Page:Remarks upon the Situation of Negroes in Jamaica.pdf/66

 were not apprehenſive of impending puniſhment.

As ſo great a portion of labour is loſt during the rainy ſeaſons, it is a diſgrace to the foreſight, and reſources of the country, that ſome domeſtic manufactures are not introduced, in which the negroes might be employed in theſe intervals of idleneſs, as well for their own comfort and emolument as the benefit of their maſter; and the reſources which I could recapitulate would be without end: but then the policy of Europe, (whether ſubſtantial or erroneous) throws a damp at once upon this ſuggeſtion, and makes that nugatory which might be efficient. Great Britain (with humility be it ſpoken) ſeems ignorant, in ſome reſpects of the real value of its weſtern poſſeſſions: I do not mean to oppoſe it to the multitudiousmultitudinous [sic] reſources, and wealth of the Eaſt: but if commerce be meant to be eſtabliſhed in our diſtant ſettlements, upon a humane and ſettled baſis; why juſtify that rigoutr, that oppreſſion in Aſia, which in America is ſo generally condemned? We execrate the Spaniſh nation, and the name of