Page:Remarks upon the Situation of Negroes in Jamaica.pdf/70

 ſucceſs; and to be ſure of worldly profit we ſhould canvas the poſſibility of human means.

The ſubject of the ſlave trade involves a great variety of internal and extraneous matter, and to follow the ideas of the pending bill, the ſubject, I conceive, ſhould be taken up in England, as far as relates to the ſafety of veſſels, and the preſervation of thoſe lives which are to be adventured in this dangerous and deſtructive voyage. A government acquires more wealth by the ſalvation of lives, than by an encreaſe of the revenues; but if the one can be brought to aſſiſt with prudence the encreaſe of the other, it is productive of a double good. If eight or ten thouſand ſeamen be annually employed in this traffic, and one fourth of them do not return to their native country, (which, if their frequent deſertion from the ſhip, and the life of idleneſs and inebriety they conſequently lead in the Iſlands he conſidered, is a moderate calculation) the loſs to the community in the courſe of twenty years could hardly be recompenſed by the moſt extenſive impoſts: if, on the contrary, no greater portion of lives be loſt in one year than Captain Cook experienced, there