There is another point in "The State of the Nation," to which, I fear, I
have not been so full in my answer as I ought to have been, and as I am
well warranted to be. The author has endeavored to throw a suspicion, or
something more, on that salutary, and indeed necessary measure of
opening the ports in Jamaica. "Orders were given," says he, "in
_August_, 1765, for the free admission of Spanish vessels into all the
colonies."[101] He then observes, that the exports to Jamaica fell
40,904_l._ short of those of 1764; and that the exports of the
succeeding year, 1766, fell short of those of 1765, about eighty pounds;
from whence he wisely infers, that this decline of exports being _since_
the relaxation of the laws of trade, there is a just ground of
suspicion, that the colonies have been supplied with foreign commodities
instead of British.

Here, as usual with him, the author builds on a fact which is
absolutely false; and which, being so, renders his whole hypothesis
absurd and impossible. He asserts, that the order for admitting Spanish
vessels was given in _August_, 1765. That order was not _signed at the
treasury board until the 15th day of the November following_; and
therefore so far from affecting the exports of the year 1765, that,
supposing all possible diligence in the commissioners of the customs in
expediting that order, and every advantage of vessels ready to sail, and
the most favorable wind, it would hardly even arrive in Jamaica, within
the limits of that year.

This order could therefore by no possibility be a cause of the decrease
of exports in 1765. If it had any mischievous operation, it could not be
before 1766. In that year, according to our author, the exports fell
short of the preceding, just _eighty_ pounds. He is welcome to that
diminution; and to all the consequences he can draw from it.

But, as an auxiliary to account for this dreadful loss, he brings in the
Free-port Act, which he observes (for his convenience) to have been made
in spring, 1766; but (for his convenience likewise) he forgets, that, by
the express provision of the act, the regulation was not to be in force
in Jamaica until the November following. Miraculous must be the activity
of that contraband whose operation in America could, before the end of
that year, have reacted upon England, and checked the exportation from
hence! Unless he chooses to suppose, that the merchants at whose
solicitation this act had been obtained,