and arsenals, whose metropolis always holds the 
 key. The great commercial isles, Cuba, Porto Rico, 
 Jamaica, St. Domingo, far from being enabled to de- 
 tach themselves from the mother country, have, on 
 the contrary, continual need of her assistance, in con- 
 sequence of the mixture of blood which populates 
 
THE colonies: S21 
 
 them. For example. Saint Domingo reckons 15,000 
 whites, with 500,000 blacks, and 30,000 men of co- 
 lour ; how could this small quantity of whites presume 
 to separate from the mother country which affords 
 them protection, and which, by the help of its au- 
 thority, which is always present in the midst of the 
 Colony, compensates for the inequality of the popula- 
 tions. Thus was the favour granted by the mother 
 country to the whites (a preference against which so 
 much had been said) less a denial of justice towards 
 the black, and a connivance with the white, a well- 
 fbunddd calculation, and a policy well understood, to 
 help the weak against the strong, to place in one scale 
 what is wanting in the other, and thus to oppose the 
 rupture, constantly threatened, of the equilibrium. 
 
 These are the effects of the different degrees of po- 
 pulation ; they will inevitably finish by deciding their 
 fate. 
 
 There is another species of Colony, which, without 
 experiencing the effects of a mixture of blood, is subject 
 to the difference of its own from that of the mother coun- 
 try; of this description are the conquered Colonies of 
 Canada, the Isle of France, Cape of Good Hope— the 
 population is French or Dutch, and the yoke English. 
 The heart, then, is averse to the Government ; when, 
 therefore, as in time must be the case, the arm will as- 
 sist this innate disposition, where will the power of the 
 metropolis be then ? These sorts of Colonies have more 
 incentives than others for aspiring at independence; 
 for they wish for it, first, as Colonies ; secondly, as 
 the subjects of a foreigner. In such a case what can 
 the mother country do ? Keep them in subjection — 
 but how? if the Colony be small, for example the 
 Isle of France, then it is possible : if it be large, like 
 
 Y 
 
322 THE COLONIES. 
 
 Canada, in time it will be impossible ; for to hold it 
 a war must be begun again like that with America, 
 and with the same probability of success. Would 
 fifteen or twenty thousand English troops compel three 
 or four millions of Canadians to submit to them ? It 
 is the same with the Cape of Good Hope. When this 
 great Colony is peopled, by reason of the means of 
 subsistence that it offers to a great population, will it 
 not be the same thing ? Will not the same motions 
 act with the same force, and will they not produce the 
 same effects ? and how will they stop them otherwise 
 than by a trial as unfortunate as that with America, 
 and like all those that Spain has made with her Co- 
 lonies ? Would not the result be always and every 
 where the same, because the principle never ceases to 
 be the same, always and every where ? Dependence 
 and independence are questions which belong not to 
 politics but to nature, who has made Colonies depend- 
 ent as long as they are weak, as she has made men 
 minors as long as they are children — who has made 
 them independent when they are full grown, as she 
 has made man independent when he has arrived at 
 manhood : the independence of the Colonies is then 
 the manhood of the Colonies, as manhood is the age 
 of emancipation. States have dependent Colonies, as. 
 fathers have children, which depend upon them ; both 
 are ordained to separate when at maturity. 
 
 Nature has thus decreed, and this necessary result 
 ought no more to disgust the mother countries with 
 the Colonies, than fathers with their children. If, 
 besides, nature has ordained that children, become 
 great, should assist their parents in their old age, she 
 has also decreed that Colonies, having become inde- 
 pendent, should promote the riches and happiness of 
 
THE COLONIES. S2:j 
 
 the mother country, to let them find in their accession 
 of fortune a deduction for the expence of their educa- 
 tion and keep. For, by another law of the same na- 
 ture, ever wise and beneficent, the prosperity of the 
 Colony will never be separated from that of the mother 
 country, and the emancipated Colony will begin, so 
 to speak, to reciprocate benefits with her when she 
 shall cease to trade with her in cares and teachings. 
 
 To these general considerations must be added, fi^rst, 
 the care necessary from the mother country for the 
 Colonies, by which they conduct them to independ^ 
 ence undoubtedly. Secondly, The circumstances pro- 
 per to accelerate the developement of the Colonies, and 
 their innate tendency towards independence. 
 
 The examination of the principles which attach Co- 
 lonies to mother countries, or which detach them 
 from them, presents a striking observation, namely, 
 the small number of children which form the fi^rst 
 bond, and the multitude of causes which contribute to 
 break them. We can scarcely come at the number of 
 the latter, while we find the limits of the former in a 
 moment. — Necessity and weakness are its principle 
 and boundary. So in humanity, not only the bonds 
 of affection and respect, but necessity, cease with in- 
 fancy : in the same manner, in Colonies, the ties 
 which proceed from what we have said constitutes 
 their infancy, are broken as soon as they cease ; on 
 one side then there is but a single cause, on the other 
 there may be a million, as we are going to see. 
 
 First. — Mother countries can never bear to see in 
 their Colonies any other than their own children, as 
 parents have the same predilection to their families ; 
 every other consideration wounds their self-love, or 
 their habits, and whatever difference, whatever change 
 
 Y 1 
 
3U THE COLONIES. 
 
 the developement brought about by time and circum- 
 stances has produced in them, both refuse to acknow- 
 ledge any but their own subjects and children ; we 
 must always treat them as such ; and yet by a contra- 
 dictory disposition, the same objects of dependence we 
 aggrandize and value. Thus mother countries and 
 parents are always careful of all the means of educa- 
 tion for their children and their Colonies ; they en- 
 deavour to provide them with every faculty necessary 
 for procuring them advantageous establishments ; and 
 when all is done, they endeavour to restrain the use 
 of them, and to circumscribe them in the circle of this 
 same infancy, where they always like to bring their too 
 hasty progeny to the taste of their own inclinations. 
 It is'' to contradict the prospect and the walk of na- 
 ture : it is to contradict oneself, thus to wish for the 
 cause and then to run back from the aspect of the 
 eifect, which, however, does not hinder it from being 
 in too general use. 
 
 Mother countries, seeing in the Colonies only ob- 
 jects of utility, try at first to draw from them as much 
 as they can, and for this purpose they endeavour to 
 make them prosper ; but this prosperity is the in- 
 evitable net where they themselves are taken ; for the 
 prosperity of the Colonies being inseparable from their 
 strength, the latter is the measure of the former, and 
 the Colony, after having prospered for the account of 
 others, endeavours to prosper for its own. So in fa- 
 milies, the child who at first was accustomed to work 
 for his parents, endeavours in time to work for him- 
 self, and to form in his turn a separate family, of 
 which he will be the chief, expecting that he will be 
 re-placed in the same manner. Mother countries 
 have transported to the Colonies useful arts from Eu- 
 
THE COLONIES. 325 
 
 rope; the}'- have abundantly supplied them with the 
 means of resistance. Also, in raising fortresses, in build- 
 ing arsenals, establishing dock-yards, in forming plant- 
 ers to European tactics, have they done any thing but 
 <jreate in these Colonies the means of resisting them, 
 and finally of expelling them ? Surely they have not 
 worked with this view, that is well known; but what 
 does it signify to the result ! The personality, the 
 egotism of these establishments could only have their 
 time, that of the Colonies could not fail to arrive in 
 its turn. 
 
 When the viceroy of Mexico, Galvez, gave to that 
 country arsenals, andr.founderies rivalling those of the 
 mother country, did he not, with the greatest purity of 
 intention, make Mexico itself a rival of Spain ? Did 
 he not arm it on every side against her? When France 
 established at the Mole of St. Nicholas defences equal 
 to those which covered her own frontier in Europe, 
 when she transported 500,000 negroes so Saint Do- 
 mingo, surely she only thought of insuring to herself 
 the possession of her precious Colony, and to extend 
 cultivation where she owed so many riches. Who 
 will go now and possess himself of these same ram- 
 parts? Who will tear the arms from this freed multitude, 
 formed to the art of war, to the discipline of Europe, 
 and in some degree equal to it ? This is the manner 
 in which the prosperity and instruction of the Colonies 
 turn with time against their mother countries ; and 
 yet as we can only have Colonies to make them pros- 
 per, it follows that we can have them but for a time, 
 that independence is innate with them, and that it 
 exists in buds that time and circumstances will ine- 
 vitably develope. In all the examples that have just 
 been cited, the effects correspond with the causes, 
 
526 THE COLONIES. 
 
 which on their side all tend to one uniform result, 
 which is the independence of the Colonies. 
 
 But there are more, and it will be well to pay at- 
 tention to what follows. 
 
 If the dependence and independence of the Colonies 
 are natural, as we have just proved, the crisis for pass- 
 ing from one to the other may be accelerated by a 
 crowd of circumstances, which can neither be pre- 
 vented nor foreseen, and which are all aifected by the 
 three following : 
 
 First ; The dependence of the Colonies, which has 
 been general, with regard to the mother countries. 
 ^^^ Secondly ; Slavery, which has also been the gene- 
 ral state of one part of the colonial population. 
 
 Thirdly ; Exclusion, which has been likewise the 
 general state of the commercial relations of the Co- 
 lonies. 
 
 But these three pivots of the colonial order have 
 been overthrown, and their destruction in changing 
 the face of the Colonies has contributed greatly to de- 
 velope the germs of independence which reposed in 
 their blood. While such a state of things subists with 
 a kind of general consent, those who are submissive 
 to it support it more easily ; it is an horizon whose 
 bounds cannot be seen : thd yoke, in partaking of so 
 many heads, loses its weight; uniformity prevents hu- 
 miliation, stops complaint, and disposes to resigna- 
 tion. They accept what they have found established, 
 and have not strength to resist ; but when great suc- 
 cesses, crowtii tig the infraction of an established and 
 revered order, have struck by their example both the 
 eyes and the mind; when they have furnished motives 
 for hope, and objects for comparison ; then first dispo- 
 sitions give place to sentiments of another nature | 
 
THE COLONIES. 597^ 
 
 then they ascend again to the principles of the insti- 
 tution ; they seek again particular and personal ad- 
 vantages; they reason, and every people are nigh be- 
 ing independent as soon as they begin to reason ; in 
 this way America was affranchised, — Men that with 
 profound meditations had penetrated the advantages as 
 well as facilities of independence, who had measured 
 their position well with that of England, made that Urj 
 berty burst forth which had already existed in the germ, 
 in the midst of the American people, without their sus- 
 pecting it ; this is the example which failed in every 
 other Colony till then ; they now behold it. — America 
 is there with her prosperity ; the fruit of an independ^ 
 ence which so happily separates her from the quarrels 
 of Europe, which assures her of the proper direction of 
 her conduct, and the reward of her labours. Example 
 is there — example, which does every thing in yielding 
 to genius and instruction — example, which has strength 
 to prevent, and even to choke remorse. : 
 
 Example then learnt the Colonies that they may be 
 independent; the United States are, and will be to 
 the last moment, a living model by which every Co- 
 lony will endeavour to form itself; the consequences 
 of this lesson always present to a thousand of them, 
 are as incalculable as they are invincible. 
 
 It is the same with slavery. A black throne teaches 
 the negroes of all the colonial states that they may 
 cease to be slaves, and each command in his turn. 
 Negroes made free by general laws indicate to negroes 
 in slavery the end of servitude, torn from their masters 
 by necessity. What an overthrow in the ideas of all 
 interested would no;t such ^'change of the established 
 order produce? Ho^ to hinder frqm seeing it, from 
 carrying to it his thoughts and his wishes, from sighr 
 
32S THE COLONIES. 
 
 ing after their accomplishment, and ceasing every op- 
 portunity of reahsing them ? Example then is still 
 acting always with strength, which is its appendage at 
 all times, and in all places. Has not Europe herself 
 carried for a long time the double yoke of slavery and 
 feudalism ? What was their assistance if this state were 
 not general — as soon as there v^^as an example of their 
 being effaced they disappeared. The commonalty of 
 France freed themselves, those of England and Ger- 
 many followed them closely ; liberty gets nearer, and 
 some day every body will be free because one man 
 had been so, and set the example of becoming so. 
 There are things to the imitation of which we cannot 
 be indifferent ; besides^ whatever is a yoke must have 
 an end, because it is the nature of all yokes to be 
 broken, and the nature of man always to be free. 
 
 We have mentioned in several places the exclusion 
 of commerce in most of the Colonies. Behold then, 
 the three bases of colonial order undermined, in the 
 sight and understanding of all the Colonies. This 
 sight must change all their ideas, and cause their re- 
 spect and consideration for the ancient order to give 
 place to the desire of a new one made suitable to their 
 circumstances. The latter are of a nature to accelerate 
 the bursting forth of that spirit of independence which 
 every Colony possesses. By what has passed for a 
 long time in the Colonies, we are going to be shown 
 that picture of circumstances which may truly be 
 called premature. 
 
 Colonies are not always able to supply themselves ; 
 and mother countries, on their side, are not always 
 sufficient for Colonies, whether as suppliers or con- 
 sumers. There may be at once both penury and su« 
 perabundance. In these two cases it is necessary to 
 
THE COLONIES. sqo 
 
 have recourse to neutrals, by causing them to make 
 up the deficiency, and take the overplus. Thus m 
 J 784 France, for this double purpose, opened one of 
 her colonial ports to foreigners : they crowded to it. 
 The metropolis soon resounded with cries against this 
 measure ; it undoubtedly brought the right of inde- 
 pendence ; for the planters having once tasted the 
 sweets of mutual commerce could never lose the de- 
 sire of continuing it, and of recurring to it should they 
 be deprived of it. 
 
 In 1793, Spain, pressed by the United States, grant- 
 ed them the navigation of the Mississippi : was this not 
 to establish them, and with them independence, even 
 in the heart of the extensive Colonies of Louisiana? 
 In 1797 this same power permitted her Colonies, pant- 
 ing with necessity, to a connection with neutrals : they 
 abuse this faculty ; the abuse of it brings back its re- 
 striction. Every thing, as appears by what has passed, 
 should be furnished by the mother country. The 
 Colonies have replied to this arrest of their privileges 
 by asserting their independence, which the situation 
 of the mother country, blocked up in all her ports, 
 rendered truly burlesque. The governor of the Ha- 
 vannah having lately attempted to re-establish exclu- 
 sion, the only government a Spaniard knows, has 
 been averted from it by the spirited determinations of 
 the settlers to renounce a measure which it is impos- 
 sible to impose upon men who for twenty years have 
 contracted other habits, the abolition of which would 
 wound them in all their interests. Does not such a 
 conclusion which abolishes exclusion of commerce 
 promote their independence, which will be fortified by 
 the growth of riches, and the strength these riches 
 will produce r and what, in their turn, are these but 
 
S$a THE COLONIES. 
 
 the foundation upon which the edifice of this inde- 
 pendence is elevated ? It is precisely so. 
 
 In India also, the English have niarched in the 
 same line, by admitting all English subjects to a share 
 in the trade which only belonged to the Company* 
 Nay, more, they have permitted Americans on the 
 coast, which they had formerly forbidden ; and is this 
 any thing else than independence in favour of Eng- 
 land against the Company, and likewise independence 
 in favour of India against England herself ? 
 
 On another side, in the whole course of the war, 
 has England done any thing else than sow the seeds of 
 colonial independence every where ? Does she not do 
 so still ? and does not the nature of things compel her 
 to act in this manner ? Let us follow her march. 
 
 England is engaged in the greatest war she ever had 
 yet to maintain. Her existence depends upon it ; she 
 must either perish or be saved, and in saving herself 
 save all the world, and for that purpose we must be- 
 gin by paying for it. The elements of her enemy's 
 power do not correspond with hers. Land is the 
 theatre of their triumphs, and the sea hers. She will 
 then attack the Colonies, she will seek there for the 
 damages and compensations which the continent re- 
 fuses her ; she will become the conqueror of Colonies; 
 but not being able to keep them all, nor willing to 
 return them to the enemy, she will yield them to in- 
 dependence, in order to keep them out of their hands, 
 and get them for her own trade ; this was a forced 
 march. But war is prolonged, expenses increase, new 
 wants require new means, (for war is only carried on 
 by credit) and where are they to come from ? Those 
 of Europe are almost exhausted ; one will ask them for 
 commerce, the other for the Colonies ; they will cqD' 
 
THE COLONIES. 331 
 
 quer, then, for commerce; that is, for independence : 
 that follows of course. The chances of war will deliver 
 up to England the Dutch, some Spanish, and all the 
 French Colonies: she continues to conquer those which 
 still remain^ and by degrees necessity will make her 
 conquer all. But as she cannot keep them all, before 
 profiting by them ; and as she cannot profit by them, 
 except in separating them from the mother country, 
 she will render them independent, to make them tri- 
 butary to her, and will free them from the metropolis, 
 to render them dependent on her commerce. 
 
 Time has obliged England to proceed thus. In 
 1793, she began by throwing herself on the French 
 Colonies : she estabhshed herself in the two military 
 islands of St. Lucia and Martinique. Guadaloupe 
 cannot be conquered — -St. Domingo cannot be kept. 
 One is too strong, the other too great : she will aban* 
 don, then, these islands to themselves ; that is to say, 
 to independence ; the revolution of which, and the 
 course of events, will make them a law, well assured 
 that they can never fail to bring back these two Colo- 
 nies, and attach them to her commerce, in default of 
 holding them attached to her power ; a circumstance 
 which has come to pass. For, as soon as St. Domingo 
 was liberated from the French and English, she opened 
 commercial relations with all the neutral powers, espe- 
 cially with Jamaica ; and the kingdom of Hayti has 
 become a great mart of consumption for English com- 
 merce : the latter is the supplier of Christophe, and 
 London does for Hayti what it could never have done 
 for St. Domingo. Let the application of these prin- 
 ciples be made to all the rest of thp conduct that Eng- 
 land has observed towards the Colonies, and it 'will be 
 seen how, in labouring for herself, she was labouring 
 
332 THE COLONIES. 
 
 for independence: thus the war, which was made in 
 Europe against the French revolution, was made in 
 America for the revolution of the Colonies, and those 
 who combated, or affected to combat, the revolution 
 in Europe, combated with it and for it in the Colonies, 
 and did so strongly. Independence did not advance 
 the less, and the Colonies received it equally from the 
 hand of an enemy as from the hand of a friend : this 
 is what has been clearly seen in the change which took 
 place at the time of the revolution in Spain : she passed 
 over from her alliance with France to that of England, 
 and from a war against England to a war against 
 France. In the former situation, England attacked 
 Buenos Ayres and Trinity, Spanish Colonies ; in the 
 latter, she resided in her Colonies, she suffered them 
 to be independent, because this independence gave 
 them up to her commerce, which was more lucrative 
 than being their sovereign. The river La Plate and 
 America have afforded, under this shelter of indepen- 
 dence, an immense field of commerce for England. 
 
 On their side, the Spanish Colonies have not taken 
 a change on the consequences of this new order of 
 things. Feeling themselves ready to be independent, 
 they have become so: they have separated at once 
 from the dominion of Spain, and her quarrel with 
 France: they have equally repulsed the sceptre of 
 Joseph, and the monopoly of Cadiz. Thus when, at 
 the close of the war, Spain presented herself to her 
 Colonies, she found another people, with other rela- 
 tions, other interests, another existence ; that is to say, 
 with a consummate independence. The same may be 
 said of Brazil : the King has opened all his ports to 
 those who do the same to him. What must be the re» 
 suit of this ? Is not the separation of this country from 
 
THE COLONIES. 33S 
 
 Portugal evidently its absolute independence, from the 
 impossibility of making it leave the commerce of the 
 whole world for that of Portugal alone? So it is 
 very evident that, if ever the Sovereign, established at 
 Brazil, goes back to Portugal, he will leave indepen- 
 dence behind him, in the counting-houses of Rio 
 Janeiro. 
 
 The blockade of mother countries, occasioned by 
 war, and prolonged for several yeai:s, is also become a 
 circumstance to hasten the independence of the Colo- 
 nies. By the interruption of relations between them, 
 metropolises have fallen into disuse : other relations 
 are formed, and when mother countries have appeared 
 again, they have found every way open to indepen- 
 dence, by the general establishment of these new rela- 
 tions, and the disgust which their own inspire, always 
 dearer to the Colonies with them than foreigners. But 
 the United States have the most of this kind of mo- 
 tion, proper for displaying the seeds of independence 
 that are sown in every Colony — there the furnace 
 exists, which continually heats the flame of indepen- 
 dence. In signing the treaty which rendered America 
 free, Europe signed the great charter of emancipation 
 for all the Colonies. America had taken tl>e word from 
 them all : if hor independence was the main-spring of 
 all colonial independence, the Colonies, in their turn, 
 have become her first necessity ; they are likewise in 
 her interest : every Colony separated from Europe, be- 
 comes so much American, that there is not, in all the 
 United States, a single fibre that does not vibrate in 
 the feelings, and for the end of general independence. 
 To be convinced of it, let us ask, where are the United 
 States ? Are they not in America ? Does it not follow, 
 that they should desire America to remain separate 
 
3S4 THE COLONIES. 
 
 from Europe, as Europe would wish to be free froii* 
 America ? All the question is, let each master remain 
 at home, and surely this question is decided very difr 
 ferently in the application, in America, than in Eu* 
 rope. Nay more, the United States being, in their 
 essence, a navigating and commercial people, it is of 
 importance to them that every port and market, and 
 especially the richest and nearest, should be open ; and 
 where are there a greater number, nearer and richer, 
 than those which America and the Colonies border 
 upon? Independence, which opens these places of con- 
 sumption to them, these ports, which are shut up, 
 which introduces them to the sources of these riches, 
 which dependence excludes them from, should be, 
 then, the object of all their desires, and the end of all 
 their actions. Independence has given St. Domingo 
 to their commerce: independence has given them the 
 river La Plata, the kingdom of Terra Firma, the 
 Brazils ; independence calls them to Mexico, to Peru, 
 to the Philippines — and they would not employ all 
 their means to spread and establish it in these coun- 
 tries ! To it they are indebted for one-half of America, 
 of which it has put them in possession, and they should 
 not try to join the second half to the first again ! Thus 
 how many projects have not been formad in the United 
 States, to set sometimes one part of Spanish America 
 free, and sometimes another ? How many ships have 
 braved prohibitions and blockades to carry succour to 
 the independants ? How many Americans light under 
 their flag, on board their ships, maintain them by their 
 councils, encourage them by their excitations, and aid 
 them by every species of help ? The American Govern- 
 ment, pure and loyal as it may be, can never put ati 
 obstacle in the way of this association ; because it is 
 
 2 
 
THE COLONIES. .-580 
 
 not in its power to stop the nature of things any more 
 than the general tendency of the country; because it 
 cannot hinder the effect of that sight which its own 
 independence presents ; because it cannot hinder this 
 example from being the seducer of its own nature, 
 nor prevent other Colonies from seeing it, and de- 
 siring to become associated with that happiness, of 
 which independence is the source. How, in effect, 
 can the rest of America be prevented from seeing the 
 United States fi-ee, flourishing, affranchised from the 
 laws and quarrels of Europe, by the effect of their 
 independence, and hinder them from aspiring to the 
 same lot, by the same means ? Is it not to act con- 
 trary to, or rather to wish to annul, the human heart, 
 with all that it retains of inclinations and affections ? 
 There exist, then, circumstances which may be called 
 premature, that show the natural tendency of Colonies 
 to independence, and which shoot out before the term 
 that nature had fixed for them ; and that she alone 
 should have brought forward the independence of the 
 Colonies is, then, in their nature, like their dependence, 
 subject both to the same laws, emanated from nature 
 for the infancy as well as manhood of every being. AU 
 the efforts of the mother countries to oppose this will 
 be totally lost : all their art must consist in observing 
 well the developement of their Colonies ; to follow their 
 progress; to order themselves so as -always to walk 
 above them ; to avoid consultations with them by mak- 
 ing pretensions or restrictions out of season ; to yield 
 to every thing that is reasonable ; to prevent even their 
 demand for it; in fine, to substitute the bonds of 
 friendship and gratitude for the imperious laws of au- 
 thority, that time always tends to weaken. For this, 
 they must carefully observe the degrees of develope- 
 
3ti(j THE COLONIES. 
 
 ment that the Colonies acquire, adapt their conduct to 
 them, firmly beheve they cannot treat them all in the 
 same manner, nor as of the same age ; thus the mode 
 of administration, the measures which suit one^ and 
 are due to the other, must be calculated on the respec- 
 tive state of the Colonies, and cannot be adapted 
 equally to all Colonies, nor to the same Colonies in 
 all times and in all places. The consideration of these 
 divers circumstances should be the object of attention, 
 the most attended to on the part of the mother coun- 
 tries : their omission has cost England the happy loss 
 of the United States : at this moment it costs Spain that 
 of her Colonies, which that mother country seeks 
 to retain, without knowing either why or how, and that 
 too at the same moment when the developement of the 
 proper strength of these Colonies, joined to the cir- 
 cumstances in the midst of which they are placed, and 
 which always tend to aggravate them, push them to- 
 wards independence in an irresistible manner. 
 
 If these principles have an immediate and inevitable 
 application to the large Colonies, they have a mediate, 
 but not less strong one, to the small ones. These 
 latter being easier of restraint, cannot follow, like the 
 great ones, their inclination towards independence. 
 Thus Martinico and Porto Rico dare not do what 
 Mexico and Paraguay are permitted to do. But what 
 these small Colonies cannot do by themselves, the 
 greater ones do for them ; for when the large Colonies 
 are independent, the dependence of the smaller will 
 be of no signification or intei'est to the mother coxxn^ 
 tries ; on the contrary, they will be very obnoxious, 
 in depriving them of the advantages which they would 
 find to grow from general independence, which would 
 give them all the Colonies to themselves alone^ Thus 
 3 
 
' THE COLONIES. SSY 
 
 When independence shall be established generally 
 throughout the American continent, of what use will 
 be the dependence of the islands? How can they be 
 defended against a crowd of neutrals ? Why should the 
 mother countries deny themselves the ports of all na- 
 tionsj to preserve their own alone ? Will not the depen- 
 dence of her Colonies then appear to every mother 
 country an absolute inconvenience, operating only to 
 deprive it of the benefit of every other Colony become 
 independent ? The calculation is always the same ; 07ie 
 against all, is all agai?ist one. It is what we shall see 
 happen, when the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Para- 
 guay, Peru, shall be open to the commerce of those 
 mother countries whose Colonics will not be shut 
 against them : we shall also see these mother countries 
 hastening to abjure their petty exclusions, in order not 
 to sustain a greater; and, receiving every body, to be, in 
 their turn, every where received. All these colonial 
 questions form, as we see, a chain, whose links are 
 strongly bound together, and from which one cannot 
 be taken, without evidently breaking the connexion* 
 The dependence and independence of the Colonies are 
 in this situation : the former resulted from a common 
 system, which is destioyed ; the latter now results from 
 another common system, which tends to take place of 
 the former : both have been and are the necessary pro- 
 duction of the time. We can offer no more opposition 
 to the latter than could have been offered to the former; 
 and there remains, to the view of every wise man, 
 nothing more than to prevent or diminish the incon- 
 veniences of the passage from one to the other. 
 
S38 THE COLONIEa 
 
 CHAP. XIX. 
 
 Of the Separation, prepared and not prepared^ of the 
 Colonies from the Mother Countries, Dangers 
 and Advantages in these respective Cases. 
 
 On every side things have arrived at the point to 
 which the Colonies tend, with all their force, to fulfil 
 that part of their destiny, which carries them towards 
 independence. The elements of this change, which 
 are enclosed in their nature, have been develloped with 
 a force henceforth irresistible; and to pretend to 
 hinder it, would be to pretend to stop, in humanity, 
 the growth which conducts to manhood, and which 
 carries with it all the consequences. If there was ever 
 a question decided at once by principles and facts, 
 surely it is this. But, in this position, what should be 
 the conduct of the mother countries ? The impos- 
 sibility of maintaining the Colonies under the accus- 
 tomed dependence being well ascertained, should the 
 mother countries, whose work this new disposition, in 
 a great measure, is, assist the separation ? And, in 
 assisting it, reserve to themselves the faculty of di- 
 recting it to common use ; that is, theirs at first, and 
 then that of their Colonies, imitating in that the wise 
 foresight of parents, who, when the maturity of their 
 children announces they have become complete men, 
 do not care about retaining them near them, but only 
 to provide them with suitable establishments in their 
 
THE COLONIES. SS9 
 
 new estate ? On the contrary, should the mother 
 countries, in abandoning them to time and chance, 
 wait the result of the explosion of liberty in their 
 Colonies, and the effects of passing from depen- 
 dence to a separation pronounced without consent^ 
 and in spite of them ? In a word, should mother coun- 
 tries, consenting to what the sole force of things make 
 them submit to, remain law-givers in a land of which 
 they can no longer be mistresses, or rather abandon it 
 to the movement which drags them on in exposing 
 themselves to all the consequences of leaving things to 
 their course f Such is the difference between the sepa- 
 ration, prepared and not prepared, of the Colonies. 
 
 The separation may operate in several ways :-— 
 First, By voluntary abandonment, such as Charles V 
 wished it to be at the conquest of America, and as a 
 great number of wise men in Spain have wished it to 
 be since this epoch. 
 
 Secondly, By the changing a mother country to a 
 Colony, and the Colony to a metropolis ; as has 
 just happened between Portugal and Brazil, and as 
 would have happened at an anterior epoch, when 
 Philip V, pursued by his enemies, flying from his 
 capital, thought of transporting to America the seat of 
 empire, which he abandoned in Spain to his competitor. 
 " You will come back in ten years, to conquer Spain 
 with the treasures of Mexico," said a courtier to him : 
 a true proposition of the courtier, who believes that 
 gold is all and does all, when they come back from 
 Mexico to Spain, and quit Mexico for barren Madrid, 
 This man must have been from Madrid. The same 
 change would still have taken place, if Charles IV 
 had not been stopped at Aranjuez, and if they had 
 opened the route to Mexico to F«rdinand VII, instead 
 
 2 2 
 
340 THE COLONIES. 
 
 of shutting on him the gates of Valencey. In these 
 three cases, the Colony hecame a metropolis ; and in 
 the case of separation^ which should have followed the 
 difference of the sovereignty exercised in America, by 
 a Prince, who was an enemy to the Sovereign of Spain, 
 the independence of the Colony was consummated, 
 for it would have formed a distinct state from the 
 metropolis. 
 
 Thirdly, Separation may be produced by the dis- 
 sensions between the Colonies and mother country, 
 and by the war which always follows this kind of 
 process : such has been the separation of the American 
 States : strong with their population, their manhood, 
 their Adams, their Franklin, their Washington, they 
 declared to the mother country, that its empire over 
 them had attained its end ; that they were in a situa- 
 tion to conduct themselves; that they desired its 
 friendship, and did not care for its hatred. To this 
 new language, unknown on the part of any Colony, 
 England replied with reproaches that taxed this de* 
 claration of voluntary emancipation with insolence and 
 ingratitude : she put on her armour : they opposed her 
 with the same, which were found to be worth her 
 own : anger being over, this sentimeyit is not durable ; 
 pride being humbled by the impossibiliy of satisfying 
 it, reflexion, as it always happens, came, but rather 
 late, to show England the absurdity of her conduct, 
 'land to give her to understand that she was losing her 
 men and her money against the nature of things, and 
 that she had every thing to gain by leaving that esta- 
 blished that she wished to destroy at the price of her own 
 ruin ; that she ought to be willing to pay for causing 
 that to be done which she wished to prevent. Six 
 years sooner this wise council had spared England the 
 
THE COLONIES. 841 
 
 loss of 100,000 men, and two milliards of (French) mo- 
 ney : it was after she had spent this that she ratified what 
 she had fought against, from a pure want of reflexion ; 
 and America has heen declared, and has remained free, 
 by the double right of arms and the acknowledgment 
 of every nation. 
 
 Fourthly, For eighteen years Spain has been sepa* 
 rated from her Colonies by wars, in which she has 
 taken part, either by consent or by force. In. ] 795, she 
 had' the imprudence to unite herself to France ; imme- 
 diately the road to her Colonies is shut up : the ports 
 of the latter are open to neutrals : the profits of trade 
 with them pass into their hands. Spain yields Loui- 
 siana to France ; the latter sells it to the United States; 
 these are established around the Gulf of Mexico, taking, 
 by means of Louisiana, the Spanish Colonies in reverse, 
 and opening routes across the country to the Pacific 
 Ocean. Pressed by necessity, blocked up io Europe, un- 
 happy Spain borrows the channel of the United States, 
 in order that the treasures which languished in the mints 
 of Mexico, might arrive by a way less exposed. The 
 war is prolonged : the English twice attack Buenos 
 Ayres : they seized Trinidad, as a plank on which to 
 pass over to the Spanish Continent, and open a large 
 trade with it. The United States, with all the neutrals, 
 do as much. The Colonists easily accustom themselves 
 to the sweets of this new commerce; the mother country- 
 is forgotten, effaced ; one hears her no more spoken of; 
 neither succour nor provisions are received from her 
 any more ; she herself falls into revolution ; she is 
 threatened with a fresh yoke : the Colonies repel it 
 as much as she ; but during this interim, the circum- 
 stance of the evils that their alliance with the mother 
 country has brought upon them, the facility and utility 
 
SiiZ. THE COLONIES. 
 
 of freeing themselves from it, have produced other ideas, 
 and formed other ties ; have separated them from a 
 metropolis, sterile, fallen into disuse by her distance, 
 and the interruption of communications; fallen into in- 
 significancy by her weakness; and, when the common 
 enemy has disappeared, the heart finds itself without 
 any tie, and the Colony answers the invitations and 
 threats of the mother country, by cries of war and 
 solemn declarations to remain foreign to her obedience 
 as well as to her commands, which have no more re- 
 lation to her new existence. 
 
 In this manner has the separation of America from 
 Spain been operated ; her Colonies have escaped from 
 her, not by their own strength, but by her personal weak- 
 ness. She has not been able either to protect or keep 
 them : they have been provided elsewhere, and inde* 
 pendence has been carried to them by the torrent of 
 events and tl^e strength of necessity. 
 
 Fifthly, Colonies may be separated from mother 
 countries, as in the course of the two last wars several 
 islands, taken by the English, have been. Not being 
 able to dispose of a sufficient number of troops to keep 
 all they could conquer, they have limited themselves 
 with regard to many of their colonial conquests to 
 the only thing which concerns them, the liberty of 
 trading with them, which insures to them the profits 
 of these Colonies, without being chargable for their sup- 
 port and defence. Thus they abandoned them to them- 
 selves, in regard to their sovereignty. Several of these 
 states have passed some years in a situation which left 
 their sovereignty undecided. This mode of neutralising 
 Colonies is very proper for separating them from the 
 mother country, to which they do not afterwards come 
 back without much trouble, and what they surely 
 
THE COLONIES. 845 
 
 would abstain from doing, if they possessed the facul- 
 ties that belong to large Colonies. If Curaqoa, Suri- 
 nam, Martinique, had equalled the United States in ex- 
 tent and strength, is it to be supposed they would have 
 offered themselves anew to the yoke of a mother country, 
 and their exclusion ? Is it not evident, on the contrary, 
 that their weakness caused their submission, and that 
 they have remained Colonies on the sole account of 
 their disproportion to the mother country ? The pro- 
 longation of war was sufficient to render them inde- 
 pendent ; for the indecision of the contest contributing 
 to prolong the absence or disappearance of the Sove- 
 reign, the Colonies could not fail in providing one for 
 themselves, and in governing themselves separately 
 from the mother country, for at last we must know to 
 whom one belongs. 
 
 Sixthly, Colonies may be separated by the transposi- 
 tion of power, from the European population of the 
 Colony to foreign population brought into the Colony. 
 St. Domingo has perished in this way. The Europeans 
 have not separated, as American Spanish settlers have 
 done ; on the contrary, it is the foreign population, im- 
 ported by the settlers themselves ; these are the blacks, 
 who have massacred the whites, and taken their place; 
 and who, not having to observe the caution with which 
 the fear of the blacks inspired the whites (and which at- 
 tached these latter to the mother country), have separat- 
 ed from her, from whence the whites^ their ancient mas- 
 ters came, and from whence they might yet come back to 
 master them anew. In thiscase the political independence 
 of the blacks was the natural consequence of individual 
 liberty: we should well observe this. The slave has 
 more need of independence than the European settler 
 
SH THE COLONIES. 
 
 the latter is only affected by dependence under poll* 
 tical or commercial relations. Slaves are more so 
 under personal relations. Whatever be the colonial 
 government, the settler is free in his person ; he enjoys 
 his property, he participates in all the advantages of 
 society ; the slave, on the contrary, cannot attain the 
 enjoyment of these blessings, and maintain himself in 
 their possession, without joining to the independence of 
 the Colony the independence of his person ; the one gua- 
 rantees to him the other. Thus, inasmuch as Toussaint 
 Louverture, Petion, Christophe, and all those who ap- 
 proach nearest to them, are elevated, and maintain them- 
 selves in the rank in which we have seen, and still see 
 them, the independence of the Colony has necessarily 
 followed the freedom of the slaves, and confirmed their 
 liberty. The white only wants independence, on account 
 of his fortune; the black wants it at once for his fortune 
 and his liberty : it is thisr which makes every Colony with 
 slaves much nearer escaping from the mother country, 
 than a Colony which has few, or none; and when the 
 population is formed alq[iost entirely of slaves, we may 
 consider independence as inevitable, and so inherent 
 in the nature of things, that it may burst out at every 
 instant. 
 
 To these six examples of separation, not prepared, 
 accidental, or forced, we have not the consolation to 
 be able to oppose to them a single one, which is the 
 result of premeditation, nor a calculation on the nature 
 of Colonies, on their natural progress from the distinc- 
 tion between their infancy and manhood ; nor^ in fine, 
 on the advantages that^ the mother country may find 
 in abandoning to themselves adult Colonies, and whose 
 prosperity, favored by liberty, is destined to become 
 
THE COLONIES. 84S 
 
 its own prosperity. No people has yet given this 
 example of illumination and generosity ; so strong is 
 habit with a people as well as with private individuals ; 
 such power have the narrow calculations of personal 
 interest, of dimming even the most penetrating eyes'; 
 so fearful are they of losing, even where their greatest 
 advantages are hidden under the appearance of a loss : 
 the word loss is a terror-striking name for all men. 
 However, the mother countries were invited to this 
 abandonment of their Colonies by the greatest interests. 
 The United States are a proof of this. What has it 
 not cost England in having neglected to observe the 
 principle which prescribed to her to adapt her conduct 
 to the state of her Colony, and what does it not cost 
 Spain, at this moment, for not having known how to 
 avoid the same fault ! 
 
 On another side the default of preparation for sepa^ 
 ration contains and produces the greatest dangers, as 
 well for the Colonies as the mother countries. 
 
 In Colonies where European blood forms the 
 smallest part of the population, unprepared separation 
 is its death-warrant, as it has been at St. Domingo, 
 and as it will be every where where black slaves are the 
 most numerous and the strongest. In the vast number 
 of insurrections that have taken place in the Colonies 
 for five and twenty years, is there one that has not set 
 out from the same point and which has not tended to the 
 same end — the massacre of the whites, and the govern- 
 ment of the Colony by blacks ? In every one of which 
 settlers and mother countries have run the same dan- 
 gers for their physical or political existence. The same 
 thing would have happened in India if the same seeds 
 of impatience under a yoke had existed in the 
 blood of the peaceable Hindoos, that infis^med the 
 7 
 
S46 THE COLONIES. 
 
 blood of the African. To be convinced of it we need 
 only count the Indians and the English in India. At 
 the Brazils, the separation prevented by the arrival of 
 the King in that country had not been effected without 
 blows nor without very severe consequences to the 
 Europeans by the mixture of bloods, which are four : 
 in Spanish America there are five, all enemies to one 
 another. In some parts, the blacks are very numer- 
 ous ; in others the mulattoes ; there the indigines ; here 
 the Creoles. The separation which puts such hetero- 
 geneous elements in motion without any preparation, 
 puts them necessarily in a situation of mutual hostility, 
 and, consequently, in the greatest danger. These 
 hatreds of population are the keenest we know of, much 
 stronger than those of faction or religion, which have 
 done so much harm to humanity; because their object 
 is continually present, and on every side is read on 
 all their countenances. Thus we see how these popu- 
 lations have profited by an unprepared separation from 
 Spain in order to precipitate themselves one upon the 
 other, and to exterminate themselves. 
 
 Separation not prepared gives an opening, first, to 
 war; secondly, to interior troubles. But these are 
 both causes of misfortunes absolutely contrary to the 
 nature of the Colonies. In effect, what are Colonies ? 
 Fields of cultivation, destinfed to produce what ought 
 to pay for the returns acquired in the mother country 
 as the price of these productions. Colonies produce 
 in order to have something to consume : but is it by 
 war or peace these colonial fields can be cultivated? 
 When, instead of flourishing by the peaceable occupa- 
 tions of cultivation, the planter beholds his field be- 
 come a field of battle and the hands which handled 
 the useful instruments of labour attached to the ex- 
 
THE COLONIES. . U7 
 
 crcise of murderous arms : when in place of labourinpr 
 he must fight ; when instead of furnishing the mother 
 country with his produce and receiving hers in return, 
 he must defend himself against her soldiers, the minis- 
 ters of her vengeance and the avengers of her yoke, 
 then are not the Colony and mother country equally 
 sufferers ? What did not England suffer during her 
 contest with her Colonies, what injury does not the 
 fighting of Spain agaist America do to Spain, and 
 what injury does not America receive in her turn by the 
 attack of Spain ? If, to bring Buenos Ay res back to 
 her duty, she must begin by destroying it, would not 
 Spain and America be equally impoverished ? It is 
 almost like a man setting fire to his farm and killing 
 his cattle to establish order among^ his labourers. We 
 see then the whole world ruined or in the way of being 
 so, because they have not reckoned upon the necessity 
 of preparing the necessary separation of the Colony 
 from the mother country. 
 
 The evil is aggravated still more and becomes double 
 when at the same time there is both a mixture of blood 
 and a combat with the metropolis ; thus it happens now 
 in America. The Spanish royalists massacre the Spanish 
 independents : the blacks and mulattoes massacre the 
 Spaniards, v/hether independents or royalists, without 
 any distinction ; and in addition to this, they mas- 
 sacre each other ; moreover, the independents of all co- 
 lours still have to fight with the European Spaniards ;- 
 these massacre them without pity wherever they fall 
 into their hands ; and in their turn are massacred by 
 them ; and what is the worst, the necessity of defend- 
 ing themselves and of releasing themselves for ever 
 from such hard masters has made them have recourse 
 to the terrible remedy of emancipating the blacks, as 
 
 7 
 
3i8 THE COLONIES. 
 
 Bolivar did when he came to Caracas. From this we 
 may judge of the scourges of every kind which are 
 poured forth at once upon the Colonies and upon the 
 mother country by a burst of independence which has 
 not been prepared for by any calculation, or directed 
 to any plan, and which is effected in the midst of such 
 a chaos as must be produced by the clash of interests, 
 of hostile populations, of massacres, conflagrations, 
 and every disaster which the ferocity habitual to such 
 combatants can create. 
 
 Even supposing that the mother country should ac- 
 cept the divorce pronounced by the Colony, and should 
 leave it master of its own fate, what a horrible confu- 
 sion would be the consequence of thus casting a child 
 into the world and leaving it to itself, after having 
 broken its leading-strings, but without having prepared 
 for it any means of existence ! Thus if Spain had had 
 her eyes open to her true interests and had left her 
 Colonies to themselves, and had ceased to interfere 
 with them, and to depopulate and ruin herself by in- 
 terfering and continuing to do so with so much mis* 
 chief, what would have become of this enormous mass 
 thus suddenly put in motion ? for we must not forget 
 that we are speaking of the whole of America. If 
 they had not been able to stop the shock, how would 
 they have been able to take upon themselves to direct 
 and regulate it ? For only think of this immense mass 
 thus thrown into a vortex of revolutions, and into a sea 
 of agitation and troubles. Who could have established 
 any uniformity over this vast extent of country, among 
 these fantastic configuratives, these gigantic propor-. 
 tions, among all these nations so different in their origin 
 and in their customs, and impelled in such opposite 
 directions? To whom would those mines belong which 
 
THE COLONIES* 349 
 
 are lavished upon the New World, to whom those 
 rivers, the possession of which makes the strength and 
 opulence of these states ? Of how many and of what 
 members would a single association be formed ? Would 
 the people, living towards the Pacific Ocean and Asia, 
 unite with those living on the European side, or would 
 they separate from each other ? Are not all these varie- 
 ties in opinion, and in conduct, all these contradictory 
 schisms to be observed in the separation of America 
 from Spain ? Who will reconcile all these incongrui- 
 ties ? Who will precribe any system for the insur- 
 gents ? Who will go to seek them in their deserts, 
 beyond rivers as large as seas, in their impenetrable 
 forests, over mountains the most inaccessible in the 
 world ? ^ 
 
 We must take great care not to form calculations 
 respecting gigantic America by the same rules we 
 should with respect to humble Europe, or to make no 
 difference between the difficulties which would arise at 
 every step from the want of great societies, and the 
 facilities of every kind with which Europe is covered 
 by the labours of two centuries, performed by the skil- 
 ful hands of the most polished nations ; the effects of 
 which labour nevertheless go no farther yet than the 
 frontiers of Germany and Poland, beyond which every 
 thing is nearly the same as it is in America. In the 
 West Indies this would be still worse between parts so 
 different in manners, in language, in origin, and in ex- 
 tent of territory, and which are still more separated by 
 the difficulties which tempestuous weather causes in 
 their communication with each other. And how and 
 by whom would the form of government, that princi- 
 pal and disputed object of all human associations, be 
 settled ? Who could force them to submit to it ? One 
 
350 THE COLONIES. 
 
 would wish for a monarch, another for a republic ; and 
 a third for an absolute sovereign : what confusion, what 
 bloodshed and mischiefs would ensue, before a well 
 cemented arrangement should terminate their difficul- 
 ties, and dry up the source of their calamities ! All 
 these evils are escaped by a separation that has been 
 prepared for, which, tlrough it cuts, it is true, the 
 bonds of connection between the mother country and 
 the Colonies, would do it however with all the precau- 
 tions which foreknowledge and wisdom could dictate, 
 and which such great interests should call for. By 
 this we render ourselves masters of the very separa- 
 tion, and to the actual fruits of the Colonies we add 
 those which may reasonably be expected to follow a 
 better order of things. For example, in a separation 
 which is not prepared for, the system of government, 
 which is the most usual sorrce of civil troubles, espe- 
 cially when every thing is unsettled, floats without any 
 body at the helm or any place of destination : not any 
 kind of government is perceptible ; on the contrary, 
 in an arranged separation, the substitution of an orga- 
 nized government is the first act which follows the se- 
 paration, it necessarily proceeds from it, and there is no 
 suspension or hesitation in the public authorities. Per- 
 sonal security and public order are not troubled for a 
 single moment, and the Colonies continue to enjoy 
 their usual tranquillity, and to fulfil their own destina- 
 tion, and to answer the expectations of the mother 
 couotry. Thus it happened in the United States ; 
 where the separation, being managed by the most skil- 
 ful men in the country, men who would have done 
 honour to the Old as they did to the New World, and 
 setting off from a determinate and single point in 
 order to reach an end equally determinate and simple. 
 
THE COLONIES. 351 
 
 was attended by an uniformity of interests, views, and 
 actions, as well as of locality. The English in America 
 asked of their parents, the English in Europe, to 
 be permitted to enjoy the advantages of their 
 manhood, and they were ready to obtain that con- 
 sent by their arms which they saw would be refused 
 to their respectful demands. So that they did not 
 hesitate for a single instant in the choice of their go- 
 vernment, or for an instant had they any discord as to 
 accepting it. Those who did not agree (and where are 
 they not to be found ?) have left the country and fol- 
 lowed their ancient masters : their absence became a 
 principal cause of harmony. 
 
 This example affords a great lesson to all mother 
 countries, as also to their Colonies. The United 
 States may be said to serve as a model, even for Eu- 
 rope ; and amidst all that can be learned from them, 
 nothing concerns Europe more than the means hy 
 which these States have enfranchised themselves with- 
 out any violent shock and without any internal con- 
 fusion. 
 
 CHAP. XX. 
 
 Necessity of a Colonial Congress, 
 
 ▼ T HENEVER great commotions take place, when- 
 ever a great number of interests are affected and injured, 
 and serious and lasting effects follow, good manage- 
 ment and a regard for the future require that a return 
 of these troubles should be prevented, and that a sys- 
 tem should b^ established founded equally upon the 
 
552 THE COLONIES. 
 
 present and the future, upon that which is ekistihg 
 and that which necessarily must exist ; but^ in discus^ 
 sions of this importance, nature and justice require 
 that all who are interested should be consulted : and 
 this is one of their first laws. . Hence hks originated 
 that kind of political assembly which is called a Con- 
 gress. In all times this method has been preserved, and 
 has often been attended with great success. Such was the 
 congress which put an end, by the peace of Westphalia j 
 to the troubles which had divided Europe for thirty 
 years. Since Europe thought proper to have recourse 
 to this measure to deliver itself from the disturbances 
 which it had been experiencing for the last five and 
 twenty years, with how much more reason ought it 
 not to make use of the same measure to put an end 
 for ever to the commotions in the colonial system ? In 
 order to form a just idea of this necessity, we must 
 begin by considering the nature and the number of in^ 
 terests which call for this measure. We must take 
 care not to judge of what will be necessary for the 
 Colonies by what has been necessary for Europe* 
 There is no similitude between them. In Europe, the 
 * sovereignty of only a few States has been changed ; in 
 the Colonies, almost all the States have experienced 
 the same lot ; in Europe, the diiference of colour has 
 not armed one part of the inhabitants against the 
 other; in the Colonies, colour and the subdivisions of 
 colour keep the inhabitants in a state of habitual hos- 
 tility ; in Europe, the laws of monopoly do not con- 
 fine commerce to some particular places and to some 
 particular markets ; in the Colonies, on the contrary, 
 the shackles of monopoly are the subject of dispute be- 
 tween them andthemothercountries. With respect to the 
 latter therefore, there are questions from which Europe 
 
THE COLONIES. • 355 
 
 is entirely free, questions of principle which require 
 decisions that are applicable to them alone, and which 
 will be the first that will offer themselves. From this we 
 shall perceive the size of the evil which we have neg- 
 lected : when we shall be willing to look around and 
 learn from what it originated, then shall we know the 
 extent of our negligfence, and of the difficulties which 
 it has created, and we are able to say with confidence 
 that the knowledge will possess more exactness that it 
 will afford consolation. 
 
 In fact, the colonial system must be settled in all 
 its parts ; as to the greatest number of inhabitants, 
 the monopoly of commerce, the sovereignty of the 
 Colonies, and, finally, as to the general police : for 
 it will be necessary to take some course about the con- 
 traband trade which is carried on by the Colonies that 
 are inferior in productions. The Colonies of the se- 
 cond order lie opposite those which are superior to 
 them in produce and in riches. Above all, it will be 
 necessary to come to some understanding respecting 
 slavery, and to put an end to that diversity of conduct 
 which prevails on this head. For example, some have^ 
 abolished the slave trade, others continue it : and we 
 have seen some small Colonies declare that their 
 slaves shall be free at a determinate period. We must 
 most carefully prevent the v«^eak Colonies from taking 
 the lead in questions of state, which are in themselves 
 common to all the colonial possessions ; and from thus 
 deciding the fate of the more powerful. 
 
 Passing from this subject to that of the positive so- 
 vereignty, such as it now exists in an actual state, we 
 shall find nations deprived of Colonies, whose flourish- 
 ing condition they had been the cause gf ; others who 
 
 2 A . 
 
^54 THE COLONIES. 
 
 have lost the support which sustained their Colonies ; 
 on one hand, we shall see Portugal become a Colony 
 in Europe, and her Colony a mother country in 
 America ; on the other hand, England swelled with 
 the spoils of the whole world, ruling over every sea, 
 and over every Colony. But what shall we say, when 
 Spain and America shall come, as we may say, to sue 
 for a divorce before Europe, and to state the causes 
 which render them incompatible with each other ? We 
 must add to all these difficulties the breach in the ma- 
 ritime equilibrium, which is entirely destroyed by the 
 naval power of England. Since the balance of power 
 has, to all appearance, been restored to some reality 
 by the articles of the congress of Vienna, certainly 
 all the efforts of another congress should be directed 
 towards the restoration of some equality at sea, and 
 towards securing safety on the roads which leads to 
 the Colonies. There would be still more ample work 
 for this congress, than there was for the congress of 
 Vienna. 
 
 If we could divest our mind of all that was awful 
 in such a meeting, we should like to dwell upon the 
 picture of the nations of Europe, on one side, busy 
 in regulating between themselves the interests of a 
 system so novel ; and, on the other side, the represen- 
 tatives of the New World presenting themselves, for 
 the first time since the creation, before the Old World, 
 and demanding to be heard upon their own rights, 
 and upon their respective duties. 
 
 We will add to this idea, the wish of seeing it 
 realized without loss of time ; for each day increases 
 the difficulties which are already too numerous ; each 
 delay occasions mischiefs very difficult to repair ; each 
 
THE COLONIES. 355 
 
 fresh blow widens the breach already made in the 
 building, which we must not demolish roughly, even 
 when wc shall have lost all hope of preserving it. 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 Can Spain reconquer her Colonies? What ought 
 Spain to do ? 
 
 jVEITHER the one nor the other, and the one no 
 more than the other. Every thing that has been laid 
 down above is, as we may say, only preliminary to 
 this great question, which will decide the fate of all 
 the Colonies t the whole system depends upon the 
 result of the present struggle between Spain and Ame- 
 rica : for if the latter remains independent, as every 
 thing induces us to believe will be the case, from this 
 very cause all the other Colonies will become so. In 
 fact, what other Colonies are there, but the West 
 Indies and Canada ? Will the latter alone remain de- 
 pendent, when all America shall be free, at the very 
 door of the United Stales, with all the interest which 
 they have in increasing the general independence of 
 America, and with the immense expence of protection 
 whiqh, in that state of hostility and impending separa- 
 tion, it will cost England. It would be curious to know 
 how much Canada has cost England during the last war 
 with America : we should conjecture that the expenses 
 exceeded the receipts in a tenfold proportion. It 
 would be the same with the West Indies, which, sur* 
 
 .2 a2 
 
336 ' THE COLONIES. 
 
 rounded on every side by great independent Colonies, 
 could not be defended against them, and would not 
 even be worth the trouble of preserving, and which, 
 \in this state of dependence, would not be able to 
 stand a competition in cultivation with the indepen- 
 dent Colonies. At this present time, from the Straits of 
 Magellan to California, over an extent of country QOO 
 leagues in length, and many hundred in breadth, the 
 inhabitants are fighting, slaughtering and exterminat- 
 ing each other : the madness of man never before 
 dug such a vast grave for himself. This is the second 
 time in 300 years that the Spaniards have exterminated 
 the popujation of America: the first time, because the 
 inhabitants were their inferiors ; the second, because 
 they had the audacity to wish to be their equals. 
 
 At various times, and among others in 1768, the 
 natives have endeavoured to resume the government of 
 their own country, and to drive out their masters. If 
 the enterprise, which was formed by Tupac Amaru, 
 had been crowned with success, it would have over- 
 thrown the Spanish dominion in America ; but the 
 present case is quite different, the Spaniards themselves 
 have joined with a part of the natives, and are fight- 
 ing with the mother country, and asking the ancient 
 inhabitants of America to assist them in breaking the 
 Spanish yoke. The scene, as we see, is changed, and 
 the plot is leading to a very different catastrophe. The 
 commotion has extended in the twinkling of an eye, 
 from the kingdom of Terra Firma over this vast con- 
 tinent ; so ripe was every thing for this event. la 
 order to accomplish it, they took advantage of the 
 troubles in which Spain was engaged in Europe. The 
 Spaniards had hardly got out of those troubles, before 
 America gave them full employment; but they there 
 
THE COLONIES. 357 
 
 found a nation as ready to throw off their dominion 
 as it had been to throw off the dominion of Joseph, 
 and which is as un'willing to be governed by Spain, as 
 Spain had been unwilHng to be governed by France. 
 
 The Spaniards presented themse]ves in America 
 with their ancient laws, and troops to enforce their 
 reception. Resolute in their principles of monopoly 
 and exclusion, over which the council of the Indies 
 watched, as the dragon watched over the garden of 
 the Hesperides, they required America to shut herself 
 up exclusively for them, and to serve them alone. In 
 order to support these demands, they have let loose 
 upon America some thousands of men, armed restorers 
 of their dominion ; and they are preparing to send out 
 fresh troops : they reckon upon the royalists making 
 a diversion in their favour, who are excited by the 
 Spanish clergy in America, who show themselves 
 there as they do ever;^ where else, violent supporters of 
 absolute power. The Spaniards have made Carthagena 
 their military dep6t ; from thence their forces can 
 easily extend over the coasts of the South Sea, and 
 attack Mexico and Peru in the rear. This is certainly 
 a part of the plan, the execution of which has been 
 confided to General Morillo. The strictest renewal of 
 the monopoly has been required, and it again becomes 
 • the common law wherever they are the masters, or 
 their partisans have the upper hand, so that wherever 
 an end is put to the liberty of the countryy an end is 
 
 (also put to th^ freedom of trade, and America, when 
 subjected to Spain, is also subjected to'the ports of the 
 Peninsula: and that must never be lo'^t sight of in 
 ^ this question. This alone makes all the European 
 nations parties in the cause : for there is not a singfle 
 one whose nearest interests are not affected by it, as 
 
358 THE COLONIES. 
 
 we shall show hereafter. We see very well that a pro-' 
 hibition of this kind, taking the place of a free trade, 
 is not the most likely thing to bring back the rebellious 
 Colonies to obedience to a mother country so bur- 
 thensome. Thus, latterly, we have seen the Havannah 
 intimidate its viceroy into withdrawing the monopoly 
 with which he had oppressed the Colony. He was 
 obliged to yield to the murmurs of a Colony which 
 was used to customs that were too opposite to the 
 maxims of the council of the Indies and the monopoly 
 of Cadiz, to suffer them to be renewed by a simple 
 decree of the mother country. 
 
 Two questions arise from this state of affairs. 
 
 First, Is Spain able to reconquer her American 
 Colonies ? 
 
 Secondly, Would she be able to keep them ? 
 
 The best manner of deciding these questions is, 
 without doubt, to compare the means of attack and of 
 defence, the means of preserving these Colonies with 
 the difficulty of doing it, and the expenses of guard* 
 ing them. 
 
 Spain contains 11^000,000 of inhabitants. 
 
 America, 15,000,000. 
 
 Therefore the balance in favour of the Colonies i^ 
 J,000,000. 
 
 Spain contains 23,000 square leagues. 
 
 America, 468,000. 
 
 Spain is only able to attack America with a very 
 small part of her population, as was the case with ^ 
 England with respect to the United States ; moreover ' 
 she cannot send against her American Colonies the 
 auxiliary troops which England sent against the United 
 States, which were then called insurgents. Spain, in 
 this contest with her Colonies^ will be reduced to her 
 
THE COLONIES, 859 
 
 own forces : she will have to work, as she has already 
 done, with small bodies of men, sent over from time 
 to time, and the levying of which, as also the depar- 
 ture, the transporting, and the arrival, are subject to 
 all the inconveniences that are attached to these kind 
 of expeditions, in all nations, and especially in a na- 
 tion that is slow, ill provided with the means of trans- 
 porting a great number of men, not at all attentive to 
 the equipment of her vessels, or the preservation of 
 her men, and careless of those minutiae which most 
 contribute to the success of these armaments. What 
 a difference between an expedition of this kind made 
 by the Spaniards, and one conducted by the English ! 
 Thus the armaments of Spain will be weak and always 
 shackled by the very nature of the Spanish govern- 
 ment ; but what are these armaments in comparison 
 with a country like America, so immense, so difficult 
 to be penetrated by an army, where there are neither 
 roads nor passages, over rivers both broad and nurpe- 
 rous, where the towns lie at great distances from each 
 other, where it is necessary, in order to arrive at any 
 place whatever, to pass over immense tracts of coun- 
 try, and where there are no magazines, no places of 
 safety, and no hospitals ? America will be defended 
 by its climate, the attacks of which are not to be braved 
 by Europeans without the greatest danger. A body 
 of 10,000 men, after having been formed at Cadiz, 
 passed some months on board a ship, landed, and 
 rendered any service, will have lost at least a third of 
 its number. The natives do not suffer any of these 
 inconveniences ; they are upon the field of battle, are 
 used to the climate, and are in number an hundred to 
 one against the Spaniards. The inequality is visible. 
 Discipline and military knowledge are on the side of 
 
360 THE COLONIES. 
 
 the European soldier*, yes, but only for a time: the 
 English had the advantage of the United States in all 
 these tactics. But which side did victory declare for ? 
 The Spanish Americans w^ill become inured to war, in 
 the same way the English Americans became so ; to- 
 day they are the weakest, but to-morrow they will be 
 the strongest. In order to conquer, they have only to 
 iiy: in order to gain the victory, they have only to 
 avoid an engagement, to substitute national for regular 
 warfare, to be every where around their enemies and 
 never before them, to harass and to weary them, and 
 to do that by fatigue which they could not execute by 
 force. In, this case we must make a calculation, not 
 of military force, but of human strength. We speak 
 always of war as of a science, and with allusion to 
 that kind of honour which is acquired in battle, in a 
 tournament, and in fighting with an enemy according 
 to all the rules of art, and to the regulations established 
 ift these sort of engagements, instead of considering 
 war with reference to its object, the destruction of thtf 
 enemy. But, it is in this latter manner, we may 
 depend upon it, that it will be carried on against the 
 Spanish troops. Their enemies will not attack them 
 in front, but individually ; they will fly in order to 
 harass, to weary, and finally to destroy them. They 
 will do the same in America as the Spaniards did in 
 Spain against the French, and the troops of Ferdinand 
 will be treated in his Colonies as the troops of Na- 
 poleon were in his kingdom. There is an example, 
 and it will be followed ; it will be prescribed and imi- 
 tated by those very persons who have suffered so much 
 in Spain : for we cannot doubt that a crowd of French 
 and foreign soldiers are rushing towards the field of 
 glory or of fortune which is open to their turbulence. 
 
THE COLONIES. 361 
 
 to their love of riches and fame, to their dread of that 
 inactivity which the general system of quietism 
 adopted in Europe condemns them to for a long while, 
 and to their desire of emerging from that degradation 
 and indigence which has become almost universally 
 the lot of the military profession, instead of the ele- 
 vation and fortune which lately attended it. 
 
 Spanish America will be headed in the field by the 
 old leaders of the French and German soldiers. Those 
 who have already fought in the plains of Castille will 
 yet meet again in the plains of Paraguay^ Mexico, 
 and New Granada. Miranda, the companion of Du- 
 mouriez, has opened the career; thousands of others will 
 follow it : the Englishman Brown, with the vessels of 
 Buenos Ayres, has terrified the coasts of Peru ; Hum- 
 bert, who formerly conducted a handful of men into 
 Ireland, has organised the legions of Mexico. Who 
 can doubt that a long list of men, excited by the 
 same motives, will not hasten towards the same coun- 
 tries, the same battles, the same fortune, and the 
 same termination of the inactivity which wearies them, 
 of a misery which degrades them, and of the- calm 
 which leaves them in such idleness, towards the same 
 satisfaction which generous minds feel in the ambition 
 of joining themselves to a great nation fighting for its 
 own liberty and that of the whole world ; one of the 
 greatest and most seducing enterprises whichTias ever 
 been undertaken. The days of the first discovery of 
 America are come back again for Europe : a new world 
 is discovered for it. If the Spaniards alone at the 
 first discovery hastened there, it was because every 
 one at that time possessed suflficieflt Colonies ; and 
 because the way to America was little known, and the 
 greatest of Europe was ignorant of navigation : but 
 
 7 
 
:i62 THE COLONIES. 
 
 now that the road to America is as much frequented 
 as that from Paris to London ; now that the sea is in- 
 habited like the land, thousands of Europeans will 
 flock to America in order to defend it, as the 
 Spaniards flocked there at the time of its discovery in - 
 order to plunder it. Spanish America will again see 
 men, like Pizarro and Almagre, issue from every part 
 of Europe ; it has already had its Liniers, twice the 
 avenger and preserver of Buenos Ayres ; it will find 
 others in all the Europeans who are seeking Glory 
 and Fortune which they cannot find in Europe. We 
 will be bold enough to say, that the altars of these 
 two divinities are overthrown, or at least much lowered 
 in this part of the world ; but they will be raised up 
 again in America, and in those colossal proportions 
 which only belong to great revolutions and to coun- 
 tries where every thing remains to be done. Spain, 
 reduced to its own forces which are much inferior to 
 those of America, will have, moreover, to fight with 
 the bold and adventurous men of every country : and 
 we know that they are the most dangerous in the 
 world. Spain, making war with detachments against 
 the whole population of America, who are upon the 
 very spot, will, most likely, owing to her superiority 
 in tactics, be able to obtain at first some small success, 
 as the English did in their American war. Moreover 
 it is the nature of every war, that success should be 
 balanced ; but the inequality and the inconveniences of 
 such a war are too visible not to act against Spain in 
 the most unfavourable manner. The reverses which 
 it cannot fail to experience will swell the courage of its 
 enemies, reduce its partizans to silence, and discourage 
 its soldiers : Spain will in the end no longer dare to 
 send them out, through the fear of by that means fur^ 
 
THE COLONIES. S63 
 
 nishins: its adversaries with recruits. What attractions 
 can it offer them which will balance the incitements 
 to desertion with which its enemies will dazzle their 
 eyes ? The gold and silver of their mines, the land 
 which they can grant them, and the wives which they 
 can give them the choice of, are so many means of 
 speaking to their eyes, and of determining them by 
 the feelings which lead a man towards a desire of a 
 better condition, and towards the hand which offers it 
 to him. When we take all these things into conside- 
 ration, when we see that the example of the campaign 
 of Moscow is before their eyes, as well as the war 
 which was carried on in their own country, for Spain 
 is engaged in a war which unites all the disadvantages 
 which have signalized those two unfortunate expedi- 
 tions, we cannot conceive how the Spaniards could 
 have taken the course they are pursuing with respect 
 to America. Will experience then be always thrown 
 away upon mankind? But in addition to all this, 
 Spain has not even the means of continuing the w^ar 
 against America, and on the other hand, the longer 
 America fights, the more she acquires the means of 
 resistance. The reason of this is plain. 
 
 America is become the support, and in some mea- 
 sure the nurse of Spain, as, in a family, the child when 
 grown up and become rich, supports its parents in 
 their old age. Whence come the riches of Spain, 
 both taxes, and the incomes of private persons, which 
 in their turn add to the public wealth } Was it not 
 from America? The latter sent every year to the 
 treasury at Madrid the sum of 60,000,000 of livres, 
 and to Cadiz, more than 150,000,000 livres, as the 
 balance of trade, or of the incomes of private persons. 
 This money brought into Spain, and spent there, also 
 
364 ' THE COLONIES. 
 
 added to the public revenue^ either by direct or indi- 
 rect taxes ; for, in Spain, as every where else, a duty 
 is laid upon every article of consumption. But all 
 these sources are dried up, and thus the distress is 
 completed, in which Spain is involved by the misfor- 
 tunes she has suffered. Even at any other times this 
 loss would have been very much felt : what must not 
 be suffered in such a time as this! What meaps then 
 bas Spain of continuing this war ? Will it be with the 
 loans which have been forced from the commercial 
 towns ? But this resource will not go far, and woe to 
 the finances which are maintained by such expedients! 
 Spain, that has not wherev»fithal to supply the expenses 
 of the interior,^'^ will be still less able to provide for 
 the expenses of a war with America. E"en with 
 America it has experienced a deficiency : what will it 
 do without America and against America? It is very 
 probable that they will continue to send troops in 
 smaller quantities each time^ till they will be no longer 
 able to send out a single man : even supposing they 
 have the means which are wanting, how could they 
 proportion the number of troops to occasions which 
 are always varying, and incalculable at so great a dis- 
 tance from the theatre of action, and troops, at the 
 time of their arrival, would no longer correspond with 
 the object they had to accomplish ? The Spaniards, 
 to be always in time, and not to lose the fruits of their 
 first expense, ought to have three fleets and three 
 
 * We know that the ordinary revenue of Spain, 
 
 which amounts to 240,000,000 fr. 
 
 is not sufficient for the expenses in time of peace, 
 even though we add to this the revenues of America, 
 
 which are brought to Spain, and valued at 60,000,000 
 
 The debt has been by degrees raised to 700,000,0001 
 
 Which is in a larger proportion in comparison to the 
 revenue than the debt of France, 
 
THE COLONIES. , 365 
 
 armies always ready : the first in America, the second 
 at sea, and the third in Spain, always under sail, in 
 order to render assistance wherever it should be called 
 for. The extent of the Spanish Colonies will also 
 require efforts proportionate to the extent of such a 
 vast country : so that Spain will be obliged to have 
 five armies in order to overawe the five great divisions 
 of Paraguay, Mexico, Peru, Terra Firma, and New 
 Granada, without reckoning Chili, the Havannah, and 
 PoUo Rico. Thus Spain will have to reckon by- 
 hundreds of thousands of men, as well as by hundreds 
 of millions of livres. She was depopulated by the 
 first conquest of An^ierica, and what was then left to 
 be done, she will finish by the second, but without 
 receiving the same compensation : for the former con- 
 quest procured her her Colonies, while the latter on 
 the contrary, will deprive her of them. 
 
 The general commotion which independence ' has 
 excited in America,, has reached the United States, so 
 that Spain must take precautions with respect to them : 
 every thing there conspires in favour of this indepen- 
 dence — insinuations, supplies of arms, and voluntary 
 enrolments ; the youth of the United States are taking 
 flight towards Mexico, and their vessels towards the 
 ports which are opened by the independents. How 
 long will this state of things last, without producing 
 an open rupture? and in that case how can Spain pro- 
 vide for that fresh expense ? The United States by 
 thus interposing, will put an end to an inhuman con- 
 test, which is ruinous to the whole world, and to Spain 
 in particular: for Spain loses a purchaser by every 
 American killed by a Spanish soldier : and every city 
 that is burnt, diminishes its riches and the demand 
 for its commodities. It. is the same thing as if the 
 
iise THE COLOl^lES. 
 
 King of France were to destroy Lyons, and burn 
 Louviers and Sedan. Will Spain have advanced any 
 further, when she has ruined herself in order to ruin 
 her Colonies r But that is precisely what she is 
 doing. One would think by looking at her actions, 
 that according to her ideas there was only one thing 
 in the worlds sovereignty and possession ; and that, 
 provided we possess and reign over a country, it does 
 not matter whether we do or do not derive any fruits 
 from it, or whether the possession is profitable or not, 
 and that every thing consisted in preserving the naked 
 possession of an object ; but on the contrary there are 
 a thousand cases in which commercial relations are 
 much more productive than possession could be, as 
 England has experienced in the loss of America, from 
 whence she derives the profits of trade, without having 
 the expense of defending the possession. 
 
 Spain would be no more able to preserve America 
 after the conquest, that she is able to conquer it, or has 
 interest in doing so. 
 
 According to the principles which are established with 
 regard to the comparative population of the mother coun- 
 try and the Colonies, and with regard to the nature and 
 effects of exclusive trade, we are led to conclude that the 
 conquest of America would be only temporary, and that^, 
 at a more or less distant period, Spain would again find 
 herself in the situation she is at present : to a second con- 
 quest it would be necessary to add a third, to a third a 
 fourth, and so on until the mother country should be 
 overcome for ever : which would be the inevitable conse- 
 quence of repeated collisions. The America of the 
 present time is to the America of an hundred or two or 
 three hundred years to come, what America at the time 
 of its discovery is to America at the present time. The 
 
THE COLONIES. sat 
 
 progress it has made iii the first period, and that 
 which it will make in the second are the cause of this* 
 The Spaniards settled in America in very small num- 
 bers ; and now, at the end of three centuries, they* 
 amount to many millions of inhabitants ; they increase 
 their own population, by an importation of men, who^ 
 in their turn, multiply themselves in every branch of 
 colonial population ; they mix with the natives, and 
 after a very short lapse of time, they surpass the po- 
 pulation of the mother country, in spite of all the 
 losses which they suffer by the attacks of the climate, 
 the exhalations from the marshy lands, and by living 
 in a country and among men that they are ignorant 
 of, without the aid of any of the preservatives which 
 knowledge and time have pointed out: and, never- 
 theless, their numbers already amount to nearly twenty 
 millions. What will it amount to then, starting from 
 the point which they have reached, and having for the 
 root of their future population that which now exists, 
 and which is familiarized to all the properties of the 
 soil which it inhabits, and enjoying every advantage 
 that favours the increase of population ? That of 
 America ought to increase in a more rapid proportion 
 than that of the United States has done, because it 
 has much more room, and because to seas more ex- 
 tensive and less boisterous^ to rivers much larger, and 
 to ports more numerous and secure, it joins a land in* 
 finitely more fruitful and yielding more abundant 
 means of subsistence, which every where regulates po- 
 pulation. Spanish America, as well as being much 
 more extensive than the United States, tends also to 
 an increase of population superior to that which the 
 United States are able to reach. When we consider 
 that in Mexico a few years have been sufficient to form 
 
368 THE COLONIES. 
 
 towns like Guanaxuatao containing eighty tlK)iisancl 
 souls, the very names of which have hardly reached 
 Europe, we can have au idea of the population it is 
 destined to possess. The mother country is infinitely 
 short of being susceptible of the same increase. Spain 
 will never contain twenty, thirty, forty, or fifty mil- 
 lion souls ; in a word, a population to which we are 
 not able to assign any bounds, as America cannot help 
 doing. The Colony has began by inferiority to the 
 mother country ; it has arrived at an equality ; it will 
 attain, in a short time, an incomparable superiority. 
 But how then will Spain be able to contend with her 
 Colony ? If her inferiority is manifest even in the pre- 
 sent state of the population of her Colony, what will it 
 be when this shall be still more numerous ? Let them 
 show, if they can, the means by which fifteen millions of 
 Spaniardscan rule over forty millions of Americans living 
 two or three thousand leagues from tl]^m : what means 
 will the former take to keep the latter in subjection ? 
 If India- contained half the number of English inha- 
 bitants that America does Spanish, it would be free. 
 The Spanish Americans are not Indians domineered 
 over by a handful of English ; they are no longer the 
 subjects of the Caziques or of the Incas, and no longer 
 novices in the European arts ; but they are Spaniards 
 in America similar in every thing to the Spaniards in 
 Europe, and possessing, which the latter do not, the 
 siipport which always attends those who defend liberty, 
 to the exclusion of those who attack it. What does it 
 matter to three fourths of the soldiers of Morillo whether 
 America is free or not : let them look for a moment 
 into their own hearts, and they immediately fly int© 
 the arms of those whom they were about to fight. 
 Their leaders and those who sent them are, we can b«. 
 
THE COLONIES. sm 
 
 lieve, interested against the cause of liberty ; but what 
 interest have they against it ? On the contrary, there 
 is not a single American whom interest and zeal d6 
 not inspire in the defence of his own cause. We saw 
 this in the war with the United States. The English 
 were not long before they found that they had to do 
 with men equal to themselves, and who, by dwelling in 
 the New World, knew more of it than those in the 
 Old World did ; and who, in proportion as the contest 
 was prolonged, strengthened themselves in their re- 
 solution, while in England they had lost sight of the 
 subject of the quarrel, and while the soldiers, to whom 
 the charge of maintaining it was committed, \yere 
 growing languid in the service of a cause of which they 
 did not perceive distinctly either the motive or the ob- 
 ject : in the mean time, the Americans, connected both 
 the one and the other with the greatest facility, as always 
 happens in these kind of contests, the object of which 
 the assailant never perceives distinctly, while he who 
 acts on the defensive always sees it with clearness, and 
 maintains it with perseverance. There is a great dif- 
 ference between coming from Spain to America to 
 hinder the inhabitants from being free, and wishing to 
 be free in America, on the part of those who are inha- 
 bitants of it! The degree of interest which will be felt 
 on the two sides gives us the degree of activity which 
 they will use to obtain the superiority. 
 
 Spain then, evidently, would be too feeble to pre- 
 serve America after a second conquest ; she would be 
 so much the more unable to do it, as she would find 
 that the disposition of the Colonies towards the very 
 independence which she wished to stifle would be 
 always increasing : the causes of it would be : 
 
 First, The remembrance of the past ; 
 
 2b 
 
370 THE COLONIES. 
 
 Second, The exclusive trade ; 
 
 Third, The example and proximity of Brazil and 
 the United States. 
 
 When ideas of liberty and independence have never 
 presented themselves to the minds of a people, whilst 
 they have followed for a length of time the course 
 traced by an obedience to established rules, submission, 
 like every thing else resulting from custom, becomes 
 easy, forms their ordinary condition, and is acquiesced 
 in without effort ; but when a great commotion has 
 given a different direction to their minds and turned 
 them from that which they had followed, and when 
 the change affects their nearest and strongest interests, 
 how can we hinder these minds from entertaining the 
 remembrance of it, regretting its loss, and wishing 
 for its re-establishment ? They are now miserable, they 
 have been better, they wish to become again what 
 they were before. Thus England had been in pos- 
 session of North America without experiencing any 
 resistance on the part of this vast Colony ; she had 
 even received great proofs of its fidelity and effective 
 services in her wars against France in 1740 and 1756,* 
 and yet in a very few years after she found her Colony 
 in an entirely different disposition ; sighing only for 
 liberty, and demanding it sword in hand. Supposing 
 even that England had prevailed, the contest would 
 not have been finished, it would only have been ad- 
 journed : and that which had given rise to it would 
 have given rise to it again. It will be the same with 
 Spanish America, if Spain, contrary to all expectation, 
 should get the advantage in the first encounter. Ame- 
 
 *• Louisburg and the Havannah were taken by levies raised in 
 the English Colonies. 
 
THE COLONIES. 371 
 
 rica, from the nature of things, would be induced to 
 renew the contest every time an opportunity oifered. 
 Liberty, especially to large Colonies, is so great and so 
 evident a good, that when they have once known it 
 they can never cease endeavouring to obtain it. 
 
 The exclusive trade will also incessantly occasion a 
 desire for independence. America has taken up arms 
 still more against this than against the dominion of 
 Spain : if she fought to obtain it before she had tasted 
 its advantages, in what manner will she not fight to pro- 
 cure them again, especially when monopoly should be 
 re-established in all its rigour, as Spain has already at- 
 tempted and will do if she remains the mistress ? 
 There will not be a single commercial act, a single 
 transaction, that will not stir up and recall indepen- 
 dence in America. Every advance that foreigners 
 shall make in the career of industry will incite a 
 desire for that independence which would permit them 
 also to participate in this progress, and to enjoy the 
 fruits of it, while the monopoly forbids them to do so, 
 and hinders them from touching the advantages which 
 they have within their reach. On the other hand the 
 independence of the United States and of Brazil are 
 two beacons placed so much under the eyes and so 
 near the shores of Spanish America, that it can never 
 lose sight of them, or cease to be enticed to imitate 
 them ; this influence can no more be deprived of its 
 effect, than the warmth of the sun could be deprived 
 of its vivifying effects upon nature. For the same rea- 
 son that America has once conceived her liberty as 
 possible, she will always conceive it to be so. The 
 commotion which she has felt will not stop, but will 
 be renewed every instant by the durable or rather in- 
 
 2B2 
 
572 THE COLONIES. 
 
 delible impression of the act which was the cause, of 
 its origin. 
 
 When we speak of the liberty or of the submission 
 of America, we ought to begin by the proper under- 
 standing of three things. » 
 
 First, Of a general or partial submission. 
 
 If the submission is general, we then come to the 
 great question of the independence of trade ; mono- 
 poly would be re-established at the same time wikb 
 the Spanish authority : for that is acquainted with no 
 other system. But this monopoly, the harshness of 
 which has excited the first insurrection, will not have 
 become more supportable or more agreeable in the 
 eyes of the Americans : it will accordingly be the 
 cause of fresh insurrections ; such will be the train of 
 events which cannot be avoided. Is trade free, they 
 are independent ; is it exclusive, they will wish to be- 
 come independent at any price. But in this re-esta- 
 blishment of monopoly a fresh inconvenience will 
 arise ; he who is reconciled to the authority of Spain, 
 will not be reconciled to her monopoly; he who 
 wishes for fidelity ta Spain, does not for that reason 
 wish for his own ruin by means of this fidelity. When 
 his interest is consulted it gives a very different turn 
 to his opinion. After having tasted the sweets of a 
 commerce with the whole world, he wilt not be much 
 tempted to confine himself within the narrow limits 
 of a trade with Spain. It is this major consideration 
 that entirely changes the face of this question, as well 
 as that of the whole colonial question. If Spain aban- 
 dons her monopoly in opposition to the maxims of 
 ancient wisdom and of the council of the Indies, 
 she may then let her ColQnies^ alone,, for she has no 
 
THE COLONIES. S7S 
 
 longer any interest in them, or, at least, no more than 
 every other power : for the prosperity which would be 
 the inevitable consequence, would give such strength 
 to the Colonies that it would be impossible to keep 
 them ; it would be very false to say, that if this itio- 
 nopoly was abandoned, the principal motive of a sepa- 
 ration from the mother country would disappear, 
 because the principal grievance of the Colonies would 
 be taken away ; for precisely the contrary would hap- 
 pen. A body of men or a nation never act from the 
 consideration of what they have already gained, but 
 from the consideration of what they are still Me to gain. 
 As soon as they are able to obtain any thing, they 
 wish for it, and they wish for every thing they are able 
 to obtain : but see precisely what would happen to the 
 Spanish Colonies, as regarding the mother country, 
 when the monopoly should be abandoned. The Co- 
 lonies, become rich by this substitution of a free trade 
 for the monopoly, would demand still more ; th^ 
 would not consider the evils which had ceased, but 
 the evils which existed, not the advantages which they 
 had acquired, but those which yet remained to be ac- 
 quired. Such is the course of human nature. The 
 Colonies after they had obtained a relief from the mo;. 
 nopoly, would wish to be relieved from the governors 
 sent out from Spain to rule over them before they are 
 acquainted with them, and who leave them as soon as 
 they have become a little acquainted with them ; they 
 would wish to be delivered from that crowd of agents 
 who come over to prey upon them, and to make room 
 for others drawn there by the same appetite ; they 
 would wish to be delivered from a distant government 
 and its slowness, and from having to go to a dis- 
 tant country to get injustice redressed or to solicit 
 
S74 THE COLONIES. 
 
 favours ; in one word, the Colonies would make as 
 many demands as they have hitherto suffered neg- 
 lect. 
 
 If monopoly is maintained, it leads to revolt and to 
 independence, as the only means of getting free from 
 this detested yoke. 
 
 Secondly, If the subjection of America is only par- 
 tial, there is nothing done; the fire still burning in one 
 place will break out in another, because the cause of 
 the conflagration will not have ceased. The Colonist 
 who will be still in arms will be the soldier of the dis- 
 armed Colonist; the latter, who will not have given up 
 the desire of being free, will also wish that he 
 who is^ free should remain so, as a model for him 
 at present, and as his ally hereafter : his wishes and 
 his heart must naturally accompany him; his hands 
 will assist him according as opportunities shall offer. 
 If then the submission of Spanish America is not si- 
 multaneous, the flame, which is not extinguished, will 
 rekindle that which shall have been stopped : it will 
 break out again the second time, as it did the first, 
 owing to the conformity of generally and deeply felt 
 interests. But it is impossible to conceive, that a coun- 
 try so large as Spanish America, that so vast a conti- 
 nent, the parts of which present the most marked con- 
 trasts and divisions, can be reduced at once, as though 
 by the stroke of a magic wand, into a complete sub- 
 mission throughout every part; that Mexico, Peru, 
 Chili, Paraguay, Terra Firma, and New Granada, 
 will yield, at one and the same time, to Spain; espe- 
 cially when we consider that obstinacy forms the basis 
 of the Spanish character. 
 
 The English had not the same inconveniences to en- 
 counter, in fighting against the United States and ia 
 
THE COLONIES. 375 
 
 endeavouring to keep them in independence, which 
 Spain meets with in her contest with America. The 
 United States are, in comparison with the extent of 
 Spanish America, what a single department is in com- 
 parison with the whole of France : the United States, 
 also, in fact as well as in name, had one government 
 for them all, and but one executive power: Spanish 
 America, on the contrary, has a great number. While 
 the United States have but one congress, the Ameri- 
 cans have ten : for each division of America has its 
 own. Even when the Spaniards have finished with 
 one, they have done nothing with another. This 
 state of general confusion is the strength of the insur- 
 gents and the despair of their enemies: it is impossi- 
 ble to seize upon the body, the limbs only are to be 
 laid hold of: nothing can be fixed : on the contrary, 
 in a regular insurrection, like that of the United 
 States, there was a head, and consequently something 
 that a hold might be taken of; a certain object was 
 encountered, with which something certain could be 
 settled. In_SpanisbL America, on the contrary, the 
 government is^every where and no where : a popula- 
 tion of volunteers in a general and irregular fermenta- 
 tion^ leayesj^o room forjhe^formation of aiiy^eneral 
 or lasting treaty, and with the little faith Jhat^ is cora- 
 inon to sucJ3_tjeacjjeroiispeople aj^jhe Spaniards, aniong 
 whorn ^superstition c^^ ^ 
 
 fa|se conscience, not much dependenc^^^^ placed 
 
 on thestabijity^f agreements, the obsei-vance of which 
 is only secured by the presence of an army. That 
 which has passed in America, and that which has 
 taken place in Spain, are sufficient proofs of this, 
 The same village, when some battalions were passing 
 through it, took twice a day an oath which it forgot 
 
370 THE COLONIES. 
 
 in the evening ; and in America the same towns have 
 been constantly throwing off their obedience and re-- 
 turning to it. The Spaniard has this in common with 
 the Africans and the oriental nations, who never con- 
 sider themselves bound by engagements that are en- 
 tered into with those who are stronger than them- 
 selves. O^fO 1i 
 
 We have said above that Spain will not be able to 
 preserve her Colonies. 
 
 There are two ways of preserving Colonies; first for 
 QOeself^ and then against others. 
 
 Before the revolution Spain had kept in America 
 but a very small number of European regular troops. 
 The defence of the country was confided to the na- 
 tional troops. =^ 
 
 Spain calculated that these forces were sufficient 
 ^gainsi England, the only enemy that could attack 
 any part of Spanish America ; and, comparing them 
 
 * In 1804, Mexico contained, in troops of every kind, the fol- 
 lowing force : 
 
 Infantry of th^ line 5,200 me» 
 
 Militia U ,000 
 
 Cavalry of the line 4,700 
 
 Militia 11,300 
 
 Total 32,200 men 
 
 , ; , , Out of which the disciplined troops amounted 
 
 . /" to 9,500 
 
 These troops cost 20,000,000 francs. 
 
 At the present time a great part of these very troops are fighting 
 against Spain. 
 
 We can form an idea of the regular troops and militia of the other 
 parts of Spanish America by those which Mexico contains : they 
 are jn a great part, like those of Mexico, in opposition to Spain. 
 1 
 
THE COLONIES. S7t 
 
 isvith the number of troops which this power could de- 
 vote to an attack upon it, there did not appear to be 
 any need of greater precautions. The two expeditions 
 against Buenos Ayres have proved the justice of this 
 calculation ; for this place has twice been saved by the 
 population of the country. England was not able to 
 attack the whole of the American continent; she would 
 have bruised only herself by striking against such an 
 immense mass : in many places it would be defended 
 by its climate. Spain, secure from France by its fa- 
 mily compact, fearing nothing yet from the United 
 States, and still less from Portugal, who was situated 
 too near her in Europe, not to keep on good terms 
 with her in America, had calculated very well for the 
 time to which this disposition of her forces refers : but 
 now every thing is changed ; it is no longer against 
 England, or against a foreign enemy, that America 
 njust be defended : it is Spain that must be defended 
 against America, and against those very persons to 
 whom she had confided the care of defending her do- 
 minion. Thus, as we see, the scene is greatly changed. 
 Spain must, accordingly^ after having deprived the 
 Americans of their arms, in the first place, no longer 
 trust them with them : in the second place, keep them 
 habitually under the guard of European troops. But, 
 how would the small population of Spain be able to 
 support such an armament, or to supply the recruits it 
 would be continually requiring ? What power in the 
 world would garrison such a country as America ; a 
 garrison which must be increased in proportion as the 
 population of the country increased ? And supposing 
 even that Spain had men sufficient, where would she 
 find the funds which would be necessary to maintain 
 them ? For forces would be required in every part •£ 
 
37S THE COLONIES. 
 
 the country, and in great numbers ; if Spain does only 
 a little, she does nothing; if a great deal, she is ruined. 
 Since a great part of the revenues of Mexico are con- 
 sumed by the militia of the country, what would not a 
 regular army cost, sent from an immense distance, and 
 which would have to be entirely maintained at the ex- 
 pense of Spain ? Thus it is very evident that Spain 
 does not possess any means of keeping her American 
 Colonies for herself; and she possesses no more means 
 of defending them against foreigners. 
 
 Spain has two enemies at her gate in America, the 
 United States and Brazil. The governments of these 
 countries are at peace with her it is true; but the very 
 nature of their affairs is at variance as long as this si- 
 tuation of aftairs lasts. If half of Europe belonged to 
 America, would not all the interests of the former, 
 would not all its actions tend towards putting an end 
 to a state of things which would appear to it directly 
 contrary to nature ? Well then, apply this to America ; 
 and, in addition to this, if it happened that the richest 
 and most fruitful part of Europe was the part which^ 
 was possessed by Arnerica, would not this circumstance 
 be another incitement to detach it from America, and 
 to restore it to the other half of the country from which 
 it had been separated ? This is precisely the situation 
 in which Brazil and the United States stand with re- 
 gard to Spanish America. For, observe their geogra- 
 phical position ; they encompass the Spanish posses- 
 sions from north to south. 
 
 The United States cannot fail to join to their other 
 possessions the Floridas, which lie between them and 
 their new provinces of Louisiana. The intervention 
 of this country is too troublesome for them not to en- 
 deavour to put an end to it. By means of Louisiana 
 
THE COLONIES. 579 
 
 they border upon Mexico : the great river Rio Bravo 
 seems destined to form the boundary of the two states; 
 their settlements on the Missouri surround New Mex- 
 ico. The Americans have searched with activity for 
 passages to the South Sea. We know what voyages 
 have been undertaken for this purpose by the orders 
 6f the government of the United States. In order to 
 form a right judgment of what this nation wi4l be, we 
 must consider the elements of which it is composed. 
 They are a young people, devoted to commerce, which 
 they pursue in every direction by which they can ob- 
 tain it, tradingwitheverynation,under the only banners 
 of a conformity and community of interests; and ex- 
 empt from the prejudices which govern the timid steps 
 of the old nations. The United States already possess 
 more than 12,000 merchant vessels ; their number is 
 increasing, and will still increase every day. America, 
 owing to her maritime situation, is a nursery for sailors, 
 and also holds out a most powerful attraction to the 
 naval officers of every nation. Except England, no 
 nation possesses so many ships ; and at some future 
 time the daughter will dispute this point, as well as 
 many others, with her mother. The population of 
 the United States, to speak properly, is not yet settled, 
 it moves about with the greatest facility, and quits its 
 abode to choose elsewhere a more commodious situa- 
 tion : the great space which is open before it gives it 
 this facility in its movements which ancient nations 
 cannot have, among whom every place is taken. The 
 Americans have something adventurous in their cha- 
 racter, which leads them into enterprise : they are as 
 free from the ideas as from the y^ke of Europe, and 
 are occupied wholly about America, and whatever can 
 strengthen it against Europe. There are four things 
 
S«o THE COLONIES. 
 
 which could not escape the clear sight of the Ameri- 
 cans ; first, that America is as much the natural por- 
 tion of the Americans as Europe is of the Europeans ; 
 and that it is also as natural that America should be 
 governed by its own inhabitants as Europe by its own. 
 It would be very useless, not to say ridiculous, to 
 think that a nation who have just been engaged in a 
 contest which has given freedom to a great part of 
 America, would be stopped by the consideration of 
 the property of sovereignty claimed by another Eu- 
 ropean power. From the very circumstance of this 
 power having its ^eat in Europe, the Americans would 
 not be willing that it should have any in America. Let 
 us be careful not to mistake that which would excite 
 them for that which would restrain them ; for man- 
 kind does not act in that manner. 
 
 Secondly, The Americans cannot help looking 
 upon every part of America which is detached from 
 Spain as naturally added to the great American fe- 
 deration against the dominion of Europe, as well as a 
 further guarantee against its return ; for in that lies the 
 great interest of America. Having once belonged to 
 Europe, her principal attention must necessarily be 
 directed to the removing every thing which could give 
 a fresh hold upon her, and certainly she would neglect 
 nothing in order to close all the gates by which she 
 could be again entered. As there is no one larger 
 than that of South America, North America will make 
 every effort to close the passage ; and the best means 
 of doing it are to detach those Colonies from Europe, 
 which, by becoming free, would have an equal interest 
 in defending the access to America against its ancient 
 possessors. 
 
 Thirdly, The sea and commerce are the new field in 
 
THE COLONIES. ^i 
 
 tvhich all nations are called to meet each other: it is the 
 new tendency which is given to all mankind; henceforth 
 almost every war will tiave for its object trade, or the 
 freedom of the Colonies, as the source of trade. The 
 Americans have already made themselves remarkable 
 by their great success in the commercial career, and 
 throughout both the hemispheres they spread them- 
 selves every where with gigantic steps. Their in- 
 fluence is felt in a most sensible manner, and latitudes 
 hitherto inaccessible, have had the laws by which 
 they are governed modified by their frequent visits : 
 the Americans must therefore desire that every road 
 to commerce should be opened or enlarged. But 
 what countries can offer commercial openings more 
 rich or more within their reach than Spanish America? 
 When access to Mexico shall no longer be prohibited 
 by the jealousy of Spain, who will take such an ad- 
 vantageous part in the trade with this golden land as 
 the United States ? Their ten-itories touch ; the ports 
 of Louisiana are situated upon the same sea as Vera 
 Cruz ; by means of their northenx settlements they 
 reach to the South Sea ; all the eastern coast of Mex- 
 ico, the kingdom of Terra Firma, and Paraguay, are 
 nearer than the ports of Europe, where, nevertheless, 
 the American flag is always showing itself. The in- 
 nate and irresistible propensity of the Americans for 
 the sea and commerce will incite them to every thing 
 which can enfranchise or aggrandise their com aiercial 
 sphere ; and as Spanish America presents the means 
 of so doing, they will endeavour to render it inde- 
 pendent. 
 
 Fourthly, The United States can have to fight with 
 none but the English, who are their neighbours in 
 Canada,^ and their competitors in every branch o£ 
 
 " or THe ^ 
 
282 THE COLONIES. 
 
 trade ; they therefore have need of allies who have the 
 same interests as themselves ; and where can they find 
 them better than in Spanish America? There only 
 will there be a nation sufficiently independent of Enpj- 
 land, from their geographical situation, as to have only 
 their own interests to consult in the choice of their 
 conduct. We must say, that there is no longer any 
 freedom in Europe in the vicinity of England, so well 
 is she situated to strike both quick and sure. But in 
 America the case is quite different, here is a vast zone 
 of independence formed against England, because it is 
 out of the reach of her blows ; she cannot blockade the 
 whole coast of America like Brest and Cadiz. The 
 perception of this means of defence and counterpoise 
 against England will be a powerful engine to the 
 Americans in rendering general that independence 
 which has already commenced in the continent of 
 America ; for the more this independence shaU spread, 
 the more ramparts it will furnish against their power- 
 ful rival. 
 
 Brazil, in a little time, will see and act in the same 
 manner. The kipg is only just arrived in that coun- 
 try ; he is still half European ; but when a longer 
 abode in America shall have naturalised both him and 
 his court in that country, and when their views shall 
 have been turned, and, as we may say, weaned from 
 Europe and from Portugal, and shall be fixed upon j 
 Brazil, as cannot fail to be the case in a very short 
 time, Portugal will then appear to them at that great 
 distance which produces indifference ; the irresistible 
 attraction of objects that are present will make the 
 King completely an American ; and family interests 
 and engagements will disappear before the interests of 
 -the state. In the long run, there are no solid al- 
 
THE COLONIES. 383 
 
 liances but those which interest forms between states, 
 and not between the chiefs of those states : the latter 
 inevitably end by giving way to the former. This will 
 be the case with the Sovereign of Brazil ; he will be- 
 come a Sovereign of America, and a foreigner to Eu- 
 rope, and its adversary if necessary ; he will labour 
 for independence with the same zeal as the United 
 States, because he will have the same interest. Who- 
 ever sets foot in America becomes the defender of its 
 independence against Europe. 
 
 How will Spain, in the midst of these swarms of 
 enemies to her power, and pressed on every side by 
 contrary interests, so active and so powerful, be able 
 to defend possessions weakened in so many different 
 ways, and destitute of any equivalent means of preser- 
 vation ? It is impossible to conceive what Spain can 
 do to preserve herself at once against the continual 
 tendency which the Colonies have to separate from 
 her, and against the tendency which is inherent in 
 the two neighbouring states to attack those Colonies 
 and to bring them into a condition similar to their 
 own, in order to unite them to the great American 
 federation, of which" they themselves form the first 
 links. If a single free village in the American con- 
 tinent was sufficient to establish the liberty of Ame- 
 rica, as leaven causes fermentation in a great mass, 
 with how much more reason ought not two great states 
 to produce the same effect with more promptitude and 
 certainty, whose very situation seems chosen for the 
 purpose of effecting that end ? If the councils of Spam 
 descended into the details of this important question 
 with that accuracy which such great interests both in- 
 spire and demand, the striking considerations which 
 it contains would, without doubt, induce them to look 
 
 7 
 
^4t THE COLONIES, 
 
 upon the affairs of America in a very different point of 
 view from that in which they now see them, owing to 
 following the ideas of a time which no longer exists, 
 and the thoughts of men who have passed away with 
 ages that are now far distant from us. 
 
 It seems, therefore, that Spain ought to ask of her- 
 self what it will be necessary to do when she can no 
 longer conquer, and no longer keep what has been 
 conquered ; whether it would not be as well to make 
 friends of those whom she can no longer have for sub- 
 jects ; and whether it is prudent to expose herself to 
 the danger of being and of remaining excluded^ for 
 having wished to exclude ; but whether it would not 
 be better to form the basis of a line of conduct towards 
 her Colonies upon such^simple principles, to stretch 
 out a friendly instead of- an armed hand, and to pledge 
 herself to substitute for a direct Sovereignty, which 
 will be henceforth impossible^, the dominion of princes 
 of the same family that fills her own throne, so as to 
 form between Spain and America a family compact 
 like that which, in the same manner, in Europe united 
 France and Spain. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIL 
 
 Of the Rights of Europe in the War between Spain 
 and America, 
 
 SPAIN and America are fighting: the mother and the 
 daughter are come to blows ; the one, to retain her an- 
 cientrights ; the other, tocause hers to be acknowledged : 
 nearly the same as children, when they come of age, 
 
THE COLONIES. S87 
 
 will sometimes bring their parents before the courts of 
 law, in order that they may be admitted to the enjoy- 
 ment of those rights which nature or the laws assign 
 to them. The quarrel is of a most singular nature. 
 
 On one side a state situated in Europe, and not oc- 
 cupying there a very large space, has the pretension to 
 wish to retain under its dominion a whole entire con- 
 tinent, of which it would only form a province : that 
 a part of one world should monopolize the whole of 
 another, is in itself a thing sufficiently singular to be re- 
 marked, and to make a figure in the pleadings of this 
 great suit. The right which was established at the period 
 of the discovery of the Colonies had also regulated 
 the right of property in these new lands : good order 
 called for it, in order to lay down some rule between 
 the people who flocked from every part of the world 
 to the newly discovered countries, and who awarded 
 every land to themselves which they had once touched. 
 Centuries have confirmed Spain in her possession ; 
 and for^^ long space of time America has known no 
 other laws than those of Spain, no other agents than 
 those whom Spain has sent, no legal supplies of com- 
 modities but those from Spain, no other vessels than 
 the Spanisjha^ and no warehouses to send her produce 
 to but those in Spain ; it was for Spain that America 
 worked her mines, and suffered wars, and that rise in 
 the price of all articles of trade which was a necessary 
 consequence of war and the want of industry in a 
 seller who had an exclusive monopoly ; in one word, 
 America being tied to Spain, like a child is to the 
 apron strings of its mother, and being considered as a 
 farm, the enjoyment of which would be endangered 
 by too much prosperity, has hitherto existed only for 
 Spain^ and in subjection to Spain. But time, that 
 
 2 c 
 
58d THE COLONIES. 
 
 heeds none of these personal calculalions, and that is 
 Stopped by nothing in its course, the necessary attri- 
 bute of which is to develop the buds that are contained 
 in the nature of things, has produced the same effect 
 there that it does every where else. America has been 
 confined under the wings or rather under the laws of 
 Spain ; but being strengthened by age, enlightened 
 by an intercourse with other nations, initiated into all 
 the secrets of science and art, and participating in the 
 new impulse which has been given to the universe, 
 she-is ambitious to make use of her own strength, and, 
 in one word, to exist for herself and by herself : thus 
 acts man when he arrives at years of maturity. The 
 most seducing examples are before her eyes, and the 
 prosperity of Pennsylvania shows what is to be gained 
 by a separation from the mother country, even from 
 one that was the least oppressive and troublesome to her 
 Colonies ; for such was England. America reproaches 
 Spain with always stifling every seed of prosperity that 
 nature had multiplied within her ; she accuses her of 
 having systematically rendered her barren, from fear 
 of the strength which prosperity would have given 
 her, a strength which could not be kept from her ; she 
 accuses her of being unable both to defend and to 
 provide for her ; she accuses her of having continued 
 an artificial scarcity in the midst of a natural abun- 
 dance ; of being equally unable to resist her enemies, 
 (and to supply her wants ; and of sending agents and 
 J governors without any knowledge from experience, and 
 I of recalling them as soon as they become acquainted 
 uwith the country: and, forming out of these grievances 
 an accusation against the mother country, and a justi- 
 fication of herself, she demands a voluntary emanci- 
 pation, or else threatens a divorce without her consent. 
 
THE COLONIES. S89 
 
 and which will be maintained against her. Thus 
 America thrusts off Spain as her tyrant and as the 
 contriver of all her sufferings, and breaks the yoke in 
 order to escape from the disasters that accompany it. 
 It is some time ago since commotions, the forerunners 
 of this great rupture, had announced that kind offer- 
 mentation which precedes almost every revolution, 
 like the roaring of the earth always precedes an earth- 
 quake, or an eruption of its hidden fire. America, in 
 a. body, has realised that which was attempted by a 
 few individuals, and is now fighting to have it acknow- 
 ledged. The contest rages over the whole of that vast 
 continent : no part is exempt from it. The inhabi- 
 tants are fighting and exterminating each other, from 
 the Straits of Magellan to California ; it is the greatest 
 civil war that mankind has yet had to weep for : Ame- 
 rica seems to have been destined to be laid waste from 
 century to century by the natives of Europe, ambitious 
 to rule over it ; and that which aggravates the evil is^ 
 that not only the Colony is fighting against the soldiers 
 of the mother country, but that the different parts of 
 its population are also exterminating each other, ac- 
 cording to the different degrees of colour and of attach* 
 ment or aversion to Spain : the cruel consequence of 
 the present which Spain made to that country, of 
 mingling her blood with that of the subjects of the 
 Incas and of the descendants of the Sun ! Thus is 
 blood streaming over the country, drawn by the fero- 
 cious hands of men, who, from the very commence- 
 ment of the war, have bid adieu to humanity, and 
 look upon the man they are fighting with in no other 
 light than as an object to exterminate ; for look at 
 the manner in which the Spaniards, on all sides and in 
 both hemispheres, consider and treat every one that is 
 
 2 c 2 
 
390 THE COLONIES. 
 
 opposed to them : so greatly does the savage nature of 
 the African enter into the Spanish character I A cruel- 
 ty, which every where else would be revolting, is their 
 ordinary means of reducing insurgents, and all must 
 perish who are not for them and with them.^ 
 
 Though the weight of the terrible war is supported 
 by the continent, yet the seas are also disturbed by it: 
 for swarms of pirates have issued from every port in 
 America, who have began their career upon the ocean 
 by blockading the ports of Spain, and by returning ta 
 her a part of the evil which she is doing to their 
 country. 
 
 It would be foolish to pretend to judge of what will 
 be the issue of this quarrel from the events that have 
 happened, or the parties that are engaged in it at this 
 present time; theymightas well have attempted to judge 
 of the issue of the reformation from the first battles 
 that were fought between Charles V and the Elector 
 of Saxony, or of what would be the end of the French 
 revolution from the campaign of Champagne and the 
 battle of Gemappe. It is very seldom that the first 
 actors in scenes of this nature are present at the last, 
 or receive the benefit of them ; or even that the scenes 
 
 * We have seen a terrible example of this in the treatment which 
 the refugees of Saint Domingo suffered from the inhabitants of the 
 Ilavannah and Porto Rico; Those unfortunate people had formed 
 settlements in these two islands, which, by their active industry, 
 added greatly to the prosperity of these Colonies. The revolution 
 in Spain breaks out ; the fury of the Spanish Americans is kindled 
 against these unhappy victims of the revolution in Saint Domingo r 
 they absolutely consider those peaceful planters as accomplices 
 of Napoleon, though 2,000 leagues distant from him and not under 
 his dominion. They attack them, kill part, and give the rest fifteen 
 days to leave the country ; they depart, and curse the land which 
 they had been rendering fertile. 
 
THE COLONIES. S91 
 
 themselves are not often changed before they become 
 definitively fixed. Men and particular events are not 
 to be considered in this vast question ; it is of little 
 importance whether the Spaniards or their enemies 
 obtain a small success in certain places, that, in com- 
 parison with America, are only what a single district 
 would be to France. Besides, these particular facts 
 are susceptible of a thousand extenuations and inter- 
 pretations, which give them an intrinsic consequence 
 entirely different from the appearance they present. 
 All that we know of America is reduced to this one 
 fact, which cannot be weakened by a contrariety of 
 reports, dictated by opposite interests ; and this is, that 
 America is so impregnated with the principles of in- 
 dependence, and so ready and resolved to maintain 
 them, that her ancient connexions with Spain are 
 changed, and that the contest occasioned by the ne- 
 cessary consequence of this change affects all the Eu- 
 ropean powers and the commercial system of the 
 whole world. It is to this general view that we must 
 confine ourselves, omitting the details which are not 
 even shadows upon this vast picture. The facts decide 
 the first part of this question; their number and 
 weight, and the extent whieh they embrace, leave 
 nothing to be wished for, and it is beyond all doubt, 
 that if America was at liberty to follow her own incli- 
 nation, from Mexico to Cape Horn^ she would burst 
 the Spanish bonds. But there, as elsewhere, the 
 ao*ents of government, armed with power, and sup- 
 ported by their partisans, especially by the clergy, 
 make every effort to stop a m vement which affects 
 their private interests : but, nevertheless, in some parts, 
 independence is already unanimously declared, as at 
 J3uenos Ayres, where it has taken all tlie forms of a 
 
552 THE COLONIES. 
 
 regular government. The first point in this question 
 is therefore no longer doubtful : America bears quite 
 another aspect with regard to Spain, and, whatever 
 shall happen, even if Spain shall prevail, this change 
 will still remain. For even supposing that Spain 
 should obtain the victory, it will never be more than 
 momentary : we may rely upon the very nature of 
 things for that, and we shall uot be deceived ; wc may 
 be certain that the events which are now passing among 
 the Colonists will be renewed again and again, until 
 the object of their present insurrection shall be accom- 
 / plished. What an immense difference there is between 
 America receiving the orders and the agents of Spain 
 with the greatest submission and homage, and Ame- 
 ^ rica with a congress, sitting in so many places, delibe- 
 . rating upon the expulsion of the Spaniards, and upon 
 i the mode of government to be adopted by themselves • 
 Is not this difference too great and too extensive not 
 to leave behind it the deepest traces ? What has been 
 tried onccj will be attempted again, and opposition will 
 again burst from its embers. We must also bear in 
 mind the facilities for obtaining independence, which 
 the inevitable increase of population will give to Ame- 
 rica ; this population must necessarily increase, and 
 it will leave that of the mother country far behind ; 
 and will not America then return to that vjrhioii she 
 attempted with fewer forces and less chance of success? 
 It is true she has taken advantage of the troubles of 
 Spain, to attempt this enterprise: but Spain will still 
 experience fresh troubles : and they will recall to 
 America the remembrance of the former steps she had 
 made towards independence, and will induce her to 
 make fresh ones. The motives she had for wishing 
 for it v/ill not have been changed ; on the contrary:^ 
 
THE COLONIES. S9S 
 
 Spain will give them new force by her ill usage and 
 by the rigour of her exclusive trade ; and these are 
 precisely the causes which have forced America to take 
 up arms. 
 
 On the other hand, America will be situated be- 
 tween the United States and Brazil, whose indepen- 
 dence, being attended with so much prosperity, will 
 be incessantly exciting her to meliorate her own condi- 
 tion ; which she will do by following their example. 
 Thus America has such a tendency towards indepen- 
 dence, which nothing henceforth will be able to divert, 
 that she will be incessantly renewing the contest with 
 her mother country, as well as ' the disorders and 
 troubles which result to Europe in general, from the 
 continuance of this conflict. 
 
 We must thoroughly understand and never lose 
 from our sight, that the question before us is relative 
 to a state of perpetual troubles to Europe as well as to 
 America. 
 
 When the cabinet of Versailles deliberated upon 
 what part they should take in the American war, it 
 was very evident that the secret and real motive of 
 their determination was not owned to the public, and 
 perhaps not to themselves. There was less question 
 of justice than of policy, and the opportunity of aveng- 
 ing the affronts which England had made them sub- 
 mit to by the peace of 1763, was the principal motive 
 of their decision. 
 
 Considering only the principles of right, France had 
 nothing to do with a quarrel, the consequences of 
 which would not affect her. It was the same vy^ith 
 Spain : she interfered in a quarrel that she had nothing 
 to do with, and by supporting the independence of 
 the northern part of America she paved the way for 
 
394 THE COLONIES. 
 
 the independence of the southern part, and afforded 
 an excuse to the inhabitants of the former for the as- 
 sistance they should giv^e to the latter ; an equitable re- 
 taliation, which she was not aware of at the time: to 
 such a distance do the consequences of injustice ex- 
 tend ! At this period the genius of Europe was wan* 
 dering from the right path, and from the time of the 
 division of Poland, policy subsisted by iniquity ; and 
 the system of Machiavel seemed to have become that 
 of the law of nations in this quarter of the globe. =^ 
 
 ♦ The rules of morality were never pretended to be observed very 
 faithfully in politics ; but they appear to have been disregarded with 
 less attention to appearances since the war of 1740. It is from that 
 time to the scenes in Poland tliat we may date that right of con- 
 venience which Europe seems to have submitted to for this last 
 centurjr. When Charles VI succeeded to the throne an opportu- 
 nity was offered for speculations upon the property of his neigh- 
 bours : the indisputable inheritance of Maria Louisa was divided 
 like a deserted estate. The " Works of Frederick the Great " will 
 show the confessions which he makes on this head. The care of 
 preserving a property wrongfully obtained, and the desire of re- 
 covering a lawful property^ which had been yielded onl}^ through 
 necessity, occasioned a perpetual hatred and ill-will between the 
 cabinets o^ Vienna and Berlin, which, by spreading to the conti- 
 guous courts, rendered the diplomatic politics a series of trick and 
 surprise, and Germany like two enemies' camps. Silesia has de- 
 prived the German diplomacy of all morality : we have seen the 
 King of Poland and Elector of Saxony invaded in his capital in a 
 time of perfect peace; we have seen the conqueror justify this 
 sudden blow by marching straight to the archives of Dresden, and 
 ^o the treaty concluded with Austria for the division of the state. 
 England commenced the war of 1756 by capturing the French fleet, 
 and embrued Canada with blood before hostilities had been de- 
 clared. Catherine mounted the throne ; Louis XV seized upon that 
 useless possession, Corsica, Oh ! the justice of Heaven ! his troops 
 entered that island just in time to see the birth of him who thirty 
 
 years afterwards The Emperor Joseph made himself 
 
 heir to the throne of Bavaria. A little time after this, CatherinQ 
 
 6 
 
THE COLONIES. 395 
 
 States are similar to private individuals ; their rights 
 and their duties are the same. Whenever any action 
 has no connection with a third person, and cannot af- 
 fect him, he has no right to take cognizance of it ; he 
 acquires a right of interfering in it only when proxi- 
 mity or communication threaten him with any detri- 
 ment. He then becomes a party interested in the 
 cause, but that only on his own account^ because it is 
 right that he should watch over every thing which can 
 injure him. So that, as the war between England and 
 America was a family quarrel, France and Spain in no 
 way had any right to take part in it : the degree of 
 ivelfare that the United States were to enjoy from their 
 connections with their mother country was neither 
 under their care nor jurisdiction. The interests of the 
 two first-mentioned countries had not the least neces- 
 
 and he gave notice to the peaceful Crescent to quit Europe ; for 
 what other name can we give to the conduct they pursued for ten 
 years against the quiet sultans, whom they attacked as was conve- 
 nient to themselves, only because they thought them asleep and in- 
 capable of rousing themselves ? This scandalous system was com- 
 pleted by the protracted sufferings of Poland. The correspondence 
 of Frederick and Prince Kaunitz can be consulted : they have the 
 appearance of two persons playing at chess, who are completely oc- 
 cupied with endeavouring to steal a move, and to cheat each other 
 of their pieces. See also the correspondence of the Count de Brog- 
 lie, and the double diplomacy established by Louis XV under the 
 direction of the Prince of Conti, which was managed by the Count 
 of Broglie, and followed by Favier and Dumouriez. See also what 
 is said by Burke in his ** Letters upon the French Revolution." 
 
 In politics and public morality, as is the case in the atmosphere, 
 corruption comes from above. 
 
 Numbers of people who are very well meaning, but very weak 
 in their intellects, pass the time in lamenting the depravity of the 
 age, and reproaching it with the wickedness into which they say it 
 is fallen ; simple fools ! who only see the effects, without ever going 
 ^ack to the causes ! 
 
396 THE COLONIES. 
 
 sary connection with those of the United States, noF 
 were they hable to be affected, in parts that were sen- 
 sible, or then estabhshed, by the issue of the contest 
 between the Colony and the mother country. It might 
 perhaps be advantageous to their political interests, that 
 England should be weakened by the separation of the 
 Colony ; but political expediency does not constitute 
 a right ; if this was the case, the world would float 
 without that certain rule, that sure guide, acknow- 
 ledged by all, and equally beneficial to all, I mean 
 justice. 
 
 But there is a great difference between that case and 
 the present situation of Spanish America : she is con- 
 nected with Europe, and Europe with her, by the most 
 necessary bonds, those of riches, the very soul of 
 modern societies. The general impulse which was 
 given to the commerce of the vTiiole world by the dis- 
 covery of the Colonies had the effect of causing a 
 stream of gold and silver to flow from the bowels of 
 America towards Europe, from whence it passes on, 
 and is lost or swallowed up in Asia, and never shows 
 itself again to the places whence it took its source, or 
 through which it passed. We must follow this move- 
 ment in the affairs of commerce, in order to form a 
 just idea of the connexion that Europe, and the rest of 
 the world have with Spanish America : it is America 
 that pays for every thing in the four quarters of the 
 globe. Every thing throughout the world depends 
 upon this periodical influx, as in some countries every 
 harvest depends upon the regular overflowing of their 
 rivers. The mines of Spanish America are to Europe 
 what the Nile is to Egypt. For three hundred years 
 Europe has thrived from these regular irrigations; she 
 has increased in prosperity from the harvests of the 
 
THE COLONIES. 397 
 
 gold and silver of America: her manufactories, agri- 
 culture, vessels^ and population, and that impulse 
 which has been given to commerce by the relations 
 formed between all the inhabited p&ixs of the world, 
 have been founded and built upon the productions of 
 America. It is an immense machine, depending upon 
 an infinite number of springs, and we cannot stop its 
 motion without striking at the root of a multitude of 
 existing interests. In this case a fact becomes a right, 
 and consequences become principles, as happens in 
 society, where things that are permitted by it, and even 
 sometimes those that are done without its permission, 
 become rights equivalent to natural rights : we here 
 go back to the first right, and the one which has pre- 
 cedence of all others, that of self-preseiTation. Spanish 
 America belongs to Spain : very true ; but the neces- 
 sary effects of Spanish America, and the consequences 
 which result from them, concern the whole world. 
 
 Spain is the conduit, the channel, and, if we might 
 use the expression, the aqueduct of the gold of Ame- 
 rica, to every part of Europe and of the world. There 
 is not one of its inhabitants, not one of its commercial 
 relations, not one of its revenues, either private or 
 public, which is not affected by every thing that passes 
 in America. The condition of every state and of every 
 individual was changed by the discovery of America, 
 and by the riches with which it inundated Europe : 
 we have continued in this state of things ; we have 
 calculated and established every thing upon the idea 
 of its continuing and spreading: it is impossible to 
 turn to another system, witliout every body being in- 
 jured, and therefore having a right to look to the 
 cause of the injijry. This arises from the nature of the 
 produce of America ; it is of a particular kind. When 
 
398 THE COLONIES. 
 
 Colonies contain no productions but those which wc 
 have at home, or can procure elsewhere, what right 
 have w*» to interfere in their affairs? It is for this 
 reason that t\ic French and Spanish governments were 
 blameable, when they took a part in the American 
 war. If the mother country had kept every thing to 
 itself^ and withdrawn every thing from them which 
 that Colony contained, their interests would not have 
 received any injury; but that is not the case with 
 Spanish America : no other country can supply that 
 species of productions, which are the soul of the tran- 
 sactions of the whole world : whatever affects them 
 falls under its jurisdiction, if not immediately, at least 
 mediately, on account of the injury which it receives, 
 and consequently has a very good right to prevent. If 
 Spain chose to forbid the w^orking of the mines, or the 
 exportation of their produce into Europe ; in one word, 
 if she chose to put America out of existence, so far as 
 regards Europe, and by thus sending it back to the 
 condition it was in at the time of the discovery of 
 America, to condemn it to retrograde three centuries, 
 and to give up a great part of its riches ; would not 
 Europe, in this case, being left dry, like the bed of a 
 river which had been dried up, or turned from its 
 course, have a right to sec to the re-establishment of 
 the periodical irrigation which had given her the means 
 of supporting her transactions both at home and 
 abroad ? Europe is situated between America, from 
 whence she receives, and Asia, where she sends to ; 
 she gains by the one, and loses by the other ; she })ays 
 the second by the first, and could not maintain her 
 transactions with the one without the profits which 
 she makes by the other : will she condemn herself to 
 be exhausted, or will she give up these transactions, 
 
THE COLONIES. 399 
 
 for want of receiving the indemnification upon which 
 she reckoned when she commenced them? Will she 
 condemn all her inhabitants, that multitude of men, 
 employed in every kind of industry, to change or to 
 lose their habitual mode of existence and support? 
 
 Thus there is an intimate connexion between the 
 condition of Europe and that of America : the latter 
 is joined to the former by a chain of gold, like that by 
 which the poets, in their brilliant fictions, have joined 
 the earth to the vaulted heavens, which, if it broke, 
 would precipitate the world. This question is much 
 more extensive than it appears to be at the first glance : 
 it does not only relate to Spain^ and her rights of sove- 
 reignty, but also to the interests of the whole world. 
 How can we think otherwise, when we turn our atten- 
 tion to that immense trade which Euroj^e carries on 
 with America, and America with Europe ? We must 
 reckon the sums by hundreds of millions, and the men 
 that are employed in it by millions. But, for some 
 time, the coiners in the mint of Mexico have been idle 
 and unemployed, for want of the metal which required 
 their activity. A base copper, unknown to those opulent 
 miners, has dared to make its appearance there, pre- 
 ceded by distress, and emboldened by the absence of gold 
 and silver. Mexico^ in astonishment, has seen a coin- 
 age of copper; a general stagnation; a universal drought 
 proclaims the evils of a war destructive to property, 
 and exterminating to mankind. Wherever the sceptre 
 of Spain has re-appeared, the system of exclusion fol- 
 lows in its train ; every European is expelled, pro- 
 scribed J his person is exposed to danger, his property 
 to rapacity and to plunder ; security and confidence 
 are at an end. England has already been obliged to 
 turn her thoughts to the adoption of measures, calcu- 
 
400 THE COLONIES. 
 
 lated for the preservation of her commerce, ostabHshed 
 on a large scale, in the agitated parts of America, whose 
 sufferings in this conflict are incompatible with the 
 steadiness and stability indispensable to commerce. 
 The existence of England depends on her commerce ; 
 her treasure and her population are supported by it: 
 the commercial branch there constitutes the public 
 voice, the guide and oracle of the government. This 
 latter openly acknowledges that the trade with South 
 America amounted annually to upwards of two hun- 
 dred millions of francs. 
 
 Thus does England necessarily become a party in 
 that country's quarrel, not from the principle, but from 
 the consequences belonging to it, by which she tinds 
 herself affected. If Spain conquers, England must 
 expect her commerce to be excluded. But how can 
 she consent to renounce so great a pecuniary advan- 
 tage, by which she must add to the distress already 
 experienced by several branches of her trade, and 
 increase the embarrassments which must follow, if this 
 means of repairing a part of her losses be withdrawn ? 
 The government, however disposed, would no longer 
 have the ability, with-held as it is by the public opi- 
 nion, that power by which it is protected or destroyed, 
 according as it is supported or abandoned by it. What 
 is here said of England applies equally to the other 
 states of Europe, and to the United States, who have 
 all had their share in the profitable trade of America, 
 and who will all be excluded from it, if that country 
 be again subjugated by Spain. It follows that Europe 
 is subject to the effects of the cohtest between Spain 
 and America, in which she is consequently a party, 
 not from the antecedents of the dispute, but from its 
 consequences, which, as they relate to her, involve the 
 
THE COLONIES, 401 
 
 most disastrous results. It is evidently not a conten- 
 tion, raised by her with a view to her personal interest, 
 which would be a most disgraceful and infamous mea- 
 sure, no power having the right to create a quarrel for 
 the purpose of ultimately interfering in it: it is a 
 contest already pending, and which, affecting the in- 
 terests of Europe, demands that she should watch over 
 its results. 
 
 Such is the relation established among the interests 
 of society, for the common welfare of all : they exist 
 in a state of affinity, which subjects them to the same 
 laws which regulate the actions and properties of men 
 living in communion with one another. 
 
 The convulsion of so considerable a country as 
 America ; the efforts she makes to secure to her cause 
 the assistance of Europe ; the embarrassing position 
 of this latter, divided between her interest, her secret 
 wishes, and the public line of conduct, which certain 
 considerations oblige her to pursue ; the disposition 
 which sends to America so great a number of aspiring 
 Europeans : all these causes of alarm, united, produce 
 in Europe a continental division, and destroy hei^ re- 
 pose. Her governments are employed in preventing 
 the emigration which the people are eager to make to 
 America. What French vessel dare leave Havre for 
 Buenos Ayres, where she would derive equal advan- 
 tages with English vessels ? The same holds good in 
 many other instances : it follows that the preservation 
 of the repose of Europe enjoins her to take part in the 
 troubles of America, in order to protect herself from 
 the injuries with which those troubles threaten her. 
 The systematic depopulation and devastation of Ame- 
 rica by Spain are also highly interesting to Europe, 
 who is the loser by all that America consumes or 
 
 (( CNIVEB.'"-' 
 
402 THE COLONlEa 
 
 aferds the less. Europe then recedes by every loss 
 which America suffers, and when she shall have ex- 
 hausted all her nien, already so thinly scattered within 
 her vast boundary, what will Europe have to give up 
 or to receive from her ? Does Europe with-hold her 
 interference, until she has witnessed the last moment 
 of the last American, and the destruction of the last 
 town of America ? To these considerations, founded, 
 if I may so express myself, on the material interests 
 of Europe, an enlightened forethought will add others, 
 drawn from a higher ground, and equally to be found 
 in the nature of things. 
 
 America is divided between two contending camps, 
 the royalists and the republicans. The independent 
 party has formed itself in Congress, which certainly 
 aims no more at the advancement of royalty in general 
 than that of Spain in particular. Republican ideas 
 become strengthened by the merely being opposed to 
 the royalists, and those ideas constitute the opinion of 
 a large part of the population of America : supposing 
 even that this latter be crushed in the struggle, her 
 fall would not extinguish those ideas in minds soured 
 by misfortune, and whose principal characteristic ia 
 tenacity. 
 
 On tHe contrary, if America conquer, as there is 
 every reason to believe she will, and as she herself 
 promises by the mere prolongation of the contest, we 
 behold her, with the exception of the Brazils, a re- 
 publican state, exposed to the view of Europe, whicli 
 is entirely royalist. What effects may not such a con- 
 templation produce, particularly when prosperity and 
 happiness appear to follow on the one side, and misery 
 to be the result of the other ? The Spaniards, by their 
 system of war and extermination, expose royalty to the 
 
THE COLONIES. 40.'^ 
 
 probability of being banished from the soil of America, 
 as the tyrants formerly caused its annihilation all 
 over Greece. The King of Brazil has been the pre- 
 server of royalty in his own territory, and if it main- 
 tains one point of support, it is to him that it will be 
 owing. Without him, Brazil must have followed 
 the torrent by which that country has been sur- 
 rounded. 
 
 The Catholic religion governs in America with the 
 same plenitude as in Spain : it admits no more modi- 
 fication in the one country than in the other. la 
 America, as every where else, the Clergy have shown . (j 
 
 themselves decidedly opposed to liberty. The mere ^^ * 
 name of liberty has the power of striking them with (^^ / 
 terror. The Clergy employ all their weight to support '^r*^*^ • 
 the empire of Spain, and that perhaps from a secret \^ -^^'^ 
 instinct, for which they themselves cannot account. 
 
 If Spain fall, may tiot the republican spirit, suspi- 
 cious of the supporters of Spain, (as it always happens 
 with regard to those who have espoused the opposite 
 interest), and irritated against Rome and her thunders, 
 be disposed to adopt measures dictated by forecast, 
 and recommended by the example offered in other 
 parts, against a persuasion whose ministers have been 
 so long mistrusted ? When we examine the perplexities 
 which the Catholic Clergy never fail to introduce into 
 civil affairs ; when we see Ireland, for ages, disunited 
 from England through the ministers of ttie worship 
 preponderating in that country; when we contemplate 
 the intrigues with which the Belgian Clergy have 
 begun with regard to the government, and saluted 
 the infant throne of the Netherlands, we may well 
 be allowed to anticipate that America will adopt 
 powerful measures to protect herself from similar in- 
 
 2D 
 
404 THE COLONIES. 
 
 conveniences. Those who have sacrificed so much to 
 shake off the yoke of Spain may well be expected to 
 deliver themselves from the power of Rome. When, 
 the republics of Mexico, of Paraguay, shall have to 
 receive from such a distance the ministers of their 
 religion ; when the preservation and interests of that 
 religion are to be discussed at such a distance^ the 
 duration of an establishment, containing in itself so 
 many difficulties, becomes extremely precarious. 
 
 Considerations which involve such interests as the 
 future existence of Catholicism and royalty in a whole 
 world, ought surely to weigh as heavy in the councils 
 of Europe as ingots of gold and silver. No less is at 
 stake than the two mqst important relations which 
 exist among men, and whose influence on existing 
 society is such as to subject it to all the changes they 
 themselves may undergo. 
 
 These important considerations would have con- 
 cluded this article, but the cause of humanity de- 
 mands that the pen should not drop here ; her voice 
 is heard supplicating the aid of all who possess the 
 feelings of human nature, in the annihilation of the 
 execrable practices which have passed from Europe 
 into America, and which, under specious and revered 
 names, cover it with crimes. In that unhappy coun- 
 try, man is no longer to be recognised, nothing is to 
 be found but enemies employed in mutual slaughter; 
 all is attacked by the sword, or consumed by the 
 flames ; the Spanish soldier, irritated to revenge, has 
 made the abominable law of extermination the only 
 code of that country ! How much longer will cold 
 contemplation dwell on acts of savage inhumanity 
 which strip the human character of its noblest attri- 
 butes, and degrade man to the level oif the most fero- 
 
THE COLONIES. 405 
 
 dous animal ? Acts which form so revolting a contrast^ 
 to the general urbanity of the manners of Europe, and 
 particularly to those of the northern part of that 
 country ! Will the New World always continue to be 
 devastated in the view of the Old ; and, after so much 
 having been done for Africa against Europe, and for 
 Europe against Africa, will nothing be done for Ame- 
 rica t A king of Syracuse imposed on vanquished 
 Carthage no tribute but the abolition of human sacri- 
 fices. The Catholic religion had banished the sangui- 
 nary altars of Mexico ; Spain has again erected those 
 detestable altars, and hosts of inhuman sacrificers raise 
 in her name, and in honour of her abhorred power, a 
 hecatomb of bleeding America. Will Europe always 
 be fatal to the unfortunate inhabitants of those re^ 
 gions, and will she never cease to require from them 
 their treasure with their blood and their blood with 
 their treasure ? Formerly the senate of Rome listened 
 with gratitude to an uncivilised inhabitant of the 
 Danube, and rewarded his frankness by remitting his 
 penalty. On that occasion, how nobly was Rome re-» 
 presented by her senate! How great would Europe be,- 
 were she, in the name of humanity, to interpose her 
 august arbitration to stem the tide of woe which over- 
 whelms suffering America ! placing herself between 
 the combatants, she would cause them to suspend their 
 active animosity. Then would America and Spain 
 present themselves before this Areopagus, these exalted 
 plenipotentiaries ; exalted indeed, for they would be 
 those of humanity herself! What sensations would 
 not the first excite, and what reply could be offered by 
 the second, when America, displaying her wounds, and 
 shewing her opened veins drained of almost the last 
 
 ^D2 
 
406 THE COLONIES. 
 
 drop of blood, should say, '^ Cruel Spain \ did Heaven 
 form me only for your use ? happy and tranquil during 
 the ages which preceded the hour v/hen the hand of 
 your Columbus drew aside the veil, which from the 
 formation of the globe had concealed me from your 
 view, it was by the blood and the tears shed at your 
 first approach that I learned to know you. Scarcely 
 were you landed on my shores, when your soldiers 
 showered on my children unknown fires which de- 
 stroyed them ; your coursers rushed on them and 
 trampled them under foot. You destroyed my thrones 
 and those ancient altars, raised by my gratitude to that 
 star whose rays fertilise my soil, give the brightest 
 colours to my flowers and my fruits, to the inhabitants of 
 my forests and my vast plains, and ripen the juices of 
 i^iy herbs. The sap of my plants give you health, 
 the entrails of my mountains afford you riches, and 
 death, death alone, has been to me the minister of your 
 gratitude. 
 
 *^ Since the moment when the last of my Incas was 
 laid upon the pile, since you have transported into 
 another hemisphere the race which occupied my Mex- 
 ican throne, have you ever ceased accumulating on my 
 head outrage and ruin ? You are received on my ter- 
 ritory and you already declare me a slave ; and, to give 
 you the right to subject me, you place all my children 
 far from you, in the last rank of human beings. The 
 interposition of Rome was necessary to make you re- 
 cognise them even as human beings ; on that occasion 
 your obedience to her laws was without reproach ; 
 then did you confide to chains and to the sword the 
 charge of filling up the distance you had placed be- 
 tween them and you. Without doubt, beings so JQ- 
 
THE COLONIES. 407 
 
 ferior to yourselves were fit only to be exterrhinated, 
 and my children have disappeared from the face of the 
 earth. 
 
 *' Then, at least, you were not parricides ; but now, 
 is it not your ov»^n blood that you shed ? Who are we, 
 and who are you ? Have the adopted children of Ame- 
 rica lost in your eyes the character of their origin ? Do 
 you not see in them your own brothers ? Less inex- 
 cusable in your first cruelties, your blows fell on a 
 foreign race ; but now it is against your other selves 
 that you are armed. Strange and different worships 
 no longer divide us ; my voice speaks the sonorous 
 and solemn accents of the language which you have 
 spread over the vast extent which I occupy. A mother 
 makes every thing tend to the happiness of her chil- 
 dren, an enlightened master aims at the improvement 
 of his estate ; in what part of your conduct towards 
 me can I recognise these sentiments and this policy ? 
 Confute me if you can ; what have you done for me 
 and what have I not done for you ? You reign, and 
 this empire, as soon as you obtain it, begins by al- 
 larming you. The extent of my territory, when com- 
 pared with your narrow boundaries, raises apprehen- 
 sions in your bosom. My riches shame your misery^ 
 my fruitfulness is a reproach to your sterility ; the 
 population which my means invite is a disgrace to 
 your uninhabited cities and your deserted fields. You 
 think it necessary then to repress these principles of 
 strength and happiness, to check this exuberant 
 growth, and to allow my trees to produce only 
 such fruits as you can cultivate. Thus does the 
 Dutchman, the hoe in hand, traverse the fruitful 
 Moluccas, to extirpate the forbidden shoots, which 
 from their number would produce an illicit abundance 
 
408 THE COLONIES. 
 
 and lower the value of the produce to which he ha$ 
 limited those isles. In the same manner do you for- 
 bid nature to be fruitful with me. You have forbid- 
 den the olive to pour her oil into my hands, the 
 mulberry-tree to nourish the insect whose industry pro- 
 vided my clothing; the vine to carpet my hills and 
 to allay my thirst. For Spain to be cultivated, Ame- 
 rica must be sterile ; to enrich your merchants, 
 America must be deprived of her cultivators. All 
 that is permitted to me, is to produce gold for your use; 
 all other communication with other parts of the world 
 is forbidden me ; and if I am discovered to all the rest 
 of the universe, the rest of the universe is still undis- 
 covered to me. In vain do the useful or the ornamen- 
 tal products of its industry appear at my ports ; 
 nothing can induce you to open them but the want of 
 skill or dearness of your own manufactures. My rivers 
 and my ports are capable of containing all the vessels 
 of the world, but your iron laws impose on them a 
 solitude which is interrupted only at remote distances 
 by the trifling missions which intrigue and the avarice 
 of your treasury allow. 
 
 " By whom do you cause me to be governed ? By 
 strangers. By whom will they be succeeded ? By 
 other strangers. Happy if this reproach be the only 
 one which their career gives me the right of applying 
 to them, and if they do not consider their situation as 
 the means of arriving rapidly and easily at fortune.''^ 
 
 * It is plain that this can only be spoken in a general sense, and 
 that the reproach applies only to the subaltern agents. Disin- 
 terestedness forms one of the principal traits in the Spanish charac- 
 ter, especially in the higher ranks : and great places and employ- 
 ments were very often with them rather the means of diminishing 
 than of increasing their fortune. 
 6 
 
THE COLONIES. ^ 409 
 
 Behold what I suffer from your dominion : add to this 
 your wars, in which I am not interested, which cause 
 my ports to be blockaded, my coasts to be ravaged, 
 and my vast circumference to be changed into the bar- 
 rier of a prison. Must I, at Mexico or Lima, be the 
 victim of the intrigues or quarrels in which you are 
 involved in Europe ? At this very moment those evils 
 are at their height. For a long time, as far as I am 
 concerned, you have had no existence. This separa- 
 tion has been produced by events, none of which can 
 be laid to my charge : this has been the cause of my 
 forming other connexions, and making other calcula- 
 tions ; they are established ; and I enjoy a new exis- 
 tence. Must I then abjure this, on your account, for 
 those evils which then could not fail to overwhelm me? 
 Permit me to follow in peace that course which my 
 own age and the new movement of the universe points 
 out : since I was dragged into that which gave me to 
 you, how can I resist that which takes me out of your 
 hands ? You deceive yourself, you think that it is I 
 who have broken your bonds, while it is nature and 
 the whole world that have done it. I in my turn am 
 entering the world : you had kept me shut out of it, 
 and I wish that no longer to be the case. Answer, is 
 it your king alone that reigns over me ? No, every 
 Spaniard, every manufacturer, and every merchant in 
 Spain considers me as his subject and his slave. These 
 are too many burthens to be borne at once ; I shake 
 them off: then follows extermination, and conflagra- 
 
 America has seen, and with gratitude, a great number of its 
 viceroys entirely engaged upon its interests and in the exercise of 
 public virtues. The memory of some of them will live with honour 
 in its history, and America will long pay homage to the names of 
 Galvez, of Decroix, of Revislagigedo, and of Azanza, 
 
410 THE COLONIES. 
 
 tions. Every place is smoking with blood and with 
 ashes, and the Hon of Castille, rivalling those of my 
 forests in ferocity, is preparing to rule, like them, over 
 nothing but deserts. 
 
 ^' What are the ideas which you conceive of the 
 right of sovereignty ? 'When Heaven created man, was 
 its intention only to make a subject ? Is his neck des- 
 tined to the yoke, of whatever form or weight it may 
 be ? And, finally, are not the oppressors the persons 
 who have made the rebels? You think then, that every 
 resistance calls for extermination ; and that, in order 
 to follow the course of nature, you must fail in all its 
 duties ; that the act of reflecting and comparing ought 
 to be followed by death ? Do not children, in Spain 
 even, separate from their parents when they come of 
 age ; and have you not ever seen them become parents 
 in their turn ? And well ! this is what I ask for ; the 
 time is come ; every thing within myself reminds me 
 of my maturity; every thing without is becoming en- 
 lightened, is in motion, and is increasing : shall I alone 
 remain in that confinement and darkness in which you 
 wish to retain me ? What are your means of doing it ? 
 Where are your treasures ? They are in the bowels of 
 my mountains. Where are your vessels ? They are in 
 my forests. Where are your taxes to come from ? 
 From my harvests that you are burning, from my 
 fields that you are laying waste. Where are your 
 soldiers ? Miserable people ! they are led on by you 
 to the extermination of their brothers. And will you 
 rely upon their support, when they shall have seen the 
 gold with which I can dazzle their eyes, instead of the 
 pitiful pay which you give them ; when they shall have 
 tasted the fruits which I can offer them, instead of a 
 subsistence ^measured out by avaricC;, and diminished 
 
THE COLONIES. 411 
 
 by fraudulent avidity ; and when they shall have con- 
 templated the wives to whom I can unite them, in- 
 stead of that melancholy celibacy in which you ex- 
 tinguish their youth and their race ? Think of those 
 barbarians who would never quit the road to Greece, 
 when they had once tasted its fruits, when they had once 
 caught a glimpse of the beauties, the offspring of those 
 who had served for models to the chisel and to the brush 
 of artists who have themselves been the models of 
 the whole world. And well ! suppose that these sol- 
 diers, with whom you threaten me, do remain faithful 
 to you ; sent for my destruction, they will only reach 
 their own graves. Do you think that their aspect will 
 intimidate me ? We are no longer in the times of Cortez 
 and Pizarro ; my children spring from the same origin 
 as yours ; your horses and your arms will no longer 
 astonish them : for a long time the inhabitants of 
 these countries thought you were immortal ; they have 
 learned that you are able to die. Believe me, and the 
 advice of an enemy may sometimes be salutary : ab- 
 jure an empire which has arrived at the end marked 
 out for it by nature ; to you it is unprofitable, to me it 
 is oppressive. Learn that, from henceforth, a nation 
 has no longer any need of being master over another, 
 but only of trading with it ; rely upon my prosperity as 
 an indemnification for the loss which you are afraid of: 
 that prosperity will become yours. Oh ! that you had 
 commenced by doing so! Nothing will any longer 
 disturb our common happiness ; it will cost you 
 nothing, and you will participate in harvests, which 
 you shall not have been at the trouble of sowing. You 
 will receive these new riches without trouble, without 
 expense, and without stain ; they will better accord 
 with your love of ease and your natural generosity. 
 
 5 
 
412 THE COLONIES. 
 
 If the contrary was the case, you would consummate 
 in your own bosom the depopulation and ruin which 
 I have already once been accused with having been the 
 cause of. Pursue that enlightened course which w^ill 
 lead us both to happiness ; let us put an end to this 
 murderous contest which is spilling that blood which 
 ought to call forth the most tender feelings; let us 
 substitute the peaceable and useful contests of indus- 
 try, of labour, and of commerce ; let us try which 
 shall have the superiority, the youth of America, or 
 the maturity of Spain : do you work your fields, I 
 will work my mines, and draw from them the gold 
 which shall pay for your harvests ; recall the industry 
 which has been banished from your manufactories ; I 
 am waiting for their productions upon heaps of riches. 
 I possess every thing which you want, but it is not by 
 the sword that you will be able to obtain it ; know 
 that nature has awarded it to industry and to labour : 
 this is the new law of the universe, and it will not be 
 broken through in favour of you. I only request that 
 it should be applied to the diiferences which arm n« 
 against each other; but if representations founded 
 upon justice, upon reason, and upon fraternal feelings, 
 cannot soften your heart ; if it remains closed against 
 the voice of my grief; if nothing can satisfy you but 
 a renewal of the yoke ; if foresight does not convince 
 you of the danger of my resentment if America should 
 one day refuse that to Spain, which Spain now re* 
 fuses to America ; and if you appeal for every thing 
 to the sword, and will use no other organ than the 
 sword; then, since you reduce me to it, and, whatever 
 it may cost me, I must also answer you with the sword, 
 and on the sword shall be written mv ultimatum'^ 
 
THE COLONIES. 413 
 
 CHAP. XXHI. 
 
 Injluence of the 'State of the Colonies upon the Navies 
 of Europe, 
 
 X HE sea is the element which is common to every 
 nation, the road which lies open for that intercourse 
 which is necessary for all. Vessels of war, the pro- 
 tectors of vessels of trade, are the means by which 
 this intercourse is preserved. The sea cannot, any 
 more than the continent, be under an universal and 
 exclusive dominion. From hence arise alliances be- 
 tween maritime powers to defend the liberty of the 
 seas, in the same manner as continental alliances for 
 the liberty of the continent. The same necessity must 
 always dictate the same measures. During the reign 
 of Louis XIV, the time of the creation of the European 
 navies, four countries possessed great navies, Eng- 
 land, France, Spain, and Holland. We have seen 
 them alternately fighting with each other, and as is 
 generally the case in the commencement of any esta- 
 blishment, with a success sufficiently equal to keep up 
 some equilibrium, and consequently some liberty. 
 Holland was not afraid to enter the lists with England 
 and France united. De Witt, Van Tromp, and 
 Ruyters, braved the English admirals, and pursued 
 them even in the Thames. The policy of King 
 William united, for a long while, the two rival flags. 
 He joined Spain to the association, so that France had 
 
41i THE COLONIES. 
 
 to fight, at once, with three naval powers, and was si- 
 tuated in the midst of them. Tourville and Duquesne, 
 Ff)urbin, Jean Bart, and, in latter times, Duguay 
 TroLiin, gave a lustre to the French navy, and sus- 
 tained it in its decline, which was brought on by the 
 battle of La Hogue, and by the war about the Spanish 
 succession. From that period the maritime power of 
 Europe was divided into two parts, England on one 
 side, and France and Spain on the other. In the two 
 wars of 1740 and of 1756, the French navy, notwith- 
 standing the co-operation of the Spaniards, was not 
 able to defend the colonial possessions of France. In 
 the American war, the two navies, although re-inforced 
 by the Dutch, v/hom a wise policy had succeeded in 
 diverting from their ancient subjection to England, 
 were scarcely able to counterbalance the English 
 navy. They were not able to wash off the affront of 
 the twelfth of April, nor to close the Straits of Gi- 
 braltar, nor even to touch the English soil. They 
 reckoned themselves fortunate in having preserved that 
 kind of honour in arms, which consists in not having 
 lost everything, in having come off upon equal terms 
 in some single engagements, and in being able to con- 
 gratulate themselves upon the freedom of America, 
 which would have taken place equally as well without 
 their interference. It is from this period that nations 
 may be said to have learned the value of the sea; be- 
 fore this time it was only known to a few, such as 
 England and Flolland ; now it is appreciated by all. 
 But v*hat a change have affairs undergone since that 
 time ! The revolution has given up the ocean to Eng- 
 land, and, with it, all the Colonies and all the navies of 
 Europe. By its position in the centre of the European 
 ocean, England stops all communication between the 
 
THE COLONIES. 415 
 
 North: and South. Where can they have any inter- 
 course ? Every thing that would pass through the 
 Sound would be stopped at Heligoland and at Fera: 
 it would have to pass under that long battery, which 
 extends from Yarmouth to Plymouth : the Channel is 
 a sea enclosed by the English ports, and is completely 
 an English roadsted, through which the squadrons of 
 France and Holland would not dare to pass. At the. 
 first signal, Brest, Cadiz, and Toulon would be 
 blockaded. Gibraltar commands the entrance to the 
 Mediterranean, Malta occupies the centre of it, and 
 Corfu rules the Adriatic : where can we unite, or 
 through where can we pass ? When the fleets of France 
 and Spain after the most laborious efforts and skilful 
 combinations, have been at length able to form a junc- 
 tion, what have they done, except changed their pri- 
 son, and lessened the trouble of their enemy, who is 
 able to blockade one port with greater facility than 
 two ? If they venture to put out to sea, the consequence 
 is, that they meet with partial or complete overthrows, 
 such battles as those of Trafalgar or of Ferrol. It is 
 just the same in every other part of the world : England 
 has possessed herself of situations which deprive other 
 nations of any hope of success. So that a coalition 
 between all the maritime powers of Europe against 
 England is a creature of the imagination. Some of 
 the parties to this coalition are too much exposed, both 
 in their commerce and in their Colonics, not to prefer 
 their present sufferings to any aggravation of them, 
 which would be the inevitable consequence of a rupture 
 with England. She has just left them Colonies and 
 commerce enough to form a bond composed of fear 
 and of an attention to that conduct which she is always 
 dictating. An everlasting statu quo is the only calcu- 
 
4.16 THE COLONIES. 
 
 lation of those powers ; provided that lasts they are 
 satisfied. Spain, slow in Iier preparations, and tardy 
 in her steps, will always be an embarrassment rather 
 than an assistance. It is with the greatest difficulty 
 that she keeps up with her allies. There is but one* 
 power independent of England, and that is Russia ; 
 and England is obliged to keep upon good terms with 
 her for the sake of her trade. But the power of 
 •Russia eittends no further. Let her rule and domi- 
 neer over the Baltic : but how can she get out of it ? 
 The pass does not belong to her : and where does she 
 possess arsenals or harbours upon the ocean ?^ Russia 
 can have fleets only upon two seas, which she is not 
 able to go beyond, being stopped on the south by 
 the Dardanelles, and on the north by the Sound. 
 
 At the Cape of Good Hope, at Ceylon, at Trinidad, 
 at Barbados, and at Hahfax, the English are in the 
 same position with regard to the Colonies as they are 
 at Heligoland, at Gibraltar, and at Malta, with regard 
 to Europe. Every thing is in subjection to them there, as 
 it is here. While things are in this state, all the naval 
 forceof Europe is a useless expense — a subject of triumph 
 prepared for England, and, since we must speak out — 
 
 * We may say, even in the Mediterranean, Russia does not pos- 
 sess a single liarbour in that sea, and we may rely upon the jealousy 
 of the English for hindering her from acquiring one. 
 
 The Russian vessels in entering the Mediterranean, first strike 
 upon Malta, further on upon Corfu, and then upon Gibraltar; where 
 can they go to? 
 
 Let us recollect what happened to the Russian fleet under admiral 
 Siniavin, which was found at Lisbon, in 1808, and sequestered and 
 conducted to England. It was neither able to return to Russia by 
 the ocean, nor to re-enter the Black Sea by the Mediterranean. 
 Never was a fleet more embarrassed, or more completely cut off 
 from its own country. 
 
THE COLONIES. 417 
 
 a complete absurdity. In fact, what other name can 
 we give to an expense which is of no utihty, either 
 in attack or defence ; and which, in plain truth, is of 
 no advantage but to the enemy ? For this is the only 
 end all the navies of Europe now tend to. Europe 
 must not look at home for the means of obtaining ma- 
 ritime freedom, she cannot rest the lever firmly here, 
 which will raise the burthen that is crushing her : it 
 must be rested upon America. From henceforth her 
 liberation must originate there. We have just had a 
 proof of this in the war which the United States have 
 been waging against England : they have tormented 
 England more than all the navies of Europe united to- 
 gether have done. The reason of this is very simple ; 
 it is the distance of America. England at such a dis- 
 tance from the seat of empire, lost part of the advan- 
 tages which render her so formidable in Europe; con- 
 sequently the greater number of states that are in 
 America similar to the United States, the greater num- 
 ber of allies will there be for Europe : for all these 
 states being, like the United States, in their very na- 
 ture maritime, and possessing an infinite number of 
 ports and rivers inviting navigation and commerce, 
 will have the greatest interest in the liberty of the seas ; 
 and in forming an alliance between the weaker mari- 
 time powers against the stronger, who are the natural 
 oppressors of the former ; consequently every stan- 
 dard of liberty planted in America will cover the 
 seas of Europe with a tutelary shade. Let us suppose 
 some free states in America, like those of Brazil, the 
 United States, and Mexico ; and on the other side of 
 that Continent, Peru and Chili, to be in that state of 
 freedom which they must arrive at sooner or later. Is 
 
41 s THE COLONIES. 
 
 it not plain tliat in them are raised up as many rivals 
 to England, as many fleets, and as many arsenals as 
 there are in the United States^ and all of them at the 
 service of Europe against the common enemy, 
 the mistress of, the sea, whatever name she bears ? 
 For, by being mistress, she is an enemy to all who 
 are weaker than herself, and all are equally enemies to 
 her. Is it not plain, that a general contest for the in- 
 dependence of the sea will arise with the means of 
 supporting it, a contest which, in this case, could not 
 fail of having its effect, favoured as it would be by the 
 position of the nations who would take part in it, while 
 it is impossible that Europe alone should institute such 
 a contest, on account of its position and its proximity 
 to England? She is an enemy whom we cannot atfront 
 till we have drawn her far from home, and forced her 
 to divide her strength. When England shall have to 
 blockade at once both the whole of Europe and the 
 whole of America, that blockade, instead of being an 
 iron chain which it is impossible to break, as has been 
 the case for these last twenty years, will be only a 
 cobweb which can be pierced at pleasure. When her 
 vessels shall have to guard stations at the distance from 
 England of many thousand leagues, and without se- 
 cure harbours ; and when her commerce, banished 
 from the two continents, and pursued by swarms of 
 cruisers, shall stretch its suppliant and afflicted arms 
 towards the mother country for peace; then will a 
 maritime independence be established for Europe, 
 which it is not able to obtain by its own means. We 
 say, without hesitation, that without the independence 
 of the Colonies, Europe has nothing better to do than 
 to burn all its vessels; for there is not a single one 
 
THE COLONIES. 419 
 
 which is not destined to be led in triumph to London,* 
 a week after it shall have dared to put to sea : with- 
 out the independence of the Colonies, all the ships of 
 war in Europe will either be taken, or will rot in port: 
 such is the decree of fate of which England is the mi- 
 nister. 
 
 The chief error in the policy of Napoleon was this; 
 he wished to render the seas free by means of Europe, 
 while it was only by means of America that it could 
 be done : he turned his back upon the object he aimed 
 at when he went to seek for it in Russia, where it cer- 
 tainly was never to be found. Such is still the error 
 of Spain : she does not perceive that by labouring to 
 re-establish the dependence of America, she is only 
 confirming her own dependence upon England, who 
 will thus be enabled to turn all the force against her, 
 which would otherwise be required against America. 
 
 France is not acting more wisely, by not endeavour- 
 ing to render the future less servile than the state 
 which she has fallen into. 
 
 A proposition so novel as that which has just been 
 
 ♦ During the nineteen years of war between France and England, 
 fcoxfi 1793 to 1814, and which were interrupted only by the, two 
 years of truce, called the peace of Amiens, England took or de- 
 stroyed, from the different navies which she had to engage with. 
 
 Ships of the line .. ;l^/dL;h. I'C',. 97 
 
 Frigates and other smaller vessels, more than 200 
 
 The fleet which carried the army to Egypt was entirely de- 
 stroyed; two ships escaped from the battle, but were taken in single 
 engagements: never was any overthrow more complete. 
 
 The vessels which escaped from Trafalgar experienced the same 
 fate on the coasts of France. 
 
 May these deplorable examples serve as lessons to us, and be of 
 some use in the calculations on which we form our plans. 
 
 2 E 
 
42a THE COLONIES. 
 
 stated, cannot fail to excite much outcry : the thing i* 
 e£isy to be foreseen, and easier to be explained, owing 
 to the interests which it affects. But what is outcry 
 against truth? It is precisely because this truth is new 
 that it is necessary to make it known. We will, there- 
 fore, pursue our course, and apply these principles to 
 France. We ask of what use is her navy in the pre- 
 sent state of things. There are two objects in a navy, 
 commerce and policy; that is, riches and power. We 
 protect our trade with ships of war; with them we 
 also engage, drive away, or humble our enemy. The 
 business, therefore, is to judge of the interest which 
 France has in keeping up a naval force, and to examine 
 how far this force accomplishes its double purpose. 
 
 First, Thenaval force of France is not able to protect 
 her trade; for, to do that, in the first place, she must 
 have some ; and hers is so small, that it would not pay for 
 the expense of its protection. Besides, in time of 
 peace, merchant vessels can sail by themselves ; it is 
 only in time of war that they require a convoy: but in 
 time of war where are they to go to, either alone or pro- 
 tected ? Alone, not a single vessel can escape the ene- 
 mies' cruisers or privateers; if in fleets, there must be 
 a great number of vessels collected together, having a 
 fixed destination, and under the protection of large 
 convoys. But the fleets of France have no longer those 
 places of destination which they formerly had ; St. 
 Domingo was the chief one, and St. Domingo no 
 longer belongs to her. Shall France maintain a great 
 naval force for convoys to Martinico and Guadeloupe^ 
 for she has nothing else remaining. The receipts 
 would not cover the expense ; but, moreover, as the 
 collecting the vessels together, the point from which 
 they depart, their route, their force, and their escort, 
 are known long before hand, these convoys are always 
 
THE COLONIES. 421 
 
 an object of speculation to the enemy. Even when 
 the naval force of England was much inferior to what 
 it is at present, the annals of the French navy can 
 hardly reckon up one of those great convoys which 
 was not attacked and damaged ; but what would not 
 the case be now, when the English navy, in addition to 
 the superiority of maritime positions, possesses such an 
 advantage in point of number? Can the French con- 
 voys go to the Levant? To do this they must pass 
 in front of Gibraltar and Malta. In the north, they 
 must pass under the cannon of England, and before 
 Heligoland. In the east, how can they pass in safety 
 round the Cape of Good Hope and Ceylon ? The road 
 is closed against them in every part, and in future 
 they will every where encounter barriers and dangers. 
 France is in the same condition as every other inferior 
 maritime power. In time of war her flag is struck, 
 and she carries on no trade but under neutral colours ; 
 she loses the freight, but saves the insurance, and pre- 
 serves the cargo : neutral powers are the safeguard of 
 modern commerce, and the increase of their number 
 is to be wished for. Consequently the naval force of 
 France during war is of no use to trade, and during 
 peace it is superfluous : so that it is of no use either in 
 peace or in war. At what period, therefore, are its 
 services necessary ? 
 
 Secondly. The navy does not defend the coasts of 
 France; for they are defended by their battalions. 
 The French navy is not able to enter the lists with the 
 English navy. This truth, however afflicting it may 
 be, cannot be disguised. In courage and in talent we 
 admit that the naval oflScers of France are equal to the . 
 English; so that we are not making a comparison 
 between individuals, but are only considering that im- 
 
4f2 THE COLONIES. 
 
 mense preponderance of power that England possesses 
 in a degree beyond all comparison with any other ex* 
 isting nation. The difference is not to be found 
 between man and man, but between state and state. 
 Since, therefore, things are in a situation which can 
 neither be broken nor contested, all naval preparations 
 on the part of France are useless to her commerce, of 
 no avail in the defence of the land, and fatal to her 
 glory, by offering a weak side that an enemy can take 
 advantage of. When France shall no longer launch 
 her squadrons upon the seas, England will be deprived 
 of the principal subject of her triumphs. By giving 
 up her own navy she will, in some measure, render 
 void that of England ; for what use will it be of when 
 it has nothing to fight with ? The English vessels will 
 not come to conquer the provinces of France ; and if 
 they do, they will succeed as well after the French 
 ships shall have been beaten, sunk, or taken into 
 Portsmouth, as they would have done without their 
 useless opposition. France listens to the advice of a 
 very false policy in creating weak sides, when she 
 might have none but strong ones. Why should she 
 ^o to be beaten upon the ocean, when she is almost 
 always sure of beating upon the continent? Unfor« 
 tunately, this is what France has been always doing. 
 We have seen her constantly counterbalancing her 
 continental conquests by her naval losses, and always 
 finding herself at the end of a war in the same condi- 
 tion she was in at the commencement of it, without 
 reckoning the expenses that it has cost her ; so that it 
 would have been much better never to have begun. 
 >yil)id the French fleets, in the war of 1756, hinder the 
 English from attacking the island of Aix, from taking 
 Belle Isle, and from making a descent upon Bre- 
 
THE COLONIES. 423 
 
 tagne ? Was it the French fleet or the French army 
 which humbled them at Saint-Cast ? 
 
 France had much better, therefore, keep the money 
 which these useless fleets cost her^ and spend it in 
 batteries and troops, which forbid all approach to her 
 territory, or at least make those pay dearly who at- 
 tempt it. 
 
 All that is necessary in this case is to state the re- 
 ceipts and the expense of the French navy. 
 , Before the revolution, it cost about forty millions of 
 livres a year ; at present, about fifty. 
 
 In time of war it could not costless than double that 
 sum ; in the American war the annual expense of the 
 navy was more than 150,000,000 livres. The fa- 
 mous deficiency partly originated from that cause. 
 
 In the war which followed the peace of Amiens, and 
 which lasted twelve years, the annual expense exceeded 
 300,000,000 of livres, comprising in that the expe- 
 dition which was prepared at Boulogne. i^ 
 
 From the year 1688, the commencement of the na- 
 val wars between France and England, 126 years 
 have passed, 57 of which have been spent in war. 
 Reckoning the average expense at 70,000,000 livres 
 a year, which is not too much, if we include therein, 
 as we must do, the building of ports and dock-yards, 
 and when we remember that Colbert called Rochefort 
 his city of silver, alluding to what it had cost ; and 
 when we add to that Cherbourg, and a thousand other 
 fortified places, we shall not find this calculation to be 
 too high ; we have a total of 8,820,000,000 livres : we 
 look for what it has produced. According to this cal- 
 culation, which is rather too low than too much 
 exaggerated, France ought to reckon 100,000,000 
 livres as the annual expense of its navy, balancing the 
 
 5 
 
424 THE COLONIES. 
 
 years of peace by the years of war^ and the balance 
 between them is nearly equal. ^ Moreover, we must 
 observe that the greater part of the supplies of the 
 iiavy, coming from abroad, are the means of greater 
 sums of money going out of France than the accoutre- 
 ments of regular troops are, the things necessary for 
 which exists in the greatest abundance in the interior 
 of France. So that the naval wars of France were times 
 of riches for the North, which is the source from whence 
 naval supplies come, as well as to the United States, 
 which, in all colonial wars, will necessarily supply both 
 the Colonies and their defenders. It follows from this 
 statement, that the French navy is at once both use- 
 less and ruinous, which is too much by half; and that 
 it is of no use to France, and yet impoverishes her, 
 and consequently can only be maintained for two pur- 
 poses; the first, that which is the subject of this chapter, 
 co-operation with the navies of America and Europe ; 
 the second, for the sake of custom, which gives her a 
 navy because other nations have one, and because 
 she has always had one, without taking into account 
 either time or circumstances, which, though they to- 
 lerated it at one period, proscribe it at another. The 
 
 * Tabic of the tuars between France and England since the year 1689, 
 
 From 1689 to 1697, 8 years. 
 
 From 1701 to 1712, 11 
 
 From J 742 to 1748, 7 
 
 From 1756 to 1761, 7 
 
 From 1778 to 1782, 5 
 
 From 1793 to 1801, 8 
 
 From 1803 to 1814, 11 
 
 126 57 
 
 Years of war 57 
 
 peace 69 
 
THE COLONIES. 423 
 
 art of verifying dates is very essential in the art of go- 
 verning. 
 
 We feel how hard it is to offer such advice to the 
 founders and owners of such establishments as Brest, 
 Toulon, and Rochefort; and how difficult it is to give 
 up that which has cost us so dear, and is honourable 
 from its grandeur, and in which the twilight of glory 
 is still sparkling. Alas! we feel it ; but the interests 
 of the nation are not to be estimated by remembrances, 
 and by regrets, but by calculations which reason makes, 
 by taking times and circumstances as their foundation. 
 Because an establishment is grand, must we ruin our- 
 selves to maintain it, when it has ceased to be useful ? 
 Will states subsist upon ruins, and nations upon mo- 
 numents ? Must certain establishments be destined to 
 ruin us in maintaining them, after having ruined us 
 in the building ? Much better would it have been 
 never to have had them. The French naval establish- 
 ments resemble Versailles, the building of which has 
 ruined France, the rebuilding of which has threatened 
 to ruin her again, and which will still more certainly 
 ruin her if it is ever inhabited ; for all the other ex- 
 penses must be upon the scale of this gigantic palace. 
 We do not see what advantage France has, or can de- 
 rive, from the navy, by itself: we know very well 
 what England has derived from it — the empire of the 
 world, which is never purchased too dearly. But we 
 discover a certain and immense utility in the French 
 navy, if we connect it. with the system of the inde- 
 pendence of the Colonies, a system which will give to 
 all the navies in Europe the most powerful allies, who 
 will free them from the supremacy of England, from 
 which they are unable to deliver themselves. To see 
 Europe relieved from a blockade by the means of Ame- 
 
426 THE COLONIES. 
 
 rica, will certainly be a strange sight ; but, at this 
 very moment, Buenos Ayres completely blockades Ca- 
 diz ; and in the state in which things are now situated 
 by the naval superiority, and by the superiority in 
 colonial possessions which England enjoys, it is very 
 evident that Europe can never be emancipated, in a 
 naval point of view, except by the emancipation of 
 America; from thence will issue legions in defence of 
 the liberties of Europe, in order to defend the liberty 
 of America itself; so much are they both connected ; 
 and, if England continues to keep Europe in a naval 
 subjection,, by so doing she will enslave America. If, 
 on the contrary, America is emancipated, such an 
 aggregate force will be formed as will give freedom to 
 both the hemispheres. We most certainly shall not 
 see the United States second the English navy : when 
 they shall possess fifty ships of the line they will be 
 at the service of all the maritime powers of Europe: 
 there is a natural alliance between them ; there is no 
 necessity for written treaties ; it is in the very nature 
 of things. It will be the same with Brazil : the so- 
 vereign of that country, though friendly to the Eng- 
 lish at Lisbon, where they protect him, is hostile to 
 them at Rio Janeiro, vvhere he requires nothing but 
 to be free : they do not offend him, except by the su- 
 periority of their power, but that is sufficient. As 
 being one of the weaker naval powers, he is allied to 
 all in the same condition against those who are stronger. 
 The articles of this alliance are all formed in the single 
 feeling of liberty and independence, which induces 
 states, as well as individuals, to unite together against 
 those who are able to oppress them. Let us ex- 
 tend these principles to the Colonies ; from the Co- 
 lonies will arise an enormous mass of forces, the na- 
 
THE COLONIES. 42? 
 
 tural auxiliaries of Europe, whose existence will put 
 in action the forces of Europe, and the want of which 
 will leave her in her present state of inactivity. 
 
 In the first of these two cases, to resume this argu- 
 ment, Europe can and must pay attention to her navy; 
 in the second case, she must renounce it, if she thinks 
 it better to save her money than to spend it in pre- 
 paring new trophies for England, and in receiving 
 from that country wounds which will not even leave 
 her the satisfaction of imprinting a scar on any of the 
 limbs of her all powerful enemy. 
 
 CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 What ought those Pozver^ that are inferior in Naval 
 Force to do for their Colonies ? 
 
 IM OTHING : this answer is written in the compara- 
 tive tabic of the means of attack and of defence, which 
 threaten or protect these establishments. Let us go 
 back to the principles of the colonial system, relative 
 to the defence of the Colonies. By what means are 
 they to be defended ? By the navy, or by the army ? 
 By vessels bringing reinforcements to the troops 
 charged with the defence, or by troops deprived of 
 these reinforcements for want of vessels which could 
 keep up a communication with the mother country? 
 Places which are proof against cannon are not proof 
 against a blockade, which they cannot raise: in time 
 they must fall. This is the case with the Colonies: 
 
42S th£ colonies. 
 
 whatever may be the strength of their batteries, or the 
 number and the bravery of their defenders, of what ad- 
 vantage are they without a communication always open 
 with the mother country? Were there even such for- 
 tresses asLuxemburgh, Mantua, and Gibraltar in the 
 Colonies, they would fall, if they were to receive no su p- 
 plies, and if they were no longer able to drive away the 
 enemy who surrounds them, under the safeguard of their 
 navy. Would not the loss of the Colony be, in this case, 
 inevitable; and would not the ramparts, intended to keep 
 off the enemy, become, when they were taken, the means 
 of strengthening him in his conquest ? Thus, when the 
 English, in the wars of J 756 and of 1793 to 1814, 
 made themselves masters of Martinico, the skill of the 
 engineers who had fortified it, and the courage of the 
 soldiers who defended it, were insufficient to preserve 
 it from an enemy, who, being protected by his naval 
 superiority, could neither be disturbed in his attack 
 nor in his possession. At every period, the French 
 have re-entered there, not by war, but by a peace. It 
 was the same with the Havannah, as well as with the 
 Phihppines, when the English attacked them in I762. 
 Forts were not wanting, but vessels, to drive off the 
 assailants, to supply the defenders with victuals, to 
 connect the succours of the mother country with the 
 defence of the Colony. 
 
 No fort, nor other force in the Colonies then, ex- 
 cept maritime superiority, or at least equality, is of 
 any advantage, either to the mother country or to the 
 Colony; they are burdensome in peace, useless in war, 
 dangerous from the facility which they give to an 
 enemy to establish himself, and fatal to the Colony, 
 whose bosom they make the theatre of war, which is 
 directly opposite to the nature of Colonies. An open 
 
 3 
 
THE COLONIES. 429 
 
 Colony may change its master without suffering 
 from the presence of an enemy, who occupies it with- 
 out striking a blow; but, when fighting becomes ne- 
 cessary; when cities are besieged, bombarded, or burnt, 
 then the scene changes, and evils come in crowds* 
 The Colony undergoes, nevertheless, the fate which 
 was reserved for it ; the mother country is also suffered 
 to sustain its part of the evil, and yet the Colony is 
 lost. 
 
 Let us return to the examples cited above. The 
 English attack islands without defence ; they possess 
 them without a battle. The master is changed, but 
 nobody suffers. At Martinico, at the Havannah, there 
 have been sieges ; then cities are laid in ashes, planta- 
 tions ravaged, the arsenals formed by the mother coun- 
 try come under the power of the enemy, and the ram- 
 parts, which she had erected, are applied to oppose and 
 to exclude her own troops. In peace, it is necessary 
 to redeem them, at the price of the conquests which 
 have been made, or to be humbled to regain them. 
 Such, in two words, is the history of all colonial for- 
 tresses, raised at enormous expense, and unsupported 
 by a maritime force. In this case, what is the true 
 interest of mother countries unpossessed of such forces? 
 Is it to continue to maintain, at a great cost, during 
 peace, fortifications which cannot defend them in war, 
 and whence it would be necessary to remove an 
 enemy ; to form arsenals, which at last will fall in- 
 to his hands ; to keep up troops, destined either to 
 be annihilated, or made captives ? For the forces of the 
 Colonies have never finished otherwise. At Pondi- 
 cherry, at the Isle of France, at Martinico, in Canada, 
 have the French troops, deprived of naval aid, ever 
 experienced any other fate ? Have Dupleix, Bussy, or 
 
430 THE COLONIES. 
 
 Montcalm, obtained any other result of their brave, 
 but useless efforts ? The commanders and the soldiers 
 were worthy of each other ; but what availed either 
 their valour or their talents, far from a mother coun- 
 try, which, separated from them, could give them only 
 her admiration and her regret ? 
 
 Si Pergama dextra 
 
 Defend! possent, etiam hac defensa fuissent. 
 
 Let these misfortunes, then, operate as a warning ; 
 when in results ^o uniform, in experiments made on 
 so large a scale, we may see the principle of conduct 
 to be adopted in (jhe Colonies, when they are deprived 
 of the certain aid of a marine force. 
 
 It confines itself to this : 1. All the useless military 
 preparations ought to cease. 
 
 2. Only such a number of troops ought to be main- 
 tained as are necessary to preserve the internal tran- 
 quillity of the Colony. 
 
 3. The Colony is to be made answerable for all the 
 expenses of its establishment, so that the mother coun- 
 try may expend nothing on that account, beyond what 
 it receives again by its rights of sovereignty. Its gar- 
 risons, its staff, its military marine, its arsenals, its forti- 
 fications, cost the mother country immense sums. To 
 what purpose is all this ? If the Colony likes it, let it 
 pay the expenses of it ; nobody can dispute its right to 
 do this ; but we do not see why the mother country 
 should consent to sustain the burden. It is superfluous 
 in peace, useless in war ; of what use is it, then, either 
 to the mother country or the Colony ? The case of 
 the French establishments in India is the same : un- 
 able either to attack others, or to defend themselves. 
 
THE COLONIES. 481 
 
 they are reduced to simple factories : in time of war 
 they belong of right to the enemy : in time of peace, 
 their fortifications are useless : why then should the 
 expense be suffered r When an enemy cannot fix him- 
 self in places, which seem to have been fortified only for 
 him, he can be driven out more easily. The Colony 
 will not have built for him ; it will not have col- 
 lected provisions for him : it will not suffer by a 
 war without object; and, when things subside, it will 
 neither have to lament the miseries of war, nor to re- 
 build other magazines, to be again taken in their 
 turn. 
 
 These principles apply to the Colonies of all the 
 inferior maritime powers. The situation being the 
 same, their government ought to be so too : France 
 has been only the nominative of this question : all that 
 has been said of her, may be said of all the powers 
 inferior in marine strength, who, being subject to the 
 same inconveniences, ought to be regulated by the 
 same principles. 
 
 CHAP. XXV. 
 
 Plan for the Colonies proposed. 
 
 The COLONIES, with all their advantages, have had 
 and still have their difficulties. That feeling of disgust 
 which their continual guard, their defence during war, 
 their administration during peace, their police, the re- 
 lation of their interest^ with those of the mother coun- 
 
432 THE COLONIES, 
 
 try; all that train of difficulties, passing without ceasing 
 under the eyes of the governments and of political 
 speculators, has often driven both to desire to take a 
 definitive part. It is not only in the present day that 
 we are occupied by the subject; the authors of the last 
 age, who made themselves a name by their produc- 
 tions on the Colonies, only repeated what was known 
 and proposed almost at the period of their discovery. 
 For example, who could believe that the plan of a 
 general abandonment of the Colonies originated in 
 the time of Charles V? At that period there was such a 
 proposal, and there were not wanting men of great skill 
 and foresight, who conceived the notion of an abandon- 
 ment of these possessions, the lustre of which was 
 splendid in appearance, but ruinous in reality. Their 
 reasons were, the probable depopulation of Spain in 
 favour of the Colonies ; the impossibility of their de* 
 fence, or their restraint, as well as the unnecessary re- 
 sult of Spain becoming, as it were, the factor for Europe 
 with America, to charge her with the provision of the 
 productions of European industry for want of her own, 
 and, by insufl^cient supplies, to keep the Colonies in a 
 state of penury, without relieving herself We must 
 confess that the prediction has been verified : the pro- 
 phecy has been literally accomplished. This opinion 
 has not perished in Spain : it is still that of a great 
 part of its people ; and actual events cannot but have 
 confirmed it. It is, in England, that of several states- 
 men and distinguished writers ; Arthur Young avows 
 it, in the third volume of his Travels in France ; and 
 positively declares that the general abandonment of the 
 West Indies by Europeans, and the union of those isles 
 into a single power, would be as advantageous to Eu- 
 rope as to themselves. 
 
THE COLONIES. 45^ 
 
 Turgot, on an occasion as solemn as his situation 
 and his age allowed, announced the separation of 
 England and America ; this was at the period of the 
 peace, which terminated the war of 3 756. When he 
 became minister, on the first declaration of the dis- 
 putes between England and her Colonies, he recalled 
 to the minds of the Council his prediction ; he repeated 
 it in stronger terms ; he applied it to all the Colonies ; 
 he insisted on the necessity of abstaining from all con- 
 cern in the quarrel ; and, lastly, he praised the wisdom 
 of those governments who could detach themselves 
 from their Colonies, and so prevent a separation, cer- 
 tain from the nature of things. So spoke Turgot. The 
 memoir to the Council, which gives authority to what 
 we have said, may be found every where. 
 
 There have not been wanting plans less decisive. 
 To some, a sudden separation from such immense Co- 
 lonies, without any means of compensation to the 
 one, or any check upon the other, has appeared very 
 hazardous. The passage from possession to abandon- 
 ment left a terrific void. They, therefore, laid aside 
 the notion of this plan, and set themselves to look 
 for something to substitute for it. In forsaking the 
 idea in general, however, they have been disposed to 
 apply it in particular cases, which rather referred to 
 the practicable amelioration of the Colonies, than to 
 any decisive resolution on their state, on their preser- 
 vation, or their abandonment. Foreigners, as well as 
 the nation, have been concerned. Thus while the 
 ministers and the officers of Spain were labouring to 
 make their Colonies valuable, and to make them im- 
 prove one another, the enemies of that power were 
 occupied with plans to force them from her, and to 
 tear from the trunk those superb branches. 
 
434. THE COLONIES. 
 
 A celebrated writer upon the Colonies has con- 
 tributed to give a public interest to these questions. 
 He has not hesitated, on the announcement of his pro- 
 positions on the Colonies, to declare them separated 
 from the mother country, by the sole effect of civiliza- 
 tion and of time; but when he arrives at the declaration 
 of the part which must be taken, as to a portion 
 of the globe so extensive, so interesting, and influencing 
 Europe as much by its absence as by its presence 5 
 then the author, so decided in theory, loses his forti- 
 tude: he hesitates, he is troubled, he falls into the 
 proposition of the most miserable expedients. His 
 plan presents no result ; no means of escape from the 
 immense difficulties which he has raised ; and, like 
 the giants in the fable, he is buried under the moun- 
 tain which he has accumulated. 
 
 We are to examine all systems, they are all mischiev- 
 ous in one way — which is, the total neglect of the na- 
 ture of the Colonies and of a good colonial organization. 
 These plans refer originally to the Spanish Colonies, 
 the only ones which, before the separation of North 
 America, could, by their extent, draw the mother coun- 
 tries towards such a consideration. But the principle, 
 which produced it there, is not less applicable to other 
 Colonies, and every day it becomes more so. 
 
 We might reduce to two heads all the plans about 
 the Colonies ; that of abandonment, and that of 
 amelioration. These may be infinitely varied ; and 
 cannot be noticed in this discussion ; which can only 
 embrace a general plan, or rather plans, that carry 
 with them something which has the character of gene- 
 ral application. 
 
 Among those of this sort, doubtlessly the project of 
 the Cardinal Alberoni should take the first rank, who. 
 
THE COLONIES. 435 
 
 consideringthePhilipines as a medium between America 
 and Asia, wished to connect them together, by giving 
 to those islands the liberty of commerce, and they 
 Would thereby become, according to his plan, the 
 storehouse of the two worlds. This is, to be sure, a 
 grand commercial notion, far superior to the times in 
 which it was conceived ; but it is no more. The 
 question remains as before ; and it is even probable 
 that the author of the project only meant to push these 
 Colonies towards their maturity, that is to say, to their 
 separation from the mother country. Then the latter 
 no longer took any interest in her Colony; and the 
 Colony, on its side, would no longer feel its dependence 
 on the mother countiy, which is always the certain 
 period of separation. 
 
 The Prince of Orange and the Admiral d'Estaing, 
 wishing, no doubt, to pay to Spain a tribute of zeal 
 and affection, have each made, on their part, proposals, 
 in the main, similar: but none has touched on the true 
 question. Their ideas always stopped on the outside, 
 they never penetrated into the interior of the Colonies. 
 Before them was the Abbd Riynal, who, though pro- 
 vided with all manner of colonial information, could 
 not, more than his predecessors, propose any thing 
 truly applicable to the Colonies* We may judge of 
 this by the nature of his expedient^) whitih stop at the 
 proposal to unite the Europeans with the natives — - 
 a resource certainly quite new, which could only in- 
 crease the mischief, by giving to the population, which 
 ought to be repressed, an ascendancy over that which 
 is to repress it — such as the colonial system never 
 could agree with. 
 
 There still remains the system of a general and si- 
 multaneous abandonment of the Colonies. 
 
 2 F 
 
iS6 THE COLONIEa 
 
 The first plans referring to the continuance of th^ 
 dependence of the Colonies, preserve all the inconve- 
 niences of their actual state : the subordination of one 
 continent to the other, the disproportion of the mother 
 countries to their Colonies, the immense separation of 
 governments, the absence of the eye of the sovereign, 
 —all remains under the pressure of the actual evils, that 
 is to say, without any remedy in the most essential 
 parts. In a question so important, it matters very lit- 
 tle what may be the softenings, almost accidental or 
 local, afforded to the Colonies ; whether they have a 
 few advantages, more or less. This is not the ques- 
 tion ; that of the Colonies is a question of State ; 
 Shall they be free or not ? Thir- is its essence. The 
 plans of Alberoni, of Raynal, and others, have no 
 concern with it ; and leave as before the Colonies at 
 the discretion of the mother country. Now here is the 
 precise evil to be avoided, and of which nothing is said 
 in these plans, which, in no degree, regard the con- 
 dition of the Colonies. A complete abandonment is 
 an extreme, a sort of last stroke of despair, as re- 
 proachful with regard to Europe as to the Colonies, It 
 is, on the part of the mother country, a tacit avowal 
 of her want of power: for she acknowledges herself 
 unable to govern her Colonies. 
 
 A general abandonment delivers the Colony to the 
 mercy of the natives, to which its emancipation pre- 
 sents the utmost danger. Its abandonment breaks at 
 once the course of the relations established between 
 Europe and America, and overturns, at the same time, 
 the two countries. It introduces into America a dis- 
 order and a confusion equally prejudicial to both. In 
 leaving America to herself without provisory prepara- 
 tion, without giving her a clue to conduct her through 
 
THE COLONIES. 437 
 
 the labyrinth in which she would be placed, we expose 
 her to troubles which at once influence her commerce, 
 and of which the rebound is as suddenly felt through 
 Europe. Let us judge by what happened at St. Do- 
 tningo: how can so vast a country as America be go- 
 verned ? As a monarchy, or a republic ? As an univer- 
 sal, or a separate monarchy? As a republic, general, 
 separate, or federative? What questions for the newly 
 emancipated natives? To what troubles would they 
 not give birth ? And how would the re-action of these 
 troubles be felt in Europe, by disturbing its American 
 commerce ! The plan m^y be good in itself — but the 
 foundation, excellent as it is, is rendered defective by 
 its accessories. It is only by a methodical and calculated 
 plan that we can operate, without ruinous effects, the 
 separation of such a country as America. 
 
 England, viewing only her manufacturing and com- 
 mercial interests, considers the Colonies as openings 
 for the disposal of her wares. It was under this aspect 
 too that she considered Spanish America, when in 
 J 763, she subscribed a plan of emancipation, generally 
 attributed to Gen. Lloyd. Too feeble to preserve the 
 possession of countries so extensive, which were al- 
 ready occupied by a population very unfavourable to 
 the English, she restricted herself to the profits of her 
 American commerce ; she resigned the claim of sove- 
 reignty for the benefit of trade, which, in fact, repaid 
 her well ; as to the rest, she suffered the Americans to 
 dispose of themselves. 
 
 This plan would have all the inconveniences of those 
 which we have noticed ; and, in addition, it will have 
 that of more directly provoking disturbances in Ame- 
 rica, by constituting the Americans the disposers of 
 their own fate. Experience has shown the danger of 
 
 2F2 
 
iSS THE COLONIES. 
 
 such appeals: it augments according to the localities ; 
 and sunely none could be less favourable to it than 
 those of America. Far from consulting it on its 
 establishment, it should insist on prescribing one, and 
 should endeavour to prevent the first moment of its 
 freedom from being the last of a portion of its popu* 
 lationj and that of its relation with Europe. 
 
 CHAP. XXVL 
 
 Plan for the Colonies, 
 
 X HE principles of the colonial system have been esta- 
 blished; numerous and important facts have been cited 
 in support; the separation of the Colonies from the 
 mother country has been shown to be inevitable ; the 
 qualities of the two kinds of separation have been 
 shewn : what then remains to complete the whole, 
 but a general plan to be substituted for the order of 
 things, which is now giving way on all sides. A work 
 which should be confined to the exposition of the state 
 of the Colonies in general ; or to that of their actual 
 danger, would it not be indeed incomplete? Should 
 we not wish for the most essential part, that which 
 was to offer a remedy? To what purpose sound an 
 alarm about the dangers of those precious possessions, 
 if one has nothing to tell but these melancholy news, 
 nor any thing .to substitute for the actual causes of the 
 melancholy catastrophe? It would not be to write 
 poems on the lost Colonies, which should restore them 
 to Europe, nor preserve them in any other form ; but 
 
THE COLONIES. 439 
 
 wise and solid regulations which alone can recover 
 them, and make them more productive, and more use- 
 ful in reality when free from her dominion, than they 
 ever were under it. For the last forty years, political 
 writers and speculators have been anxious to have the 
 easy glory of saddening Europe, by announcing the 
 loss of her Colonies, but without saying a word either 
 about the causes of that loss, or of the manner in which 
 it was to be repaired. Their unfortunate circumstances 
 have alone led to the question, and it is their ruin 
 which forces us to speak of their revival. When the 
 venerable St. Pierre amused himself with shaping for 
 Europe a kind of platonic mode of existence, we might 
 smile at his notions while we applauded his intentions: 
 the state of Europe did not indicate the want of a 
 change which could only have been brought about by 
 the total destruction of its political institutions: but 
 here all is contrary : the colonial system is destroyed ; 
 the Colonies are in a general disorder, which sets them 
 at war with Europe and with themselves, to the ruin 
 of both. Was there ever a greater evil, or one which 
 called louder for some remedy ? We must think of re- 
 newing the motion of a machine, now obstructed on 
 all sides, and prevent its destruction. 
 
 Our plan for the Colonies turns on three principal 
 points. 
 
 1. Their absolute and complete separation from the 
 mother country, those of India excepted, for reasons 
 which shall be given below. 
 
 2. Their formation into free and independent states, 
 in proportions most suitable for good government. 
 
 3. That all the arrangements for this important affair 
 should emanate from Europe ; otherwise, in place of 
 making the change, she will receive it from a multitude 
 
HO THE COLONIES. 
 
 of fortuitous cases, as she received her Colonies at 
 their discovery ; she will lose them as she acquired 
 them ; a thing vi^hich ought, at all hazards, to be 
 avoided, for afterwards it will require ages to remedy 
 the defects which have been suffered to get into the 
 establishment itself. An act of that magnitude and 
 of that importance should be the work of a congress, 
 which should be the sole centre of authority and of 
 information, capable of opposing something to stem 
 the torrent of those evils, which, without such aid, 
 will still endure through many years, will drench with 
 blood both the Colonies and Europe, will ruin both, 
 and will leave the two parties meditating on the ruins, 
 and on the loss which both have sustained by neglect- 
 ing to arrange their differences. Unfortunately this is 
 the case in all great affairs : we never consider them till 
 after the endurance of the greatest evils. The excess of 
 the mischief alone makes us resort to a cure, and it is 
 when it is come to the height that we thiak of preventing 
 some of its effects. We cannot play a more desperate 
 game ; and yet that with the Colonies is just such as 
 was played with France at the revolution. We have 
 coldlv beheld it become the revolution of the world ; 
 while we could in 1792 have done all that we have 
 done in 1814 and 1815, and surely with far better suc- 
 cess. Rather then foresee or prevent the eivil, we left 
 it to advance to that point which approaches to des- 
 pair, and which gives men that courage and energy 
 which spring from such situations. Let us not treat 
 the Colonies so : for there all is, and remains irrepa- 
 rable. When America is laid waste, its population 
 massacred, when the negroes, and the coloured ene- 
 mies of the whites have acquired a decided ascendant, 
 what can then' be opposed to that deluge of evils ? 
 
THE COLONIES. 441 
 
 What a long term of years will be required to renew 
 a population without which America is as if she existed 
 not* What a long period will be required to renew 
 old relations, when their sources have long been turned 
 aside or broken ! 
 
 The Colonies favour the establishment of a great 
 number of states. The aggregation of several colonial 
 countries forms a commonwealth which nature appears 
 to have joined with the view of giving them the means 
 of existing together, as if directing them to live under 
 the same laws. Thus, on the continent of America, 
 the barriers of the states seem to have been made by 
 the hands of nature herself, who seems there to have 
 worked on a more gigantic scale than in Europe. The 
 countries there joined together are placed by her under 
 a community of interests, and consequently of ex- 
 istence. Thus the Antilles, the Philippines, and the 
 Moluccas, are evidently intended to be united ; ihe 
 order which indicates it strikes the eye at the first 
 glance. In the same manner on the continent, several 
 countries have a community of existence, resulting 
 from the possession of the same powers and proper- 
 ties. Thus the United States, encircled by the sea, 
 the Apalachian Mountains, St. Lawrence, and the 
 Gulf of Mexico, are destined to fill that space, and 
 will continue to do so till they have accomplished the 
 destiny marked out by too many signs to escape notice. 
 The regions lying between the Amazon and the Oro- 
 noko. Chili and Peru, are not less distinctly marked : 
 their flanks are covered by the broadest rivers and the 
 loftiest mountains in the world, and their front by the 
 ocean. Let us compare these barriers with those so 
 much boasted of in Europe : these seas^ styled rivers, 
 with those rivulets which are honored in Europe with 
 
 1. 
 
442 THE COLONIES. 
 
 the title of rivers, which are crossed in all times, and 
 in every way ; and we shall easily perceive the superior 
 faculties of the New World over the Old for accom- 
 plishing such a division of states as is best adapted to 
 the repose of its people. There it is that the doctrine 
 of natural boundaries has its best application. In 
 these later times it has been supported by the display 
 of victory which tended to make a false application of 
 an excellent principle. The limits of states are not 
 settled by regular calculations, but by chance, and by 
 a thousand causes impossible to be pointed out. Once 
 constituted and protected by laws, it is difficult ever 
 to disjoin them. The slightest alteration has cost ages 
 of conflict. Among states long established, existing 
 in ancient relations, the application of this principle 
 would give rise to arbitration, to violence, to danger ; 
 the boldest would perpetually be encroaching, either 
 for one reason or another. Justice and general interest 
 are then the natural barriers between the strong and 
 the weak ; consequently, there are no natural barriers 
 properly so called, between states which may rather 
 be regarded as moral than as natural beings, and we 
 should carry the sense of this from their physical to 
 their moral condition, since the natural barriers of 
 states can be none other than a regard to justice. But 
 this, which exists in fact, and of necessity, among 
 states which stand in the order of established societies, 
 supporting their inconveniences, as if individuals, can- 
 not be applied to new territories, released from all ob- 
 ligation of community, and acknowledging no right 
 nor interest ; which will be the case in the establish- 
 ment of the colonial states : encountering no pre-ex- 
 istent interest, and injuring none, there will remain 
 to them happiness without mixture. It must be re- 
 
THE COLONIES. 443 
 
 marked that there will be only occasion to sanction 
 what already exists: for in the separation from Spain, 
 America has followed the grand divisions which nature 
 had marked out, and which the government had 
 adopted. The congress of the new states was formed 
 from them without any connexion between them ; thus 
 the congress of Mexico has nothing in common with 
 that of Buenos Ayres, nor this with Terra Firma. 
 
 The distinctive attribute of the New States is their 
 maritime position ; there is not one which does not 
 possess a great extent of coasts, and rivers which admit 
 of the vessels advancing very far into the country. 
 The form of America gives it this property. In the 
 new condition of the people, their maritime position 
 and the use of it which is its natural result, is pro- 
 ductive of the greatest advantages to them. To be 
 convinced of this it is only necessary to look at the 
 progress of the United States during the space of 
 thirty-six years ; what state purely continental could 
 have advanced to their height ? In Europe w^e cannot 
 compare those states situated on the sea or on the 
 rivers to those which are distant from them. Holland 
 is indebted to this circumstance for beina* the most 
 populous country in Europe for its extent; Bretagne, 
 uncultivated in its interior, has the greatest population 
 on its coasts of any single province of France ; the 
 facility of procuring subsistence, and the abundance 
 of employment which the sea affords, are its causes. 
 These circumstances will be as much in the favour of 
 the New States, who will find in the excellence of their 
 resources abundant springs of prosperity. 
 
 The particular mode of government of these New 
 States cannot make any part of this examination ; 
 whatever in this respect might be settled, after a due 
 
444 THE COLONIES. 
 
 consideration of such important interests, the founda- 
 tion of the plan — the independence of the Colonies, and 
 their division into separate states — could not be at all 
 affected by it, and Europe would gain as much if her 
 government were monarchical as if it were republican^ 
 such as the United States : for it is not by their mode of 
 government that they would become useful, but by the 
 consequences of their independence alone. 
 
 CHAP. XXVIL 
 
 Advantages arid disadvantages in the plan for the 
 
 Colonies. 
 
 X HE division of this chapter is pointed out by the 
 nature of the subject : we must show, 
 
 J. What will be the advantages of this plan to the 
 Colonies. 
 
 2. What will be its advantages to Europe and to 
 each state in particular. 
 
 3. What are the compensations of the losers. 
 
 If liberty be the principle of all happiness in a 
 state : if constraint has always produced the most dis- 
 astrous effects upon the Colonies, if they have only 
 begun to flourish with the return of liberty, who can 
 doubt that such liberty in all its extent is of the 
 utmost value to them. The liberty of the Colonies, 
 even of the most free, is not yet the true liberty ; it is 
 the diminution of slavery ; but this is not hberty in its 
 true acceptation, in its natural sense : they are styled 
 free by a comparison with their former state and that 
 
THE COLONIES. 445 
 
 of other Colonies. Thus Colonies, freed formerly by 
 Companies^ have now the liberty of commerce with 
 the mother country, and are thus styled and considered 
 free ; but at what a distance is this from true liberty ! 
 Have they their own laws, their distinct administra- 
 tion, their commerce open to the world ? Or are they 
 subject to the laws of another, to a foreign administra- 
 tion, to foreign disputes? They are not then free;- 
 and it would be an insult to consider them so in their 
 present state. Meanwhile this relief of their chains, 
 these softenings of their lot, have been sufficient to 
 render some flourishing, and to improve the state of 
 others. America returns the double in metals and 
 productions, at the end of ten years of free commerce ; 
 St. Domingo, freed in 1722, became in 1745 the king 
 of the Colonies : every where it is the same where 
 their chains have been lightened ; every where they 
 have revived and changed their aspect. What will 
 they be then when this shadow, this phantom of li- 
 berty, shall be succeeded by its plenitude and reality. 
 It will be like the United States, whose population 
 doubled in the space of twenty- three years. This pro- 
 digious increase arose from the following advantages : 
 
 1. From a government of their own, and, of 
 course, suited to their circumstances ; from a fixed, in- 
 stead of a changing, administration, as all must be 
 which are exercised at a distance, or under the care of 
 successive governors who felt no interest in the charges 
 committed to them. The change in this respect would 
 produce incalculable benefit ; or rather we may guess 
 at them by the extent of mischief produced by its 
 absence : its influence would extend to every thing ; 
 government, police, education, manners, arts, com- 
 merce, agriculture, all would feel the animation of a 
 
446 THE COLONIES. 
 
 local administration. What countries are more fitted 
 for it than the Colonies, by the fecundity of their soil, 
 by the variety of their productions, by the excellent 
 disposition of all their parts ? When there exists in 
 the midst of them an active principle to develope 
 these teeming seeds, with what force will they burst 
 forth and repay the cares which have been bestowed 
 on them. 
 
 2. From the liberty of commerce. The revolution 
 of the Colonies will give them this with the whole 
 world. Let us guess, if we can, the effects. If re- 
 stricted to that of the mother country, they have 
 nevertheless prospered, what may be expected when 
 they shall be at liberty to supply all their wants from 
 all parts of the globe, to attach themselves to those 
 which supply them, and to carry them in return such 
 productions of their soil as may be to the advantage 
 of the other! What riches will result to them from 
 this redoublement of activity and consumption within 
 and without ! what an encouragement to multiply 
 productions, which are not to be now, as heretofore, 
 destined to one canal and bound to one port, but 
 which will then have the whole globe as its mart and 
 its storehouse ! how many productions are there which 
 the restrictions of their situations have either concealed 
 or suffered to perish ! How many are there that, for 
 want of culture languish without value, because they 
 want purchasers ! and which, if better cultivated and 
 better known, would rise to their proper value and add 
 to the employments of the world at large ! 
 
 3. From their separation from the quarrels of Eu- 
 rope. 
 
 These disputes have been and are still the torment 
 of the Colonies, which have no interest in them, or 
 
THE COLONIES. 447 
 
 rather a contrary interest; they, destined only to pro- 
 duce and to consume, ought never to participate in 
 quarrels whose first effort is to bear on their produce 
 and consumption ; since, when war breaks out between 
 the mother countries the Colonies become the theatre 
 of it. The storms bred in the mists of the Thames 
 and the Seine burst in thunder upon Asia, on Ame- 
 rica, on the Moluccas, and the Antilles. Their 
 productions are confined by the terror inspired by pi- 
 racy ; and the Colonies are thus hindered from receiv* 
 ingand from bestowing, from exporting and importing. 
 The evil arises on both sides, for a cause for which 
 they have not a shadow of interest. In that view, the 
 lot of the Colonies has been truly deplorable and cruel. 
 They have existed for Europe during 300 years; they 
 have passed two thirds of that space under the hands 
 of ferocious masters, labouring to expel or to extermi* 
 nate each other on their bloody ruins. The rest of that 
 time, since war has adopted customs less barbarous, 
 has been spent in disputes, of which the result, always 
 uniform to them, was to be conquered by turns, to 
 change their masters, and to be deranged in the whole 
 course of their operations, during that of the war, and 
 even a long time after its conclusion. 
 
 We shall limit this examination to the following 
 three principal effects : it presents a thousand others ; 
 but these include them all, and are sufficient to the 
 elucid?.tion of the subject. 
 
 If the Colonies find, in their separation from Eu- 
 rope the advantages which we have pointed out, 
 Europe, in its turn, obtains advantages no less impor- 
 tant by the same means. 
 
 The greater part of Europe has , no Colonies : it 
 will acquire them all by a general plan of indepcn- 
 
 5 
 
448 THE COLONIES. 
 
 dence; for it can then trade with them, the only 
 thing which constitutes their utiHty. 
 
 On this side the colonial powers will gain the ordi- 
 nary expenses of their protection, which exceed the 
 ordinary revenues of sovereignty, and the extraordinary 
 expenses of their defence in time of war. They will 
 thereby recover the loss of commerce sustained during 
 the war, which shortened the quantity and raised the 
 price of their productions, and which heightened the 
 insurances by multiplying the dangers and the chances 
 of navigation. That loss was equal to all the powers, 
 whether colonial or not ; but it was more sensibly felt 
 by the tirst, in proportion as they had possessions in 
 the Colonies. Thus Spain, which, in time of peace, 
 receives from America more than 300,000,000, and 
 sends 100,000,000, is injured on account of her colo- 
 nial greatness. We must join to this advantage the 
 expenses of the colonial wars : there is not one which 
 has not cost immense sums. The war with America 
 has cost France one milliard, and England two mil- 
 liards. At this moment Spain knows not whence to 
 obtain the money which is required for the war with 
 the Colonies. Europe will of course gain all which she 
 ceases to expend for this purpose. The cessation of a 
 great expense is equivalent to a positive accession of 
 revenue. 
 
 We have shown above that the Colonies, if freed 
 from the yoke, w^ould become more flourishii>g than 
 before. 
 
 A personal administration, liberty of commerce, the 
 cessation of all colonial disputes, would be the source 
 of their prosperity. But, while prospering, would they 
 not experience other wants ? Would not a greater po- 
 pulation consume more ? Would not their riches in- 
 
THE COLONIES. U9 
 
 crease their wants, and with them the means of satis- 
 fying them ? Will those which supply the Colonies 
 have then more to deliver to them ? Or will their 
 magazines have as much more to receive ? And who 
 are those furnishers, and what are those magazines ? 
 Is not Europe at once the furnisher and the magazine ? 
 If, in some productions of the soil, Europe and the 
 Colonies are equal, the latter for industry cannot yet 
 exist without Europe. In that point there can be no 
 equality between them ; and for many years still the 
 Colonies will not have that industry, which will set 
 them free from the tribute which they pay to that of 
 Europe. Industry is a property of states fully formed ; 
 it is nourished by the excess of culture and of navi- 
 gation : it demands time for the perfection of the arts, 
 as well as for the instruction of workmen. Industry is 
 placed in states like the capital on a pillar, after the 
 whole is raised. The state is formed, organised, and 
 provides, by degrees, what is necessary, and does not 
 exert its industry till the prime wants are in some sort 
 removed. Now the colonial states are, at present, in 
 infancy; they have still to undergo all the degrees of 
 increase; and that increase insures to Europe, for a 
 long time, the benefit of their supplies. She has then 
 much interest in their prosperity: she will prosper 
 with them, by them, and in the same degree with 
 them. Let us judge by what has passed in America, 
 which corresponds in all. A separation was to be a 
 death blow to England : thus prognosticated the 
 greatest writers both of England and the Continent. 
 On the contrary, the liberty of America has raised the 
 prosperity of England : America, free, has prospered; 
 England has prospered with her, by her, and as much 
 as her : America, since free, has carried more to, and 
 
450 THE COLONIES. 
 
 demanded more from, England than she ever did, or 
 ever would, while dependent. Happy proof! which, 
 confounding the old and jealous maxims of exclusive 
 commerce, has revealed the true one, and has brought 
 it back to its attribute, freedom ; while they had so 
 perversely intrusted it to its natural enemy, restraint 
 and dependence. 
 
 Europe has but one interest with regard to her Co- 
 lonies—their prosperity : for in prosperity they will 
 produce and consume more, and every thing is in- 
 cluded in these two words. This teaches us to pass 
 from sentiments of hatred to those of generosity. The 
 welfare of the one makes that of the other : nothing 
 from its nature is so expansive as happiness, and in the 
 state of Europe, a kind of treasure open to all, what 
 other interest can they have than that of a common 
 prosperity? Thus Paris, London, and Amsterdam, 
 nmtually flourish and exchange their riches, without 
 understanding, and even without wishing it, but 
 through the necessary effect of the connexions which 
 necessity has formed between them ; the gains are in- 
 creased by the increase of these reservoirs of wealth* 
 Besides, such centres of riches contribute more power- 
 fully to the prosperity of their neighbours, than whole 
 states deprived of such reservoirs. Thus London 
 returns more to Paris than ten petty German states, 
 or ten departments in the centre of France ; and Paris, 
 in its turn, returns more to London than Switzerland or 
 Wirtemburg. Let us judge by this of what Europe 
 would gain by establishing, on territories now savage, 
 capitals such as these great cities, peopled by men who 
 carried with them their tastes and their arts, and 
 who should study to plant them there. If you mul- 
 tiply Philadelphia, or Boston — establish three or four 
 
THE COLONIES. 451 
 
 Mexicos, or Limas — as there, no doubt, will be by the 
 liberation of the Colonies — you will see what a move- 
 ment will be felt in the commerce of Europe, you will 
 see what torrents of gold and of silv'er will flow upon 
 her, from those opulent countries, restored to exertion, 
 and to the production of those riches, which lay hid 
 in their bosom. 
 
 Europe then, as a whole, has much to gain from the 
 new colonial system. Let us next enter into the 
 detail of the advantages of each state in particular. ; 
 
 Portugal has no Colonies : she has, therefore, every 
 thing to gain, and nothing to lose. 
 
 Holland gains a free access to the Colonies of the 
 whole world. What a vast field thus opened to her 
 industry, and at the same time to her active and 
 economical spirit! 
 
 England would lose her Colonies only in appearance, 
 and would gain all the rest in reality. We say that 
 the loss would be only nominal, since her superior 
 industry would preserve them to her ; under this rela- 
 tion, it is not the interest of the Colonies to separate 
 themselves from her. But England would principally 
 gain in this, that the abandonment of her Colonies 
 would besides permit her not to make the division of her 
 forces, and leave her to transport them where they are 
 most necessary — into India. The further England is 
 extended, the more it increases its sovereignty in 
 India, the more necessity is there to unite its strength 
 there; all which is spent on other Colonies, where it 
 is not wanted, is taken from Bengal, where it would 
 be so well placed. 
 
 The people of the north, and those which border on 
 the Baltic, have become navigators ; they have so- 
 
 2 G 
 
456 THE COLONIES. 
 
 briety, strength^ temperance in the pursuit of gain ; 
 and they know tliat profit consists not in greatness but 
 in being frequently repeated. The coasts of the Bal- 
 tic are covered with commercial towns, peopled with 
 men both iMelligent and industrious. Sweden and 
 Denmark have turned their attention to the sea ; Rus- 
 sia, which has not yet got emerged from the Baltic 
 and the Black Sea, and which has passed the last cen- 
 tury in extending and fixing the limits of her terri- 
 torial possessions, now arrived at their extremities^ has 
 only to give her attention to commercial and maritime 
 pursuits. All the people of the north have not Co- 
 lonies, and cannot have them ; there only remains for 
 therh, then, to tske a part in the great movement of 
 the commerce of the world, and it is by compacting 
 themselves with that of the Colonies that this can be 
 attempted ; the change which will take place then will 
 open them all to them. In the short space during 
 which the Spanish Colonies were open to the neuter 
 powers Tn virtue of a schedule of the Prince of the 
 Peace, in 1797? the HanseTownshad taken that direc- 
 tion and were rapidly advancing ; what will it be then 
 ivhen they can land at Mexico, Peru, or Havannah, 
 ks at Cadiz or Corunna ? The seas will be covered with 
 vessels, which, quitting the shores of the north of 
 Europe, shall steer towards America, as it is covered 
 with those of the United States sailing from America 
 towards Europe, and to all other parts of the world. 
 
 France has now scarcely any Colonies, or rather she 
 has none at all ; what she can still reckon are not 
 lohg destined to belong to her, and will have the fate of 
 those she formerly possessed. France, having nothing 
 to lose, has only to gain ; and for her resignation of 
 
4h^ pogsie^sipn of two ©r th^'^e, faqtori^^, will gain the 
 coHinrt^rce of the whole world : such a trifle woul(J 
 gain her immensity. ;♦ fo . 
 
 Europe on the who)^ 4;h€.P would gain from such ^ 
 
 €hangefi(>),rx)jxr. f ., j^n ^nvijj f;')f fsrif/ (iiiv. -v- 
 
 8pain still remains, which has the air of bearing all f 
 the burden. It may be; proper to inquire if the word • 
 lose be applied to that power in that terrific accepta- 
 tion which is always attached to it, and which Spain 
 certainly see? in it. Montesquieu has said that the '^ 
 Spaniards and the Turlcs were the best people in the 
 world for possessing empire uselessly ; and he had rea- 
 son. These tvyp state? are two great bQ4ies deprived 
 in the same degree pf the movements and principleis 
 of administration atjiid of life* Spain governs America 
 as Turkey governs Syria and Egypt; between a pa* 
 chalik and a Spanish congress there is no difference 
 but in name. Spain may splac^ herself in the nuixi- 
 her of crowns which adorn her brow, in the thought 
 that she is every where on which the sun shines, an4 
 that he is n^ver abseijit frp^nj her domains. All this is 
 .v^ry tine ; but it is not solid ; for i;a the number; <of 
 Colonies of which Spain boasts, there is but one whicii 
 is productive to her, Mexico-— which serves to sustain 
 the otlijers. The Philippines, Havannah, Porto Ricoo, 
 St. Domingo, the Floridas, Chili, Terra Firma, return 
 her nothing ; and are obliged for subsistence to derive 
 support from Mexico. Spain would gain infinitely by 
 the abandonment; for then she would enjoy all the 
 produce of Mexico. Peru scarcely produces annually 
 five millions ; Buenos Ayres, with an extent of 
 a43,QpO square leagues, does uot prpdpoe thrjee ipil* 
 lion^. 
 
454 THE COLONIES. 
 
 The general produce of the Spanish Colonies to the 
 royal treasure at Madrid is. .... , 45.000^000 francs. 
 
 We join to this the rights of the 
 customs to which the commerce 
 with America gives rise, 1 5,000,000 
 
 Total. . . . 60,000,000 
 
 Such is the sum which Spain fears to lose. Let us 
 examine the reality of the fear and of the loss. First, 
 as to the present moment, there is nothing to lose ; for 
 Spain no longer possesses America : she is fighting and 
 expending to regain possession of that well contested 
 territory. Mexico, disturbed, now sends nothing; 
 'commerce, arrested, no longer increases the customs 
 of Spain : things are arrived at such a pitch that 
 the commerce of Vera Cruz, which is every year a 
 concern of more than 1 00,000,000 f. ; in 1805, 
 could only send into Spain the paltry sum of 
 '60,000 f. 
 
 We might consider Spain as in the same condition 
 with her American possessions as France with St. 
 Domingo. Thus one might justly refuse to allow to 
 Spain what she had already entirely lost ; so that it is 
 no longer time for her to speak of what she has got to 
 lose. 
 
 But, admitting the reality of this loss, we must in 
 the first place deduct from it the produce of the duties ; 
 for, changing the dominion, the commerce would not 
 remain less ; and as it is undeniable that it does not 
 immensely increase, not only would it then be no loss, 
 but actually a gain, and, perhaps, ' in time the sole 
 amount of these duties would even exceed the total of 
 
THE COLONIES. 455 
 
 the loss which Spain so much fears. We have a proof of 
 this in the increase of the duties themselves, which 
 doubled in ten years when the liberty of commerce 
 was established between Spain and America from 177S 
 to 1788. 
 
 Let us go still further, and suppose as certain the 
 loss valued above at 60,000,000 f., would it be impos- 
 sible or even difficult to recover this with countries so 
 opulent as Mexico and Peru ? Does any one think that 
 such states would consider that they had bought their 
 liberty too dear, and the advantages which followed it, 
 by consenting to pay to Spain, during a certain num- 
 ber of years whether in one sum or by degrees, a sum 
 equal to that of the revenue which she was forced to 
 renounce ? We are in this calculation to observe two 
 things ; 1. That Spain would gain all the expenses of 
 her wars with America, of which there is not one 
 which does not absorb several years of her revenue : 
 2. That it is very probable that force would not gain 
 what an amicable arrangement would produce. So 
 much for the sovereignty of Spain. Let us now con- 
 sider her in a commercial view : — 
 
 She trades in two ways — with her own productions, 
 and with such foreign articles as she gives encourage- 
 ment to. The first belong to herself; the second are 
 the property of foreigners, by whom Spain makes no 
 other gains than those of the rent of the houses which 
 they occupy, and their daily consumption. Look at 
 the state of the commerce of Cadiz ; three fourths of 
 the mercantile houses in that city are foreign, and 
 the merchandize too. There is no profit to Spain 
 from this, but the transit. 
 
 As to her own productions, nothing ought to render 
 Spain fearful of losing a market for them. Will 
 America, because free^ cease to consume the articles to 
 
456 TPTE COLONIES. 
 
 which custom or taste had inclined her } Have the 
 United States, in their separation from England, dis* 
 continued the use of her productions? But America 
 will consume less. Qn the contrary, she will consume 
 more ; because, in becoming more flourishing, she will 
 have more to demand from the mother country ; such 
 is the example of the United States, which have con- 
 sumed in proportion as they have prospered, so as to 
 employ the magazines of England. It is from not 
 looking at the question in this view that the mother 
 countries have erred ; they fear a loss where they 
 might perceive their advantages multiplied, if they 
 would but look a little nearer ; an error which unfor- 
 tunately is common to them all. 
 
 As to the trade in foreign produce, for which Spain 
 is the intermediary passage, it would not lose more : it 
 would even gain, and for the same reason, that of the 
 increase of the prosperity of America, which would 
 produce a greater demand for the same articles ; a 
 spirit of stability, which is that of commerce, would 
 still preserve to Spain for a long time her relations : 
 commerce is the friend of custom, and is separated 
 from it with difficulty. 
 
 We may then assign to Spain an easy compensation 
 for her loss, or dissipate still more easily the fears 
 which she may conceive : the situation of Spain with 
 her Colonies does not leave her the liberty of choice 
 in her actions, they are now lost to her ; the Colonies 
 can only be regained by conquest, now impossible. In 
 this state of things Spain is not, and should not be, re- 
 garded as any obstacle to a good colonial arrangement. 
 All other countries have the most lively interest in its 
 execution. There is then nothing to obstruct the 
 dawning of a day which will be the most happy on6 
 of all those which have shone upon the world. 
 
THE COLt>NIES. ^57 
 
 CHAP. XXVHI. 
 
 ' Particular Considerations, 
 
 W HEN great revolutions, and prolonged commotions^ 
 have agitated the kingdoms of the earth, displaced 
 some, crushed others, rendered unnatural the existence 
 of several, cast down what had been, or what had be- 
 come, great ; wisdom directs that the troubles should 
 be prevented which so many opposing interests might 
 renew. The mind of man is not easily arrested in the 
 pursuit of what he has lost, and of what he conceives 
 to belong to him. 
 
 Twenty-five years of commotions, which had at one 
 time depressed what was elevated and again has elevated 
 what was depressed, have discovered and left in full 
 view interests, and also men, who, after being carried 
 by the stream of events to stations altogether un- 
 looked for by them, are no more, after having occupied 
 them, the same that they would have been, if they 
 had never been elevated. They do not exist by them- 
 selves alone, their families must continue them, and, 
 in some cases, circumstances have given them very 
 powerful holds upon society. 
 
 Would it be improper, or inconsistent with the in- 
 terests of Europe to give them places, under this 
 point of view, in the Colonies, which are no longer to 
 be found in Europe? We may sometimes throw off 
 with utility a load, the watching of which is both 
 troublesome and dangerous. An existence of half 
 grandeur and half humiliation is never a pledge of 
 
 6 
 
45% THE COLONIES. 
 
 security : things only which are well defined present 
 a true one. The colonial regions present their vacuum 
 as a remedy and preservative against the dangers of 
 Europe, Some persons prefer continuing to hate and 
 torment: we think it best to conciliate. There are 
 things which merely require to be pointed out to show 
 their utility, and on which circumspection does not 
 cease to be a duty, except when it has ceased to be an 
 act of necessity. 
 
 CHAP. XXIX. 
 
 Of the English Eonpijx in Lidia, and its Duration* 
 
 oINCE the Europeans have established themselves 
 in India, they have been occupied with two separate 
 interests — sovereignty and commerce ; their empire and 
 their money at once occupied their attention. 
 
 It appears a circumstance very strange in itself, 
 when we reflect upon the domination of some nations 
 in Europe over countries three or four thousand leagues 
 removed from them, as well as their driving out the 
 people, who do not even know the name of Europe, 
 who had done them no injury, and yet whom each 
 nation has arrogated to herself the right of subjugating, 
 or killing in case of resistance, for her interests of 
 power and conimerce. What would be said in Europe 
 of the Indians, had they done as much here ? 
 
 From this state of things, two consequences have 
 followed : 
 
fHE COLONIES. 4.59 
 
 1st, The necessity of extending the sovereignty, in 
 order to secure it. 
 
 2d, The necessity of securing it, in order to extend 
 the commerce of Europe with India. 
 
 The establishments connected with a government 
 are always expensive to form and to keep up. It is 
 even very rare that the receipts coming from a sove- 
 reignty equal the expense which it requires : what is 
 true in the heart of Europe, where almost no state, 
 beginning with England, can supply its ordinary ex- 
 penses from its ordinary revenues, ought, a fortiori, 
 to be true wfth respect to the Colonies. We may be 
 convinced of it, by reflecting on what some of her 
 Colonies have cost Spain : indeed without Mexico she 
 would have been obliged to have abandoned all of 
 them. On adding to this calculation that of the ex- 
 traordinary expenses of the colonial wars, we shall 
 find much to subtract from the products which Europe 
 has drawn from her Colonies, and not in consequence 
 of any inherent vice in these possessions, but from 
 the regime which she has introduced and maintained 
 against the nature of things. 
 
 The larger are the Colonies, and the farther they 
 are removed from the mother country, the greater is 
 the opposition of the natives, and the concurrence of 
 the resident Europeans in their sentiments : of course 
 the expenses of watching over them are increased. 
 Now let us see what has happened in India. All the 
 Europeans established themselves there at once ; all 
 had to combat the natives, and all fought with each 
 other: thus the expenses were double, and as they 
 came at once both from India and Europe, time gave 
 the victory to one nation, which remained the exclusive 
 master : this nation had, therefore, to support alone all 
 
480 THE COLONIES. 
 
 the expense&wbich were shared among all those which 
 it supplanted. Alone it bears the weight of the ani- 
 toad version of India : it was necessary for it to propor- 
 tion its means of defence to those of the attacks w^hich 
 menaced it ; and it became a conqueror that it might 
 not be expelled. Now every war made between the 
 natives and the Europeans must have this character ; 
 whereas the wars in Europe have a new political 
 object in view, and always terminate by leaving every 
 native where they found him. Tliey conquer, but 
 they do not expel : this ought to be well understood, 
 and it accounts for the progressive extent which Eng- 
 land has given to its empire in India. 
 
 Placed at a great distance from Europe, in the midst 
 of a hostile and more numerous population, with jea- 
 lous European rivals by their sides, the English have 
 acted in India as the French had done in the happy 
 days of Dupleix and La Bourdonnaye ; they have 
 placed themselves precisely in their place, and have 
 maintained and defended themselves as the French 
 had done and would have done. Every new attack 
 upon them created the necessity for a fresh conquest. 
 Thus the war with Tippoo Saib forced them to de- 
 stroy the empire of the Mysore. It was very evident 
 that this great Indian state was incompatible with a 
 great European state placed beside it : its vicinity ren- 
 dered it a more tempting acquisition, and in the end 
 it fell. The good genius of Europe in general pre- 
 sided over the downfal of Tippoo, for if he had 
 triumphed, he would not have been contented with 
 the expulsion of the English alone, but would have 
 purged India of all Europeans at once. What should 
 we do in Europe with conquered Indians, who had 
 disturbed us and tyrannized over us for 300 years ? 
 
THE COLONIES. 
 
 Having attained a high degree of favour, the English, 
 as every thing invited them to it, began to look aroucvd 
 them and to secure tvhatever cottld strengthen their 
 empire. For two centuries they remained fixed ovk 
 the sea coast, as all the European settlers had don« 
 before them : by the conquest of the Mysore they pe- 
 netrated into the country, and opened direct commu- 
 nications betvv^een their estabhshments on the opposite 
 coasts. The fall of Tippoo placed at their mercy the 
 petty princes of India, who found themselves as vt 
 wete shut up in the vast inclo«ure of the peninsula, 
 surrounded on all sides by English possessions, and 
 completely commanded by them with respect to po- 
 sition. Since that era, we have geen the English 
 occupied in securing themselves on the side of the 
 peninsula which borders on the states of the Mogul : 
 DOW they endeavour to support themselves by the 
 great rivers and high mountains which inclose the 
 peninsula on the north. In order to attain this object 
 they have advanced to Thibet in the last war with 
 Nepal. 
 
 The European establishments which are on the two 
 coasts are of no importance, and ought to be regarded 
 as mere mercantile counting houses and ware-rooms. 
 Thus the British empire in India is at once exclusive, 
 so far as the Indians and other Europeans are con- 
 cerned : the latter carry on their trade under great 
 disadvantages, for the following reasons : 
 
 1. The raw materials of India, as well as of Europe, 
 silk and cotton, are much cheaper in India where they 
 grow than in Europe where they must be imported. 
 
 2. The pay of the workman in India is must less 
 than in Europe. 
 
J.62 THE COLONIES. 
 
 The Indian experiences almost no want under a 
 serene warm sky, and with a fertile soil. It is in cold 
 countries, and in a humid soil^ that living is dear and 
 wants multiplied : how many wants created by winter 
 are banished by the spring ! Some bamboos, a little 
 rice, a coarse cloth of his own making, compose the 
 house, the food, and the dress of an Indian ; he is in 
 some measure clothed by the climate ; he has no taste 
 for luxuries, which the great only desire ; idleness is 
 the happiness of these peaceful beings. When poverty 
 and want knock at the door, a piece of cloth suspended 
 from palm trees soon furnishes the means of satisfying 
 them, and enables the owner to return to his beloved 
 state of sloth. The elements for such manufactures 
 are not costly ; the European manufactories could not 
 support a competition, peopled as they are with work- 
 men huddled together in establishments of expensive 
 construction, and living at an expensive rate. India, 
 subjugated by the arms of Europe, subjects Europe 
 in her turn to her manufactures, and her arts of peace 
 are as much transcendant over the arts of peace in 
 Europe, as the murderous arts of Europe are over 
 those possessed by India. 
 
 During a long period the commerce of Europe with 
 India was almost entirely effected by means of the 
 metals which Europe sent to India in exchange for 
 merchandize: this commerce impoverished Europe, 
 enriching those, however, who carried it on, almost in 
 the same way as the English articles of merchandize 
 enrich the Belgian, French, or German merchant, by 
 impoverishing Belgium, France, and Germany. All 
 these merchants are conspirators for foreigners against 
 their country. Thus, for two centuries, individual 
 
 2 
 
THE COLONIES. 46« 
 
 merchants and trading companies have been enriching 
 themselves and India, but impoverishing Europe. The 
 Dutch alone, in the space of fourteen years, took out 
 to India seven millions of sterling money. 
 
 There are two ways in wliich this drain may be 
 stopped: ]st, By the rights of sovereignty. 2d, By 
 the sale of the merchandize of Europe, in return for 
 that of India. 
 
 By the sovereignty two things may be done : 
 1st, Compensate the expenses of the sovereignty: 
 the receipts are supposed to pay the expenses. Thus, 
 if the East India Company receives from the sove- 
 reignty 'v^i.'vCX 100,000,000 fr. 
 
 And expends only 80,000,000 
 
 There remains 20,000,000 
 
 with which to pay the price of the merchandize 
 which it wishes to introduce : in this way the rights of' 
 sovereignty may come to the aid of commerce. Nony 
 let us see, so far as England is concerned, the products 
 of the sovereignty and those of commerce : this esti- 
 mate will give the just measurement of the value of 
 this empire, and will enable us to come at the solution 
 of the problem of its duration. 
 
 The products of the sovereignty 
 
 amount to 460,000,000 fv. 
 
 The expences to 483,000,000 
 
 Loss or deficiency 23,000,000 
 
 To this we must add the expenses which are borne 
 by the Treasury of England ; expenses which, in time 
 of war, cannot fail to be very great, so that, if the 
 Company had to pay all, it would be impossible that 
 it could, 
 
^^ THK COLONIES. 
 
 Caii<sequen,dj fcbis ,$pvereignty is 
 more burdensome than useful ; 
 
 _ _ the profits of the trade are 2O5OOO5OOO k. 
 
 From this deduct the interest of 
 ^he Ct3!03pany's capital, which 
 is 140 millions of francs, and 
 
 at 5 per cent, is ,......,. 7,000,000 
 
 The final result gives a free sum 
 
 of ... , . 13,000,000 
 
 : it is but fair to add tbe profits 
 annually brought to England 
 by the residents in India, who 
 return, and which Mr, Dundas * 
 
 estimated at 20,000,000 
 
 Thus this empire, purchased in 
 so many extraordinary Ways, 
 ^5;fbi [)y 5Q niatiy combats and la- 
 bours, is reduced to 33,000,000 
 
 Let us now inquire into the state of commerce 
 between India and Europe. 
 
 M. de Humboldt, whose calculations are always 
 accurate and cautious, in the fifth a'oI. of his work on 
 New Spain, fees the sum exported by the Cape of 
 
 Good Hope to Asia, at, 86,000,000 fr. 
 
 According to the same author, 
 the commerce with China ab- 
 sorbs a sum of 20,000,000 
 
 Supposing that five or six millions 
 stop on the Red Sea, or the 
 Persian Gulf, there will re- 
 main *. 60,000,000 
 
 In which sum Europe is tributary to India. 
 Here then, in short, we have the sum and substance 
 of the effects of the discovery and occupation of India* 
 
THE COLONIES. 465 
 
 It takes from Europe the precious metals which 
 America sends her. 
 
 Two important truths result from this calculation : 
 
 1. That India demands from Europe something 
 equivalent to 6o,OCX),000 fr. 
 
 2. That Europe will cease to have any interest in 
 the sovereignty of India, from the day in which she 
 makes her accept of sixty millions worth of her pro- 
 ductions, in payment of those which she receives from 
 her, and which she now pays in silver. 
 
 Here we see the solution of the problem of the 
 duration of the English empire over India : by the 
 English empire^ we mean the European empire, for 
 England there reigns in the name of Europe. 
 
 If England has wished to subjugate India for the 
 sake of her commerce, she may restore India to her 
 own sovereigns the instant that India will. accept of 
 as much merchandize as she sends out. Then the 
 sovereignty will be quite naturally changed into com- 
 mercial relations^ which will save all the expenses of 
 establishments, armies, and wars : this is what Eng- 
 land gained by her separation from the United States ; 
 her commerce with them was quintupled, and all 
 charges have ceased. The same sort of calculation is 
 to be applied on the present occasion ; and always ob- 
 trudes itself on every colonial question, as if to let ws 
 know the very point at which it may be advisable, tp 
 retain or give up those possessions. 
 
 From this state of things two questions present 
 themselves to our consideration, viz. 
 
 •1st. What is the interest of Europe with respect to 
 the sovereignty of India ? 
 
 2d. How is the same interest affected with regards 
 commercial intercourse with that country ? 
 
466 THE COLONIES. 
 
 Sovereignty in the colonial state, and principally ia 
 India, has but one object, namely, produce, not power; 
 for the Colonies are nothing more than farms belong- 
 ing to Europe, and not the direct means of power, as 
 the provinces of different states are with regard to 
 those same states. Colonies are desirable on account 
 of produce, and for commercial purposes, and so- 
 vereignty is nothing more thari^the means of preserv- 
 ing: and extending; them. 
 
 If sovereignty be the source of commerce, if it 
 serves to make up for its inequality, the value of so- 
 vereignty is doubled ; its benefits extend even to those 
 who do not share in it, but whose capitals it, in some 
 respects, preserves. Now^ in this viev/, the English 
 empire in India acts as the conservator of the interests 
 of Europe, by means of the rights of sovereignty which 
 it enjoys, and from the field which it opens to commerce 
 it saves Europe the loss of all that portion of her ca- 
 pital which would be necessary to replace the pro- 
 duce which are derived from those two sources ; , if, 
 for instance, English sovereignty is instrumental in 
 promoting an import trade of English produce into 
 India to the amount of 60,000,000 francs ; all that 
 part of this amount, which should not be derived from 
 -commerce, supported and produced by sovereignty, 
 would constitute an item against Europe, and would 
 operate proportionally in diminishing the mass of her 
 capital ; for it would be necessary to transmit a ba- 
 lance in money there to that amount instead of mer- 
 chandise. From the nature of the intercourse mu- 
 tually subsisting between the different nations of Eu- 
 rope wealth of every kind is, in some respects, com- 
 mon to them all, and no part of Europe can become 
 poor without its being sensibly felt by all the others. 
 
THE COLONIES. 467 
 
 Consequently, the extension of sovereignty by that 
 nation which can offer the Indians the greatest num- 
 ber of different articles to their taste, and which effects 
 this by means of its sovereignty, is applicable to 
 Europe as well as to that nation itself, and all Eu- 
 rope participates in its advantages. The only thing 
 that remains is to discover which is that nation, no 
 matter what name it bears, provided it certainly be 
 able to stretch its empire to the greatest extent, and 
 with it that species of taste which is best adapted to 
 spare European capital : nothing more is necessary 
 than a simple calculation, a calculation which all po- 
 litical and commercial data decide in favour of Eng- 
 land. If English sovereignly draws back, either by 
 itself or by means of its commerce, of which it is the 
 instrument, the 60,000,000 francs that Europe sends 
 to India, is not that sum a conquest which England 
 gives to Europe almost as much as to herself ? For it 
 is much better for Europe that her money should re- 
 main within herself, and even in England, from which 
 commercial transactions would be always certain of 
 drawing some part, than in India, where the whole 
 sum would always remain. If there are some who 
 would prefer enriching India rather than England, 
 we confess we do not feel ourselves Indians up to 
 this point. 
 
 This leads us to inquire whether the authority of 
 one nation alone in India be not more useful than that 
 of many. 
 
 This question is resolved by the local distance which 
 separates India from Europe, as well as by the moral 
 distance which separates the Indian from the Eu- 
 ropean. 
 
 Let us always keep in view the relations in which 
 
 2 H 
 
468 THE COLONIES- 
 
 Europe and India, and the Indian and European mu- 
 tually stand with respect to each other: the latter is a 
 foreigner, from a far distant country, carrying in his 
 train war, oppression, and slavery. In such a case 
 what must be the habitual disposition of India with 
 respect to those strangers ? Just the same as Europe 
 would feel were Indians to become the lawgivers of 
 Europe. It is unnecessary to state what she would 
 do the very moment she was able. It is the same with 
 India : The Indian suffers that which he cannot pre- 
 vent. Mild, timid, a stranger to the ardent passions 
 which cause the blood to boil in the veins of the Afri- 
 can, separated by barriers which manners render sa- 
 cred, namely, that of casts,^ he presents and bows a 
 head to a yoke which he knows not how to refuse to 
 any kind of slavery. The religious and political insti- 
 tutions of that country had, for a long time before, 
 prepared the way for the empire of Europe, by destroy- 
 ing among the people that mental spring which en- 
 ables them to resist oppression. But that which is 
 true of India in general, is not so of all the nations, 
 and all the sovereigns of India. The one and the other 
 have their enmities, their interests, their system of 
 policy, of which, by reason of their very docility, 
 they make the Indians the instruments. Now these 
 sovereigns, and these masters have not ceased to ma- 
 nifest the most hostile dispositions against the Euro- 
 peans : the Marattas have been engaged in continual 
 wars with them. If they form an alliance with any 
 of them it is not from friendship, but to make use of 
 their assistance against a more powerful enemy. If 
 they should happen to triumph by the means of such 
 assistance, will any one believe that it would be with 
 the intent of giving their allies the inheritance of that 
 
THE COLONIES. 46y 
 
 power which they assisted in puUing down ? What 
 would Tippoo Saib have done had he triumphed over 
 the English by the assistance of the French ; he who 
 caused one of his ambassadors to be murdered in 
 France in order to get rid of his statements respecting 
 such subjects as had attracted his attention in that 
 country r Let no one entertain any doubt on this 
 head ; the expulsion of the Europeans from India i^, 
 and always will be, the thought and the wish which 
 every Indian will cherish in his heart. Now, under 
 such circumstances, we must examine whether one 
 sole empire, erected on a strong foundation, and con- 
 structed in the most solid manner, be not a better 
 guarantee for the conservation of India in its interests 
 than the division of the country into several so- 
 vereignties, the essence of which would be mutual 
 jealousies, wars, and appeals to the natives for assist*- 
 ance against their adversaries. Have the European 
 powers which held possessions in India been otherwise 
 employed during 300 years ? India was parcelled out 
 among them : how did they then proceed ? If they 
 were not employed in exciting the princes of the coUn* 
 try against themselves, they were mixing them up a* 
 parties in all their quarrels, in all the secrets of their 
 policy, instructing them in their tactics, in all their 
 murderous knowledge, all of them, equally forgetting 
 that, besides the private interest of the Europeans* 
 those princes had the feelings of natives, namely thos€ 
 of indiscriminate enmity towards all foreigners esta^ 
 blished in their country. If, to the danger wdiich an 
 Indian army even now presents to Europe, kept in 
 order as they are by a handful of English scattered 
 among them, there were also added that of another 
 Indian army in the service of France, of anotlrer lo* 
 
 a H 2 
 
470 THE COLONIES. 
 
 dian army in the service of Holland, and of a fourth 
 in the service of Portugal, we would have an oppor- 
 tunity of seeing whether all those Indian armies would 
 remain long in the service of Europeans, and whether 
 the European ensign would not soon be replaced by the 
 Indian. Well ; such would be the danger of dividing 
 India into several sovereignties. What then were the 
 Europeans doing by arming and raising a multitude 
 of Indians to a level with themselves ? What were they 
 doing! They were organizing the avengers of India. 
 They were preparing the instruments of their common 
 expulsion, and a fate similar to that which they have 
 met with at Japan : instead of the empire of India 
 they would have found places assigned to them where 
 they were to pay their money and to take up the mer- 
 chandize which they were to receive in return, accom- 
 panied with every symptom of contempt, of distrust, 
 and of hatred. Europe has no reason to pride herself 
 on the attitude in which she appears at China or Ja- 
 pan : a more noble one would not await her if she 
 enabled the Indians to triumph over England. By 
 borrowing their assistance against England, would it 
 not be forging the instruments for the common de- 
 struction of all the Europeans ? But under the suppo- 
 sition of a general expulsion of the Europeans, either 
 all commerce with India must have ceased, or would 
 have been kept up with the precious metals, which 
 must have replaced the tributes which the sovereignty 
 of Europe exacts from India. It was therefore either 
 to be considered as an interdict pronounced against the 
 commerce of Europe, or an impost levied upon her in 
 favour of India. 
 
 The sovereignty of one power alone is a safeguard 
 against all such inconveniences. It excludes all leagues 
 
THE COLONIES. 471 
 
 — all intrigues with the princes of the country. It 
 renders one sole power sufficiently strong to resist their 
 attacks ; it is the safeguard of Europe in India, and 
 the only sure guarantee for retaining possession of that 
 country. 
 
 In the next place, how long is England to retain 
 possession of India ? The answer is obvious : until the 
 tastes of Europe have sufficiently penetrated into India 
 so as to establish an equality of commerce between 
 them. When arrived at this point, England will no 
 longer have any interest in retaining it ; on the con- 
 trary, she will have a great interest in abandoning that 
 country to itself; for all the expenses incurred by wars 
 in that country, and such others as result from so- 
 vereignty, and are not covered by its revenues, will 
 be so much clear gains. When that time comes, pro- 
 vided the Europeans continue to be received in India 
 in a commercial character, they have no more interest 
 in the territorial possession of it than in that of China 
 or of Turkey. In what respect is Europe injured by 
 not enjoying the sovereignty in those two countries ? 
 Consequently, that European calculation which Eng- 
 land should make is confined to the extending of a 
 taste for European produce, whether territorial or ma- 
 nufactures and works of art. Her dominion, well 
 understood, should be confined to that great result. 
 As soon as she has succeeded in disseminating Eu- 
 ropean tastes through India in such manner as to 
 form solid and equal * relations between them ; then 
 
 * It appears to me that the law which prohibits any British sub- 
 ject from acquiring landed property in India, and from establishing 
 themselves there, is directly contrary to the object which England 
 should propose to herself. So far from removing the Enghsh from 
 India, she should endeavour to establish them there. A million of 
 
472 THE COLONIES. 
 
 England might unfurl her sails, and shape her course 
 towards Europe, carrying off her soldiers, judges, go- 
 vernors, archives — all the instruments of a different 
 order of things_, and of other times, having peaceable 
 consumers, industrious traders in the place of such 
 expensive lumber, who would enable her to find more 
 treasures in their warehouses than her armies trans- 
 planted from one end of the world to the other, or 
 that machine of government, which sinks under the 
 weight of its complicated wheel-work, ever carry back 
 to her. England will gain, once. more, what she has 
 already gained by abandoning America, from which, 
 since the time she has withdrawn her crown and 
 sceptre, she has drawn five times the produce that she 
 did when she reigned over that country. 
 
 This revolution will be hastened by the terms last 
 granted to the commerce of India. It results from 
 the four acts passed on the 17th of December 1813, 
 by which all English subjects are admitted to a parti- 
 cipation in the India trade concurrently with the Com- 
 pany after the 10th of April 1814, with the exception 
 of the tea trade, and that to the ports of China. These 
 four acts have regulated the trade to India on a plan 
 entirely new. The Americans are admitted to some 
 parts of this trade. It is very probable that the pri- 
 vilege which the Company at present enjoys will be 
 the last which England will admit, and that the su- 
 periority of private trade will be established in such a 
 manner as that an exclusive trade of monopoly can no 
 longer take place. The trade may be safely intrusted 
 
 English established in India might have become independent, but 
 they would have continued to consume English produce, and to 
 send her goods in return, the only thing which she has need of, and 
 would have become the support of Jier authority. 
 
THE COLONIES. 473 
 
 to that ability and economy which private interest is 
 always sure to bestow on the trader. The exclusive 
 trade of India was the last refuge of that species of 
 commerce which has done so much harm in the world; 
 its last resource is gone. On this occasion we cannot 
 but admire the progress of civilization, which goes on 
 continually attacking in every direction the defor- 
 mities which prejudice and ignorance have created to 
 the detriment of the human species. It has purged 
 away those pirates from Africa which infested the seas 
 of Europe, and has forbidden Europe hereafter to de- 
 populate the coasts of Africa ; it is fighting in America 
 for the rights of an entire continent — opens India to 
 all the benefits of commerce regulated by the natural 
 interests of all those who will take a part in it. This 
 change in the commercial regulations of India will be 
 attended with the most important consequences to 
 England, to Europe, and to India. 
 
 Riches will increase from the relations which will 
 increase between the Europeans and Indians. The 
 latter, by taking part in the social institutions, from 
 which they were excluded, will enter, for the first 
 time, into the civil and political order: person and 
 property are now as well protected among them as in 
 Europe : commerce will procure them riches and in- 
 formation, w^hich latter will lead them to other ideas 
 than those which have governed them up to the present 
 time, and their separation from all foreign dominion 
 will be the necessary result. But, then, the commercial 
 relations, which will be established on true bases, will 
 have become so advantageous, that they will naturally 
 take the place of a sovereignty, which it will be im- 
 possible, for two reasons, to maintain, viz. its expense 
 and its inutility. 
 
474 THE COLONIES. 
 
 The opening India to private trade is the same thing 
 as the opening of the ports of Mexico and Peru, on 
 the part of Spain, would be to America; namely, 
 independence. On both sides it is equally in the 
 nature of things. 
 
 CHAP. XXX. 
 
 What will the United States become ? 
 
 X HE United States were recognized as free and in- 
 dependent thirty-four years ago, and behold how they 
 have increased in territory, population, and riches, 
 during that time! How rapid has been their flight! 
 What a space it embraces ! How the principle, or 
 spring, which urges this increase, still continues ; and, 
 in a word, how wonderful is that progress to which 
 neither ancient or modern history ever has presented 
 a parallel among rising nations. 
 
 To examine into the probable results of such an 
 increase cannot fail, therefore, to be very interesting. 
 
 We perceive, at the first glance, the first effect to 
 be a tendency to divide all America into two parts, of 
 which the one, that of the North, will be of the same 
 nature as the United States and the northern nations 
 of Europe ; and the other will be of the same nature 
 as the Spanish and southern states of Europe. 
 
 Canada and Nova Scotia belong to English manners* 
 The United States themselves are an England in 
 America, and are something more than England ; 
 
THE COLONIES. 475 
 
 for, established somewhat later than England, they 
 have been able, by availing themselves of the progress 
 of knowledge, to establish themselves on better plans 
 than England has, whose establishments, although the 
 best in Europe, are, however, the produce of times less 
 enlightened than those in which the United States 
 have been formed. That grand division of North 
 America will act, therefore, under the influence of the 
 manners and civilization of the northern nations of 
 Europe. On the other hand, all the second division, 
 peopled by the southern nations, will remain under the 
 moral influence of the south of Europe. The sove- 
 reignty will have changed, but the manners v\ ill have 
 remained, and, in the end, it is juannets , whic^ 
 teraine the destiny.jiLljations. America will conse- 
 quently be divided by two zones of manners, as 
 Europe is by two zones of climates, manners and 
 religion. 
 
 The territory of the United States has quadrupled 
 since 1778, their population has tripled, their com- 
 merce and navigation have received a still more con- 
 siderable augmentation : the American flag is every 
 where. With the exception of that of England^ it 
 vies in commerce with the flag of every nation of Eu* 
 rope, in their own port*. It is a real invasion. 
 
 The population of the United States was, on the 
 1st of October, I8I6: 
 
 Whites 7,000,000 
 
 Blacks , i 1,650,000 
 
 Exports which, in 1794, 
 
 amounted to 33,026,123 dollars. 
 
 Amounted in 180(), to 101,536,960 
 
 Ships engaged in commerce 12,000 
 
476 THE COLONIES- 
 
 Revenue 25,000,000 dollars. 
 
 Annual expenditure 19,500,000 
 
 Excess 5,500,000 
 
 If very little more than thirty-six years have been 
 sufficient to produce this, what will it be at the end of 
 one, or of two hundred years ? The picture of America 
 is incalculable : she is evidently destined to change 
 the face of the world. 
 
 According to the calculations of Franklin, calcula- 
 tions which have been realized, the population of the 
 United States should double every two and twenty 
 years. Let any man calculate, if he can, the effect of 
 this progression in a few ages : he will be under the 
 necessity of reckoning by hundreds of millions of 
 men.* 
 
 Nothing can stop it : the momentum which pro- 
 duced the first million will create the last, the facility 
 of obtaining subsistence, and the employment which 
 commerce and the arts will supply, increasing from 
 
 * Table of the probable increase of population in the United 
 States, during a period of sixty^nine years^ 'which is equal to two 
 generations : 
 
 In 1817 8,650,000 men. 
 
 In 1840 17,300,000 
 
 In 1863 34.,600,000 
 
 In 1886 69,200,000 
 
 And by continuing the progression, there 
 
 will be found in 1919 138,400,000 
 
 Or four-fifths of the population of Europe. 
 
 The annual increase of blacks is 210,000 
 
 and is entirely derived from internal causes, for emigration 
 hardly produces 4,000 annually in the United States, and almost an 
 equal number leaves them to settle in Canada, or other countries. 
 
THE COLONIES. 477 
 
 every thing which all the nations in the universe will 
 gain. For, from the laws of intercourse established 
 between them, every advantage which each acquires 
 becomes common to all the others. When indepen- 
 dence will have vivified Spanish America, the United 
 States will become partners in its prosperity by taking 
 part in its commerce, and will direct towards it thou- 
 sands of ships, which are now excluded, on account of 
 the present dependent state of that country. For 
 example, in proportion as Russia prospers, the more 
 the United States will carry to it, and take away from 
 it, and prosper in the same degree : it is this action 
 and re-action, that flux and re-flux of mutual corres- 
 pondence and exchanges, which multiply motion, and, 
 by means of it, population and riches. The United 
 States will, therefore,' increase with the happiness of 
 the whole world, and will take advantage of that hap- 
 piness. We may answer for them that they will. The 
 source, as we see, is large and abundant. 
 
 If the world has had much trouble in bearing the 
 weight of eighteen millions of English, pursuing power 
 in every direction, as a means of commerce, and com- 
 merce as a means of power, what will the world do 
 under the burden of an indefinite number of Ameri- 
 cans, put in motion by similar impulses, placed beyond 
 the repressive attacks of Europe, as well as freed from 
 the greater part of those boundaries, or of the ideas 
 which prevent developement among the Europeans. 
 The American is not an American of America, but an 
 American of England : an Englishman, pure and de- 
 purated, having retained, at a distance from his country, 
 the courage, the spirit, the activity, that aptitude for 
 labour and business, which in Europe distinguisli the 
 blood from which he has sprung. The American is 
 
47» THE COLONIES. 
 
 turned, as it were by instinct, towards the ocean, to- 
 wards commerce and navigation; through these it is 
 that grand careers open themselves to his view ; he 
 has^-obeyed the native impulse of his blood, which 
 directed him towards all maritime and commercial 
 speculations. Let mankind only feel wants and con- 
 sume ; the American asks no more, and the same 
 saying maybe appHed to him as to the Dutch, " Let 
 only commerce increase, and Dutchmen will in- 
 crease." 
 
 The United States have got possession of Louisiana, 
 and are prodigiously extended beyond the Apalachian 
 Mountains, and seem as if they would extend to the 
 coast of the South Sea. Their establishments turn 
 round Mexico, on its northern frontier, and there is 
 no doubt but they will endeavour to stretch the limits 
 of Louisiana to the great river Del Norte. When 
 England held the United States, she took care to add 
 Nova Scotia, or Acadia, by the peace of Utrecht, in 
 1713, and Florida by that of 1763. By this double 
 re-union England completely occupied the eastern 
 coast of America, from the Gulf of Mexico to the river 
 St. Laurence, and at the same epoch entered upon the 
 possession of Canada. She, in this manner, guarded 
 against the inconvenience of having foreign or hostile 
 possessions on both flanks of her Colonies : she fas- 
 tened these two arms to the body of her domains, and 
 fulfilled the wish traced out by nature. 
 
 The same plan will not escape the vigilance of the 
 United States. They have already began by taking 
 possession of the Floridas ; as for Acadia and Canada, 
 the United States will always endeavour to separate 
 them from England, either by conquest or by esta- 
 bUshing their independence. The low state of popu^ 
 
THE COLONIES. 47i> 
 
 lation in the United States has hitherto been the 
 means of Great Britain's retaining those two posses- 
 sions ; but when the increase of that population will 
 place an enormous mass of Americans at their very 
 doors, how can England be able to defend them ? 
 Acadia and Canada will have ceased to belong to Eng- 
 land on the day that the United States will be able to 
 establish an army of 50,000 men. The English will 
 find themselves in a position, with respect to the 
 Americans, equivalent to that in which they formerly 
 found themselves in France. They will be in the 
 same circumstances in Canada as they were in France 
 during the time that they held possession of Guienne 
 and Normandy ; as the Swedes were in Finland since 
 a Petersburgh existed, but with this difference, that 
 Guienne and Finland are situated only at the distance 
 of a few leagues from England and Sweden, whereas 
 the United States are by the side of Canada, and Eng- 
 land is distant a thousand leagues from it. 
 
 It is proper to add to this first consideration, that 
 of the relative expence which this war will draw on 
 the two countries ; it is very evident that any war in 
 America or Canada will stand England infinitely more 
 dear than the United States. It would be worthwhile 
 to discover how much the last war in Canada has cost 
 England. 
 
 It is then demonstrated, that in the course of some 
 time, either short or long, the United States, or Ame- 
 rican confederatism, will hold dominion over all North 
 America. 
 
 In such a state of things what will North America 
 become ? Will she remain united and republican ? 
 Is she destined to falsify the ancient principles which 
 assign the term of existence of every republic Jto^ its 
 
 O 
 
480 THE COLONIES. 
 
 overgrown extent ? The government which was so 
 well adapted to a population of from four to eight 
 millions of men, to an uniform and contracted terri- 
 tory, will it equally suit a population and extent of 
 territory much more enlarged ? When a great part of 
 the union shall find themselves placed behind vast 
 chains of mountains, such as the Apalachian, will not 
 every thing which exists on one side of that chain 
 be desirous of living independent of every thing 
 which exists on the opposite side? The contiguity of 
 the United States, when first formed, their situation 
 upon the sea, which facilitated their mutual commu- 
 nications, have contributed very much to their forma- 
 tion into one political body; but at present, when 
 these same States penetrate a great way into the coun- 
 try, when the distances have become immense, when 
 it is necessary to cross mountains of difficult access 
 for the purposes of communication, the states of the 
 union will be so circumstanced with respect to each 
 other as Italy and Spain are with respect to France. 
 Then their mutual ties will loosen from the force of 
 things; let the cable be ever so strong, were it even of 
 iron, it will sink down in the centre when it is too 
 much extended. The United States are not in a ii^ed 
 or settled condition ; they are in their growth ; that is 
 all that can be safely said of them ; but what will this 
 growth reach, and what will it produce ? Who can 
 place any bounds to it ? The American population 
 removes from one place to another with great facility, 
 makes settlements on indeterminable spaces of terri- 
 tory, it examines every point for the purpose of dis- 
 covering more effectually where settlements can be 
 most conveniently made. The grand outline is not as 
 yet formed ; but it will be formed, it will be filled 
 
THE COLONIES. 481 
 
 up, and when it is filled up is the very time that a 
 division will take place. Places that are now deserts 
 will see cities rise up to become the rivals of Phila- 
 delphia, and of Boston ; they will be erected as the 
 latter were erected 150 years ago, on the savage shores 
 of America. The inhabitants of these last, finding in 
 their limits every thing which the inhabitants of the 
 first found in their bosom when they wished to sepa- 
 rate themselves from England, will separate themselves 
 from Philadelphia as Philadelphia separated from Lon- 
 don ; there is no need to search at a distance for that 
 which is under one's hand. States over-extensive, 
 such as Russia, Spanish America, the United States, 
 only remain united because they are deserts ; people 
 them, and they will fall into divisions ! What govern- 
 ment can manage the affairs of 100,000,000 of men, 
 where is the eye capable of following the movement 
 of such a mass, the head capacious enough to direct, 
 or the arms strong enough to keep it within bounds }^ 
 The day that Russia will be able to reckon such a po~ 
 pulation she will submit to division, and the great 
 strides which she has made in Europe, and in civiliza- 
 tion, are nothing more than a preparation for a division 
 into several states. "^ 
 
 * China is not otherwise an exception to the rule than as far as 
 that country is an exception to every thing. 
 
 Government depends more on manners than on men, on cere- 
 monies than on positive laws; and in China more is done in the way 
 of imitation than from positive orders. 
 
 t We are desirous of strengthening these conjectures by the evi- 
 dence of a writer who has published a work in which the author, in 
 painting the talents and virtues which have done honour to the 
 founders and first agents of the American republic, has traced out 
 his own, and the qualities of a character which appears to belong to 
 ancient times. The following is a quotation from a work entitled Plot 
 of Arnold against the United States, " It is in vain to dissemble the 
 
482 THE COLONlt:s'. 
 
 In tlie extreme and highly improbable case of the 
 United States holding together, assuredly the govern- 
 ment must change, or if not, the notions of every 
 thing which governs men must have changed, and it 
 seems conformable to every rule of probability, that 
 the United States will do that which England ought to 
 have done, in erecting a throne in America, instead of 
 being at the expense of 1 00,000 men, and 2000,000,000 
 of livres, to maintain her own there, contrary to all 
 reason and probability. It is very evident that the 
 United States will do that which France in its turn 
 should have done — by establishing a French Prince in 
 Canada, instead of making it an English province by 
 endeavouring to keep it a French one. It will belong to 
 the United States to repair those capital mistakes. The 
 United States have exposed royalty to great danger by 
 the imitation of their Congress, which extends over all 
 America : it may make shipwreck of Spain in that part 
 of the world ; and that great spectacle, blazing forth 
 before the eyes of all the world, given by the same 
 
 opposition which exists between the interests of different states, and 
 it will not always be an easy matter to put a stop to it. The north- 
 ern states are peopled by an enterprising, robust race, familiarized 
 to navigation and the dangers of the sea ; they acquire riches by 
 commerce, and look upon it as the most solid base of their pros- 
 perity. The people of the south are less economical, more ha- 
 bituated to the enjoyments of luxury, more generally addicted to 
 agriculture, and do not attend much to commerce; and the maxims 
 which they follow in the management of affairs are more elevated. 
 These discordances may be attended with very unfortunate conse- 
 quences to the public interest. One may wish for war when the 
 others may desire peace, and vice versa ; in a word, they will never 
 be seen directing their attention uniformly to the same object, and 
 this divergence will have the effect of retarding and obstructing the 
 march of public affairs. But the diversity of interests is an evil in- 
 herent in states of an immense extent. 
 
THE COLONIES. 48S 
 
 country from which she receives her riches, is of a 
 nature to make an impression on the minds of men, 
 such as the rules of wisdom order us to guard against 
 at any price. 
 
 It will he curious to observe how those who have 
 had so little foresight will repair their mistakes when 
 the event takes place ; but then a cry not less loud 
 will be uttered than if it had been under the safeguard 
 of impossibility itself. 
 
 If there be any thing more astonishing than this 
 spectacle, it is the passiveness of those who assist in 
 it without seeming to understand any thing about it. 
 
 CHAP. XXXI. 
 
 Colonial Establishments. 
 
 After having said that it is necessary to form Co- 
 lonies, is it not, also, proper to state what should be 
 done for them ; and would not this work be incom- 
 plete without such an article, for the conclusion of 
 which the nature of the subject seems to have reserved 
 it, as the painter and artist reserve shading and orna- 
 ments until they are putting the last hand to their 
 performances. 
 
 The European establishments all savour strongly of 
 the epoch of their formation ; the arts were then in 
 their infancy, especially such as relate to the enjoy- 
 ments of life, or even of domestic economy. In dis- 
 tant times, for instance, men lived apart from each 
 
 2 I 
 
484. THE COLONIES. 
 
 other, dwelling in frightful cities destined rather for 
 their defence against the enemy than for convenience ; 
 old cities therefore present almost every vs^here a hidi- 
 oils aspect. There are none in Europe really hand- 
 some but those lately built ; which is the reason that 
 they almost every where present beautiful suburbs by 
 the side of very ugly towns ; their contiguity exhibits 
 a more correct and striking contrast of the difference 
 of the two ages, and may be used as a model. That 
 which happened in the interior of the habitations of 
 Europe took place in every thing else ; every thing was 
 therefore uncouth and gross. She transported her igno- 
 rance and want of taste to the Colonies ; they were 
 therefore organized on defective plans like their mo- 
 dels. A new day has shone forth on Europe, the arts 
 have driven away ignorance, taste has replaced bar- 
 barism, and every thing which is dated within the 
 space of 100 or 150 years back is marked by succes- 
 sive degrees of taste, elegance^ and convenience. 
 These then are the things which must be sent to the 
 Colonies in like manner as the bad taste of former 
 times were formerly transported there. One will cost 
 no more than the other : the new states have models of 
 both in the new world itself : of the first, on the Spanish 
 continent; of the second, in the United States. When 
 the Spaniards arrived in America they found no habita- 
 tions which could suit them, nothing which could put 
 them in mind of their country: for we must utterly reject 
 the false descriptions and fabulous statements about the 
 splendid monuments of the new worlds, upon which sub 
 jects the pompous style of Spanish writers has des- 
 canted in the most unbounded manner. The truth is, 
 the Mexicans and the Peruvians were equally ignorant. 
 
THE COLONIES. 485 
 
 equally unprovided with monuments and with the 
 means of raising any ; because, like most other savage 
 nations, or nations in their infancy, they had not the 
 least notion of the most common instruments, they 
 were not even acquainted with the use of the saw and of 
 the hatchet, without which there are neither arcliitects 
 nor houses. The Spaniards were therefore under a neces- 
 sity of building the towns which they now inhabit. 
 They took advantage of the unoccupied space and of 
 the want of old foundations to build there commodi- 
 ously and according to uniform plans. This is what 
 has given to the towns of the Spanish continent a 
 greater degree of regularity and convenience, as well 
 as situations more happily chosen than to the towns of 
 Old Spain. The conquerors endeavoured to fix and 
 to generalize these beneficent dispositions in their new 
 possessions by the means of law ; and there is no doubt 
 but, had they been punctually executed, America 
 would have presented a more pleasing aspect from its 
 regularity and from its decorations. The United 
 States have also fixed upon sites and plans for new 
 towns destined to rise upon their soil : they have made 
 all the necessary regulations for adding at once ele- 
 gance, beauty, and convenience to their country ; 
 nothing has been omitted, and in the lapse of time, 
 America will present the unheard of spectacle of an 
 immense country laid out as it were with a line. 
 
 The new states will of course follow these examples, 
 not being embarrassed in any degree by old buildings, 
 which always operate as a constraint or confinement 
 when new ones are to be erected ; they can display on 
 their free soil the genius of Europe, her taste and her 
 arts : they are at liberty to choose models in all coun- 
 tries, and to apply them at home in such a manner as 
 
 '111 
 
486 THE COLONIES. 
 
 may suit their respective localities, to generalize the in- 
 stitutions which decorate certain states or only certain 
 parts of those states. Europe will not have, for so 
 long a time and so painfully, preceded her Colonies in 
 the career of civilization, but for the purpose of 
 carrying it to them all at once ; and that gift, the fruit 
 of her long labours, will be, at once, the acknowledg- 
 ment of gratitude for what she has received from 
 them, and an expiation for every thing which she has 
 committed against them. Europe should also second 
 the action of her Colonies by all the institutions ap- 
 plicable to those countries — a matter for which she 
 has to reproach herself as never having thought of it 
 before. As long as the Colonies belonged to her she 
 never thought of forming a truly colonial establish- 
 ment, not so much as one set apart for the education 
 of the Colonists, as well as for discovering remedies 
 for such diseases as are peculiar to them, for acquiring 
 a knowledge of the manner in which their respective 
 productions are to be cultivated, for naturalizing the 
 productions of the parent states in the Colonies, for 
 the education of a certain number of men whose 
 studies should be exclusively directed towards them, 
 and who would prepare themselves in that manner to 
 take a part in the government of them. The parent 
 states were, however, very much interested in the for- 
 mation of such establishments ; they would have ren- 
 dered them great advantages as well by inviting to 
 their bosoms a great number of Colonists, as by pre- 
 serving a multitude of men, the victims of ignorance 
 and the most defective methods of treatment ; for it 
 is well known that the Colonists obtain no more than 
 the refuse of the schools of Europe, either to take care 
 of their health or for their other wants. What would 
 
THE COLONIES. 487 
 
 not the parent states have gained by extending the 
 knowledge of colonial productions at home as well as 
 by giving their own productions to the Colonies ? 
 Would not this new kind of commerce and exchange 
 have been the most precious of all ? Would it not have 
 been equally useful to the Colonies and to Europe ? 
 The new arrangement enables them to repair that neg- 
 lect: the Colonies, divided into several states, will be bet- 
 ter known in proportion as they become more populous; 
 they will stand in more need of Europe in everything 
 that belongs to education, to sciences, and the arts. For 
 a long time to come these new countries will not have 
 within themselves the talents or knowledge which 
 their different employments require. Empires do not 
 commence with academicians, but with cultivators; 
 population and settlement are the first objects ; study 
 succeeds, and science arrives to improve and adorn the 
 edifice : such is the g-radation of civilization. The 
 United States, founded by a very enlightened people, 
 and having possessed such men as Franklin, and pos- 
 sessing many other well informed men, still feel this 
 want of masters; the new states will feel the same 
 wants for a long time to come, and Europe, if she 
 know how to take advantage of it, may still enjoy 
 their infancy for a considerable period. Have we not 
 seen Brazil borrowing her instructors from France, 
 with which she could not be supplied within herself? 
 Why might not establishments be formed in Europe 
 capable of attracting the Americans, by enabling them 
 to find methods of instruction here, which as yet they 
 have not among themselves ? What spectacle is more 
 grand, and at the same time more satisfactory, than 
 that which the Peruvian, the Mexican, the Creole of 
 the Antilles, would present when assembled together^ 
 
488 THE COLONIES. 
 
 from their love of science, in the same places of in- 
 struction — meeting the productions of their climates 
 cultivated by the hands of those to whom they them- 
 selves came in order to have their minds cultivated ? 
 What a novel career is opened to study by the research 
 and development of all such parts of instruction as 
 relate to the Colonies ? How delightful to a feeling mind 
 to see the remedies for the peculiar diseases with which 
 nature has afflicted the colonial regions prepared in 
 his own country, and the Old World labouring to give 
 back to the New those preservatives which she re- 
 ceived from it for the relief of her own inhabitants ? 
 May all their contentions be confined to such peace« 
 able exchanges of kind offices. 
 
 Europe would have to take one step more to com- 
 plete her work in favour of her Colonics, namely, to 
 promote the increase of their population ; she would 
 be working for her own advantage. By giving inha- 
 bitants to the Colonies, she would provide consumers 
 for her own productions ; she would frequently disen- 
 cumber herself of the excess of her population, an in- 
 strument of harm upon her own soil, of prosperity on 
 that of the Colonies. He who loads the lands of Eu- 
 rope with an useless or dangerous weight, becomes an 
 industrious cultivator in America, a father of a family 
 as friendly to morals as he might have been hostile to 
 them in Europe. But we are not contemplating those 
 cargoes of men taken without selection, heaped to- 
 gether in infected ships, thrown without precaution 
 upon those murderous regions which have quickly de- 
 voured whole swarms of jiupes, deceived by sharpers, 
 and conducted by the blind : no, no, we could never 
 entertain a thought of renewing a measure which might 
 recall similar horrors, but to remove every barrier 
 
THE COLONIES. 489 
 
 wliich would obstruct their passage towards the Colo- 
 nies ; and, that no apprehensions might be entertained 
 from this imperceptible efflux of inhabitants, it will 
 never amount to 20,000 men a year : and what is this 
 quantity to all Europe? In the year of the greatest emi- 
 gration to America it did not amount to more than 
 5,000 men. The inhabitants which Europe has ceded 
 to the Colonies have not dispeopled her; for when she 
 has sent one man to the Colonies, it has been the 
 means of causing two to spring up in Europe. 
 
 Europe should, on this occasion, never lose sight of 
 the interest which she has in augmenting that popu- 
 lation which is properly her own ; for it has the same 
 taste as that of Europe, which is the only thing that 
 concerns her. Men, who are strangers to her tastes, 
 would be the same to her as nonentities ; and, if we 
 except the sacred character of humanity, the animal 
 which supports man and clothes him with its fleece is 
 more useful to him than the stupid savage who spends 
 his sad days in a drowsy apathy, which estranges him 
 from all the world beside. 
 
 Such are the ideas which the consideration of this 
 great question of the Colonies, and that of its connec- 
 tion with the general interests of Europe, and of the 
 world, have suggested to us. It could not possibly be 
 taken up under more favourable circumstances. The 
 barrier of prejudice is broken down : the old spirit of 
 monopoly has been obliged to yield to the true princi- 
 ples of commerce : no obstacle can any longer oppose 
 the march of the human mind and human industry. 
 . Our wish is to persuade all governments to permit those 
 happy dispositions to act; we have only one request to 
 make, which is, not for them to do any thing, but 
 simply for them not to prevmt others ; the whole art 
 
490 THE COLONIES. 
 
 and mystery is entirely comprehended in this at the 
 present time. We shall here conclude with expressing 
 a sentiment which is deeply impressed upon our hearts, 
 which is, that if it were permitted to regret life, or to 
 wish to return to it, it would be not to be deprived of 
 the spectacle which the world will present after the 
 entire accomplishment of that revolution which is now 
 in progress in America. If our ancestors saw every 
 thing change around them in consequence of the dis- 
 covery of that country, our posterity will be witnesses 
 of many other changes, in consequence of what it feels 
 at the present moment : 
 
 Magnus ab integro sceclorum nascitur ordo* 
 
 We think the following extract from M. de Hum- 
 bolt's publication, very well calculated to throw some 
 light on what is going forward in America at present. 
 The information and judgment of this celebrated tra- 
 veller are the best guides which can be followed in 
 the affairs of this country : no other European has 
 spoken of them with such accuracy ; and it may be 
 said that his work on New Spain is a new discovery 
 of Mexico. 
 
 We are also of opinion that we shall gratify the 
 reader by inserting an extract from a report to the 
 English Parliament, on the 10th of April, 1802, on the 
 situation of the East India Company. 
 
 I. " The internal tranquillity of Mexico has been very 
 seldom disturbed since the year 1596, when, under 
 the Viceroy, Count de Monterey, the power of the 
 Castillians was confirmed, from the Peninsula of Yu- 
 catan and the Gulf of Tchuantepee to the sources of 
 
THE COLONIES. 491 
 
 the river Del Norte, and to the coasts of New Cali- 
 fornia. There were insurrections of Indians in l60], 
 1609, 1624, and 1692. In the last, the palace of the 
 Viceroy, the mansion house of the mayor, and the 
 public prisons, were burned down by the natives, and the 
 Viceroy, Count de Galvez, could find no security but 
 in the protection of the monks of the Order of St. 
 Francis. Notwithstanding those events, caused by a 
 want of subsistence, the Court of Madrid did not con- 
 sider itself under any necessity of augmenting the 
 troops in New Spain, in those times when the union 
 between the Mexican and European Spaniards was 
 even close : the mistrust of the mother country was 
 solely confined to the natives and mestizoes, or those 
 of mixed breed ; the number of white Creoles was 
 so very trifling, that from that very circumstance they 
 were reduced to make common cause with the Euro- 
 peans. It is to that state of things that the tranquilHty 
 must be attributed, which prevailed in the Spanish 
 Colonies, when, after the death of Charles II, foreign 
 princes were contending for the possession of Spain. 
 The Mexicans, at that epoch, at first governed by a 
 descendant of Montezuma, and afterwards by an arch- 
 bishop Mechoachan, remained tranquil spectators of 
 the great contest between the houses of France and 
 Austria. The Colonies patiently followed the lot of 
 the mother country ; and the successors of Philip V 
 did not begin to fear the spirit of independence which 
 manifested itself in New England so long back as the 
 year 1743, until the grand confederation of free states 
 was formed in North America. 
 
 '^ The apprehensions of the court were still further 
 increased when, a few years before the peace of Ver- 
 sailles, Gabriel Condorcanqui, the son of the Cacique 
 
 1 
 
492 THE COLONIES. 
 
 of Tongasma, better known under the name of Tupac 
 Amaru, excited a rebellion among the aboriginal in- 
 habitants of Peru for the purpose of establishing the 
 ancient empire of the Incas at Cusco. That civil 
 war, during which the Indians exercised the most 
 atrocious acts of cruelty, continued almost two years; 
 and if the Spaniards had lost the battle in the pro- 
 vince of Tinta, the daring enterprise of Tupac Amaru 
 would have been attended with fatal consequences, not 
 only to the mother country but probably to the exis- 
 tence of all the whites established on the elevated 
 plains of the Cordilleras and those in the neighbouring 
 vallies. However extraordinary that event may ap- 
 pear, ^ts causes were not at all connected with the 
 movements to which the progress of civilization and 
 the desire of a free government had given birth among 
 the Colonies. Isolated from the rest of the world, 
 holding no sort of communication but with the ports 
 of the mother country, Peru and Mexico took no part 
 in the ideas which then agitated the inhabitants of 
 New England. 
 
 '^ During those twenty years back the Spanish and 
 Portuguese establishments in the new world have ex- 
 perienced considerable changes in their moral and po- 
 litical condition. The want of instruction and infor- 
 mation has been felt in proportion as population and 
 prosperity have increased. The liberty of trading 
 with neutral powers, which the Court of Madrid, in 
 obedience to imperious circumstances, has, from time 
 to time, granted to the island of Cuba, to the coast of 
 the Caraccas, to the ports of Vera Cruz and Monte 
 Video, has placed the Colonists in contact with the 
 Anglo-Americans, with the French, the English, and 
 the Danes. The Colonists have formed more correct 
 
THE COLONIES. 4m 
 
 * 
 
 ideas with respect to the state of Spain, compared with 
 that of the other powers of Europe, and the young 
 men of America, sacrificing a part of their national 
 prejudices, have conceived a marked predilection for 
 such nations as are in a more cultivated state than old 
 Spain. Under such circumstances it cannot excite 
 astonishment, that the political movements which have 
 taken place in Europe since 1789, have excited the 
 most lively interest among men who have long aspired 
 to rights, the privation of which is, at once, an obstacle 
 to public prosperity, and a motive of resentment 
 against the mother country. 
 
 " This disposition of men's minds impelled the vice- 
 roys and governors in some of the provinces to adopt 
 measures which, so far from calming the agitations of 
 the Colonies, contributed to add to their discontent. 
 Some thought they saw the germ of revolt in every 
 association, the object of which was the propagation of 
 knowledge. Printing presses were prohibited in towns 
 of from forty to fifty thousand inhabitants; peaceable 
 citizens who Jiad retired to the country, and were 
 reading the works of Montesquieu and Robertson, or 
 of Rousseau, were suspected of revolutionary ideas. 
 When war broke out between France and Spain, 
 the unfortunate Frenchmen who had been living in 
 Mexico twenty or thirty years, were dragged to prison. 
 One of them, apprehensive of seeing the barbarous 
 spectacle of an auto-de-fe renewed, committed an act 
 of suicide in the prison of the Inquisition : his body 
 was burned in the public square of Qiiimadero. At 
 the same epoch, the government thought they disco- 
 vered a conspiracy at Santa Fe, the capital of the king- 
 dom of New Granada ; individuals were put in irons 
 who, in the way of trade with the island of St. Do- 
 
494 THE COLONIES. 
 
 mingo, had procured some French journals ; youths 
 of sixteen years of age were put to the torture for the 
 purpose of extorting secrets from them of which they 
 had no knowledge. 
 
 ** In the midst of these agitations, respectable magis- 
 trates, (the recollection of it is pleasant), and they too 
 Europeans, raised their voices against these acts of in- 
 justice and violence ; they represented to Court that a 
 mistrustful policy was attended with no other effect 
 than that of souring men's minds, and that it was not 
 by force and by augmenting the number of troops 
 composed of natives, but by an equitable government, 
 and by improving the social institutions, and by com- 
 plying with the just demands of the Colonists, that the 
 ties which united the Colonies to the mother country 
 might be made still more fast. Such salutary council 
 was not followed, the colonial 7'egime underwent no 
 reform ; and in 179(3, in a country where the progress 
 of knowledge had been favoured by frequentcommuni- 
 cations with the United States, and the Colonies of 
 the Antilles, which belonged to foreign nations, a 
 great revolutionary movement was on the point of ex- 
 terminating the sovereignty of Spain. A wealthy mer- 
 chant of Caracas, Don Joseph Espana, and an officer of 
 engineers, Don^Manuel Wall, residing at Guayra, con- 
 ceived the bold project of making the province of 
 Venezuela independent, and of uniting to it the pro- 
 vinces of New Andalusia, of New Barcelona, of Ma- 
 racaybo, of Coro, ofVarinas, and of Guyana, under 
 the name of the United States of South America. 
 The details of that unsuccessful attempt at revolution 
 have been related in DeporCs Voyage to Terra Firma. 
 The accomplices were arrested before the general rising 
 could take place. Espana, led to execution, saw the 
 
THE COLONIES. 495 
 
 approach of death with the courage of a man formed 
 for the execution of great projects. Wall died at Tri- 
 nidad, where he found an asylum but no assistance. 
 
 " Notwithstanding the peaceable character and the 
 extreme docility of the people in the Spanish Colonies ; 
 notwithstanding the peculiar situation of the inhabi- 
 tants, who, dispersed over a country of vast extent, 
 enjoy that personal liberty which always arises from 
 living a very solitary life, political convulsions would 
 have been more frequent since the peace of Versailles, 
 and especially since 1789, if the mutual hatred of the 
 casts, and the fear which the vast number of Blacks 
 and Indians always excites in the minds of the Whites, 
 had not arrested the efforts of popular discontent. 
 These motives, as we have shown at the beginning of 
 this work, are become still more strong since the 
 events which have happened in St. Domingo, and we 
 cannot doubt for a moment that they have contributed 
 more powerfully to maintain tranquillity in the Spa- 
 nish Colonies than measures of rigour and the embo- 
 dying a militia, the number of which at once amounted 
 to more than 40,000 men, and in the island of Cuba 
 to 24,000. The augmentation of the armed force 
 more strongly indicates the growing distrust of the 
 parent state, from the circumstance of there being no 
 troops of the line in the Caraccas before the year 17 68, 
 and that in the kingdom of Santa Fe during more than 
 two centuries and a half the government had felt no 
 want of an armed force of any kind. A militia was 
 not embodyed before 1781^ when some popular com- 
 motions were excited upon the introduction of the 
 plan of forming the revenues on tobacco, and also of 
 a tax upon brandy." 
 
406 THE COLONIES. 
 
 II. Extract from a Report made to the English 
 Parliament. 
 
 " After having reminded the House that the obser- 
 vations hitherto made on the important and multiphed 
 transactions which have been carried on, and on the 
 i-esults produced, have had the interests of the East 
 India Company more particularly for their object, your 
 Committee will now examine the influence which those 
 transactions have had on the general prosperity of 
 Great Britain, and it will be found that the results are 
 still more satisfactory than those which have been sub- 
 mitted to inspection, when their reference to the sepa- 
 rate interests of the Company were alone considered. 
 
 " The amount of the price of the goods and manu- 
 factures of all kinds, exported by the East India Com- 
 pany to the East Indies, to China, and St. Helena, 
 from 1791-9^, till 1807-08, was 29,24/l,'227/. sterK 
 The net sum, allowing for captures, was 28,791,967/. 
 sterl. Tiie money exported in the same time, amounted 
 to. 9,434,042/. The whole of the exports, during that 
 period, consequently amounted to 38,226,009/. The 
 returns in India and Chinese goods, consigned to 
 England, amounted to 50,754,400/. The Custom- 
 House duties paid on those goods, the amount of 
 which was not comprehended in the invoice, might be 
 estimated at 2,916,279/. which makes the whole value 
 of the returns 63,670j679/. in which the sum of 
 1,371,778/. is not included, the probable amount of 
 the losses sustained by captures. It may, therefore, 
 be concluded that England has received in goods, from 
 India and China, a balance above h^r exports to that 
 
THE COLONIES. 49* 
 
 country, to the amount of 155444,670/. But the result 
 of the commercial transactions with the East Indies 
 might be rated much higher, were it possible to dis- 
 xiover, with equal certainty, the amount of the im- 
 portations and exportations, which take place in the 
 privileged and the private trades, respectively. 
 
 " On this head we can furnish nothing more than 
 such approximating data as are founded on the pro- 
 portion which exists between the first cost and the 
 selling price of the Company's goods. The amount of 
 the sale of goods, arising from the private, privileged, 
 and neutral trades, has been 37,794,875/. It is im- 
 possible to state at present, with any positive degree of 
 assurance, that these goods were purchased by the 
 means of exports from England; but there is no 
 manner of doubt that this purchase has been made at 
 a price far below the first cost which we have laid 
 down. Whatever may have been the value of the 
 exportations which have taken place, the difference be- 
 tween it and the sum of 20,700,000/. is to be added 
 to the conclusion already estabhshed ; namely, the 
 advantage which England has derived from the balance 
 of her exportations and importations ; which must be 
 still further augmented from the transfer of capital, 
 which is done in different ways between India and 
 England, the amount of which cannot be ascertained 
 with any absolute certainty. 
 
 " Were it possible to establish and demonstrate 
 those conclusions by positive calculation, the advan- 
 tages which Great Britain derives would appear much 
 more considerable. The same difficulty does not, how- 
 ever, prevent us from showing the increase which 
 takes place in the circulation of wealth, and the bene- 
 fits which India and England have derived from it, at 
 
 1 
 
49S THE COLONIES. 
 
 the same time. The industry of the inhabitants of 
 India has received great encouragement, and has been 
 considerably extended by the circulation of 46,000,000/. 
 sterl. among them, or of 2,700,000/. annually added 
 hy the purchase of the goods, which are required to 
 supply England. 
 
 '* The produce and manufactures of India, with 
 which that sum is purchased, joined with those of 
 China^ which have been sold in England, have created 
 a market for sale, which has amounted to 141,000,000/. 
 or 8,000,000/. a year. The distribution and circulation 
 of the riches resulting from this commerce may be 
 established in the following manner : 
 
 Purchased of English produce and 
 
 manufactures ^ 29,000,000 
 
 Expended on English ships and 
 
 vessels 25,000,000 
 
 In payment of bank notes 24,000,000 
 
 In the purchase of silver, the im- 
 portation of which may be con- 
 sidered as payment for articles 
 of English manufacture 9,400,000 
 
 Disbursed in the discharge of du- 
 ties in England 11 ,600,000 
 
 In dividends to the holders of 
 stock, and the payment of in- 
 terests for bonds in circulation. , . . 12,500,000 
 
 " The sale of goods in the private trade, and pro- 
 perly belonging to neutrals, has amounted to about 
 37j800,000/. It may be thought that this estimate is 
 too high by about 4,000,000/.; but if there be no 
 way of determining the destination of the remaining 
 
THE COLONIES. 499 
 
 sum, amounting to 33,800,000/. the distribution of 
 that sum, and the manner in which it is employed, 
 may be assigned with tolerable precision. 
 
 " It has been shewn that the customs, levied by 
 the Company on imports, and employed in providing 
 for the ordinary expenses of government, amount to 
 39,300,000/. and those upon exports to 66o,000/. — 
 Total 391,960,000/. 
 
 '^ All these different sums, taken together, prove 
 that, in the lapse of seventeen years, 10,900,000/. 
 per annum, have been put into circulation, through 
 different channels, in the interior of the United King- 
 dom ; that its manufactures have been encouraged and 
 multiplied ; navigation increased, territorial revenues 
 augmented, its commerce considerably extended, its 
 agriculture become more flourishing ; and, in fine, that 
 all its resources and power have assumed a new degree 
 of force and extension." 
 
 A judgment may be formed upon the general state 
 of commerce, and of the truth of what is stated in this 
 work, with respect to the part which maritime nations 
 take, (which we oppose to each other in that career), 
 from the following table, stating the motion of com- 
 merce in the Baltic, during the year 18l6. 
 
 Ships passed the Sound 8,874 
 
 Entered. — English 942 
 
 Americans 85 
 
 French 8 
 
 Spanish 5 
 
 2 K 
 
500 THE COLONIES. 
 
 Passed out.— English QOO 
 
 Americans 85 
 
 French S 
 
 Spanish 4 
 
 Total.— English 1848 
 
 Americans l68 
 
 French l6 
 
 Spanish 9 
 
 The above statement precludes every kind of obser- 
 vation. 
 
 According to the last reports from South America, 
 it appears,that the Court of Brazil vi^ill soon feel the 
 effects of that policy/ which has impelled it to oppose 
 that spirit of independence, vv^hich prevails over all 
 the Vice-royalty of Buenos Ayres. That Court has not 
 been able to direct against Buenos Ayres more than 
 one corps of 4,000 foot, conveyed in transports. The 
 cavalry has to march more than 400 leagues, in this 
 country, almost uninhabited, and w^ithout roads. 
 
 What has happened ? They have discovered w^hat 
 they did not foresee, and u^hich they were not looking 
 for — difficulties in every quarter, resistance from every 
 man. Montevideo, Buenos Ayres, will become, if 
 there be occasion, new Sarragossas, Tarragonas, Sa- 
 guntums ; and while the Portuguese threatened to in- 
 vade the territory of the independents, the latter were 
 invading that of the Portuguese. It is apprehended 
 that they may arm the slaves, and excite them to 
 rebel, and there are 1,500,000 in Brazil; for which 
 reason the people of Rio Janeiro do not appear to 
 approve of the expedition. 
 1 
 
THE COLONIES. 501 
 
 They are a sensible people, and judge, very correctly, 
 that it is not for the interest of the governments of 
 America to fight against each other, in America, for 
 the governments of Europe, 
 
 All reports confirm what we have heard respecting 
 the barbarities of which America is the theatre. 
 
 The Court of Madrid proves their existence, by in* 
 serting the following report in its Gazette : 
 
 " Battle of St. Helene, in Peru, 
 April Sd, 18 1 6. 
 
 -' I can assure your Excellency, that I never saw 
 rage or energy equal to that of our enemies. They 
 throw themselves on our muskets, as if they had no- 
 thing to fear from them : our soldiers were mixed with 
 them : they grasped our men by the body, and endea- 
 voured to wrench the arms out of their hands ; a 
 shower of stones fell upuu us ^ v^c weic ubliged to 
 fight with the bayonet. The wretched Lamargo died 
 by my hand. I did not cease striking him with my 
 sabre, until he let his sword fall out of his hand. I 
 send it to you, together with his head. More than 
 600 men were dispatched with the bayonet, or shot by 
 the soldiers. I intend to have the celebrated Pierre 
 Nolasco Vislarubia beheaded in the public square : he 
 is about to be conveyed to Pisit, together with two 
 Serjeants, who deserted from the regiment of Lima, 
 who are also to be shot, as well as all the other 
 prisoners^ 
 
 THE END. 
 
 C. Baldwin. Printer, 
 New eridRe-strect. LOndon. 
 
This Day is Published, 
 By Baldwin, Chadock, and Joy, Paternoster-row, 
 A PROPOSAL 
 For establishing in London a New Philanthropical and Patriotic 
 Institution, to be called, THE PATRIOTIC METROPOLI- 
 TAN COLONIAL INSTITUTION for ASSISTING NEW 
 SETTLERS in his MAJESTY'S COLONIES, and for En- 
 couraging new Branches of Colonial Trade ; A PROPOSAL for 
 Establishing new and distinct Colonies, for the relief of the HALF- 
 CASTS of INDIA, and MULATTOES of the WEST INDIES ; 
 A POSTSCRIPT, on the Benefits to be derived from establish* 
 ingFREE DRAWING SCHOOLS, and on other means of ad- 
 vancing the National Industry, Numbers, and Greatness; and AN 
 ADDITIONAL POSTSCRIPT, comprehending a Copy of " A 
 REPORT OF A COMMITTEE OF CONGRESS of the United 
 States of America, dated Feb. II th, 1817, on Colonizing the 
 FREE PEOPLE OF COLOUR of the United States." ByE.A. 
 KENDALL, Esq. F.A.S. 
 
 Published Quarterly/, 
 THE COLONIAL JOURNAL 
 
 CONTAINING, 
 
 1. Original Communications on Co- 
 lonial Interests, Commerce, Agricul- 
 ture, History, biography. Topogra- 
 phy, &c. 
 
 2. Colonial Collections, compre- 
 hending Iloyal Charters, Proclama- 
 tions, Parliamentary Enactments, 
 Commercial Documents. Exnnris and 
 Imports, &c. 
 
 3. Colonial Bibliography ; or Ac- 
 counts- of Books of all Dates, written 
 on Colonial Affairs. 
 
 4. ReviewsofNew Publications of 
 Colonial Interest. 
 
 5. State and other Official Papers. 
 
 6. Proceedings in Parliament on 
 Questions interesting to the Colonies. 
 
 7. Proceedings of the several Co- 
 lonial Governments and Legislatures, 
 and their respective Branches. 
 
 8. Law Proceedings, Criminal 
 Trials, &c. 
 
 9. Titles and Abstracts of all Acts 
 of each Session of Parliament relating 
 to the Colonies, and New Acts of the 
 Colonial Legislatures. 
 
 10. Colonial Occurrences; Births, 
 Deaths, Marriages, &c. Arrivals, De- 
 partures, /fee. 
 
 11 roi«Tiini Tvroti.ps, Civil, Mili- 
 tary, Naval, Literary, Philosophical, 
 Missionary, &c. 
 
 12. Shipping and Commercial In- 
 telligence ; State of the British Mar- 
 kets } Prices Current of Cofonial Pro- 
 duce, &c. 
 
 13. Colonial Appointments, Civil 
 and Military Establishments in the Co- 
 lonies, Lists of Public Officers, &c. 
 
 14. Packets and Ship-letter Mails, 
 Rates of Postage, Days of Sailing, 
 calculated Return of Packets in Eng- 
 land and the Colonies, Days of making 
 up Mails, &c. 
 
 The utility of a publication to which the Colonial and Home 
 reader may refer for every species of Colonial information will not 
 admit of dispute. In such a work, the curious may seek for assis- 
 tance on subjects of liberal inquiry : the friend or relative for news of 
 family interest or importance ; the man whose thoughts are turned 
 on visiting or settling in the Colonies, for knowledge and instruction 
 appertaining to the business and fortunes of his life ; and lastly, the 
 politician, for those data which belong to the Colonial policy of the 
 country, the public expenditure on, and management of, the Colo- 
 nies, the Colonial laws and regulations, names of Colonial officers, 
 and extent and description of the Colonial establishments ; as also 
 to the trade and products of the Colonies, 
 
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