A.D. 1776
_1RE0.

LAISSEZ FAIRE
management by which the resources of our Colonies have
hitherto been wasted, has, I know, produced in the public
mind too much of a disposition to regard them as mere
sources of corruption and loss, and to entertain, with too
much complacency, the idea of abandoning hem as useless.
I cannot participate in the notion that it is the part either
of prudence or of honour to abandon our countrymen, when
our government of them has plunged them into disorder, or
our territory, when we discover that we have not turned it
to proper account. The experiment of keeping Colonies and
governing them well ought at least to have a trial, ere we
abandon for ever the vast dominion which might supply the
wants of our surplus population, and raise up millions of fresh
consumers of our manufactures, and producers of a supply
for our wants.”

R64

\. Reports, 1839, xvi1. 118.