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392 THE LONDON WEST INDIA INTEREST July differences of opinion, but gradually these obstacles were removed and a society grew up in many respects similar to that of the present day. Many changes have, indeed, taken place in its constitution, but none so great as to break the continuity of development from the time when Lord Penrhyn was chairman of the standing committee, and James Allen carried round his minute books to the London Tavern, or the Marine Society's office, or the King's Arms Tavern in Cornhill. Among the societies formed in the eighteenth century by the unincorporated branches of commerce, the West India Committee alone has survived to the present day. The history of its develop- ment is therefore interesting as throwing light on the methods by which such societies attempted to secure their ends in English political circles. It does not in itself wholly explain the peculiar success that attended the activities of the West India interest ; for this an investigation must be made of the membership of the West India organizations, and of the attendance recorded at general meetings, an investigation which would produce evidence to show the great strength in the house of commons commanded by those concerned in the West India Islands. There is, however, another interest that attaches to the narrative. Although in many ways the West India organizations, especially the Society of West India Merchants, were comparable to the numerous ' meetings or clubs ... of the Turky and Italian merchants, the Spanish, the Portuguese, the French . . . V they had an importance shared only with ' the Virginia, the Carolina, New York, and New England merchants ' in that they were connected with a group of British colonies, and an importance in which they had no rivals in that these colonies were not lost to Great Britain at the break-up of the old empire. The presence in London of the West India organizations ^ensured that the interests of the colonies should not be violated by the home government through lack of information : to make certain of this was primarily the function of the colonial agents, but a much smaller measure of success would have been attained had it not been for the assistance afforded by the other planters and mer- chants with their wide influence and constant communications from the leading inhabitants of the islands. Lillian M. Penson. 1 The Universal Spectator and Weekly Journal, Saturday, 10 August 1734.