Sir, I should be inexcusable in coming after such a person with any detail, if a
great part of the members who now fill the House had not the misfortune to be
absent when he appeared at your bar. Besides, Sir, I propose to take the matter
at periods of time somewhat different from his. There is, if I mistake not, a
point of view from whence, if you will look at the subject, it is impossible
that it should not make an impression upon you.
I have in my hand two accounts; one a comparative state of the export trade of
England to its Colonies, as it stood in the year 1704, and as it stood in the
year 1772; the other a state of the export trade of this country to its Colonies
alone, as it stood in 1772, compared with the whole trade of England to all
parts of the world (the Colonies included) in the year 1704. They are from good
vouchers; the latter period from the accounts on your table, the earlier from an
original manuscript of Davenant, who first established the Inspector-General's
office, which has been ever since his time so abundant a source of Parliamentary
information.
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