might alone furnish an adequate reason for its failure.

In no other part of the world, since the value of colonial commerce and the expence of colonial establishments have been known, have men associated to settle in an uncivilized country upon terms like these. The mother country, sure of reaping the fruits of their success, has commonly undertaken the charge of their government and protection; and it may be added that this charge has borne no small proportion to the early value of even the most prosperous Colony.

Let, for instance, an enquiry be made, what was the charge of civil government, what the cost of fortifications, of military garrisons, and of the various other public services connected with the settlement of Dominica and St. Vincent, and it would probably appear that more than the whole amount of the capital of the Sierra Leone Company was

sunk by the public in each of those islands, after their cession by France in 1763, before they were made in any degree valuable to this country. But in Sierra Leone, all these expences were borne by the Company, till it could defray them no longer; and when the Colony was totally laid waste in the last war by invasion, the Company sustained the whole cost of its restitution. The assistance since received from Parliament has come too late to save the stock of the Proprietors, though it may possibly be the source of much future benefit to the nation.

When these circumstances are considered, even if we admit that the undertaking of the Company, regarded as a mere commercial enterprise, has failed, we may yet safely affirm that its failure has been less discouraging than that of the first settlers in the most valuable of our colonial possessions. It is notorious that, in the ceded islands before adverted to, though now, or lately,

in a state of high prosperity, almost every private capital, that was at first embarked in their cultivation, was lost to the adventurers. So extensive was the ruin that the very easy purchase-money of lands reserved to the government, though forming the first lien upon them, remained for the most part unpaid; and Mr. Edwards questions whether a shilling of the nominal sales ever found its way into the treasury.

This is, in truth, from known causes, the ordinary case with new Colonies. It has been proverbial that the first settlers generally fail, though their successors rise on their ruins: and if such is the fate of adventurers in the fertile, well known, and well defended field of our own Sugar Colonies, where they have few or no public establishments to maintain; it would surely be unjust to regard the losses of the Sierra Leone Company, under the peculiar circumstances which have been noticed, as a proof that coloniza

D

tion in Africa can never be carried on to ad

vantage.

Your Committee however would again remark, that supposing such an opinion to be well founded, it has no relevancy to the objects of the African Institution; for we mean not to colonize in Africa, or to trade there on our own account, but only to assist and give a right direction to the enterprize of others, and to excite the industry of the natives of that continent. And in these respects, the experience of the Sierra Leone Company presents to us nothing but encouragement. The possibility of introducing agriculture, innocent commerce, and other means of civilization into Africa, if it could reasonably have been doubted before, is established by what that Company has actually effected, notwithstanding what it has failed to accomplish. It has shewn that not only provisions, but the various articles of export which we now bring from the West Indies, may be

raised on the African coast. It has demonstrated that Negroes in a state of freedom may be induced to labour in the field. It has proved that the Native Chiefs may be made to understand such views as our Institution wishes to impress upon them. And above all it has shewn, that the grand obstacle to their heartily embracing those views has been the continuance of the Slave Trade.

The Colony of Sierra Leone can also attest, that free Negroes are capable of being governed by mild laws, and require neither whips nor chains to inforce their submission to civil authority. If a spirit of insubordination appeared for a time in that Colony, it was under circumstances which would in more polished societies have produced much stronger effects. The government was long destitute even of any lawful authority to punish crimes, and never possessed a military force which could overawe the turbulent. Yet if the course of events at Sierra