Complete Works of Edmund Burke

by Edmund Burke

  As for the scheme of vines and silk, we were extremely eager in this respect in the beginning; and very supine ever since. At that time such a design was clearly impracticable; because a few people seated in a wild country must first provide every thing for the support of life, by raising of corn and breeding of cattle, before they can think of manufactures of any kind; and they must grow numerous enough to spare a number of hands from that most necessary employment, before they can lend such things in any degree of cheapness or plenty to a good market. But now there is little said of either of these articles, though the province is longer settled, and grown more populous. But the misfortune is, that though no people upon earth originally conceive things better than the English do, they want the unremitting perseverance which is necessary to bring designs of consequence to perfection. We are apt suddenly to change our measures upon any failure; without sufficiently considering whether the failure has been owing to a fault in the scheme itself; this does not arise from any defect peculiar to our people, for it is the fault of mankind in general, if left to themselves. What is done by us is generally done by the spirit of the people; as far as that can go we advance, but no farther. We want political regulations, and a steady plan in government, to remedy the defects that must be in all things, which depend merely on the character and disposition of the people.

  At present Georgia is beginning to emerge, though slowly, out of the difficulties that attended it’s first establishment. It is still but indifferently peopled, though it is now twenty-four years since it’s first settlement. Not one of our colonies was of so slow a growth, though none had so much of the attention of the government, or of the people in general, or raised so great expectations in the beginning. They export some corn and lumber to the West-Indies; they raise some rice, and of late are going with success into indigo. It is not not to be doubted but in time, when their internal divisions are a little better composed, the remaining errors in the government corrected, and the people begin to multiply, that they will become a useful province.

  Georgia has two towns already known in trade; Savannah the capital, which stands very well for business about ten miles from the sea, upon a noble river of the same name, which is navigable two hundred miles further for large boats, to the second town, called Augusta; this stands upon a spot of ground of the greatest fertility, and is so commodiously situated for the Indian trade, that from the first establishment of the colony it has been in a very flourishing condition, and maintained very early six hundred whites in that trade alone. The Indian nations on their borders are the upper and lower Creeks, the Chickesaws, and the Cherokees; who are some of the most numerous and powerful tribes in America. The trade of skins with this people is the largest we have, it takes in that of Georgia, the two Carolinas and Virginia. We deal with them somewhat in furs likewise, but they are of an inferior sort. All species of animals, that bear the fur, by a wise providence have it more thick, and of a softer and finer kind as you go to the northward; the greater the cold, the better they are clad.

  CHAP. XXVII. NOVA SCOTIA.

  THE last province we have settled, or rather began to settle, upon the continent of North America, is Nova Scotia. This vast province, called by the French Acadie, has New England and the Atlantic ocean to the South and South-West, and the river and gulph of St. Laurence to the North and North-East. It lies between the 44th and 50th degrees of North latitude, and though in a very favourable part of the temperate zone, has a winter of an almost insupportable length and coldness, continuing at least seven months in the year; to this immediately succeeds, without the intervention of any thing that may be called spring, a summer of an heat as violent as the cold, though of no long continuance; and they are wrapt in the gloom of a perpetual fog, even long after the summer season has commenced. In most parts, the soil is thin and barren, the corn it produces of a shrivelled kind like rye, and the grass intermixed with a cold spungy moss. However it is not uniformly bad; there are tracts in Nova Scotia, which do not yield to the best land in New England.

  Unpromising as this country is, yet neglecting all those delightful tracts to the Southward, it was here that some of the first European settlements were made. The French seated themselves here before they made any establishment in Canada; but whatever unaccountable ignorance influenced their choice, the industry and vigour of that time deserves our applause; for though they had infinitely more difficulties to struggle with than we have at this day, and not the hundreth part of the succours from Europe, yet they subsisted in a tolerable manner, and increased largely; when the colony which in our days we have fixed there, if the support of the royal hand was withdrawn but for a moment, after all the immense sums which have been expended in it’s establishment, would undoubtedly sink into nothing. It is with difficulty it subsists, even encouraged and supported as it is. Yet the design of establishing a colony here, with whatever difficulties it might have been attended, was a very prudent measure, for the French would undoubtedly have profited of our neglects, and have by some means got this country into their hands, to the great annoyance of all our colonies, and to the great benefit both of their fishery and their sugar islands.

  This country has frequently changed hands from one private proprietor to the other, and from the French to the English nation, backward and forward; until the treaty of Utrecht established our right in it finally; as the treaty of Aix la Chapelle confirmed it. But both were deficient in not ascertaining distinctly what bounds this province ought to have. This was left to be adjusted by commissaries. Whilst they were debating, the French built forts, and secured such a part of the province as they were resolved to hold. I have not throughout this work chosen to enter into territorial disputes, because they convey very little private instruction, and do nothing at all towards the establishment of the public rights; yet it is difficult to avoid remarking, that the line which the French have drawn in Nova Scotia, is not only not drawn by any treaty, but that it is very apparently calculated to secure them these parts of the province which they value most, and at the same time to pay an apparent respect to the treaty of Utrecht by leaving us some part of Acadia.

  The chief town we had formerly in this province, was called Annapolis Royal; but though the capital, it was a small place, wretchedly fortified, and yet worse built and inhabited. Here were stationed the remains of a regiment, which continued there very little recruited since the reign of queen Anne; but though this place never flourished, it stood upon the very best harbour, as it is said, in North America; but it was not here, but on the South-East side of the peninsula, that the settlement which was resolved and executed with so much spirit at the end of the last war, was planned. This too stands upon a fine harbour, very commodiously situated, and rather better than Annapolis for the fishery. The town is called Halifax from the present earl, to whose wisdom and care we owe this settlement. In 1743, three thousand families, at an immense charge to the government, were transported into this country at once, and (I think) three regiments stationed there to protect them from the Indians, who have always shewed themselves our most implacable enemies. The town is large, and for so new a settlement well built. It has a good intrenchment of timber, strengthened with forts of the same materials, so as to be in little danger at least from an Indian enemy.

  Though this town of Halifax has, all things considered, a very flourishing appearance, the adjacent country is not improved in proportion; the ground is very hard to be cleared; when cleared does not produce a great deal, and labour is extravagantly dear. But this colony has suffered more from the incursions of the Indians than from any thing else. Their incursions have been so frequent, and attended with such cruelties, that the people can hardly extend themselves beyond the cannon of the fort, nor attend their works of agriculture even there without the greatest danger. The consequence of this is, that they do not raise the fifth part of what is sufficient to maintain them. Most of their provision of every sort comes from New England, and they must have starved if it were not f
or the fishery, which it must be owned is not contemptible, and for some little naval stores, and the pay of the garrison, the spending of which here is the principal use of the troops; against the Indian enemy they are of very little effect; though there are three regiments, and all the fighting men the Indians can raise in that province are not five hundred. The soldiers, inactive by their confinement in their barracks, diseased for the most part with the scurvy, and debilitated by the use of spirituous liquors, are quite an undermatch for the activity, vigilance, patience, and address of the American. A company of wood rangers kept constantly to scour the country near our settlements, and a small body of Indians who might be brought at an easy rate from the friendly tribes who inhabit our other settlements, and encouraged by a reward for what scalps they should bring home, sent to infest the enemy amongst their own habitations, would have protected our colony, and long ago exterminated the Indians, or reduced them to an useful subjection, since unfortunately we have not the secret of gaining their affections. The easy plan I have mentioned would not have had half the expence attending it, that the maintenance of a numerous and almost useless garrison has had. A little experience will shew to the most ordinary understandings, what hardly any sagacity could have without it unveiled to the most penetrating statesman. It was a want of this experience that caused another mistake of almost as bad a nature. Until the beginning of this war a number of the ancient French colony, some say ten or twelve thousand souls, remained in the country, and were called and treated in a manner as a neutral people, though they ought to have been the king’s subjects; but they yielded very little obedience to the crown of England, as in truth they had from us very little protection, and they were even accused of encouraging the Indian incursions, and supplying them with arms and ammunition to annoy our people. Had we erected in their country a little fort, and in it kept a small garrison, to be maintained by that people themselves, appointed magistrates, and made them know the benefit and excellency of the British laws, and at the same time impressed them with a dread of the British power, we might have saved many useful people to this colony, and prevented the necessity (if it was a necessity) of using measures, which, if they are not impolitic, are certainly such as an humane and generous mind is never constrained to but with regret.

  Besides Annapolis and Halifax, we have another settlement a little to the South-West of the latter, called Lunenburg. This is a branch of Germans from Halifax, who being discontented at the infertility of the soil there, desired to go where there was better land to be had, undertaking their own defence; accordingly they settled where they desired, to the number of seven or eight hundred, and succeed tolerable well. Upon a tumult which arose amongst them, the governor sent a party of soldiers to protect them from their own discords, and from the enemy. This province is yet but in it’s beginning, and therefore, except in prospect, can afford us no great subject matter of speculation.

  CHAP. XXVIII. Newfoundland, the Bermudas, and the Bahamas.

  TO the East of this province lies the great isle of Newfoundland, above three hundred miles long, and two hundred broad, extending quite up to New Britain, and forming the Eastern boundary of the gulph of St. Laurence. This island, after various disputes about the property, was entirely ceded to England by the treaty of Utrecht. From the soil of this island we were far from reaping any sudden or great advantage; for the cold is long continued and intense; and the summer heat, though violent, warms it not enough to produce any thing valuable; for the soil, at least in those parts of the island with which we are acquainted, (for we are far from knowing the whole) is rocky and barren. However, it hath many large and safe harbours; and several good rivers water it. This island, whenever the continent shall come to fail of timber convenient to navigation, (which perhaps is no very remote prospect) will afford a copious supply for masts, yards, and all sorts of lumber for the West-India trade. But what at present it is chiefly valuable for, is the great fishery of cod, which is carried on upon those shoals which are called the banks of Newfoundland. In that the French and Spaniards, especially the former, have a large share. Our share of this fishery is computed to increase the national stock by three hundred thousand a year, in gold and silver, remitted us for the cod we sell in the North, in Spain, Portugal, Italy and the Levant. The plenty of cod, both on the great bank and the lesser ones which lie to the East and South East of this island, is inconceivable; and not only cod, but several other species of fish are there in abundance; all these species are nearly in an equal plenty all along the shores of New England, Nova Scotia, and the isle of Cape Breton; and consequently excellent fisheries are carried on upon all their coasts. Where our American colonies are so ill peopled, or so barren as not to produce any thing from their soil, their coasts make us ample amends; and pour in upon us a wealth of another kind, and no way inferior to the former, from their fisheries.

  We have in North America, besides this, two clusters of islands; the Bermudas or Summer islands, at a vast distance from the continent in lat. 31. and the Bahama islands. The former were very early settled, and were much celebrated in the time of the civil wars, when several of the cavalier party being obliged to retire into America, some of them, in particular Mr. Waller, the poet, spent some time in this island. Waller was extremely enamoured with the serenity of the air, and the beauty and richness of the vegetable productions of these islands; he celebrated them in a poem, which is fine but unequal, which he wrote upon this subject.

  The Bermudas are but small; not containing in all upwards of twenty thousand acres. They are very difficult of access, being, as Waller expresses it, walled with rocks. What has been said of the clearness and serenity of the air, and of the healthiness of the climate, was not exaggerated; but the soil could never boast of an extraordinary fertility. Their best production was cedar, which was superior to any thing of the kind in America. It is still so, though diminished considerably in quantity, which has, as it is imagined, changed the air much for the worse; for now it is much more inconstant than formerly; and several tender vegetables, which flourished here at the first settlement, being deprived of their shelter, and exposed to the bleak Northerly winds, are seen no more.

  The chief, and indeed only business of these islanders is the building and navigating light sloops, and brigantines built with their cedar, which they employ chiefly in the trade between North America and the West-Indies; These vessels are as remarkable for their swiftness, as the wood of which they are built is for it’s hard and durable quality. They export nothing from themselves but some white stone to the West Indies, and some of their garden productions. To England they send nothing. Formerly they made a good deal of money of a sort of hats for womens wear of the leaves of their palmetto’s, which whilst the fashion lasted were elegant; but the trade and the fashion are gone together.

  Their whites are computed to be about five thousand, the blacks which they breed are the best in America, and as useful as the whites in their navigation. The people of the Bermudas are poor, but healthy, contented, and remarkably cheerful. It is extremely surprising that they do not set themselves heartily to the cultivation of vines in this island, to which their rocky soil seems admirably adapted; and their situation and the manner of trade they are already engaged in, would facilitate the distribution of their wine to every part of North America and the West-Indies.

  The Bahamas are situated to the South of Carolina, from lat. 22 to 27, and they extend along the coast of Florida quite down to the isle of Cuba; and are said to be five hundred in number; some of them only mere rocks; but a great many others large, fertile, and in nothing differing from the soil of Carolina. All are however absolutely uninhabited, except Providence, which is neither the largest nor the most fertile.

  This island was formerly a receptacle for those pirates, who for a long time infested the American navigation. This obliged the government to erect a fort there, to station an independent company in the island, and to send thither a governor. This island has at present not muc
h trade, some oranges it sends to North America excepted. However, in time of war it makes considerably by the prizes condemned here, and in time of peace by the wrecks, which are frequent in this labyrinth of innumerable rocks and shelves. This is all the benefit we derive from so many large and fertile islands, situated in such a climate as will produce any thing, and which as it is never reached by any frosts, would yield in all probability even sugars, of as good a sort, and in as great abundance, as any islands in the West-Indies. Nothing more fully shews the present want of that spirit of adventure and enterprize, which was so common in the two last centuries, and which is of such infinite honour and advantage to any time or nation, than that these islands so situated can lie unoccupied, whilst we complain of the want of land proper for sugar, and whilst an hundred pounds an acre is paid for such in the Caribbees.

  CHAP. XXIX. HUDSON’s BAY.

  THE countries about Hudson’s and Baffin’s Bay make the last object of our speculation in America. The knowledge of these seas was owing to a project for the discovery of a North-West passage to China. So early as the year 1576 this noble design was conceived; since then it has been frequently dropped; it has often been revived; it is not yet compleated; but was never despaired of by those whose knowledge and spirit make them competent judges and lovers of such undertakings. Frobisher only discovered the main of New Britain, or Terra de Labrador, and those streights to which he has given his name. In 1585 John David sailed from Dartmouth, and viewed that and the more Northerly coasts; but he seems never to have entered the bay. Hudson made three voyages on the same adventure, the first in 1607, the second in 1608, and his third and last in 1610. This bold and judicious navigator entered the streights that led into this new Mediterranean, coasted a great part of it, and penetrated to eighty degrees twenty-three minutes into the heart of the frozen zone. His ardor for the discovery, not abated by the difficulties he struggled with in this empire of winter, and world of frost and snow, he staid here until the ensuing spring, and prepared in the beginning of 1611 to pursue his discoveries; but his crew, who suffered equal hardships, without the same spirit to support them, mutinied, seized upon him and seven of those who were most faithful to him, and commited them to the fury of the seas in an open boat. Hudson and his companions were either swallowed up by the waves, or gaining the unhospitable coast which they water were destroyed by the savages; but his fate so calamitous cannot so much discourage a generous mind from such undertakings, as the immortality of his name, which he has secured by having given it to so great a sea, will be a spur to others to expect an equal honour, and perhaps with better success.