In regard to population, the Spanish colonies differ both from the United States and the West India Islands. The disproportion of whites is smaller than in the latter, while, on the other hand, their number in no degree ap proxiinates to that of the former. The immense field open to agricultural labour would have the effect of giv ing a general character of steadiness to the inhabitants, were not the lottery of mining perpetually holding forth a temptation to depart from the gradual, 'and, in the eye of an ardent calculator, tardy progress of agriculture. In their sanguine anticipations, the insecurity inseparable from mining concerns is greatly under-rated, while the progressive, but eventually large returns of agriculture, are accounted of little weight in the scale. The fact, however, is, that the advance of agriculture is not only more sure, but frequently more rapid than that of com mercial settlements ; and the reason is plain, the market of the former exists chiefly among themselves, while that of the latter is dependant on the caprice of foreign na tions.
The island of Cuba has, during the present age, made more rapid advances than any other part of Spanish America. The number of its negroes in 1787 exceeded 50,000, and they have been since in a state of progres sive increase. There being no restriction on the mode of manufacturing sugar, it is common to clay it before exportation, and as it thus becomes of greater value by twenty per cent., a proportional saving is made in regard to freight. The sugar is packed in boxes weighing generally 4 cwt. 1 quarter English, and the annual crop is computed ( War in disguise, 3d. edition, p. 230) at eigh ty or ninety thousand hogsheads.
Portuguese Colonies.—The Portuguese have certainly ranked next to the Spaniards, in the art of mismanaging colonies. They did not, indeed, for a long time, com mit the error of establishing an exclusive,company for their splendid acquisitions in the East ; but they did what was fully as impolitic, they vested the trade in the hands of the executive government. The king granted from time to time the permission of making exports and im ports to certain partnerships and individuals, who thus en joyed temporary monopolies. This hopeful course was, in a great measure, abandoned in the year 1752 ; but the change, as to the India trade at least, came too late, that branch of commerce being no longer worth following. 'Brazil becoming progressively more populous, would have afforded a beneficial commerce to Portugal, had the intercourse not been conducted in the true spirit of ex clusion and monopoly. Unfortunately about a century
ago, at the time when better principles might have been brought into operation, discoveries were made of gold and diamond mines. These discoveries were pernicious to Brazil in two ways ; they turned capital from agricul ture to the precarious, and, in general, unprofitable labour of mines, while they redoubled the vigilance of govern ment in regard to restraints on the communication with the colony. A late traveller, Mr Mawe, whose report, if deficient in literary attractions, possesses the merit of much clearness and candour as to matters of fact, confirms roost explicitly the opinion, that the condition of the in nahitants is much more uncomfortable in the mining than in the agricultural districts. By a singular absurdity, the Portuguese ministry resorted, in the middle of the last century, to the plan of an exclusive company for Brazil, after the rest of Europe began to see the folly of these privileged associations. This took place during the ad ministration of the well-known Marquis de Pombal. A long course of misgovernment has thus retarded the im provement of Brazil, and the chief part of it continues at the present day in a state of nature. The Prince Re gent's estate, for example, though nearly equal in size to one of our counties, and highly favoured, both in soil and climate, is not sufficiently cultivated to support two thousand persons. How greatly the mercantile import ance of Brazil has been overrated by our traders, has been sufficiently apparent, from the long lists of bankruptcies originating from shipments made to that quarter. Our exporters allowed themselves to imagine that Brazil was already peopled by a nation qualified to use and enabled to pay for immense supplies of British manufacture. Now the true way to appreciate Brazil, is to direct our esti mates to its future capabilities, and to postpone our ex pectations of extended trade, until the lapse of another age has given it a new character. But, considered re latively to the smallness of the mother country, Brazil, even in its present state, becomes an object of import ance. It is said Colonial Policy, vol. i. p. 485.) to supply a fourth of the national revenue, and to furnish to the harbours of Portugal as much import trade as they receive from all Europe together. The power, likewise, of admitting or excluding the mari time nations of Europe from the ports of Brazil, tends materially to increase the political influence of Portugal.