VII. which fhe principally did derive from her liberty and con- CHAP. sequent industry, at home, was not flow in following the fteps of her rival. The Swedes, the Danes, the Pruffians, and the Austrians, have also had their colonizing fchemes; but not to the same extent with the nations already mentioned. 101. All those schemes were formed upon a fimilar principle. Contracted views of commercial and financial advantage, narrowed their foundations, and fuffered them not to fpread beyond the limits of a partial and local policy. For, as far as I can learn, the founders of the modern European colonies fcarcely ever entertained a thought of enlarging the sphere of human felicity, and extending the bleffings of civi lization and religion to diftant nations. On the contrary, it is melancholy to trace the progress of the modern European colonization, marked, as it is, with injustice, rapine and murder, in various fhapes. ces of this narrow poli 102. And what advantages have the respective mother Confequencountries derived from their plundering schemes? Why, the Spaniards and the Portuguese gained gold, and they cy gained pride; but they loft their home-confumers by exceffive emigrations; and their remaining people loft their industry, and their enterprizing spirit, which before had made them so respectable in Europe. The Dutch gained the Spice Islands, on which indeed they formed fettlements, or factories, rather than colonies *. But in the West Indies I think it right to diftinguifh colonies from fettlements or factories. A colony fignifies a number of families, formed into a regular community, who have fixed themselves on an unoccupied spot, with a view to cultivate the foil, and rear pofterity. The words colony and fettlement have fometimes the fame meaning; but as the latter is very often used for the word factory, I wish to restrict it to this last fignification. Factories (or fettlements) having only commercial, temporary ends in view, remove as foon as those ends are anfwered, leaving wholly out of fight every kind of cultivation and improvement, either of the people or the land. they VII. CHAP. they formed real colonies, which may perhaps have contributed to fill the bags of the Amsterdam Bank. With money, however, they multiplied drones in their industrious hive, acquired a taste for high living, increased their taxes, banished several of their manufactures, and have brought upon themselves evident symptoms of national decay. The French and the British gained an increased marine which each employed in watching the motions of the other, in taking and retaking West Indian colonies and East Indian fettlements, and in defolating fome of the finest countries in the world with famine, fire, and sword. We cannot enter into particulars. Suffice it to say, that these two great nations have, by their quarrels about colonies, well nigh ruined one another. The French politicians fucceeded in separating the British colonies from their Mother Country; but, in this enterprize, they ruined their finances. All Europe knows the reft. All Europe has feen the French government fubverted; and has heard of the national debt of Great Britain. May Heaven avert from this highly favoured nation, any ruinous catastrophe! 103. Colonies, as hitherto established and supported, have cost commercial nations nearly as great a facrifice of people as the most destructive wars. For it must be owned, that colonists have been too often regarded by the monopolizing companies, or private merchants, who have generally directed them, in the light in which foldiers and failors are confidered by statesmen; that is, merely as the instruments of their schemes. It therefore becomes a matter of serious confideration, when, where and how to form new ones, which, in their commencement, fhall not be fo deftructive to the human race. While the principals are aiming at the acquifition of wealth, they ought not, as unfortunately has hitherto VII. hitherto been too much the cafe, to treat with indifference CHA P. and neglect those whom Providence has placed in the humbler, but not lefs ufeful, ftation of executers of their plans. 104. Though it be usual to compare nations and their colonies to parents and their children; yet, as things now stand, I apprehend the analogy is very far from being juft. In every family, the procreation and education of children are innate principles, and the evident intention of the Creator. Where is the fenfible parent who does not ftrive to give his children an education as good, at least, as he himself has received, and to elevate them into a fituation in life equal, or even fuperior, to that which he himself fills. Acting thus, has he any other end than their good; any other purpose to serve than that of establishing them in society, and enabling them, in due time, to become the provident and beneficent fathers of future families? 105. From fuch obligations, it would be a contradiction to infer, that children, arrived at maturity, ought, from a principle of false gratitude, infeparably to abide by their parents throughout life. No! Nature herself then emancipates them from parental authority, and juftifies their claim to a separate refidence, even though opposed by their parents. Without this procedure, society could not exist, and the human race would foon become extinct.-In a word, children are fruit hanging on the tree: men are ripe fruit, qualified to produce, in their turn, new groups to grace the forest. 106. The gratitude and filial attachment which children preserve for their parents is, or ought to be, proportioned to Comparison and their colonies, to pachildren. of nations rents and VII. CHA P. the care they have taken in their education, and to the tie which has been mutually formed by both, during the state of pupilage. Nations fhould pro ry for their furplus po. pulation. 107. Societies at large ought to act precisely on the fame vide territo- principle, in forming colonies, which are no other than their own children, or the fuperfluity of their population. It is indeed a duty incumbent on the government of every free, industrious, and profperous nation, to look out betimes for unoccupied territory, against the period when their population and manufactures fhall exceed the proportion which they ought to have to the land they already occupy, when fully improved. That proportion certainly has a limit, and commencing emigration will fhew when that limit is exceeded. Without providing new space for furplus population, and seeking new markets for manufactures, the progress of both must cease; or else the people will emigrate to countries unconnected with the state. Hence found policy feems to dictate, that governments fhould, with the care of provident fathers, prepare proper receptacles for the excess of their population-a principle which few or no mother countries feem to have fufficiently observed*. 108. When a large fociety thus gives birth to a small one, can it act on a nobler principle than that of regarding, in the first place, the interest of mankind at large, or universal fociety, and subordinately, the advantage of it's own colony, or the fociety defcended from it in particular? Standing thus between both, will not the happiness of both centre in itself? Does not the father of a family rejoice in, and partake of, the felicity both of the community and of his children? *See Reasons for eftablishing the Colony of Georgia, p. 3. 109. But VII. Caufes of difcord be tween na tions and their colo nies. 109. But is there any colony exifting, founded on these CHA P. truly humane and enlarged principles? On the contrary, does not the education, or treatment, which the present European colonies have received, and do ftill receive, from their imprudent and interested parents, generally prove the fource of hatred between societies that ought to be united by the the most indiffoluble ties? Whence comes it, that parties and fects have been first driven to discontent, then to emigration, and lastly, to feparation from the larger societies to which they belonged; but from perverted systems of policy, the abuse of power, civil and ecclefiaftical, and the provoking attempt to keep mature defcendants perpetually in leading ftrings, like infants? Was it thus that the ancient Greeks treated their colonies? And ought not the moderns, in prudence, to have imitated the liberal system of thofe famed ancients, who confidered their colonies as friends and allies, not as dependent focieties or conquered provinces? 110. "The mother Greek city, fays Dr. Smith, though fhe confidered the colony as a child, at all times entitled to great favour and assistance, and owing, in return, much gratitude and respect, yet considered it as an emancipated child, over whom she pretended to claim no direct authority or jurisdiction. The colony fettled it's own form of government, enacted it's own laws, and made peace and war with it's neighbours, as an independent ftate. The progress of many of the ancient Greek colonies feems accordingly to have been very rapid. In a century or two, several of them appear to have rivalled, and even furpassed, their mother cities. Syracuse and Agrigentum, in Sicily; Tarentum and Locri, in Italy; Ephesus and Miletus, in Leffer Asia, appear, |