whether it would be expedient to prosecute the design or not.

But if it should be thought too burdensome for a company in so
flourishing a condition, and consequently engaged in so extensive a
commerce as the East India Company is, to undertake such an expedition,
merely to serve the public, promote the exportation of our manufactures,
and increase the number of industrious persons who are maintained by
foreign trade; if this, I say, should be thought too grievous for a
company that has purchased her privileges from the public by a large loan
at low interest, there can certainly be no objection to the putting this
project into the hands of the Royal African Company, who are not quite in
so flourishing a condition; they have equal opportunities for undertaking
it, since the voyage might be with great ease performed from their
settlements in ten months, and if the trade was found to answer, it might
encourage the settling a colony at Madagascar to and from which ships
might, with the greatest conveniency, carry on the trade to New Guinea. I
cannot say how far such a trade might be consistent with their present
charter; but if it should be found advantageous to the public, and
beneficial to the company, I think there can be no reason assigned why it
should not be secured to them, and that too in the most effectual manner.

A very small progress in it would restore the reputation of the company,
and in time, perhaps, free the nation from the annual expense she is now
at, for the support of the forts and garrisons belonging to that company
on the coasts of Africa; which would alone prove of great and immediate
service, both to the public and to the company. To say the truth,
something of this sort is absolutely necessary to vindicate the expense
the nation is at; for if the trade, for the carrying on of which a
company is established, proves, by a change of circumstances, incapable
of supporting that company, and thereby brings a load upon the public,