Complete Works of Edmund Burke

by Edmund Burke

  CHAP VI.

  THAT we may not sit down in a senseless admiration of this progress of the French colonies, as if it were the work of fortune, it will not be amiss to open something of the wise plan of conduct which France has pursued with regard to this interesting object. Sensible that as the mother country is to receive ultimately all the benefits of their labours and acquisitions, so all the prosperity of their plantations must be derived from the attention with which they are regarded at home. For which reason the plantations are particularly under the care and inspection of the council of commerce; a board very judiciously constituted to answer the purposes for which it is designed. For to give it a proper respect and authority, it is composed of twelve of the most considerable officers of the crown; and then to enable it to judge perfectly of the matters which come before it, these twelve are assisted by the deputies of all the considerable trading towns and cities in France, who are chosen out of the richest and most intelligent of their traders, and paid an handsome salary for their attendance at Paris, from the funds of their respective cities. This council sits once a week. The deputies propose plans for redressing every grievance in trade; for raising the branches that are fallen; for extending new ones; for supporting the old; and in fine for every thing that may improve the working, or promote the vent of their manufactures, according to their own lights, or to the instructions of their constituents. They have a watchful eye upon every article of commerce; and they not only propose helps and improvements to it themselves, but they hear the proposals of others, which are not disdainfully rejected, nor rashly received. They do not render the access to them difficult, by swelling themselves into a stiff and unwieldy state. They do not discourage those who apply, by admitting the vexatious practice of fees, perquisites, and exactions, in their inferior officers. They do not suffer form and methods to load and encumber that business, they were solely intended to advance. They summon and examine those who are supposed the most competent judges of the matter before them, and of every part of it, even the lowest artizans: but though they examine those men, they are instructed by their experience, not determined by their opinion. When they are satisfied of the usefulness of any regulation, they propose it to the royal council, where their report is always received with particular attention. An edict to enforce it issues accordingly; and it is executed with a punctuality which distinguishes their government, and which alone can make the wisest regulations any thing better than serious mockeries. To the care of this excellent body the plantations are particularly entrusted.

  The government of the several divisions of their colonies is in a governor, an intendant, and a royal council. The governor is invested with a great deal of power; which however, on the side of the crown, is checked by the intendant, who has the care of the king’s rights, and whatever relates to the revenue; and on the side of the people, it is checked by the royal council, whose office it is, to see that the people are not oppressed by the one, nor defrauded by the other; and they are all checked by the constant and jealous eye which the government at home keeps over them. For the officers at all the ports of France are charged under the several penalties, to interrogate all captains of ships coming from the colonies concerning the reception they met at the ports they were bound to; how justice was administred to them? what charges they were made liable to, and of what kinds? The passengers, and even the sailors are examined upon these heads, and a verbal process of the whole is formed and transmitted with all speed to the admiralty. Complaints are encouraged; but a difference is made between hearing an accusation and condemning upon it.

  That the colonies may have as little load as possible, and that the governor may have less temptation to stir up troublesome intrigues, or favour factions in his government, his salary is paid by the crown. His perquisites are none; and he is strictly forbidden to carry on any trade, or to have any plantations in the islands, or on the continent, or any interest whatsoever in goods or lands within his government, except the house he lives in, and a garden for his convenience and recreation. All the other officers are paid by the crown, and out of the revenues of Old France; the fortification are built and repaired, and the soldiers are paid out of the same funds.

  In general the colonies pay no taxes; but when upon an extraordinary emergency taxes have been raised, they were very moderate. And, that even the taxes might operate for the advancement of the colony, they who began new plantations, were exempted from them. The duties upon the export of their produce at the islands, or at it’s import into France, is next to nothing; in both places hardly making two per cent. What commodities go to them, pay no duties at all.

  Besides these advantages, a considerable benefit accrues to such of the colonies as are poor, as Canada, by the money which comes from France to support the establishment. This brings into Canada about 120,000 crowns a year, which finds them circulating cash; preserves them from the dangerous expedient of a paper currency; enables them to keep up their intercourse with some credit, with their mother country; and at the same time is in fact no loss at all to it, since the money returns home almost as soon as it can possibly be transported back again.

  In all their islands, judges of the admiralty are appointed to decide in a summary manner all disputes between merchants, and whatsoever else has any relation to trade. These judges are strictly examined before they are appointed, particularly as to their skill in the marine laws, which have been improved and digested in France with so much care and good sense, that all law suits are quickly over; though in other respects the practice of law admits of as much chicanery, and has as many, if not more delays, than with us.

  After having taken such precautions to secure the good government of the colony within itself, and to make it’s communication with the mother country easy and beneficial to both sides, all would be to very little purpose, if they had not provided with equal care to have the country replenished with people. To answer this end, they oblige every ship which departs from France for America, to carry a certain number of indented servants. All vessels of sixty tuns or under are to carry three; from sixty to a hundred, four; and from a hundred upwards, six servants; sound strong bodies, between the ages of eighteen and forty. Before their departure, the servants are examined by the officers of the admiralty, to see whether they are the persons required by law; an examination to the same purpose is made by the commissary on their landing in America. They are to serve three years. The avarice of the planters makes them always prefer negroe slaves, because they are more obedient than the Europeans, may be more worked, are subsisted with less difficulty, and are besides the entire property of their master. This disposition, in time, would render the safety of the colony extremely precarious, whilst it made the colony itself of less value to the mother country. Therefore the planters are by law obliged to keep a certain number of white servants in proportion to their blacks; and the execution of this law is inforced by the commissary, who adjusts the price, and forces the planters to take the number of servants required by the ordinance, who would otherwise be a burthen upon the hands of the masters of ships who brought them over.

  They consider the planter, as a Frenchman venturing his life, enduring a species of banishment, and undergoing great hardships for the benefit of his country. For which reasons, he has great indulgence shewn him. Whenever by hurricanes, earthquakes, or bad seasons, the planters suffer, a stop is put to the rigour of exacting creditors; the few taxes which are levied, are remitted; and even money is advanced to repair their losses and set them forward. To those who are poor, but shew a disposition to industry, necessaries and small sums are lent, to make a beginning; and this money is taken in gradually, and by very small payments. On the other hand, as it can be of no advantage to the planter to run fraudulently into debt, but that it is of the greatest prejudice to the French merchant, all debts, though contracted by the planters in France, are levied with great ease. The process, properly authenticated, is transmitted to America, and admitted as proved there, and
levied on the planter’s estate, of whatsoever kind it may be. However, care is taken, that whilst compulsory methods are used to make the planter do justice, the state shall not lose the industry of an useful member of the community; the debt is always levied according to the substance of the debtor, and by installments; so that (what ought indeed to be the case in every well-regulated government) one of the parties is not sacrificed to the other. Both subsist; the creditor is satisfied; the debtor is not ruined; and the credit of the colonies is kept in health and vigour at home, by the sure methods which are in use for recovering all demands in the plantations.

  As to the negroes, they are not left as they are with us, wholly, body and soul to the discretion of the planter. Their masters are obliged to have them instructed in the principles of religion. There are methods taken at once to protect the slaves from the cruelty of their owners, and to preserve the colony from the ill effects, that might arise from treating them with a lenity not consistent with their condition. In short, the Code Noir, and other ordinances relative to these poor creatures, shew a very just and sensible mixture of humanity and steadiness. There is however one error, their planters commit in common with ours; which is, that they overwork these unhappy men in a manner not suitable to the nature of the climate, or to their constitutions.

  I have dwelt the longer upon the French policy as it regards their colonies, because it is just to give due honour to all those, who advance the intercourse of mankind, the peopling of the earth, and the advantage of their country by wise and effectual regulations. But I principally insist upon it, that it may, if possible, serve for an example to ourselves; that it may excite an emulation in us; that it may help to rouse us out of that languor into which we seem to be fallen. The war we now carry on, principally regards our colonies, and is a sufficient proof that we are come at last to know their value. But if we are not to hope for better success than has hitherto attended a very just cause, the next peace will probably contract the field we hoped to lay open to our industry in America. But then, we ought therefore to cultivate what still remains of it, with tenfold industry; we ought to guard with the most unremitting vigilance that enclosed spring, that sealed fountain, the waters of which we reserve to ourselves, and direct into such channels, and make to pursue such windings and turnings as best serve our purposes. We have, I believe, pretty well discovered most of our errors, and the advantage our enemy and rival has taken, not only of our supineness, but of a contrary genius in his own councils. We ought to rouse ourselves from the former, and prepare to imitate the latter. Our business is to fight against Alexander, not to rail at him. And truly, I do not know any thing, that for this long time past has contributed more to degrade our character for humanity in the eyes of foreigners, or to instil into ourselves a low and illiberal way of thinking, than that vein of licentious scurrility and abuse, by which, in all sorts of writings, we are apt to vilify and traduce the French nation. There is nothing, which hinders people from acting properly, more than indulging themselves in a vain and effeminate licence of tongue. A man who loves his country, and can at once oppose, and esteem an enemy, would view our present circumstances in a light, I conceive, somewhat like the following. We have been engaged for above a century with France in a noble contention for the superiority in arms, in politics, in learning, and in commerce; and there never was a time, perhaps, when this struggle was more critical. If we succeed in the war; even our success, unless managed with prudence, will be like some former successes, of little benefit to us; if we should fail, which God forbid, even then, prudence may make our misfortunes of more use to us, than an ill-managed success; if they teach us to avoid our former errors; if they make us less careless; if they make us cultivate the advantages we have with care and judgment. This, and not our opinion of the enemy, must decide the long contest between us.

  CHAP. VII. The Dutch Settlements.

  AFTER the Portuguese had dispossessed the Dutch of Brazil in the manner we have seen; and after the treaty of Nimeguen had entirely removed them out of North America, they were obliged to console themselves with their rich possessions in the East-Indies, and to sit down content in the West with Surinam; a country on the North-East part of South-America, and of no great value whilst we had it, and which we ceded to them in exchange for New-York; and with two or three small and barren islands in the North-sea not far from the Spanish main. The former of these, they are far from neglecting; they raise some sugar in Surinam; a great deal of cotton; coffee of an excellent kind, and some valuable dying drugs. They trade with our North American colonies, who bring hither horses, live cattle and provisions, and take home a large quantity of molasses; but their negroes are only the refuse of those they have for the Spanish market; and the Indians in their neighbourhood are their mortal enemies. On the same continent they have three other settlements at no considerable distance from each other. Boron, Berbice, and Approwack; none very great, but producing the same commodities with Surinam.

  The islands which they possess, are four, Curassou, St. Eustatia, Aruba and Bonaire; none of them large or fertile, but turned to the best advantage possible by that spirit of industry for which the Dutch are so justly famous. Curaccao, or Curassou, as it is generally called, is about thirty miles long and ten in breath. Though it is naturally barren it produces a considerable quantity both of sugar and tobacco, and here are besides very great salt-works, which furnish a good deal to the English islands, and for which there is a considerable demand from our colonies on the continent; but the trade for which this island is chiefly valuable, is that which in time of war is carried on between them, the English, and the French; and the counterband which is carried on between them and the Spaniards at all times.

  The Dutch vessels from Europe touch at this island for intelligence or proper pilots, and then proceed to the Spanish coast upon a trade which they force with a strong hand. It is very difficult for the Spanish guarda costas to take these vessels; for they are not only stout ships with a number of guns; but by a very wise policy manned with a large crew of chosen seamen, who are all deeply interested in the safety of the vessel and the success of the voyage. They have each a share in the cargo of a value proportioned to the owner’s station, supplied by the merchants upon credit, and at prime cost. This animates them with an uncommon courage; they fight bravely, because every man fights in defence of his own property. But there is besides this, a constant intercourse between the Spanish continent and this island.

  The island of Curassou has it’s numerous warehouses always full of the commodities of Europe, and the East-Indies. Here are all sorts of woollen and linen cloths, laces, silks, ribbands, utensils of iron, naval and military stores, brandy, the spices of the Moluccas, and the callicoes of India, white and painted. Hither the West-India, which is likewise their African company, bring three or four cargoes of slaves annually. To this mart, the Spaniards come themselves in small vessels, and carry off not only the best of their negroes, and at the best price, but very great quantities of all the sorts of goods I have mentioned; with this advantage to the seller, that the refuse of warehouses and mercers shops, things grown utterly unfashionable and unsaleable in Europe, go off extremely well, where every thing is sufficiently recommended by being European. They leave here their gold and silver in bars or coined, cacao, vanilla, cochineal, jesuit’s bark, hides, and other valuable commodities. The ships that trade directly from Holland to the Spanish continent, as they touch here on their outward passage to gain intelligence or assistance, on their return put in here likewise to compleat what is wanting of their cargo, with the sugar, the tobacco, the ginger, and other produce of the island itself. The trade of this island, even in times of peace, is reputed to be worth to the Dutch no less than 500,000 l. sterl. annually, but in time of war the profit is far greater, for then it is in a manner the common emporium of the West-Indies; it affords a retreat to the ships of all nations, and at the same time refuses to none of them arms and ammunition to annoy one another. The intercou
rse with Spain being interrupted, the Spanish colonies have scarce any other market, from whence they can be well supplied either with slaves or goods; the French come hither to buy the beef, pork, corn, flour and lumber, which the English bring from the continent of North America, or which is transported from Ireland; so that whether in peace, or in war, the trade of this island flourishes extremely. Nor is this owing to any natural advantage whatsoever. It seems as if it were fated, that the ingenuity and patience of the Hollanders should every where, both in Europe and America, be employed in fighting against an unfriendly nature: for the island is not only barren, and dependent upon the rains for it’s water, but the harbour is naturally one of the worst in America; but the Dutch have entirely remedied that defect; they have upon this harbour one of the largest, and by far the most elegant and cleanly towns in the American islands. The public buildings are numerous and handsome; the private houses commodious; and the magazines large, convenient, and well filled. All kind of labour is here performed by engines; some of them so dextrously contrived, that ships are at once lifted into the dock, where they are compleatly careened; and then furnished with naval stores, provisions, cannon, and every thing requisite either for trade or war.