PROCEEDINGS in the Seffion of PARLIAMENT 1766-7, continued. [181.]

fuftain their credit with their mother country. As the nature of the petition ers commerce, when free from the late restraints, ought to be understood, they beg leave to observe, that their produce then fent to our own and the foreign iflands, was chiefly bartered for fugar,

the fugar, cotton, and indigo, ferved as remittance to G. Britain, while the ruin and melaffes conftituted effentlal branches of their commerce, and enabled them to barter with our own colonies for fish and rice, and by that means to pursue a valuable trade with Spain, Portugal, and Italy, where they chiefly obtained money, or bills of exchange, in return; and likewife qualified them for adventures to

O the account of the proceedings on the bill for reftraining the affembly of New York, in which the colonies feem to have been treated with no little feverity, we shall here add a circumstance which happened a little earlier in the feflion. - On the 16th of February, the Lord Clare (from the commiffioners rum, melaffes, cotton, and indigo; that of trade and plantations) acquainted the house, that his Majesty had commanded them to inform the house, that they had received, inclofed in a letter from Sir Henry Moore, Bt, (Governor of New York), a petition of the merchants in the city of New York, addreffed to the house of Commons, which the Governor fays he tranfmitted to the commiflioners of trade and plantations, at the request of a committee of merchants of New Africa, where they had the advantage of York. This petition, which certainly deferved a particular attention, from that regard to the trade and profperity of this kingdom and our plantations, which ought always to actuate every branch of the legislature, would not certainly have been treated with fo little regard as it was, had it not been for the ill temper of the majority of the members then prefent.

This petition being brought up, and read, fet forth, That the commerce of the North-American colonies is fo fe verely clogged and restricted by the ftatutes of the 4th and 6th of his prefent Majefty, [xxvii. 13. xxix. 401.], as to afford a melancholy prefage of its deftruction; the fatal effects of which, though first felt there, must be finally transferred to G. Britain, and center with her merchants and manufacturers; that an evil fo extenfive, could not fail of alarmning the petitioners, whofe fituation expofes them to the first impreffion of this calamity; whence they think it their duty to implore the houfe to refume the confideration of the plantation-trade, for effectual redrefs. It is the fingular difadvantage of the Northern British colonies, that, while they ftand in need of vast quantities of the manufactures of G. Britain, the country produces very little that affords a direct remittance thither in payment, and therefore from neceffity they have been driven to feek a market for their produce, and, by a course of traffick, to acquire either money, or fuch merchandise as would answer the purpose of a remittance, and enable them to

putting off great quantities of British manufactures, and of receiving in exchange, gold, ivory, and flaves; which laft being difpofed of in the West-India iliands, commanded money or bills. Rum was indifpenfable in their Indian trade, and, with British manufactures, procured furs and fkins, which both ferved for confiderable returns to G. Britain, and increased its revenue. The trade to the bay of Honduras was alfo of great importance, it being managed with small cargoes of provifions, rum, and British manufactures, which, while they were at liberty to fend foreign logwood to the different ports in Europe, furnished them with another valuable branch of remittance. From this view it is evident, that fugar, rum, melafles, and logwood, with cotton and indigo, are the effentials of their return-cargoes, and the chief fources from which, in a course of trade, they have maintained their credit with G. Britain. That confidering the prodigious confumption of the produce of the West Indies in G. Britain, Ireland, and the colonies on the continent of America, the rapid increase of thofe colus nies, the vaft acceffion of fubjects by the late conquefts, the utter incapacity of our own lands to fupply fo great a de mand, will, the petitioners prefume, be out of all queftion; on the other hand, the lumber produced from clearing this immenfe territory, and the provitions extracted from a fertile foil, must raife a fupply for exportation much greater than all our islands can confume: it feems therefore confiftent with found policy, 3 Tz

to indulge those colonies both in the free and unrestrained exportation of all the lumber and produce they can spare, and an ample importation of fugar, rum, and melaffes, to fupply the various branches of their trade; fince, without the one, the clearing of lands will be difcouraged, and provifions, for want of vent, become of little profit to the farmer; without the other, the petitioners must be plunged into a total incapacity of making good their payments of British debts, their credit muft fink, and their imports from G. Britain gradually diminith, till they are contracted to the narrow compals of remittances in articles of their own produce; whence the colonies muft, from inevitable necessity, betake themselves to manufactures of their own, which will be attended with confequences very detrin ental to thofe of G. Britain.

is another expenfive and dilatory reftriction, without being of any material advantage to the revenue of G. Britain; for it puts it out of the petitioners power to meet foreigners at market upon an equal footing. That British plantation fugar exported from North America, fhould be declared French on being landed in England, the petitioners conceive may be justly clafled among the number of hardships irflicted by those regulations, as in effect it deprives them of making a remittance in that article, by expofing them to the payment of the foreign duty in G. Britain; which appears the more fevere, as their fellow-fubje&s of the islands are left at liberty to export those sugars for what they really are, and a diftinction is formed which the petitioners cannot but regard with uneasiness.That foreign rum, French excepted, is the next article which the petitioners most humbly propose for confideration, as its importation, on a moderate duty, would add confiderably to the revenue, prevent fmuggling, increase the sale of British manufactures, and enable the petitioners to bring back the full value of their cargoes, more especially from the Danith iflands of St Thomas and St Croix, where they can only receive half the value in fugar and cotton, and confequently rum alone can be expected for the other half, those islands having no spice but of a bafe kind.-That it is with the greatest concern the petitioners obferve, that fo

The petitioners having thus reprefented the nature of their commerce, humbly beg leave to point out the feveral grievances under which it labours, from the regulations prefcribed by the two beforementioned acts. The heavy imbarraf ments which attend the article of fugar, is a capital fubject of complaint; and, befides the abfolute neceflity of a great importation to sustain their trade, it of ten happens, that at the foreign iflands, a fufficient return-cargo, independent of fugar, cannot be procured, which ren ders trade precarious and difcouraging, Befides, the high duty of 5 s. Sterling a hundred, is found by experience to be foreign logwood is alfo made subject to the exceflive, that it has induced the fair trader to decline that branch of bafinefs, while, to people lefs fcrupulous, it prefents an irrefiftible temptation to foggling. That the preffure of this duty is Bot aggravated, the petitioners appeal to the officers of the customs of their port, who must confel, that there have not been wanting inftances where merchants have been driven to the difgreeable neceflity of bringing their very plate into the custom-house to discharge it. The petitioners, therefore, most humbly intreat, that a more moderate duty be laid en foreign fugars, which, they are allured, would not only greatly promote the profperity both of thofe colonies and their mother-country, but increase the royal revenue far beyond what can be expected under the prefent restraints.-The compelling merchants to land and flore foreign lugars in G. Britain, before they are exported to other parts of Europe,

delay, hazard, and expence, of being landed in G. Britain; which, with its low price, its bulk, and the duty with which it is now burthened, muft totally destroy that valuable branch of the petitioners commerce, and throw it into the bands of foreigners unfettered with thole heavy embarran.ents.-That their lumber and pot-afh, even when fhipped for Ireland, where the latter is fo neceflary for the progrefs of their linen-manufacture, and even provifions, though intended to relieve that kingdom from a famine, are fubject to the fame diftrefling impediments; nor is flax-feed, on the timely importa tion of which the very existence of the linen-manufacture immediately depends, exempted: yet both flax-feed, lumber, and pot-afh, may all be imported into Ireland directly from the Baltic, where they are purchafed from foreigners under the national disadvantage of being paid for with money inttead of manufactures:

jected, by its being ordered to ly on the zable. But it is to be hoped, that the time is at hand, when effectual measures will be taken to revive our declining commerce; and that a more judicious parlia ment, that has much better ideas of trade than the laft, will conciliate the affections of our colonies to their mothercountry, and enable them to trade with us, on a footing equally advantageous to both.

[The rest of the proceedings published of this feffion, are concerning matters of police, none of which relate to Scotland.- -The parliament was prorogued on the 2d of July.]

Mr URBAN,

July 1768.

AN ingenious correfpondent [xxix. 128.]

has given us his fentiments on the production of fome of thofe infects that ufually affect fruit-trees in the early feafon of the year. If the following obfervations contain any thing new upon a subject that admits of infinite variety, your communicating them to the public may probably be the means of promoting more valuable inquiries.

To attempt a defcription of the va rious infects by which fruit-trees are affected, is, however, no part of my prefent defign; those who have leisure to bestow on that copious fubject may confult Swammerdam; and, if they have inclination to puríue it, and chuse to adopt the plan on which that celebrated naturalift has proceeded, by beginning where he has left off, his curious difquifitions will accelerate their progress.

Your correfpondent, himself, by a curfory perufal of the works of this writer, will learn, that nature preferves no uniformity in the production of the various fpecies of infects; but that each fpecies differs from every other fpecies either in the mode or the time of its production. Hence it is, that, as your correspondent has obferved, fome infects depofit their eggs in ringlets about the trees the preceding fummier, fome wrap them up in webs, fome in little bags, fome in moffy beds, fome in woody cells, like coffins, fome depofit them in dry walls, fome in dunghills, fome in marthy places, fome in holes near the furface of the earth, fome at a great depth under the earth, and many, and that perhaps by far the greateft multitude, retain them till the fpring, when the warmth of the fun invites them from their beds, to perform their last great office in life, and then to depart for ever; in fhort, he will there fee, that in many

of the fpecies, the beginning of life in the infant, is the end of life in the parent; and that, except a few whofe offfpring require to be fed, none of them, after they have arrived to their last state of maturity, furvive the act of genera. tion the space of a fingle day. Add to all thefe, what I think is no unreasonable conjecture, that at certain feasons the air is abundantly replenished with the feeds of animalcule, that are wafted by the winds from region to region, to be brought into life by various concurring accidents, fometimes in one part of the globe, and fometimes in another.

From my late observations, I am inclined to think, that the varieties in the

animal and vegetable kingdoms bear a

yet been fufficiently attended to; and nearer proportion to each other, than has that by the wife appointment of the great author of the universe, the production and fubfiftence of the former is made in a great measure to depend on the corruption and devastation of the latter. The number of ways therefore by which will elude the niceft obfervation, and conthis is effected are fo infinite, that many tinue to afford matter of contemplation to the ftudious to the end of time.

As few men apply themselves, and fewtheir effects, the lights we have received er ftill are qualified, to trace causes from from the labours of others on this abstruse fubject are proportionably few. To com fefs the truth, fo limited does man's understanding appear with respect to natugent inquirer concerning them to error, ral causes, and fo liable is the most dilithat what the wifeft philofophers of forto one caule, thofe of fucceeding ages mer ages have with confidence attributed have found reafon to afcribe to another; our proper purfuit thould therefore be, in the prefent inquiry, after things useful and attainable, to feek how to prevent the ill effects which annually happen from caufes beyond our reach, or to remedy them, as far at least as they will admit of remedy, when they have taken place.

But if, as I have hinted above, the production and exiftence of certain fpecies in the fyftem of animal beings are made to depend upon the corruption and depravation of other certain species in the vegetable system, to what purpose, it may be faid, is it for man to attempt to divert the course of nature, or to defeat the defigns of Providence in the produc tion or prefervation of the minutest spe