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 1921 IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 391 sub -committees appointed by them : general meetings are recorded in the books of the standing committee. The merchants' meeting continued to have its separate organization until 1843 ; it was resolved at a meeting of that year that the continuance of a separate society was no longer necessary, and that such of its members as were not already members of the standing committee should be transferred to that body. Its long con- tinuance is an interesting example of survival : the disagreement between planters and merchants resulted in the existence of separate meetings for nearly a century after the disagreement had disappeared. The position during the last twenty years of the eighteenth century was then briefly this : there was a joint organization of planters and merchants ; there was a separate society of mer- chants only ; there were occasional general meetings of planters alone for specific purposes. There were also throughout the eighteenth century occasional meetings of the planters and merchants interested in one island or group of islands only. 1 These are sometimes recorded in the minute books, but some- times we get no indication of them from this source. Frequently they were called by the agents in connexion with some business of special importance which was being transacted with the government. Perhaps the most interesting of these cases was in 1783, when the planters, merchants, and others interested in the island of Tobago held meetings to consider what action should be taken in view of the proposed cession of the island to France by the treaty of Versailles. The earl of Shelburne had recommended the appointment of an agent by the planters and merchants to represent the interests of the island at the court of France ; 2 the advice was taken and assurances were obtained from the French ministers that favourable treatment should be accorded to the British planters. Thus from various sources grew up the West India Committee, a powerful influence on British politics. In its final form it appeared only during the last eighteen years of the century ; but long before that its way had been prepared by the practice of holding meetings to draw up petitions to the government. For many years nothing more definite than these occasional meetings could be developed owing to divergency of interest and 1 See Minutes of the Council of Jamaica, Colonial Office Papers 137 (32, 18 and 19 December 1760) ; Journals of the Assembly of Jamaica, Colonial Office Papers 140 (46, 12 Geo. Ill, 20 November 1771) ; "Merchants' Minutes, vol. ii, meeting of 28 November 1781. For the earlier half of the century the only evidence is the petitions and representations of the planters and merchants interested in the islands, the most fruitful sources for which are the series Colonial Office Papers 391 (Board of Trade Journals) and the Journals of the House of Commons. 2 Gentleman's Magazine* vol. 53, January-June 1783, pp. 173, 535.