Mr Rylance's pamphlet, contrives to avoid touching that discussion which occupies above half of it. He makes a few remarks upon some very immaterial expressions in Mr Rylance's account of Brazil; and signifies his great contempt of that gentleman's advice to England to procure the abolition of the Brazil slavetrade. He abuses the party who have brought about that event in England, though he regards it in its proper light, of a most wise and virtuous measure; and then concludes his tract with expressing his belief, that he has been answering a work which is little read, and still less talked of.' We shall here, therefore, leave our two authors, and pursue the remaining part of the discussion alone ;-agreeing in the main with Mr Rylance, though without confining our attention to the topics taken up by him, or adopting the arrangement which he has chosen. We shall, however, clear the way for ourselves, by extracting from Mr Rylance's tract a passage of considerable merit, containing an enumeration of some particulars which we do not ourselves intend to touch upon, but which are of sufficient importance to require being kept in view in the other parts of the inquiry. A fruitful fource of vexation and difagreement is ready to fpring from this union of the houfe of Braganza with our South American projects. Either his colonies will imbibe that unnatural and strange diflike to the mother country which America fhowed to England ere the revolted, and thus refufe him a fettlement, or they will warmly efpoufe his caufe. If they be difpofed to revolution, no chance is left us of aggrandizement in America but conqueft; and, if they espouse his cause, we are bound to treat them in all refpects as an independent people. Here let it be remembered, that among all our well known fchemes for fubduing South America, or at least of establishing a commercial intercourse with that Peninfula, one measure was conftantly fuggefted ;-we must urge the Spanish colonies to throw off the yoke and affert their independence. We have therefore to proceed on this mighty enterprize with the cap of liberty in one hand, and the crown of Portugueze defpotifm in the other. Whilft we rivet the allegiance of his colonies to our ally, we fow the feeds of difaffection and alienation in those of his European neighbours. Are not the governments of Spain and Portugal twin fifters in tyranny and perfecution? Will not an exhortation to the Spanish settlements to fhake off their chains, be in effect a libel on the crown and dignity of the Prince Regent? Will not his fubjects in Brazil be roufed into action by these measures, fooner than by any patriotic exertions which their governor can poffibly make?` po It will require the invention of a Machiavel to devise a line of licy to answer these contradictory purposes. No fcheme, no project appears fo full of peril and difficulty as this of freeing South America. If we take the safest path, and leave the court of Lisbon to manage for themfelves, themselves, there is every reafon to believe, that they will renew the trade to Portugal and revive their relations of amity with France. For before they left Europe, they feemed to be feized with that epidemic. dread of English alliance which is fo general among the nations of the Continent; and they will doubtless endeavour to do without it as foon as they can. This ftrong prejudice against England daily gains ground; and on a review of late occurrences, it is hard to tell whether we or the French take moft pains in propagating it. Of one thing at leaft we inay be fure. Bonaparte will employ all his talent for intrigue to outwit us in this, as he does in every other affair; and our minifters have yet to fhow that they can be a match for him. We have been baffled, both in warfare and in negotiation, in the moft unaccountable and complicated way; our adverfary has uniformly put us upon that line of conduct, which, while we thought it counteracted his views, effectually feconded them; making at the fame time our enemies defpife us, and making enemies of our friends. Thus, on a review of the probable confequences of the Portugueze emigration, it appears that we are not to expect much immediate advan tage from that measure. The prefent ftate of Brazil-the neceffity for abolishing the flave-trade-the innovations and changes attending the establishment of the antient feat of government in one of its colonies-the profpect of long and ruinous wars in South America-and the intrigues of the French to deftroy our new alliance-are all confiderations which fhould caution us against speculating too deeply on the chance of a reviving commerce.' p. 57-60. 1. The first confideration which muft ftrike every one who at tends to this fubject, is, that the change of political fituation which Brazil has now experienced, will tend immediately, though flowly, to augment its refources; and, in general, to improve its condition. Although the pernicious practice of exclufive companies which cramped the trade of moft other colonies, never ma terially injured thofe of Portugal, a monopoly in favour of the mother country, as rigorous as that of any European fettlement, has from the beginning checked the growth of the large and fertile country which we are now contemplating. The whole fupply of its wants, and the fale of all its produce, was engroffed, with the most jealous exclufion of all competitors, by the merchants of Lisbon and Oporto: and it unfortunately happened, that those who would in this manner permit no other affiftance to be afforded the colony, were, lefs than any other country in Europe, capable of aiding it themselves. The monopoly of the fupply and export of North America by England, though it confiderably checked the growth of thofe colonies, produced a widely different effect from the fame measure when adopted by Portugal. England could furnish nearly every thing that America required; and confume, and procure a market for all that the produced. Portugal, on the contrary, could could only fupply her colony by first buying from other countries, and could take but a small portion of its produce for her own ufe. Add to this, that her monopoly was in every respect much more rigorously enforced. A very different effect must therefore refult from the transference of the Government to Brazil, from any thing that followed the establishment of American independence in 1783. The weight of the old fyftem was much greater, and its removal muft afford more relief. It is giving the new government but very little credit for wifdom, to prefume that they will throw open the commerce of the country to all foreign ftates. Brazil will now be supplied with foreign goods as cheap as North America, it will have as wide a market for its own produce. More of the former will be confumed, and more of the latter raifed. The progrefs of wealth will be attended with proportionate improvement to its customers; at the head of whom, England must neceffarily ftand, whether the obtains any exclufive favour from the new government, or trufts wholly to her natural superiority in manufactures and trade. 2. But, from the view to which we are thus led by the theory of the fubject, there are certain material deductions to be made in practice. The colony of Brazil has, no doubt, been confiderably stunted by the monopoly of the mother country; but a pretty extenfive contraband trade is known to have been established in both the Spanish and Portugueze fettlements, almost with the regularity of a legitimate commerce. Thofe colonies were fupplied to a confiderable amount with foreign commodities, both from Europe direct, and through the medium of the Weft Indian iflands, which formed convenient entrepôts of fmuggling; and, by the fyftematic connivance of the public functionaries, even in times of war, carried on extensive dealings with the Southern Continent. It may give fome notion of the regularity with which thefe proceedings were conducted, if we mention a fact well known in the manufacturing towns of this country. The warehouses of perfons largely engaged in the trade to the Spanish Main are generally filled with British manufactures, made up, not in bales, but in fmall parcels, frequently with the Spanish mark imitated upon the cover. Thefe are deftined to be carried conveniently under the capôts, or in the wide fleeves, or among the petticoats, or in various parts of the garments of the Spaniards, who flock to the water-fide to purchase the goods which our trading veffels, hovering on the forbidden coaft, contrive, every now and then, to land, in fpite of the guarda-coftas. If this circumftance, and the ample returns in filver known to be made by the traffic in queftion, proves clearly, that the monopoly cramps to a great degree the supply of thofe people, it at leaft fhows as plainly, that VOL. XII. NO. 23. R fome fome fort of remedy is provided for the evil, and a confiderable relief administered, notwithstanding the vigilance of the govern→ ment. Partly in the fame manner, and partly through the Spanish provinces, thus fupplied, the Brazilians have been accustomed to receive confiderable ftores of contraband goods. The extent of this fupply happens to be known to us by fome remarkable facts. It frequent has come out in evidence before our prize courts, that English manufactures have been known occafionally to fell cheaper in Buenos Ayres, and other Spanish towns in America, than in London. It is too well known to every man who has lived to witnefs the difgraceful expedition which lately failed in those parts, that a prodigious glut was produced in the market by a moderate increafe of the fhipments fent thither. We have been informed, upon very good authority, that articles of British manufacture have been fold in Lifbon and Oporto, after coming from Rio Janeiro, cheaper than they could be procured from England direct; and Sir George Staunton remarked, many years ago, that the fhops in Brazil were crowded quite full of British goods, which fold at moderate prices. We are far from faying, that thefe particulars prove that Brazil was always fupplied in abun Zance with foreign commodities; ftill lefs do we fay, that the glut just alluded to, was the ordinary state of the market. But we do contend, that the evidence afforded by fuch facts, proves distinctly the abfurdity of fuppofing that the market was always exceedingly understocked; becaufe fuch a glut as we have been defcribing, never could occur at all in a market fo circumftanced. Now, what Brazil got before, was fupplied by us, either regularly through Portugal, or by this contraband. It is only, therefore, the difference between the precarious and the more, regular and conftant fupply of our goods, that can in the prefent question be fet down to the account of the emigration. 3. A deduction of nearly equal importance must now be made, on account of the loss which we must sustain from the occupation of Portugal by France. Instead of supplying both mother country and colony, as we used to do, with almost the whole of the manufactured articles consumed by the natives, we shall now only supply the colony; so that a considerable and immediate increase of consumption must take place in the Brazils from the revolution under discussion, in order only to indemnify us for the loss of the Portugueze market, with which that revolution has been attended. The course of our trade with Portugal used to be this-We did not want a great deal of Brazil produce, because our own colonies furnished nearly the same articles; but we sent our hardware and woollens to Portugal, for both the European and American market. Portugal paid us for the whole; partly partly in Brazil produce, but chiefly in wines, salt, &c. her own European produce. She then received payment from her colony, in the produce which she wanted for her own consumption; so that the English manufacturer was enabled to sell his goods both to Portugal and to Brazil, because the Portugueze consumed the produce of their own colonies. But now this trade is at an end. The sugar and cotton of Brazil can no longer go to Lisbon, toơ pay the owner of vineyards for sending out our manufactures; nor can the wines of Portugal come here to pay us for sending those manufactures thither. Then how are we to be repaid, it may be asked, for those manufactures which, notwithstanding the emigration, we still send out, viz. to Brazil direct? This forms a separate head of account, and leads to a new limitation of the wide prospect of mercantile gains, hitherto so fondly entertained. 4. The only conceivable mode of paying for our goods in the new order of things, is by shipments of Brazil produce. This consists chiefly in sugar and cotton, with some dyeing woods and stuffs, and gold. The gold, and some of the cotton, will still be worth taking in return; but not the sugar. The glut of that article, in every corner of the world, is too well known, and too severely felt, to make it necessary that we should dwell upon it. We had an opportunity lately of explaining the subject pretty fully; and the whole statement, then made, is to the point in the present inquiry. The Brazil sugars cannot be taken in payment of our goods; they are a mere drug; they can in no degree whatever aid us in trading with the new monarchy. In other words, the great staple of the country is quite useless in trade. Nor is it to any considerable amount that cotton can serve our purpose. We already get nineteen parts in twenty of the cotton used in our manufactures, from North America and our own colonies; only a trifling portion of it comes from Brazil. Yet, without any considerable importation from thence, the supply has always been sufficient for the demand; and, of late, a fall of price has indicated, that there were symptoms of a glut in this article, as well as in other West Indian produce. If the whole cotton of Brazil is at once thrown into our market, it will be as useless as sugar. We get nearly enough already. In other words, the second staple of Brazil is next to useless for the pur poses of our commerce with that country; and to talk of such trifling objects as the woods, dyes, &c. would be mere waste of time, after disposing of those things which form ninety-nine parts in a hundred of the whole produce of the colony. It is manifest, therefore, that nothing short of a complete change in the cultivation of Brazil, or an uninterrupted communication be |