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Show 226 [A: B. T.] fir regulating Indian qfizz'rr. Remarks on a Plan ment to unlicenfed tr‘ders, and promote fuchr V»'_,' w". 1‘; ‘"‘ ' trade.--lf the commnlaries or on is at int polls, can prevent the telling of rum during the barter for other L,goods, and until the lndiam going away; it is perh ‘all that is put - is or neceliary.---The minionartes wrll, among~ ochtr things, endeavour to prevail with them to live foberly and avoid drunkennefs. 39. The Indian trade, {0 far as crud?) is concerned, has hitherto been carried on wholly upon honour. They have among themfelves no inch thing as prifons or confinements for debt-This article {eems to imply, that an Indian may be compelled by law, to pay a debt of fifty fhillings or under. Our legal method of compullion is by imprifonment: The Indians cannot and will not impriibn one another; And if we attempt to im- prifon them, Iapprehend it would be generally difliked by the. nations, and occafion breaches.- They have fueh high ideas of the value of perfonal liberty, and fuch flight ones of the value of perfonal property; that they would think the dilproportion monf'rrous between the liberty of a man, and a debt of a few (billings; and that it would be exceliively inequitable and unjuft, to take away the one for a default in payment of the other. It feems to me therefore bell, to leave that matter on its prefent footing ; the debts zmdcr fifty {hillings as irrecoverable by law, as this article pro- potes for the debts above fifty ihillings.-Debts of honour are generally as well paid as other debts. Where no compulfion can be tried, it is more difI graceful 227 graceful to be_difhoneft.--Ifthe trader think s his ntque greater in trufiing any particular India n he W111 either not do it, or proportion his price to his rifque. 4.4. As the goods for the Indian trade all come from England, and the peltry is chiefly brou ght to England; perhaps it will be bett to lay the duty here, .on the exportation of the one, and the importation of the other; to avoid meddlino with the quefiion, of the right to lay duties in Aihe riea by parliament here. If it is thought proper to carry the tradine part of this plan into execution, would it not b: well to try 2! flr/Z 2'72 a few poflr, to which the preter it colony laws for regulating the Indian trade do not reach; that by experience, its utility may be at- certalned, or its defeéts difcovered and amen ded ; before it IS made general, and thofe laws repea led to make way for it P-If the Indians find hv experience that they are better uied in their trade at. the pofts, under thefe regulations, than at other places; may it not make them dclirous of havin g the regulations extended to other places,and whqii extended, better fatistied with them noon retire tion and comparifon " P l * '[The editor has given the following memorandum of Indian figbltmgaren, inhabiting near the dillantpofls, in 1762; toinduloe t i‘ Curlous 1n future times, and thew alto the extent ot'Dr. lir'v travels. He believes it likely to have been ta :1] hv Dr In "1.11.", expedition which he made, as a commander in the Pew) n' mllma, in order to determine lnt‘alin‘es and fitufitiun‘; {or tlu‘ out polls; but is by no means :tiiii Ll of [no accuracy oliilris Opih The paper howcxer is in Dr. Franklin's hand-minus: d G o" 2 ‘ |