Page:Substance of the speech of His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence, in the House of Lords.djvu/69

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1798.

Gross duties to Great Britain £.3,000,000
Value of Imports to the Ports of Great Britain 45,000,000
Of which West India Imports only 11,000,000
Tonnage of the Port of London 400,000
Of which West India Duty 96,000

After describing our national happiness and prosperity in the West Indies, resulting from the united efforts of our commercial and military enterprize, it may not be amiss, by way of contrast, to demonstrate to your Lordships what the French, during the same period, have lost and sacrificed at the shrine of folly and infamy. This is no digression, my Lords, for every circumstance connected with the existence of our West India Settlements is also essentially connected with the existence of the Slave Trade. The French commerce, at the moment of the Revolution, stood thus: