9

276

such

a

new

course indicates

entire,

feature in British

British policy

which has hitherto regulated it's prohibitions by a regard to its

own

presumed

in

territory and a regard

to those of its neighbours.

The Committee need hardly

point out that

all business is at present

stand in

articles affected by the Irritation,

and especially

in the important

article of Saltpetre. Some of the articles will suffer incontestable deterioration in quality by being kept on hand through a protracted period of suspense;

others (Saltpetre included)

will be subject to a heavy loss

in

weight by gradual wastage. The case is therefore

one which

calls for a prompt remedy. The injury inflicted upon

the Colony

is most serious not only in immediate loss to individuals but also by marring its character

as

a free port to which it owes all its prosperity and which it now appears may

at any

moment

be invalidated by a Government

decree

It is by

no

means

an

improbable consequence of this innovation that much business in these articles

as well as

those

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