progressive reduction, cannot operate; because no sooner has a diminution to a given extent taken place by the abandonment of the less fertile estates, than the void thus painfully created is filled up by the introduction of sugars from a new conquest.
“Such has been the unjust operation of our colonial system of late years, that, while with one hand we have been compelling the planters to reduce the amount of their produce, we have been depriving them with the other of the benefit of that reduction.” Again,
“If by such conquests we alter the situation of our colonies, it is incumbent on us, in justice and in policy, to alter our system towards these colonies.
Again the reviewer says, “They (the West India body) have been praying relief when they ought to have been demanding justice: an idea has consequently been diffused, that they are the sole authors of their own distress, and the glut of the sugar market is ascribed to, not its real cause—the compulsory importbut to the speculative disposition of the planters.”
In page 405 the Reviewer charges Mr. Bell, “with falling into the common error of ascribing the distresses of the sugar-planters to their own speculations, without considering, that speculation would be more hurtful in this than in other branches of trade, were the planters at liberty to sell their sugar as they thought fit.”
I shall not take up more of your paper than merely to express my surprise, that sentiments so entirely inconsistent with each other, should find a place in the same publication. You cannot doubt my acquiescence with a considerable part of what is advanced in these latter extracts, but pray assist me. if yon can, to reconcile principles and assertions so totally and diametrically opposite to each other.
Occidentalis.
Jan. 20, 1809.
We have great pleasure in presenting to our readers a series of letters written from Italy, to a friend in London, during the year 1802. We believer few Englishmen have been able to explore the scenes to which they relate, since the period of our traveller’s return. These letters claim the merit of having been written at the places which they describe, or to which they refer, a merit at least uncommon in the present age of “manufacturing tours.” But their pretensions to public favour are of a higher nature, and if the editor is not biassed in his opinion by the indiscreet partiality of friendship, he ventures to assure his that they will be found to contain the enlightened observations and scientific details of a sound judgment and refined taste, exercised upon the most interesting objects to be met with amid the varied scenes of classic ground.
LETTER I.
Dear T.
My last was dated at Messina, from whence I sailed a week ago in the {{longdash}; and in less than three days we cast anchor in the beautiful bay of Naples. This trip has almost removed my strong aversion to maritime conveyances; the weather was delightful, the wind fair, the accommodations on board comfortable, and the attention and
