Benjamin Franklin [ire 
cannot at present make war with England, without 
exposing those advantages, while divided among the 
numerous islands they now have, much more than 
they would were they possessed of St. Domingo only; 
their own share of which would, if well cultivated, 
grow more sugar than is now grown in all their West 
India Islands. 
I have before said I do not deny the utility of the 
conquest, or even of our future possession, of Guada- 
loupe, if not bought too dear. The trade of the 
West Indies is one of our most valuable trades. Our 
possessions there deserve our greatest care and at- 
tention. So do those of North America. I shall not 
enter into the invidious task of comparing their due 
estimation. It would be a very long and a very dis- 
agreeable one, to run through every thing material 
on this head. It is enough to our present point, if 
I have shown that the value of North America is 
capable of an immense increase, by an acquisition 
and measures that must necessarily have an effect 
the direct contrary of what we have been indus- 
triously taught to fear: and that Guadaloupe is, 
in point of advantage, but a very small addition to 
our West India possessions; rendered many ways 
less valuable to us than it is to the French, who will 
probably set more value upon it than upon a country 
[Canada] that is much more valuable to us than to 
them. 
There is a great deal more to be said on all the 
parts of these subjects; but as it would carry me 
into a detail that I fear would tire the patience of my 
readers, and which I am not without apprehensions 
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