French colonica.—The foreign settlements of France have differed from those of Holland, in being more ex, tended in the West than in the East. In the war of 1756, the military talents of Lord Clive, and the decided supe riority of our navy, put an end to the question of ascen dence between the French and English in the Eastern world. The same war stripped them of NIartinique and Guadaloupe, although our solicitude to consolidate our North American possessions led to the restoration of these islands at the peace: But the pride of French colonies was St Domingo—a settlement never wrested from the mother country until the miserable disorders of the late revolution. At first the inhabitants of the French part of St Domingo, and of the adjacent islands, were composed of the frec-booters, so well known under the name of Flibustiers, or Buccaneers. Two centuries ago, this lawless and intrepid race, an assemblage of pirates and desperadoes from all nations, were the terror of the Spanish Americans. Their situation, which was chiefly in the Bahamas and the quarters we have mentioned, afforded many facilities for adventurous enterprize, and deeds were performed, which might supply many a sub ject for heroic poetry. Part of these achievements have been rapidly traced by the animated pen of Raynal. In the course of time, the extension of regular govern ment throughout St Domingo, and the rest of the West Indies, led to the incorporation of the descendants of these free hooters into the mass of inoffensive citizens. The French colonies, being released, after the failure of the Mississippi scheme, from the restrictions of an exclusive company, advanced in population and pros perity with a success approximating to that of our colonies in North America. St Domingo became the greatest sugar and coffee colony in the West Indies, its population being computed, before the revolutionary dis asters, at half a million of negroes, along with a corres pondent proportion of whites.
The French colonists, like the English, went abroad only for a season, and steadily cherished the hope of returning with a competency to their native country. This feeling, however patriotic, is productive of an im patience in money making, which not only frequently defeats its object, but interferes very materially- with the comfort of the colonist. Even in the long settled island of St Domingo, an island where the proprietors were much oftener resident on their plantations than in the English colonies, the want of domestic comfort was universal. " On n'y volt point d'homme," says Malouet, " assis sur son foyer parlant avec interet de sa villc, de sa paroisse, de la maison ae scs peres. On n'y voit que des auberges et des voyageurs. Tout correspond a fides quc j'exprime. Entrcz dans leurs maisons, dies ne sont ni commodes, ni o•nees ; ifs n'en ont pas le toms ; ce n'est pas la peine ; voila lour language. Est-il question d'un biltiment, d'une machine, d'une transaction, d'un acte de partage, d'un reglement de compte ; rien West fini, ricn ne porte Pempreinte de la patience et de ('attention." Though disappointments in trade prevent the acquisition of fortunes in the limited period anticipated in their sanguine calculations, bad health, and impatience of an exile front home, are nevertheless productive of inces sant removals. " Id," adds Malouet, " la scene et les acteurs changent en moil's de dix minks vous avez sans cesse des hommes diflerens ; sans patrie, sans fa mine, sans projets, sans moycns determines ; mais prets saisir toes les projets, toes les moycns." This colony,
now stink beyond redemption during the present genera tion at least, w as, in natural fertility, greatly superior to the British settlements. On the sugar estates, the average annual produce of an acre is said to have been nearly one and a half hogshead, a quantity double, as appears from the preceding Table, the average of our colonies. St Domingo is said to abound in the fine brick mould, which in Jamaica is found only in particular dis tricts. Accordingly, in a period of ten years preceding the horrors of the revolution, the negro population, as well as the amount of produce, are believed to have nearly doubled. Martinique and Guadaloupe, though greatly behind St Domingo, have long been important colonies, their joint exports having amounted, many years ago, to a million sterling. The annual importation of slaves into the French colonies, before the revolution, was between 20 and 30,000.
The amount of produce Sterling 8,000,0001.
ported from them was The shipping employed . . . Tons 160,000 Number of seamen above 30,000 The British West India trade was in value about two thirds of the French ; while the number of our seamen employed in it, in consequence of their superior dex terity, was less than half. In fact, the West India trade occupied half the mercantile navy of France, while, in our case, its proportion to the whole was not more than a ninth. The total of our mercantile tonnage, previous to the French revolution, was three times that of France; the number of our seamen was double. It deserves to be remarked, that, in the West India trade, the average size of British shipping is nearly 300 tons, while of French West Indiamen, so lately as the years 1791 and 1792, the average (Brougham, vol. i. p. 177.) was below 100 tons.
Danish and Swedish Colonies.—The northern powers were, at the time of the great discoveries of the sixteenth century, too insignificant to obtain any considerable share of these distant acquisitions. Their trade, as Sir Wil liam Temple says, was " war," and war conducted on land and in their own neighbourhood. About two cen turies ago, Denmark acquired some small settlements on the coast of Coromandel ; and, agreeably to the current practice, put them under the management of an exclu sive company. This company shared the ordinary fate of these associations, and became insolvent. It was suc ceeded, in the course of years, by a second, a third, and even by a fourth company, all of whom arrived at the same end ; the demise of the last, however, being pro crastinated, as in the case of our own East India Com pany, by the union of territorial sovereignty with the possession of the exclusive trade. At last, in 1777, the crown purchased the rights of the company, and open ed, under certain limitations, the India trade to indi viduals at large. In 1792, these limitations were far ther relaxed, and all persons, whether Danes or fo reigners, were permitted to trade with India, on condi tion of bringing their cargoes to Copenhagen. The long war which followed, and involved all the south of Eu rope, threw a great deal of India trade into the hands of the Danes ; and their flag was used as a convenient medium by private ti adcrs in our own country. It has been, for a century past, the policy both of Denmark and Sweden to avoid maritime war, and to profit by the hos tilities of other countries. Nothing but the pressure of necessity would have made the Danes depart from this course in 1807.