Source: Bell's Weekly Messenger, No. 1846, Sunday, August 21, 1831.
From the very voluminous and valuable papers prepared by Mr Hume for his motion to give representatives to the colonies, we have the following information:—The British colonies amount in number to 37, exclusive of the British possessions in India. Of these there have been captured 11, ceded 4, obtained by settlement 19. The population of these colonies is, in North America 911,229; British Guiana and the West Indies, whites 40,485, free coloured people 60,863, slaves 694,530—total 836,527; crown colonies, whites 238,388, free coloured people 977,407, slaves, including of course convicts, 146,899—total 1,332,409. The imports from the whole in 1829, in official value, was 11,508,943l.; official value of exports 10,777,244l. Ships inwards 2,798, tonnage 755,375; ships outwards 2,977, tonnage 1,067,243. These are important data whereby to estimate the value of our colonies.