Causes of Colonial Prosperity —Various reasons con cur to accelerate the progress of a colony in the career of wealth and consequence. The country chosen for a colony has generally the advantage of a good soil and climate. The colonists, emigrating from a civilized quarter, bring along with them the habits both of in dustry and of subordination. They bring also a small ca pital, not perhaps in the shape of money, but in that of tools, or other productive stock ; and they are little ac tuated by that ostentation and disposition to expence, which, in our part of the world, interferes so materially with the augmentation of property. Utility is the great object in a new settlement, and the habits of consump tion do not greatly exceed the limits of necessity. Their towns are few, and, for many years, of small size, so that the majority lead a country life : a situation of all others the most conducive to habits of economy. The local government is generally guided by a correspondent train of feeling. It meddles little with foreign affairs, seeks no quarrels, and confines its expenditure within very narrow limits ; the consequence of which is, that the taxes arc very light, and the citizen is left in possession of almost all the fruits of his labour. The augmen tation of property would be still quicker, were capital abundant among them ; but men of capital do not emi grate, and in new colonies, consequently the rate of in terest is high. Of all the advantages, however, of a new colony, the most important is the abundance of subsist ence. The woods which afforded a scanty support to a few families of savage hunters. arc converted, by the axe and time plough of the farmer. into luxuriant corn fields. In such a country. a numerous family of young persons, instead of being a burden on their parents, become a source of additional income. Uncleared land is to be bought for a trifle, so that the means of extending culti vation arc within the reach of all persons above the low est rank. One of the chief consequences of this state of things, is discovered in a high rate of wages. Where people multiply so fast, the great want is the want of labourers to provide for their accommodation. 1 he mestic and the mechanic are much more independent ut their masters, than in a country where a recourse to agricultural habits is impracticable. These circurastau ces, if not calculated to make them respectful in beha viour to their superiors, have, politically speaking, the rood effect of affording strong inducements to industry. The journeyman in a town, like the labourer in the country, is enabled soon to engage in business on his own account, and to pay his assistants the same liberal rate of wages which he formerly received. In such a community, the chief expense of a family consists in the price of the manufactured articles, which it is necessary to import from the mother country, or from some long settled quarter ; and which, in compliance with the vul gar notion of loss by consumption, are generally saddled with heavy duties. Another serious article of expence, consists in servants wages, which, like all other wages, are, in such a situation, very high.
In the existence of these circumstances, varied, as they necessarily are, by difference of situation, we shall find explanation of the rapid growth of almost all colonies. Were our materials sufficient, we might be enabled to trace their operation in the ancient settlements of Asia Minor, Italy, and Sicily, as clearly as in the well authen ticated history of New England, or of the territory ad jacent to the Cape of Good Hope. It was in conse quence of such causes, that Tyre rose superior to Sidon, and Carthage, in her turn, to Tyre. The population of the thirteen United States of America bids fair, before the expiration of the present century, to surpass that of the greatest nations of Europe. In point of literature and works of taste, our American brethren, it must be confessed, are hitherto much behind the brilliant exam ple of the Grecian colonists. The spirit of trade seems, in the United States, almost wholly to absorb that time and attention which, in other countries, is shared with more refined pursuits.
Insalubrity of Tropical Settlements.—Powerful as are the above-mentioned causes of colonial prosperity, their operation will be found more applicable to the state than to the individual. The facility afforded by them, is not that of making a fortune, but of rearing a family. In speaking accordingly of colonies, such as the West dies, where, from unhealthiness of climate, and cy of the comforts of life, the settlers do not plate a permanent abode, we must make very able deductions from the operation of the favourable cumstances of colonies. The advantage of bringing up family at a cheap rate becomes, in a manner, lost in such asttuation ; the settlers either not marrying at all, or finding it expedient to have their children educated in Europe. Here lies the great difference between our sugar colonies, and the more congenial climate of the northern part of America. Were our young countrymen, in ticular those north of the Tweed, apprized of the real nature of a West India life, they would discover much less eagerness to try their chance in so hazardous a reer. They take up a vague notion of the wealth of .he West Indies, from the example, perhaps, of a few individuals in their neighbourhood, who, having realised a competency, get credit, throughout an uninformed for being men of fortune. The young rer is too little acquainted with the world, to make the requisite deduction from the sums, of which the vanity of these envied persons, or of their friends, represents them to be possessed. He is likewise too little aware of the danger of the climate, to calculate how many have fallen victims to it, without in any degree attaining the object of their emigration. The fact is, that during tie last fourteen years, the acquisition of property in the West Indies has been much more difficult than at home. If, for the sake of taking the matter on its fair side, we consider the bad times at an end, and regard the co lonies as restored to their ordinary course, we shall still find very serious deductions from the supposed rapidity of money-making. The expense of living—the high in terest on borrowed funds—the endless procrastination of payments—the accumulation of law expenses—the fre quent occurrence of losses by the death of debtors, who, like most men in that country, have no property but their personal exertion, are all obstacles to the success of even the prudent and industrious settler. When to this unpleasant list we add the decay of constitution by the climate, there seems no doubt of the balance being in favour of a life passed, however laboriously, in the mo ther country. Admitting the acquisition of property in the West Indies in a given number of years to be quicker, it is not greater (nor by any means equal) when a suitable deduction is made for the effect of climate in abridging the duration of life. A large proportion of the settlers are cut off in the outset of their career, and the survivors are, in general, found by middle age to have advanced much nearer to a state of infirmity, than if they had remained inhabitants of their native clime. Sir William Young, among other useful documents on the West Indies, has given the public tables of the mor tality among the British troops in the West Indies. He divides the year, very properly, into two parts ; the dry and healthy period from December to June, and the rainy season from July to November. In the latter in terval, the mortality (see his West India C4inrnon Place Book, p. 220.) is more than double the former ; and., putting the whole year together, the proportion of deaths among our troops, even without taking the field, or un dergoing particular fatigue, is eleven in the hundred. This computation proceeds on the supposition of new comers arriving out at the most favourable time, viz,. the beginning of the dry season. It is greatly below the average loss of the British troops in these colonies, on a computation of seven years, of which Sir William presents the following melancholy picture.