“I have desired the printer of the ‘Liverpool Mercury’ to forward you a copy of that paper, in which you will see the result of a public meeting for petitioning parliament for an open trade to the East Indies, and will, I hope, think that the resolutions there adopted have placed the subject on its proper ground, that of a claim of right. I also venture to flatter myself that your Royal Highness will think that in what I have said I have acted the part of a friend to my country, in endeavouring, as far as in my power, to prevent the people being deluded to their destruction, by the prospect of advantages which it is impossible should be realised in time to provide for present emergencies.
“That the East India trade will, when opened, be highly beneficial to this country I have no doubt; but if the expectation of it should call off our attention from the real causes of our distress, and induce us to suppose that we can dispense with the advantages we derive from the preservation of an intercourse with America, it may lead us into a most serious error.”
