FOOTNOTES:
[17] In the year 1760, upon the prospect of a peace with France, the late Earl of Bath addressed a Letter to Two Great Men (Mr. Pitt and the Duke of Newcastle) on the terms necessary to be insisted upon in the negociation. He preferred the acquisition of Canada, to acquisitions in the West Indies. In the same year there appeared Remarks on the letter addressed to two great men, containing opposite opinions on this and other subjects. At this moment a philosopher stepped into the controversy, and wrote a pamphlet entitled, The Interest of Great Britain considered, with Regard to her Colonies, &c. The arguments he used, appear to have carried weight with them at the courts of London and Paris, for Canada was kept by the peace.
The editor thinks it necessary to add the following further explanations.—The above piece (which first came to his hands in the shape of a pamphlet, printed for Becket, 1761, 2d edit.) has none of the eight subdivisions it is now thrown into, marked out by the author. He conceived however that they might be useful, and has taken the liberty of making them, but guards it with this apology. The better to suit his purpose, the division of the paragraphs, &c. and the italics of the original, are not accurately adhered to. It was impossible for him however to alter one word in the sense, style, or disposition, of his author: this was a liberty for which he could make no apology.
In the original, the author has added his observations concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, &c. [printed in the 2d Vol. of this work] and introduced it with the following note. "In confirmation of the writer's opinion concerning population, manufactures, &c. he has thought it not amiss to add an extract from a piece written some years since in America, where the facts must be well known, on which the reasonings are founded. It is entitled, Observations, &c."
With respect to the arguments used by the authors of the Letter, and of the Remarks, it is useless to repeat them here. As far as they are necessary for the understanding of Dr. Franklin, they are to be collected from his own work. B. V.
[18] Remarks, p. 6.
[19] Ibid. p. 7.
[20] Remarks, p. 7.
[21] Ibid.
[22] Remarks, p. 19.
[23] Ibid.
[24] Page 30, of the Letter, and p. 21, of the Remarks.
[25] Remarks, p. 28.
[26] A very intelligent writer of that country, Dr. Clark, in his Observations on the late and present Conduct of the French, &c. printed at Boston, 1755, says,
"The Indians in the French interest are, upon all proper opportunities, instigated by their priests (who have generally the chief management of their public councils) to acts of hostility against the English, even in time of profound peace between the two crowns. Of this there are many undeniable instances: the war between the Indians and the colonies of the Massachusett's Bay and New Hampshire, in 1723, by which those colonies suffered so much damage, was begun by the instigation of the French: their supplies were from them; and there are now original letters of several Jesuits to be produced, whereby it evidently appears, that they were continually animating the Indians, when almost tired with the war, to a farther prosecution of it. The French not only excited the Indians, and supported them, but joined their own forces with them in all the late hostilities that have been committed within his majesty's province of Nova Scotia. And from an intercepted letter this year from the Jesuits at Penobscot, and from other information, it is certain, that they have been using their utmost endeavours to excite the Indians to new acts of hostility against his majesty's colony of the Massachusett's Bay; and some have been committed. The French not only excite the Indians to acts of hostility, but reward them for it, by buying the English prisoners of them: for the ransom of each of which they afterwards demand of us the price that is usually given for a slave in these colonies. They do this under the specious pretence of rescuing the poor prisoners from the cruelties and barbarities of the savages; but in reality to encourage them to continue their depredations, as they can by this means get more by hunting the English, than by hunting wild-beasts; and the French at the same time are thereby enabled to keep up a large body of Indians, entirely at the expence of the English."
[27] Remarks, p. 25.
[28] Remarks, p. 25.
[29] "Although the Indians live scattered, as a hunter's life requires, they may be collected together from almost any distance; as they can find their subsistence from their gun in their travelling. But let the number of the Indians be what it will, they are not formidable merely on account of their numbers; there are many other circumstances that give them a great advantage over the English. The English inhabitants, though numerous, are extended over a large tract of land, five hundred leagues in length on the sea shore; and although some of their trading towns are thick settled, their settlements in the country towns must be at a distance from each other: besides, that in a new country where lands are cheap, people are fond of acquiring large tracts to themselves; and therefore in the out-settlements, they must be more remote: and as the people that move out are generally poor, they sit down either where they can easiest procure land, or soonest raise a subsistence. Add to this, that the English have fixed settled habitations, the easiest and shortest passages to which the Indians, by constantly hunting in the woods, are perfectly well acquainted with; whereas the English know little or nothing of the Indian country, nor of the passages through the woods that lead to it. The Indian way of making war is by sudden attack upon exposed places; and as soon as they have done mischief, they retire, and either go home by the same or some different route, as they think safest; or go to some other place at a distance, to renew their stroke. If a sufficient party should happily be ready to pursue them, it is a great chance, whether in a country consisting of woods and swamps, which the English are not acquainted with, the enemy do not lie in ambush for them in some convenient place, and from thence destroy them. If this should not be the case, but the English should pursue them, as soon as they have gained the rivers, by means of their canoes (to the use of which they are brought up from their infancy) they presently get out of their reach: further, if a body of men were to march into their country, to the place where they are settled, they can, upon the least notice, without great disadvantage, quit their present habitation, and betake themselves to new ones." Clark's Observations, p. 13.
"It has been already remarked, that the tribes of the Indians, living upon the lakes and rivers that run upon the back of the English settlements in North America, are very numerous, and can furnish a great number of fighting men, all perfectly well acquainted with the use of arms as soon as capable of carrying them, as they get the whole of their subsistence from hunting; and that this army, large as it may be, can be maintained by the French without any expence. From their numbers, their situation, and the rivers that run into the English settlements, it is easy to conceive, that they can at any time make an attack upon, and constantly annoy as many of the exposed English settlements as they please, and those at any distance from each other. The effects of such incursions have been too severely felt by many of the British colonies, not to be very well known. The entire breaking up places, that had been for a considerable time settled at a great expence both of labour and money; burning the houses, destroying the flock, killing and making prisoners great numbers of the inhabitants, with all the cruel usage they meet with in their captivity, is only a part of the scene. All other places that are exposed are kept in continual terror; the lands lie waste and uncultivated, from the danger that attends those that shall presume to work upon them: besides the immense charge the governments must be at in a very ineffectual manner to defend their extended frontiers; and all this from the influence the French have had over, but comparatively, a few of the Indians. To the same or greater evils still will every one of the colonies be exposed, whenever the same influence shall be extended to the whole body of them." Ibid. p. 20.
[30] Remarks, p. 26.
[31] Douglass.
[32] Remarks, p. 25.
[33] Remarks, p. 26.
[34] This I believe is meant for Dr. Adam Smith, who seems not at this time to have printed any of his political pieces. B. V.
[35] Remarks, p. 27.
[36] Remarks, p. 50, 51.
[37] Remarks, p. 50, 51.
[38] The reason of this greater increase in America than in Europe is, that in old settled countries, all trades, farms, offices, and employments are full; and many people refrain marrying till they see an opening, in which they can settle themselves, with a reasonable prospect of maintaining a family: but in America, it being easy to obtain land, which, with moderate labour will afford subsistence and something to spare, people marry more readily and earlier in life, whence arises a numerous offspring and the swift population of those countries. It is a common error, that we cannot fill our provinces or increase the number of them, without draining this nation of its people. The increment alone of our present colonies is sufficient for both those purposes. [Written in 1760.]
[39] Viz. forty sail, none of more than forty guns.
[40] Sir C. Whitworth has the following assertion: "Each state in Germany is jealous of its neighbours; and hence, rather than facilitate the export or transit of its neighbours' products or manufactures, they have all recourse to strangers." State of Trade, p. xxiv. B. V.
[41] From New York into lake Ontario, the land-carriage of the several portages altogether, amounts to but about twenty-seven miles. From lake Ontario into lake Erie, the land-carriage at Niagara is but about twelve miles. All the lakes above Niagara communicate by navigable straits, so that no land-carriage is necessary, to go out of one into another. From Presqu'isle on lake Erie, there are but fifteen miles land-carriage, and that a good waggon-road, to Beef River, a branch of the Ohio; which brings you into a navigation of many thousand miles inland, if you take together the Ohio, the Mississippi, and all the great rivers and branches that run into them.
[42] I beg pardon for attempting to remind the reader that he must not confound the river Duna, with the river Dwina.—The fork of the Ohio is about four hundred miles distant from the sea, and the fork of the Mississippi about nine hundred: it is four hundred miles from Petersburgh to Moscow, and very considerably more than four thousand from Petersburgh to Pekin. This is enough to justify Dr. Franklin's positions in the page above, without going into farther particulars. B. V.
[43] Remarks, p. 47, 48, &c.
[44] The writer has [since] obtained accounts of the exports to North America, and the West India Islands; by which it appears, that there has been some increase of trade to those islands as well as to North America, though in a much less degree. The following extract from these accounts will show the reader at one view the amount of the exports to each, in two different terms of five years; the terms taken at ten years distance from each other, to show the increase, viz.
First term, from 1744 to 1748, inclusive.
Northern Colonies.
West India Islands.
1744
£.640,114
12
4
£.796,112
17
9
1745
534,316
2
5
503,669
19
9
1746
754,945
4
3
472,994
19
7
1747
726,648
5
5
856,463
18
6
1748
830,243
16
9
734,095
15
3
———————
———————
Total,
£.3,486,261
1
2
Tot.
£.3,363,337
10
10
Difference,
122,930
10
4
——————
£.3,486,268
1
2
Second term, from 1754 to 1758, inclusive.
Northern Colonies.
West India Islands.
1754
1,246,615
1
11
685,675
3
0
1755
1,177,848
6
10
694,667
13
3
1756
1,428,720
18
10
733,458
16
3
1757
1,727,924
2
10
776,488
0
6
1758
1,832,948
13
10
877,571
19
11
———————
———————
Total,
£.7,414,057
4
3
Tot.
£.3,767,841
12
11
Difference,
3,646,215
11
4
———————
£.7,414,057
4
3
In the first term, total of West India islands,
3,363,337
10
10
In the second term, ditto
3,767,841
12
11
———————
Increase, only
£.0,404,504
2
1
In the first term, total for Northern Colonies,
3,486,268
1
2
In the second term, ditto
7,414,057
4
3
———————
Increase,
£.3,927,789
3
1
By these accounts it appears, that the exports to the West India islands, and to the northern colonies, were in the first term nearly equal (the difference being only 122,936l. 10s. 4d.) and in the second term, the exports to those islands had only increased 404,504l. 2s. 1d.—Whereas the increase to the northern colonies is 3,927,789l. 3s. 1d. almost four millions.
Some part of this increased demand for English goods may be ascribed to the armies and fleets we have had both in North America and the West Indies; not so much for what is consumed by the soldiery; their clothing, stores, ammunition, &c. sent from hence on account of the government, being (as is supposed) not included in these accounts of merchandize exported; but, as the war has occasioned a great plenty of money in America, many of the inhabitants have increased their expence.
N. B. These accounts do not include any exports from Scotland to America, which are doubtless proportionally considerable; nor the exports from Ireland.
[I shall carry on this calculation where Dr. Franklin left it. For four years, from 1770 to 1773 inclusively, the same average annual exports to the same ports of the West Indies is 994,463l., and to the same ports of the North American plantations 2,919,669l. But the annual averages of the first and second terms of the former were 672,668l. and 753,568l.: of the latter, 697,254l. and 1,482,811l.
In ten years therefore (taking the middle years of the terms) the North American trade is found to have doubled the West Indian: in the next sixteen years it becomes greater by three-fold.—With respect to itself, the North American trade in 32 years (taking the extremes of the terms) has quadrupled; while the West Indian trade increased only one half; of which increase I apprehend Jamaica has given more than one-third, chiefly in consequence of the quiet produced by the peace with the maroon negroes.—Had the West Indian trade continued stationary, the North American trade would have quadrupled with respect to it, in 26 years; and this, notwithstanding the checks given to the latter, by their non-importation agreements and the encouragement of their own manufactures.
There has been an accession to both these trades, produced by the cessions at the treaty of Paris, not touched upon by Dr. Franklin. The average annual export-trade, from 1770 to 1773 inclusively, to the ceded West India islands, amounted to 258,299l.: to the ceded North American territory it has been 280,423l. See Sir Charles Whitworth's State of Trade. B. V.]
[45] Copy of the Report of Governor Hopkins to the Board of Trade, on the Numbers of People in Rhode-Island.
In obedience to your lordships' commands, I have caused the within account to be taken by officers under oath. By it there appears to be in this colony at this time 35,939 white persons, and 4697 blacks, chiefly negroes.
In the year 1730, by order of the then lords commissioners of trade and plantations, an account was taken of the number of people in this colony, and then there appeared to be 15,302 white persons, and 2633 blacks.
Again in the year 1748, by like order, an account was taken of the number of people in this colony, by which it appears there were at that time 29,755 white persons, and 4373 blacks.
Colony of Rhode Island, Dec. 24, 1755.
Stephen Hopkins.
[46] An Account of the Value of the Exports from England to Pensylvania, in one Year, taken at different Periods, viz.
| In 1723 | they amounted only to | £. 15,992 | 19 | 4 |
| 1730 | they were | 48,592 | 7 | 5 |
| 1737 | 56,690 | 6 | 7 | |
| 1742 | 75,295 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1747 | 82,404 | 17 | 7 | |
| 1752 | 201,666 | 19 | 11 | |
| 1757 | 268,426 | 6 | 6 |
N. B. The accounts for 1758 and 1759, are not yet completed; but those acquainted with the North American trade know, that the increase in those two years has been in a still greater proportion; the last year being supposed to exceed any former year by a third; and this owing to the increased ability of the people to spend, from the greater quantities of money circulating among them by the war.
[47] The aid Dr. Franklin alludes to must probably have consisted in early and full supplies of arms, officers, intelligence, and trade of export and of import, through the river St. Lawrence, on risques both public and private; in the encouragement of splendid promises and a great ally; in the passage from Canada to the back settlements, being shut to the British forces; in the quiet of the great body of Indians; in the support of emissaries and discontented citizens; in loans and subsidies to congress, in ways profitable to France; in a refuge to be granted them in case of defeat, in vacant lands, as settlers; in the probability of war commencing earlier between England and France, at the gulph of St. Lawrence (when the shipping taken, were rightfully addressed to Frenchmen) than in the present case. All this might have happened, as soon as America's distaste of the sovereign had exceeded the fear of the foreigner; a circumstance frequently seen possible in history, and which our ministers took care should not be wanting.
This explanation would have required apology for its insertion, were not the opinion pretty common in England, that had not the French been removed from Canada, the revolt of America never would have taken place. Why then were the French not left in Canada, at the peace of 1763? Or, since they were not left there, why was the American dispute begun? Yet in one sense, perhaps this opinion is true; for had the French been left in Canada, ministers would not only have sooner felt, but sooner have seen, the strange fatality of their plans. B. V.
[48] Remarks, p. 50, 51.
[49] And Pharoah said unto his people, behold the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land. And the king spake to the Hebrew midwives, &c. Exodus, chap. 1.
[50] In fact, there have not gone from Britain [itself] to our colonies these twenty years past to settle there, so many as ten families a year; the new settlers are either the offspring of the old, or emigrants from Germany, or the north of Ireland.
[51] Remarks, p. 30, 34.
[52] It is often said we have plenty of sugar-land still unemployed in Jamaica: but those who are well acquainted with that island know, that the remaining vacant land in it is generally situated among mountains, rocks, and gullies, that make carriage impracticable, so that no profitable use can be made of it; unless the price of sugars should so greatly increase, as to enable the planter to make very expensive roads, by blowing up rocks, erecting bridges, &c. every two or three hundred yards. [Our author was somewhat misinformed here. B. V.]
[53] Remarks, p. 47.
[54] Dr. Franklin has often been heard to say, that in writing this pamphlet he received considerable assistance from a learned friend, who was not willing to be named. B. V.
