We cannot omit observing; that it was industriously reported, propagated, and even urged as an argument in a great assembly, when the state of the sugar islands was under their consideration in the year 1758, that the British planters had formed a scheme for a monopoly, by agreeing only to cultivate such part of their lands as would produce but a certain quantity of sugar, in order to raise the price, and exactingly to obtain as much for a little as a great quantity; which was as true and likely to be the case, as if the farmers of _Great Britain_, _Ireland_, _France_, _Sweden_, _Poland_ and _Denmark_ were to enter into a combination to leave such parts of their lands uncultivated, with an unfair intent of raising the price of grain; which we believe any person will readily admit can never be brought about, although a correspondence may be easier, and in much less time carried on between the farmers of those nations, than the planters of our sugar colonies, as those of Jamaica cannot correspond with Barbadoes, or any other part of the sugar islands, sooner than by way of _Great Britain_ or _North America_, which would at least be six months before they could hear from each other; that impediment alone is sufficient to shew, that people thus separated, though ever so well inclined, can never form a monopoly. Besides, would it not be absurd, even to suppose that the farmers of Great Britain, and other nations, who inhabit corn countries, do not raise as much grain upon their farms as they possibly can procure servants at reasonable wages, and can stock them with horses, cattle, _&c._ at a cheap rate? But if they are obliged to pay great wages to their servants, and extravagant prices for their stock, they can then only put in execution the cultivation of their lands by degrees, which is exactly the case of the British planters; for had they a sufficient supply of the proper sort of Negroes at reasonable rates, they would not let any of their land lie idle that was worth being cultivated.