HOUSE OF COMMONS, MARCH 2, 1740-1.

DEBATE ON THE BILL FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT AND INCREASE OF SEAMEN.

The bill was ordered to be read the second time, and to be printed for the use of the members, that it might be thoroughly examined and understood.

On the forty-fourth day, the second reading of the bill was postponed to the fiftieth; but the grand motion being debated on that day, nothing else was heard.

On the fifty-first it was again put off; but

On the fifty-sixth day, being read a second time, it was, after some opposition, referred to a committee of the whole house, to sit five days after. In the meanwhile,

On the fifty-seventh, it was ordered that the proper officers do lay before this house an account of what persons were authorized, by virtue of the act in the 4th of queen Anne, for "the encouragement and increase of seamen, and for the better and speedier manning her fleet;" to conduct seamen or seafaring men taken upon privy searches made by applications to justices; and what number of seamen or seafaring men were returned; also, the charge attending the same.

On the sixty-first day, moved that the said account should be read; which being done, the house resolved itself into a grand committee on the present bill; and the first clause being read, proposing the blanks to be filled thus: that every volunteer seamen, after five years' service, be entitled to six pounds per year, during life.

Sir John BARNARD rose, and spoke as follows:—Sir, as it is our duty to provide laws, by which all frauds and oppressions may be punished, when they are detected, we are no less obliged to obviate such practices as shall make punishments necessary; nor are we only to facilitate the detection, but take away, as far as it is possible, the opportunities of guilt. It is to no purpose that punishments are threatened, if they can be evaded, or that rewards are offered, if they may by any mean artifices be withheld.

For this reason, sir, I think it necessary to observe, that the intent of this clause, the most favourable and alluring clause in the bill, may lose its effect by a practice not uncommon, by which any man, however inclined to serve his country, may be defrauded of the right of a volunteer.

Many men have voluntarily applied to the officers of ships of war, and after having been rejected by them as unfit for the service, have been dragged on board within a few days, perhaps within a few hours afterwards, to undergo all the hardships, without the merit, of volunteers.

When any man, sir, has been rejected by the sea officers, he ought to have a certificate given him, which shall be an exemption from an impress, that if any other commander shall judge more favourably of his qualifications, he may always have the privilege of a volunteer, and be entitled to the reward which he deserved, by his readiness to enter the service.

If such provisions are not made, this hateful practice, a practice, sir, common and notorious, and very discouraging to such as would enter the service of the publick, may so far prevail, that no man shall be able to denominate himself a volunteer, or claim the reward proposed by the bill.

Admiral WAGER spoke next, to the following effect:—Sir, it is not common for men to receive injuries without applying for redress, when it may certainly be obtained. If any proceedings like those which are now complained of, had been mentioned at the board of admiralty, they had been immediately censured and redressed; but as no such accusations were offered, I think it may probably be concluded, that no such crimes have been committed.

For what purpose oppressions of this kind should be practised, it is not easy to conceive; for the officers are not at all rewarded for impressing sailors. As, therefore, it is not probable that any man acts wickedly or cruelly without temptation: as I have never heard any such injury complained of by those that suffered it, I cannot but imagine, that it is one of those reports which arise from mistake, or are forged by malice, to injure the officers, and obstruct the service.

Lord BALTIMORE rose next, and spoke to the following effect:—That the practice now complained of, sir, is very frequent, and, whatever may be the temptation to it, such as every day produces some instances of, I have reasons for asserting with great confidence. I have, within these few days, as I was accidentally upon the river, informed myself of two watermen ignominiously dragged by force into the service to which they had voluntarily offered themselves a few days before. The reasons of such oppression, it is the business of those gentlemen to inquire, whom his majesty intrusts with the care of his fleet; but to interrupt the course of wickedness, to hinder it from frustrating the rewards offered by the publick, is the province of the representatives of the people. And I hope, sir, some proviso will be made in this case.

Admiral NORRIS rose and said:—Sir, if any such practices had been frequent, to what can it be imputed, that those who employ their lives in maritime business should be strangers to them? Why have no complaints been made by those that have been injured? Or why should officers expose themselves to the hazard of censure without advantage? I cannot discover why these hardships should be inflicted, nor how they could have been concealed, and, therefore, think the officers of the navy may be cleared from the imputation, without farther inquiry.

Sir John BARNARD spoke again, to the following purpose:—Sir, it is in vain that objections are made, if the facts upon which they are founded may be denied at pleasure: nothing is more easy than to deny, because proofs are not required of a negative. But as negatives require no proof, so they have no authority, nor can any consequence be deduced from them. I might, therefore, suffer the facts to remain in their present state, asserted on one side by those that have reasons to believe them, and doubted on the other without reasons; for surely he cannot be said to reason, who questions an assertion only because he does not know it to be true.

But as every question, by which the liberty of a Briton may be affected, is of importance sufficient to require that no evidence should be suppressed by which it may be cleared, I cannot but think it proper that a committee should be formed to examine the conduct of the officers in this particular; and in confidence of the veracity of those from whom I received my information, I here promise to produce such evidence as shall put an end to controversy and doubt.

If this is not granted, sir, the fact must stand recorded and allowed; for to doubt, and refuse evidence, is a degree of prejudice and obstinacy without example. Nor is this the only objection to the clause before us, which appears very imperfect, with regard to the qualifications specified as a title to the reward. The reward ought not to be confined to those who shall hereafter be invited by the promise of it to engage in the service, while those who entered into it without any such prospect, are condemned to dangers and fatigues without a recompense. Where merit is equal, the reward ought to be equal; and, surely, where there is greater merit, the reward proposed by the senate, as an encouragement to bravery, ought not to be less. To be excluded from the advantages which others have obtained, only by avoiding the service, cannot but depress the spirit of those whose zeal and courage incited them, at the beginning of the war, to enter into the fleet; and to deject those from whom we expect defence and honour, is neither prudent nor just.

Nor is it, in my opinion, proper to offer the same reward indiscriminately to all that shall accept it; rewards ought to be proportioned to desert, and no man can justly be paid for what he cannot perform; there ought, therefore, to be some distinction made between a seaman by profession, one that has learned his art at the expense of long experience, labour, and hazard, and a man who only enters the ship because he is useless on land, and who can only incommode the sailors till he has been instructed by them.

It appears, sir, to me, a considerable defect in our naval regulations, that wages are not proportioned to ability; and I think it may not be now unseasonably proposed, that sailors should be paid according to the skill which they have acquired; a provision by which an emulation would be raised among them, and that industry excited, which now languishes for want of encouragement, and those capacities awakened which now slumber in ignorance and sloth, from the despair of obtaining any advantage by superiority of knowledge.

Sir Robert WALPOLE then rose, and spoke as follows:—That this charge, sir, however positively urged, is generally unjust, the declarations of these honourable gentlemen are sufficient to evince, since it is not probable that the injured persons would not have found some friend to have represented these hardships to the admiralty, and no such representations could have been made without their knowledge.

Yet, sir, I am far from doubting that by accident, or, perhaps, by malice, some men have been treated in this manner; for it is not in the power of any administration to make all those honest or wise whom they are obliged to employ; and when great affairs are depending, minute circumstances cannot always be attended to. If the vigilance of those who are intrusted with the chief direction of great numbers of subordinate officers be such, that corrupt practices are not frequent, and their justice such, that they are never unpunished when legally detected, the most strict inquirer can expect no more. Power will sometimes be abused, and punishment sometimes be escaped.

It is, sir, easy to be conceived that a report may become general, though the practice be very rare. The fact is multiplied as often as it is related, and every man who hears the same story twice, imagines that it is told of different persons, and exclaims against the tyranny of the officers of the navy.

But these, in my opinion, sir, are questions, if not remote from the present affair, yet by no means essential to it. The question now before us is, not what illegalities have been committed in the execution of impresses, but how impresses themselves may become less necessary? how the nation may be secured without injury to individuals? and how the fleet may be manned with less detriment to commerce?

Sir, the reward now proposed is intended to excite men to enter the service without compulsion; and if this expedient be not approved, another ought to be suggested: for I hope gentlemen are united in their endeavours to find out some method of security to the publick, and do not obstruct the proceedings of the committee, that when the fleets lie inactive and useless, they may have an opportunity to reproach the ministry.

Admiral NORRIS spoke next, in substance:—Sir, though it is not necessary to enter into an accurate examination of the gentleman's proposal, yet I cannot but observe, that by making it, he discovers himself unacquainted with the disposition of seamen, among whom nothing raises so much discontent as the suspicion of partiality. Should one man, in the same rank, receive larger wages than another, he who thought himself injured, as he who is paid less will always think, would be so far from exerting his abilities to attain an equality with his associate, that he would probably never be prevailed on to lay his hand upon the tackling, but would sit sullen, or work perversely, though the ship were labouring in a storm, or sinking in a battle.

Mr. GORE then spoke as follows:—Sir, the danger of introducing distinctions among men in the same rank, where every man that imagines his merit neglected, may have an opportunity of resenting the injury, is, doubtless, such as no prudent commander will venture to incur.

Every man, in this case, becomes the judge of his own merit; and as he will always discover some reason for the preference of another very different from superiority of desert, he will, by consequence, be either enraged or dispirited, will either resolve to desert his commander, or betray him to the enemies, or not oppose them.

I remember, sir, though imperfectly, a story which I heard in my travels, of an army in which some troops received a penny a day less than the rest; a parsimony which cost dear in the day of battle; for the disgusted troops laid down their arms before the enemy, and suffered their general to be cut in pieces.

General WADE then spoke to this effect:—Sir, I cannot but concur with the honourable gentleman in his opinion, that those who are already engaged in the service, who have borne the fatigues of a long voyage, and perhaps are, at this hour, exposing their lives in battle to defend the rights of their country, ought to have the same claim to the reward proposed, with those who shall hereafter offer themselves. Nor, in my opinion, ought those who have hitherto been pressed into our fleets to be discouraged from their duty by an exclusion from the same advantage. For if they were compelled to serve in the fleet, they were compelled when there was not this encouragement for volunteers, which, perhaps, they would have accepted if it had been then proposed, Every man, at least, will allege, that he would have accepted it, and complain he suffers only by the fault of the government; a government which he will not be very zealous to defend, while he is considered with less regard than others, from whom no greater services are expected.

A prospect of new rewards, sir, will add new alacrity to all the forces, and an equal distribution of favour will secure an unshaken and inviolable fidelity. Nothing but union can produce success, and nothing can secure union but impartiality and justice.

Mr. SANDYS rose, and spoke as follows:—Sir, the efficacy of rewards, and the necessity of an impartial distribution, are no unfruitful subjects for rhetorick; but it may, perhaps, be more useful at present to consider, with such a degree of attention as the question must be acknowledged to deserve, to whom these rewards are to be paid, and from what fund they are expected to arise.

With regard to those who are to claim the reward, sir, they seem very negligently specified; for they are distinguished only by the character of having served five years; a distinction unintelligible, without explanation.

It is, I suppose, sir, the intent of the bill, that no man shall miss the reward but by his own fault; and, therefore, it may be inquired, what is to be the fate of him who shall be disabled in his first adventure, whom in the first year, or month, of his service, an unlucky shot shall confine for the remaining part of his life to inactivity: as the bill is now formed, he must be miserable without a recompense; and his wounds, which make him unable to support himself, will, though received in defence of his country, entitle him to no support from the publick.

Nor is this the only difficulty that may arise from the specifying of so long a service; for how can any man that shall enter on board the fleet be informed that the war will continue for five years? May we not all justly hope, that alacrity, unanimity, and prudence, may, in a much shorter time, reduce our enemies to beg for peace? And shall our sailors lose the reward of their hazards and their labours, only because they have been successful? What will this be less than making their bravery a crime or folly, and punishing them for not protracting the war by cowardice or treachery?

But let us suppose, sir, those defects supplied by a more explicit and determinate specification; there will yet arise an objection far more formidable; an objection, which the present state of our revenues will not suffer to be answered. The consideration of the greatness of the annual payment which this proposal requires, ought to incite every man to employ all his sagacity in search of some other method, equally efficacious, and less expensive.

We have already, sir, forty thousand seamen in our pay, to whom eight thousand more are speedily to be added: when each of these shall demand his stipend, a new burden of two hundred and eighty-eight thousand pounds must be laid upon the nation; upon a nation, whose lands are mortgaged, whose revenues are anticipated, and whose taxes cannot be borne without murmurs, nor increased without sedition.

The nation has found, by experience, that taxes once imposed for just reasons, and continued upon plausible pretences, till they are become familiar, are afterwards continued upon motives less laudable, are too productive of influence, and too instrumental towards facilitating the measures of the ministry, to be ever willingly remitted.

Mr. BLADEN spoke next, as follows:—Sir, it is obvious, that when the balance is unequal, it may be reduced to an equilibrium, as well by taking weight out of one scale, as adding it to the other. The wages offered by the merchants overbalance, at present, those which are proposed by the crown; to raise the allowance in the ships of war, will be, to lay new loads upon the publick, and will incommode the merchants, whose wages must always bear the same proportion to the king's. The only method, then, that remains, is to lighten the opposite scale, by restraining the merchants from giving wages, in time of war, beyond a certain value; for, as the service of the crown is then more immediately necessarv to the general advantage than that of the merchants, it ought to be made more gainful. Sailors, sir, are not, generally, men of very extensive views; and, therefore, we cannot expect that they should prefer the general good of their country before their own present interest; a motive of such power, that even in men of curious researches, refined sentiments, and generous education, we see, too often, that it surmounts every other consideration.

Lord BALTIMORE then spoke again:—Sir, to the expedient which the honourable gentleman who spoke last has suggested, and which he must be confessed to have placed in the strongest light, many objections may be raised, which I am afraid will not easily be removed.

The first, sir, which occurs to me on this short reflection is not less than the impossibility of putting his scheme in execution. The prescription of wages which he proposes, may be eluded by a thousand artifices, by advanced money, by gratuitous acknowledgments, the payment of money for pretended services, or by secret contracts, which it would be the interest of both parties to conceal.

But if this objection could be surmounted by severity and vigilance, would not this expedient help to defeat the general intention of the bill? A bill not designed as an immediate resource, a mere temporary project to supply our fleets for the present year, but as a method for removing the only obstruction of the British power, the difficulty of manning our ships of war.

It is, I hope, sir, the intention of every man who has offered his sentiments on this occasion, to contrive some general encouragement for seamen, which shall not only invite them to assist their country at the first summons, but shall allure others to qualify themselves for the publick service, by engaging in the same profession.

This is only to be done by making the condition of sailors less miserable, by entitling them to privileges, and honouring them with distinctions. But by limiting the merchant's wages, if such limitations are, indeed, possible, though we may palliate the present distress, we shall diminish the number of sailors, and thereby not only contract our commerce but endanger our country.

Mr. TRACEY spoke next, to the following effect:—Sir, I know not for what reasons the present method of advancing rewards at entrance is practised, of which, however specious it might appear, the success by no means encourages the continuance. The sailors, though not a generation of men much disposed to reflection, or qualified for ratiocination, are not yet so void of thought as not easily to perceive that a small increase of constant wages is of more value than several pounds to be paid only at once, and which are squandered as soon as they are received.

Instead, therefore, of restraining the wages of the merchants, it seems probable, that by raising those of the king, we may man the fleet with most expedition; and one method of raising the wages will be to suppress the advanced money.

The ATTORNEY-GENERAL spoke next:—Sir, if the sum of money now paid by way of advance can be supposed to have any effect, if it can be imagined that any number of seamen, however inconsiderable, are allured by it into the fleet, it is more usefully employed than it can be supposed to be when sunk into the current wages, and divided into small payments.

The advance money is only paid to those that enter: if no volunteers present themselves, no money is paid, and the nation doth not suffer by the offer: but if the wages are raised, the expense will be certain, without the certainty of advantage; for those that enter voluntarily into the fleet, will receive no more than those that are forced into it by an impress; and therefore there will be no incitement to enter without compulsion. Thus every other inconvenience will remain, with the addition of a new burden to the nation; our forces will be maintained at a greater expense, and not raised with less difficulty.

Lord BALTIMORE said:—Sir, I cannot but concur in opinion with the honourable gentleman who spoke last, from my own acquaintance with the sentiments and habits that unalterably prevail among those who have been accustomed to the sea, a race of men to the last degree negligent of any future events, and careless about any provision against distant evils; men who have no thoughts at sea, but how to reach the land; nor at land, but how to squander what they have gained at sea. To men like these, it may easily be imagined that no encouragement is equal to the temptation of present gain, and the opportunity of present pleasure.

Of this any man, sir, may convince himself, who shall talk to a crew but half an hour; for he shall find few among them, who will not, for a small sum of present money, sell any distant prospect of affluence or happiness.

Whether I am mistaken in my opinion, the honourable members who have long commanded in the naval service can easily determine, and I doubt not but they will agree that no motive can be proposed to a sailor equivalent to immediate reward.

Sir William YONGE spoke next:—Sir, that some distinction ought to be made to the advantage of volunteers, if we intend to man our fleet without compulsion, is obvious and incontestable; and to avoid the necessity of compulsion ought to be the chief end of this bill; for nothing can be less to the advantage of the nation, than to continue the use of such ungrateful methods, and yet increase the publick expense.

We ought, therefore, in my opinion, to determine upon some peculiar reward, either to be advanced upon their entrance into the service, or paid at their dismission from it.

But as I see, sir, no reason for hoping that all the encouragement which can be offered, will raise volunteers in a sufficient number to secure our navigation, and assert our sovereignty, it seems not proper to confine our consultations to this part of the bill; for since compulsion is on many occasions apparently necessary, some method requires to be considered, in which it may be legal.

What new power ought to be placed in the magistrate, for what time, and with what restrictions, I am far from assuming the province of determining; but that some measures must be taken for compelling those who cannot be persuaded, and discovering those that will not offer themselves, cannot admit of doubt; and as the magistrate is at present without any authority for this purpose, it is evident that his power must be extended, for the same reason as it was given in its present degree—the general benefit of the whole community.

Sir John BARNARD then spoke to the following effect:—Sir, if the intent of this bill be to enable one part of the nation to enslave the other; if the plausible and inviting professions of encouraging and increasing seamen, are to terminate in violence, constraint, and oppression; it is unnecessary to dwell longer upon particular clauses. The intention of the bill is detestable, and deserves not the ceremony of debate, or the forms of common regard.

If a man, sir, is liable to be forced from the care of his own private affairs, from his favourite schemes of life, from the engagements of domestick tenderness, or the prospects of near advantage, and subjected, without his consent, to the command of one whom he hates, or dreads, or perhaps despises, it requires no long argument to show, that by whatever authority he is thus treated, he is reduced to the condition of a slave, to that abject, to that hateful state, which every Englishman has been taught to avoid at the hazard of his life.

It is therefore evident, that a law which tends to confer such a power, subverts our constitution as far as its effects extend; a constitution, which was originally formed as a barrier against slavery, and which one age after another has endeavoured to strengthen.

Such a power, therefore, in whatever hands it may be lodged, I shall always oppose. It is dangerous, sir, to intrust any man with absolute dominion, which is seldom known to be impartially exercised, and which often makes those corrupt, and insolent, whom it finds benevolent and honest.

The bill proposes only encouragement, and encouragement may be given by his majesty, without a new law; let us, therefore, draw up an address, and cease to debate, where there is no prospect of agreement.

Mr. WINNINGTON spoke as follows:—Sir, the payment of an annual salary will, in my opinion, be to the last degree inconvenient and dangerous. The yearly expense has been already estimated, and arises to a sum very formidable in our present state. Nor is the necessity of adding to the publick burden, a burden which already is hard to be borne, the only objection to this proposal.

Nothing can more contribute to dispirit the nation, than to protract the consequences of a war, and to make the calamity felt, when the pleasures of victory and triumph have been forgotten; we shall be inclined rather to bear oppression and insult than endeavour after redress, if we subject ourselves and our posterity to endless exactions.

The expenses of the present provision for superannuated and disabled sailors, is no inconsiderable tax upon the publick, which is not less burdened by it for the manner of collecting it by a deduction from the sailors' wages; for, whoever pays it immediately, it is the ultimate gift of the nation, and the utmost that can be allowed for this purpose.

It must be confessed, sir, the persons entitled to the pension are not sufficiently distinguished in the bill; by which, as it now stands, any of the worthless superfluities of a ship, even the servants of the captains, may, after five years, put in their demand, and plunder that nation which they never served.

Nor do I think, sir, the efficacy of this method will bear any proportion to the expense of it; for I am of opinion, that few of the sailors will be much affected by the prospect of a future pension. I am, therefore, for dazzling them with five pounds, to be given them at their entrance, which will be but a single payment, and probably fill our fleets with greater expedition, than methods which appear more refined, and the effects of deeper meditation.

Lord GAGE spoke in the following manner:—Sir, nothing is more clear than that a yearly pension will burden the nation, without any advantage; and as it will give occasion to innumerable frauds, it is a method which ought to be rejected.

As to the new power, sir, which is proposed to be placed in the hands of the magistrates, it undoubtedly reduces every sailor to a state of slavery, and is inconsistent with that natural right to liberty, which is confirmed and secured by our constitution. The bill, therefore, is, in my opinion, defective in all its parts, of a tendency generally pernicious, and cannot be amended but by rejecting it.

Mr. Henry PELHAM spoke next, to this effect:—Sir, I cannot but think it necessary, that on this occasion, at least, gentlemen should remit the ardour of disputation, and lay the arts of rhetorick aside; that they should reserve their wit and their satire for questions of less importance, and unite, for once, their endeavours, that this affair may meet with no obstructions but from its natural difficulty.

We are now, sir, engaged in a war with a nation, if not of the first rank in power, yet by no means contemptible in itself; and, by its alliances, extremely formidable. We are exposed, by the course of our trade, and the situation of our enemies, to many inevitable losses, and have no means of preventing our merchants from being seized, without any danger or expense to the Spaniards, but by covering the sea with our squadrons.

Nor are we, sir, to satisfy ourselves with barely defeating the designs of the Spaniards; our honour demands that we should force them to peace upon advantageous terms; that we should not repulse, but attack them; not only preserve our own trade and possessions, but endanger theirs.

It is by no means certain, sir, that in the prosecution of these designs we shall not be interrupted by the interest or jealousy of a nation far more powerful, whose forces we ought, therefore, to be able to resist.

A vigorous exertion of our strength will probably either intimidate any other power that may be inclined to attack us, or enable us to repel the injuries that shall be offered: discord and delay can only confirm our open enemies in their obstinacy, and animate those that have hitherto concealed their malignity to declare against us.

It is, therefore, sir, in no degree prudent to aggravate the inconveniencies of the measures proposed for accomplishing what every man seems equally to desire; to declaim against the expedients offered in the bill as pernicious, unjust, and oppressive, contributes very little to the production of better means. That our affairs will not admit of long suspense, and that the present methods of raising seamen are not effectual, is universally allowed; it, therefore, evidently follows, sir, that some other must be speedily struck out.

I think it necessary to propose, that the house be resolved into a committee to-morrow morning; and hope all that shall assemble on this occasion, will bring with them no other passion than zeal for their country.

[The speaker having taken the chair, the chairman of the committee reported, that they had made some progress; and desiring leave to sit again, it was resolved to go into the committee again on the morrow.]

MARCH 4, 1740-1.

On the sixty-second day the affair was put off; but on the sixty-third, the house resolving itself into a committee, a clause was offered, by which five pounds were proposed to be advanced to an able seaman, and three pounds to every other man that should enter voluntarily into his majesty's service, after twenty days, and within sixty.

After which, Mr. WINNINGTON spoke as follows:—Sir, this is a clause in which no opposition can be apprehended, as those gentlemen who declared their disapprobation of the former, were almost unanimous in proposing this expedient, as the least expensive, and the most likely to succeed.

The time for the reception of volunteers upon this condition, is, sir, in my opinion, judiciously determined. If it was extended to a greater length, or left uncertain, the reward would lose its efficacy, the sailors would neglect that which they might accept at any time, and would only have recourse to the ships of war when they could find no other employment.

Yet I cannot conceal my apprehensions, that this bounty will not alone be sufficient to man our fleets with proper expedition; and that as allurements may be useful on one hand, force will be found necessary on the other; that the sailors may not only be incited to engage in the service by the hopes of a reward, but by the fear of having their negligence to accept it punished, by being compelled into the same service, and forfeiting their claim by staying to be compelled.

Lord BALTIMORE then spoke to the following effect:—Sir, to the reward proposed in this clause, I have declared in the former conference on this bill, that I have no objection, and, therefore, have no amendment to propose, except with regard to the time limited for the payment.

As our need of seamen, sir, is immediate, why should not a law for their encouragement immediately operate? What advantage can arise from delays? Or why is not that proper to be advanced now, that will be proper in twenty days? That all the time between the enaction and operation of this law must be lost, is evident; for who will enter for two pounds, that may gain five by withholding himself from the service twenty days longer?

Nor do I think the time now limited sufficient; many sailors who are now in the service of the merchants, may not return soon enough to lay claim to the bounty, who would gladly accept it, and who will either not serve the crown without it, or will serve with disgust and complaints; as the loss of it cannot be imputed to their backwardness, but to an accident against which they could not provide.

Mr. WINNINGTON replied:—Sir, though I think the time now fixed by the bill sufficient, as I hope that our present exigency will be but of short continuance, and that we shall soon be able to raise naval forces at a cheaper rate, yet as the reasons alleged for an alteration of the time may appear to others of more weight than to me, I shall not oppose the amendment.

Sir John BARNARD next rose, and said:—Sir, with regard to the duration of the time fixed for the advancement of this bounty, we may have leisure to deliberate; but surely it must be readily granted by those who have expatiated so copiously upon the present exigencies of our affairs, that it ought immediately to commence. And if this be the general determination of the house, nothing can be more proper than to address his majesty to offer, by proclamation, an advance of five pounds, instead of two, which have been hitherto given; that while we are concerting other measures for the advantage of our country, those in which we have already concurred may be put in execution.

Mr. PULTENEY rose up next, and spoke as follows:—Sir, I take this opportunity to lay before the house a grievance which very much retards the equipment of our fleets, and which must be redressed before any measures for reconciling the sailors to the publick service can be pursued with the least probability of success.

Observation, sir, has informed me, that to remove the detestation of the king's service, it is not necessary to raise the wages of the seamen; it is necessary only to secure them; it is necessary to destroy those hateful insects that fatten in idleness and debauchery upon the gains of the industrious and honest.

When a sailor, sir, after the fatigues and hazards of a long voyage, brings his ticket to the pay-office, and demands his wages, the despicable wretch to whom he is obliged to apply, looks upon his ticket with an air of importance, acknowledges his right, and demands a reward for present payment; with this demand, however exorbitant, the necessities of his family oblige him to comply.

In this manner, sir, are the wives of the sailors also treated when they come to receive the pay of their husbands; women, distressed, friendless, and unsupported; they are obliged to endure every insult, and to yield to every oppression. And to such a height do these merciless exacters raise their extortions, that sometimes a third part of the wages is deducted.

Thus, sir, do the vilest, the meanest of mankind, plunder those who have the highest claim to the esteem, the gratitude, and the protection of their country. This is the hardship which withholds the sailors from our navies, and forces them to seek for kinder treatment in other countries. This hardship, sir, both justice and prudence call upon us to remedy; and while we neglect it, all our deliberations will be ineffectual.

Mr. SOUTHWELL then spoke to this effect:—Sir, of the hardships mentioned by the honourable gentleman who spoke last, I have myself known an instance too remarkable not to be mentioned. A sailor in Ireland, after his voyage, met with so much difficulty in obtaining his wages, that he was at length reduced to the necessity of submitting to the reduction of near a sixth part. Such are the grievances with which those are oppressed, upon whom the power, security, and happiness of the nation are acknowledged to depend.

Sir Robert WALPOLE, the prime minister, then rose, and spoke as follows:—Sir, it is not without surprise that I hear the disgust of the sailors ascribed to any irregularity in the payment of their wages, which were never, in any former reign, so punctually discharged. They receive, at present, twelve months' pay in eighteen months, without deduction; so that there are never more than six months for which any demand remains unsatisfied.

But, sir, the punctuality of the payment has produced of late great inconveniencies; for there has been frequently a necessity of removing men from one ship to another; and it is the stated rule of the pay-office, to assign every man so removed his full pay. These men, when the government is no longer indebted to them, take the first opportunity of deserting the service, and engaging in business to which they are more inclined.

This is not a chimerical complaint, founded upon rare instances, and produced only to counterbalance an objection; the fact and the consequences are well known; so well, that near fourteen hundred sailors are computed to have been lost by this practice.

The PRESIDENT of the commons, who always in a committee takes his seat as another member, rose here, and spoke to the following effect, his honour being paymaster of the navy:—Mr. Chairman, the nature of the employment with which I am intrusted makes it my duty to endeavour that this question may be clearly understood, and the condition of the seamen, with regard to the reception of their pay, justly represented.

I have not been able to discover that any sailor, upon producing his ticket, was ever obliged to submit to the deduction of any part of his wages, nor should any clerk or officer under my inspection, escape, for such oppression, the severest punishment and most publick censure: I would give him up to the law without reserve, and mark him as infamous, and unworthy of any trust or employment.

But there are extortions, sir, by which those unhappy men, after having served their country with honesty and courage, are deprived of their lawful gains of diligence and labour. There are men to whom it is usual amongst the sailors to mortgage their pay before it becomes due, who never advance their money but upon such terms as cannot be mentioned without indignation. These men advance the sum which is stipulated, and by virtue of a letter of attorney are reimbursed at the pay-office.

This corruption is, I fear, not confined to particular places, but has spread even to America, where, as in his own country, the poor sailor is seduced, by the temptation of present money, to sell his labour to extortioners and usurers.

I appeal to the gentleman, whether the instance which he mentioned was not of this kind. I appeal to him without apprehension of receiving an answer that can tend to invalidate what I have asserted.

This, sir, is, indeed, a grievance pernicious and oppressive, which no endeavours of mine shall be deficient in attempting to remove; for by this the sailor is condemned, notwithstanding his industry and success, to perpetual poverty, and to labour only for the benefit of his plunderer.

[The clauses were then read, "empowering the justices of the peace, etc. to issue warrants to the constables, etc. to make general privy searches, by day or night, for finding out and securing such seamen and seafaring men as lie hid or conceal themselves; and making it lawful for the officers appointed to make such searches, to force open the doors of any house, where they shall suspect such seamen to be concealed, if entrance be not readily admitted; and for punishing those who shall harbour or conceal any seaman."]

Sir John BARNARD upon this rose up, and spoke to the following effect:—Mr. Chairman, we have been hitherto deliberating upon questions, in which diversity of opinions might naturally be expected, and in which every man might indulge his own opinion, whatever it might be, without any dangerous consequences to the publick. But the clauses now before us are of a different kind; clauses which cannot be read without astonishment and indignation, nor defended without betraying the liberty of the best, the bravest, and most useful of our fellow-subjects.

If these clauses, sir, should pass into a law, a sailor and a slave will become terms of the same signification. Every man who has devoted himself to the most useful profession, and most dangerous service of his country, will see himself deprived of every advantage which he has laboured to obtain, and made the mere passive property of those who live in security by his valour, and owe to his labour that affluence which hardens them to insensibility, and that pride that swells them to ingratitude.

Why must the sailors alone, sir, be marked out from all the other orders of men for ignominy and misery? Why must they be ranked with the enemies of society, stopped like vagabonds, and pursued like the thief and the murderer by publick officers? How or when have they forfeited the common privilege of human nature, or the general protection of the laws of their country? If it is a just maxim, sir, that he who contributes most to the welfare of the publick, deserves most to be protected in the enjoyment of his private right or fortune; a principle which surely will not be controverted; where is the man that dares stand forth and assert, that he has juster claims than the brave, the honest, the diligent sailor?

I am extremely unwilling, sir, to engage in so invidious an undertaking as the comparison of the harmless, inoffensive, resolute sailor, with those who think themselves entitled to treat him with contempt, to overlook his merit, invade his liberty, and laugh at his remonstrances.

Nor is it, sir, necessary to dwell upon the peculiar merit of this body of men; it is sufficient that they have the same claims, founded upon the same reasons with our own, that they have never forfeited them by any crime, and, therefore, that they cannot be taken away without the most flagrant violation of the laws of nature, of reason, and of our country.

Let us consider the present condition of a sailor, let us reflect a little upon the calamities to which custom, though not law, has already made him subject, and it will surely not be thought that his unhappiness needs any aggravation.

He is already exposed to be forced, upon his return from a tedious voyage, into new hardships, without the intermission of a day, and without the sight of his family; he is liable, after a contract for a pleasing and gainful voyage, to be hurried away from his prospects of interest, and condemned amidst oppression and insolence, to labour and to danger, almost without the possibility of a recompense. He has neither the privilege of choosing his commander, nor of leaving him when he is defrauded and oppressed.

These, sir, I say, are the calamities to which he is now subject, but there is now a possibility of escaping them. He is not yet deprived of the right of resistance, or the power of flight; he may now retire to his friend, and be protected by him; he may take shelter in his own cottage, and treat any man as a robber, that shall attempt to force his doors.

When any crews are returning home in time of war, they are acquainted with the dangers of an impress, but they comfort themselves with contriving stratagems to elude it, or with the prospect of obtaining an exemption from it by the favour of their friends; prospects which are often deceitful, and stratagems frequently defeated, but which yet support their spirits, and animate their industry.

But if this bill, sir, should become a law, the sailor, instead of amusing himself on his return with the prospects of ease, or of pleasure, will consider his country as a place of slavery, a residence less to be desired than any other part of the world. He will probably seek, in the service of some foreign prince, a kinder treatment; and will not fail, in any country but his own, to see himself, at least, on a level with other men.

Nor will this bill, sir, only give the seamen new reasons of disgust, but it will tend, likewise, to aggravate those grievances, which already have produced a detestation of the publick service, scarcely to be conquered.

The officers of the navy, sir, will hardly be made less insolent by an increase of power; they whose tyranny has already alienated their fellow-subjects from the king's service, though they could only depend upon the character of probity and moderation for the prospect of manning their ships in succeeding expeditions, will probably, when they are animated by a law like this, and made absolute both by land and sea, indulge themselves in the enjoyment of their new authority, contrive new hardships and oppressions, and tyrannise without fear and without mercy. Thus, sir, will the bill not only be tyrannical in itself, but the parent of tyranny; it will give security to the cruel, and confidence to the arrogant.

That any man, at least any man bred from his infancy to change his residence, and accustomed to different climates and to foreign nations, will fix by choice in that country where he finds the worst reception, is hardly to be imagined. We see indeed, that men unqualified to support themselves in other countries, or who have, by long custom, contracted a fondness for particular methods of life, will bear very uncomfortable circumstances, without endeavouring to improve their conditions by a change of their habitations. But the temper of a sailor, acquainted with all parts, and indifferent to all, is of another kind. Such, sir, is his love of change, arising either from wantonness, or curiosity, that he is hard to be retained by the kindest treatment and most liberal rewards; and will, therefore, never struggle with his habitual dispositions, only to continue in a state of slavery.

I think it, therefore, sir, very evident that this new method of encouraging sailors will be so far from increasing them, that it may probably drive them out of the empire, and at once ruin our trade and our navy; at once beggar and disarm us.

Let me now suppose, sir, for a moment, the bill less pernicious in its consequences, and consider only the difficulties of executing it. Every seafaring man is to be seized, at pleasure, by the magistrate; but what definition is given of a seafaring man? Or by what characteristick is the magistrate to distinguish him? I have never been able to discover any peculiarities in the form of a seaman that mark him out from the rest of the species. There is, indeed, less servility in his air, and less effeminacy in his face, than in those that are commonly to be seen in drawing-rooms, in brothels, and at reviews; but I know not that a seaman can be distinguished from any other man of equal industry or use, who has never enervated himself by vice, nor polished himself into corruption. So that this bill, sir, if it shall pass into a law, will put it at once in the power of the magistrate to dispose of seamen at his pleasure, and to term whom he pleases a seaman.

Another expedient, sir, has been offered on this occasion, not equally tyrannical, but equally inadequate to the end in view. It is proposed to restrain the merchants from giving wages beyond a certain rate, on the supposition that the sailors have no motive but that of larger wages, to prefer the service of the merchants to that of the crown.

This, sir, is a mistake which might easily arise from a partial and imperfect knowledge of the affair, with which very few gentlemen have opportunities of being well acquainted. The wages, sir, are the smallest inducements which fix the seamen in their choice. The prospect of kinder treatment, the certainty of returning home in a fixed time, and the power of choosing what voyages they will undertake, cannot but be acknowledged very reasonable motives of preference.

On the contrary, sir, when they are once engaged in a ship of war, they know neither whither they are going, what dangers they shall encounter, what hardships they shall suffer, nor when they shall be dismissed.

Besides, sir, I do not think it possible by any law to limit the wages to be paid by merchants, since they will change the term of wages into that of a present, or admit the sailors to a small share in the freight, and so all the precaution we can take will become ineffectual.

In the mean time, sir, how much shall we embarrass our own commerce, and impair our natural strength—the power of our fleets? We shall terrify our sailors on the one hand, and endeavour to starve them on the other; we shall not only drive them from us by unheard-of severities, but take away every motive that can induce them to expose themselves to the danger of suffering them.

If we consider, sir, with what effect methods nearly approaching these were practised in the reign of the late queen, we shall find that not more than one thousand five hundred seamen were raised, and those at the expense of more than four thousand pounds; so that the effects bore no proportion to the means; our laws were infringed, and our constitution violated to no purpose.

But what reason, sir, can be assigned for which it must be more difficult to supply the fleet now with sailors than at any other time? This war, sir, was demanded by the publick voice, in pursuance of the particular remonstrances of the merchants, and it is not to be supposed that the sailors or any other body of men engage in it with a particular reluctance.

I am, therefore, inclined to believe that the suspicion of great numbers hid in the country, at a distance from the coast, is merely chimerical; and that if we should pass this bill, we should do nothing more than grant an oppressive and unconstitutional power of search for what, in reality, is not to be found.

How oppressive this power may become in the hands of a corrupt or insolent magistrate, any man may discover, who remembers that the magistrate is made judge without appeal, of his own right to denominate any man a sailor, and that he may break open any man's doors at any time, without alleging any other reason than his own suspicion; so that no man can secure his house from being searched, or, perhaps, his person from being seized.

It may, indeed, be alleged, sir, that this will be only a temporary law, and is to cease with the exigence that made it necessary: but long experience has informed us, that severe laws are enacted more readily than they are repealed; and that most men are too fond of power to suffer willingly the diminution of it.

But, sir, though this law should not be perpetuated, every precedent of an infringement of our constitution, makes way for its dissolution; and the very cessation of an oppressive law, may be a plea, hereafter, for the revival of it.

This bill, therefore, must be confessed to be at once violent and ineffectual; to be a transgression of the laws of justice to particular men, without any prospect of real benefit to the community; and, therefore, cannot be passed without deviating at once from prudence and our constitution.

Captain CORNWALL then rose, and spoke to this effect:—I have observed, sir, that every man is apt to think himself ill treated, who is not treated according to his own opinion of his deserts, and will endeavour to diffuse his own notion of the partiality and tyranny of the naval officers; general clamours, therefore, are little to be regarded.

I have had, from my early years, a command in the sea service, and can assert, that I never knew more than one instance of injustice, and that was punished with the severity which it deserved.

The PRIME MINISTER rose next, and spoke to this effect:—Mr. Chairman, it is with uncommon satisfaction that I see every clause of this bill regularly debated, without unbecoming impatience, or passionate exclamations. I am willing to collect from this conduct, that the disposition of every gentleman is, on this occasion, the same with my own; and that every expedient here proposed will be diligently examined, and either be seriously approved, or be calmly rejected.

Such coolness and impartiality, sir, is certainly required by the importance of the present question; a question which cannot but influence the prosperity of the nation for many years.

It is not necessary to remind any gentleman of the importance of our trade, of the power of the enemy against whom we have declared war in defence of it, or of the necessity of showing the world that our declarations of war are not empty noises, or farces of resentment. But it may be proper, sir, to remark, that this is not the only enemy, nor the most powerful, whose attempts we have reason to provide against, and who may oblige us to exert our whole power, and practise every expedient to increase our forces.

The war has been, hitherto, prosecuted with the utmost vigour, with all the attention that its importance requires, and with success not disproportioned to our preparations; nor will it ever be suffered to languish, if the powers necessary for carrying it on are not denied.

Nothing is more evident, sir, than that the natural power of the nation consists in its fleets, which are now, by the care of the government, so numerous, that the united power of many nations cannot equal them. But what are fleets unfurnished with men? How will they maintain the dominion of the sea, by lying unactive in our harbours?

That no methods, hitherto used, have been sufficient to man our navies, and that our preparations have, therefore, been little more than an expensive show of war, the whole nation is sufficiently informed; it is, therefore, not doubtful that some new measures must be taken; whether any better can be suggested than are offered in this bill, must be inquired.

With regard, sir, to the clause now under our consideration, it is to be remembered, that little more is proposed by it, than to add the sanction of legality to a power which has long been exercised by the admiralty, without any other authority than that of long prescription, the power of issuing warrants of impress upon emergent occasions, by which sailors are forced into the publick service.

This power, in its present state, must be allowed to have no foundation in any law, and, by consequence, to be unlimited, arbitrary, and easily abused, and, upon the whole, to be justifiable only by necessity: but that necessity is so frequent, that it is often exercised, and, therefore, ought to be regulated by the legislature; and by making such regulations, we may rather be said to remove than introduce a grievance.

The power of searching for sailors, however it has been represented, is far from setting them on a level with felons, murderers, or vagabonds; or, indeed, from distinguishing them, to their disadvantage, from the rest of the community, of which every individual is obliged to support the government.

Those that possess estates, or carry on trades, transfer part of their property to the publick; and those ought, by parity of reason, to serve the publick in person, that have no property to transfer. Every man is secured by the constitution in the enjoyment of his life, his liberty, or his fortune; and, therefore, every man ought reciprocally to defend the constitution to which he is himself indebted for safety and protection.

I am, therefore, sir, unable to discover in what consists the hardship of a law by which no new duties are enjoined, nor any thing required, which is not already every man's duty. Every man, indeed, who is desirous of evading the performance of any of the duties of society, will consider every compulsion as a hardship, by which he is obliged to contribute to the general happiness; but his murmurs will prove nothing but his own folly and ingratitude, and will certainly deserve no regard from the legislative power.

There is in the bill before us, sir, encouragement sufficient for volunteers, and an offer of greater rewards than some gentlemen think consistent with the present state of the national revenues; and what remains to be done with respect to those who are deaf to all invitations, and blind to all offers of advantage? Are they to sit at ease only because they are idle, or to be distinguished with indulgence only for want of deserving it?

It seems generally granted, sir, that such drones are the proper objects of an impress. Let us then suppose that every man who is willing to serve his country, has laid hold of the reward proposed, and entered a volunteer. The fleets are not yet sufficiently manned, and more sailors must be procured. Warrants are issued out in the common form. The negligent, the imprudent, the necessitous, are taken. The vigilant, the cunning, and those that have more money, find shelter and escape. Can it be said, that those whose circumstances, or good fortune, enable them to secure themselves from the officers of the impress, deserve any exemption from the publick service, or from the hardships to which their companions are exposed? Have they discharged their debt of gratitude to the publick so effectually by running away from its service, that no search ought to be made after them? It seems evident, that if it was right to seize the one, it is likewise right to pursue the other; and if it be right to pursue him, it is likewise right to hinder him from escaping the pursuers. It is then right to vest some persons with the power of apprehending him, and in whom is that power to be lodged, but in the civil magistrate?

Every man, sir, is obliged by compulsive methods to serve his country, if he can be prevailed upon by no other. If any man shall refuse to pay his rates or his taxes, will not his goods be seized by force, and sold before his face? If any particular methods are proposed for obliging seamen to contribute to the publick safety, it is only because their service is necessary upon more pressing occasions than that of others; upon occasions which do not admit of delay, without the hazard of the whole community.

I must confess, sir, there are instances in which the hardships of the seafaring part of the nation are peculiar, and truly calamitous. A sailor, after the dangers and toils of a long voyage, when he is now in the sight of the port, where he hopes to enjoy that quiet which he has deserved by so long a series of fatigues, to repair the injuries which his health has suffered, by change of climate, and the diet of the ships, and to recover that strength which incessant vigilance has worn away; when he is in expectation of being received by his family with those caresses, which the succours that he brings them naturally produce, and designs to rest awhile from danger and from care; in the midst of these pleasing views, he is, on the sudden, seized by an impress, and forced into a repetition of all his miseries, without any interval of refreshment.

Let no man who can think without compassion on such a scene as this, boast his zeal for freedom, his regard for bravery, or his gratitude to those who contribute to the wealth and power of their country; let every man who declares himself touched with the pity which the slightest reflection upon such a disappointment must naturally produce, sincerely endeavour to obviate the necessity of such oppressive measures, which may, at least in part, be prevented, by assigning to magistrates the power of hunting out of their retreats, those who neglect the business of their callings, and linger at once in laziness and want.

There are great numbers who retire not from weariness but idleness, or an unreasonable prepossession against the publick service; and, surely, nothing is more unreasonable, than that bad dispositions should be gratified, and that industry should expose any man to penalties.

Upon the whole, sir, I am not able to discover, that any man should be exempted from an impress merely because he finds means to escape it, or because idleness or disinclination to the publick service prompts him to abscond.

If any men deserve indulgence, in opposition to the demands of the publick, they are rather those who have already, in some degree, discharged their duty to it, by contributing to bring in that wealth which is the consequence of a prosperous and well-regulated commerce, and without which war cannot be supported.

It is not without grief and regret, that I am obliged to represent, on this occasion, the obstructions which the war has suffered from those at whose request it was undertaken; and to declare, that the conduct of the merchants, has afforded proof that some law of this tendency is absolutely necessary.

The merchants, sir, who have so loudly complained of the decline of trade, the interruption of navigation, and the insolence, rapacity, and cruelty of the Spaniards; the merchants, who filled the nation with representations of their hardships, discouragements, and miseries, and lamented in the most publick manner, that they were the only body for whom the legislature had no regard, who were abandoned to the caprice of other nations, were plundered abroad, and neglected at home; the merchants, after having at length by their importunities engaged the state in a war, of which they have themselves certainly not the least pretensions to question either the justice or necessity, now, when by the natural consequences of a naval armament, sailors become less numerous, and ships more difficult to be equipped, contract in private with such sailors as they are inclined to employ, and conceal them in garrets, hired for that purpose, till the freight is ready, or the danger of an impress is past, and thus secure their own private affairs at the hazard of the publick, and hinder the operations of a war, which they, and they only, solicited.

The danger of having other enemies than the Spaniards, enemies, sir, more active, more powerful, and more ambitious, has already been mentioned; a danger so near, and so formidable, that he will not be thought very solicitous for his country, whom the bare mention of it does not alarm. This danger we are, therefore, to obviate by vigorous preparations, and unanimous resolutions; nor do I doubt but both our enemies, if they find us united, will repent of attacking us.

Sir, the most efficacious method of manning our fleets, which law or custom has yet put into our hands, is that of suspending our commerce by an embargo; and yet the whole nation knows how much, and by what means, it has been eluded: no sooner was it known that an embargo was laid, than the sailors flew away into the country, or hid themselves in corners of this great city, as from the most formidable danger; and no sooner did the embargo cease, than the banks of the river were again crowded with sailors, and all the trading vessels were immediately supplied.

As I cannot doubt, sir, that every gentleman is equally zealous for the success of the war, and the prosperity of his country; and as the insufficiency of the present methods of providing for them is apparent, I hope, that either the regulations proposed by this bill, to which I see no important objections, or some other of equal use, will be established by a general concurrence.

Lord BALTIMORE spoke next:—Though no gentleman in this assembly, sir, can more ardently wish the success of the British arms, or shall more willingly concur in any measure that may promote it, yet I cannot agree to the clause now under our consideration; I disapprove it both from moral and political motives; I disapprove it as neither just nor prudent.

The injustice of so flagrant an invasion of the liberty of particular men has been already exposed; nor is it, in my opinion, less easy to discover the imprudence of exhausting all our supplies at once, and sweeping away all our sailors, to supply a single exigency.

It has often been remarked, sir, in favour of a standing army, that it is requisite to have a number of regular forces, who, though too weak to oppose an invasion, might be able to establish discipline in a larger body. An observation which may, with much greater justness, be applied to the seamen, whose art is much more difficult to be attained, and who are equally necessary in war and peace.

If our stock of seamen, sir, be destroyed, if there is not left in our trading vessels a sufficient number of experienced artists to initiate novices, and propagate the profession, not only our ships of war must lie useless, but our commerce sink to nothing.

Nor have I reason to believe the naval power of France so formidable, as that we ought to be terrified by the apprehensions of it into any extraordinary methods of procedure. I am informed that they have now very few ships of force left in their harbours; and that they have exerted their whole strength in the American fleet.

I am not, therefore, sir, for providing against present dangers, without regard to our future security; and think nothing more worthy of the consideration of this assembly, than the means of encouraging and increasing our seamen, which will not be effected by the bill before us.

Land forces may be hired upon emergencies; but sailors are our own peculiar strength, and the growth of our own soil; we are, therefore, above all other regards, to attend, if I may use the term, to the preservation of the species.

Mr. VYNER next spoke:—Mr. Chairman, as there can be no stronger objection to any law than ambiguity, or indeterminate latitude of meaning, I think it necessary to propose, that some word of known and limited import, be substituted in the place of seafaring men; an expression which, if I was asked the meaning of it, I should find it difficult to explain.

Are seafaring men those only who navigate in the sea? The term is then superfluous, for all such are evidently comprised in the word seamen. Are they bargemen or watermen, who ply on rivers and transport provision or commodities from one inland town to another? In that sense nobody will affirm that it is a proper word; and impropriety in the expression of laws, produces uncertainty in the execution of them.

Captain CORNWALL rose up:—Sir, the term seafaring men, of which an explication is desired, is intended to include all those who live by conveying goods or passengers upon the water, whether the sea or inland rivers: nor can we restrain it to a narrower sense, without exempting from the publick service great numbers, whose manner of life has qualified them for it, and from whom their country may, with equal justice, expect assistance, as from those who are engaged in foreign traffick.

Mr. VYNER replied:—Sir, I am far from concurring with the honourable gentleman in his opinion, that the inland watermen are, by their profession, in any degree qualified for sea service, or can properly be called seafaring men.

All qualifications for the service must consist either in some knowledge of the arts of navigation, or in some familiarity with the dangers of the sea. With regard to any previous knowledge of naval business, it is well known that they have no advantage over any common labourer; for the manner of navigating a ship and a barge have, for the most part, nothing in common.

Nor are these watermen, sir, more able to stand firm in the terrours of the storm, or the noise of a battle, than those who follow any other occupation. Many of them never saw the sea, nor have less dread of its danger than the other inhabitants of the inland counties. They are, therefore, neither seafaring men, nor peculiarly capable of being made seamen.

But the hardship upon particular men is not the strongest objection to this clause, which, by obstructing our inland navigation, may make our rivers useless, and set the whole trade of the nation at a stand. For who will bring up his son a waterman, who knows him exposed by that profession to be impressed for a seaman?

It seems, therefore, necessary, sir, either to omit the term seafaring men [Footnote: Agreed to be omitted.], or to explain it in such a manner, that inland watermen may not be included.

Lord GAGE spoke next:—Sir, so much has been urged against the compulsive methods proposed in this clause, and so little produced in favour of them, that it may seem superfluous to add any thing, or to endeavour, by a multiplicity of arguments, to prove what common reason must immediately discover. But there is one consequence of this clause which has not yet been observed, and which is yet too important not to be obviated by a particular proviso.

It is well known, sir, that many of those to whom this act will extend, are freeholders and voters, for electing the representatives of the nation; and it is therefore apparent, that elections may be influenced by an ill-timed or partial execution of it. How easy will it be, when an election approaches, to raise a false alarm, to propose some secret expedition, or threaten us with an invasion from some unknown country, and to seize on all the seafaring voters whose affections are suspected, and confine them at Spithead till the contest is over.

I cannot, therefore, sir, but think it necessary, that if this clause be suffered to pass, some part of its hateful consequences should be prevented by an exception in favour of freeholders and voters, which, surely, is no less than what every man owes to his own security, to the welfare of his country, and to those by whom he has been honoured with the care of their liberties.

Mr. Henry PELHAM then said, as follows:—Sir, I do not rise in opposition to the proposal made by that right honourable member, nor do I think this the proper time either for opposing or approving it. Method is of the highest importance in inquiries like these; and if the order of the debate be interrupted by foreign questions, or incidental objections, no man will be able to consider the clauses before us with the attention necessary to his own satisfaction, or to the conviction of others; the mind will be dissipated by a multiplicity of views, and nothing can follow but perplexity and confusion.

The great end, sir, for which we are now assembled, is to strike out methods of manning the fleet with expedition and certainty. It is, therefore, proper, in the first place, to agree upon some general measures, to each of which there may, undoubtedly, be particular objections raised, that may be afterwards removed by exceptions or provisions; but these provisions should, for the sake of order, be inserted in particular clauses, to be separately considered.

Of this kind is the exception now offered, to which I have no objection but its present impropriety, and the interruption of the debate which it may now occasion; for I see, at present, no reason against admitting it in a particular clause.

When it is considered how much the success of the war may depend upon the determinations of this day, and how much our future happiness and security may depend upon the success of our present undertakings, I hope my solicitude for regularity and expedition will be easily excused.

Sir Hind COTTON answered:—I am not able, sir, to discover any imminent danger to the nation in suspending our attention to the clause before us, for a few moments; nor, indeed, do we cease to attend to it, while we are endeavouring to mollify it, and adapt it to our constitution.

The exception proposed is, in the opinion of the honourable gentleman, so reasonable, that he declares himself ready to approve it in another place; and, to me, no place seems more proper of its making part of this bill than this. As a connexion between the clause and exception appears necessary and immediate, I cannot see why it should be postponed, unless it is hoped that it may be forgotten.

Mr. PULTENEY then spoke:—Sir, that this exception should be forgotten there is no danger; for how long soever it be delayed, I will never agree to the act till I see it inserted. If we suffer the liberty of the freeholders to be infringed, what can we expect but to be charged with betraying our trust, and giving up to servitude and oppression those who deputed us to this assembly, as the guardians of their privileges, and the asserters of their birthright; a charge too just to be denied, and too atrocious to be borne.

Sir, the right of a freeholder is independent on every other circumstance, and is neither made more or less by wealth or poverty: the estate, however small, which gives a right of voting, ought to exempt the owner from every restraint that may hinder the exertion of his right; a right on which our constitution is founded, and which cannot be taken away without subverting our whole establishment.

To overlook the distinctions which the fundamental laws of our country have made in respect to different orders of men, and to regard only the accidents of affluence and necessity, is surely unjust in itself, and unworthy of this assembly; an assembly, sir, instituted principally to protect the weak against the strong, and deputed to represent those, in a collective state, who are not considerable enough to appear singly, and claim a voice in the legislature.

To expose an honest, a laborious, and an useful man, to be seized by the hands of an insolent officer, and dragged from the enjoyment of his right, only because he will not violate his conscience, and add his voice to those of sycophants, dependents, and prostitutes, the slaves of power, the drudges of a court, and the hirelings of a faction, is the highest degree of injustice and cruelty. Let us rather, sir, sweep away, with an impress, the drones of large fortunes, the tyrants of villages, and the oppressors of the poor; let us oblige those to serve their country by force, whose fortunes have had no other effect than to make them insolent and worthless; but let such who, by contributing to commerce, make every day some addition to the publick wealth, be left in the full enjoyment of the rights which they deserve: let those, by whose labour the expenses of the war are furnished, be excused from contributing to it by personal service.

It is necessary, sir, to have our laws established by the representatives of the people; it is necessary that those representatives should be freely elected; and, therefore, every law that obstructs the liberty of voters, is contrary to the fundamental laws of our constitution; and what multitudes may, by this law, be either hindered from giving their votes, or be terrified into such a choice as by no means corresponds with their judgments or inclinations, it is easy to foresee.

I am, indeed, of opinion, sir, that this clause cannot be adapted to our constitution, nor modified, by any expedient, into a law, which will not lay insupportable hardships upon the nation, and make way for absolute power. But as it is necessary that a constant supply of seamen should be provided, I think it not improper to observe, that there is one expedient yet remaining, by which, though it will not much assist us in our present exigence, the fleets of this nation may hereafter be constantly supported.

We have, at present, great numbers of charity schools established in this nation, where the children of the poor receive an education disproportioned to their birth. This has often no other consequences than to make them unfit for their stations, by placing them, in their own opinion, above the drudgery of daily labour; a notion which is too much indulged, as idleness, cooperating with vanity, can hardly fail to gain the ascendant, and which sometimes prompts them to support themselves by practices not only useless, but pernicious to society. This evil, sir, cannot be better obviated than by allotting a reasonable proportion out of every school to the service of the sea, in which, by entering early, they cannot fail to become proficients; and where their attainments, which, at present, too frequently produce laziness and dishonesty, might enable them to excel, and entitle them to promotion.

Mr. WINNINGTON replied:—Sir, notwithstanding the confidence with which some gentlemen have proposed this amendment, and the easiness with which others have consented to it, I declare, without hesitation, that I oppose it now, and intend to oppose it whenever it shall be offered, because it will defeat all the other provisions which shall be made in the bill.

I will venture to say, sir, that if every man, who has, by whatever tenure, the right of voting, shall be exempted from the necessity of contributing to the publick safety by his personal service, every man qualified for the sea will by some means acquire a vote.

Sir, a very small part of those who give their votes in this nation for representatives in senate, enjoy that right as the appendage of a freehold; to live in some towns, and to be born only in others, gives the unalienable privilege of voting. Any gentleman, to secure his own interest, or obstruct the publick service, may, by dividing a small piece of barren ground among a hundred sailors, exalt them all to freeholders, and exempt them from the influence of this law.

However, sir, I am not less a friend to the freeholders than those who propose the exception in their favour, but, in my opinion, the great interest of the freeholders is the preservation of their freeholds, which can only be secured by a vigorous exertion of the power of the nation, in the war which is now declared against the Spaniards.

Mr. BARRINGTON spoke next:—Sir, by the observations which I have opportunities of making at the place which I have the honour to represent, I am convinced of the influence that this law will have upon all the boroughs along the coasts. There, most of the voters are, in one sense or other, sir, seafaring men, being, almost all of them, owners of vessels, and in some degree acquainted with navigation; they may, therefore, be hurried away at the choice of an officious or oppressive magistrate, who may, by partiality and injustice, obtain a majority, contrary to the general inclination of the people, and determine the election by his own authority.

Sir William YONGE then said:—Sir, if every freeholder and voter is to be exempted from the influence of the law, the bill that we are with so much ardour endeavouring to draw up and rectify, and of which the necessity is so generally acknowledged, will be no other than an empty sound, and a determination without an object; for while we are empowering the government to call seamen into the service, we are exempting almost all that are able to serve from the denomination of seamen: what is this but to dispute without a subject? to raise with one hand and demolish with the other?

In the western parts of the nation, sir, where I reside, many who vote at elections claim their privilege by no other title than that of boiling a pot; a title which he who has it not, may easily obtain, when it will either gratify his laziness or his cowardice, and which, though not occasionally obtained, seems not sufficient to set any man out of the reach of a just and necessary law.

It is, therefore, sir, undoubtedly requisite that the terms of the exception should be explicit and definitive, and that only those should be exempted who have such possessions or qualifications as this assembly shall think a just title to exemption. For on the western coast, from whence great supplies may be expected, almost every sailor has a vote, to which nothing is there required but to hire a lodging, and boil a pot; after which, if this exception be admitted in all its latitude, he may sit at ease amidst the distresses of his country, ridicule the law which he has eluded, and set the magistrate at open defiance.

The PRIME MINISTER spoke next:—As I think, Sir, some exception may be just and proper, so I suppose every gentleman will concur with me in rejecting one of such extent as shall leave no object for the operation of the law.

It is, in my opinion, proper to restrain the exemption to those freeholders who are possessed of such an estate as gives a vote for the representative of the county, by which those whose privilege arises from their property will be secured; and it seems reasonable that those who have privileges without property, should purchase them by their services.

Counsellor BROWN spoke next:—Sir, the exception proposed will not only defeat the end of the bill, by leaving it few objects, but will obstruct the execution of it on proper occasions, and involve the magistrate in difficulties which will either intimidate him in the exertion of his authority, or, if he persists in discharging his duty with firmness and spirit, will perhaps oblige him sometimes to repent of his fidelity.

It is the necessary consequence, sir, of a seaman's profession, that he is often at a great distance from the place of his legal settlement, or patrimonial possessions; and he may, therefore, assert of his own circumstances what is most convenient, without danger of detection. Distance is a security that prompts many men to falsehoods, by which only vanity is gratified; and few men will tell truth in opposition to their interest, when they may lie without apprehension of being convicted.

When, therefore, a magistrate receives directions to impress all the seamen within his district, how few will he find who will not declare themselves freeholders in some distant county, or freemen of some obscure borough. It is to no purpose, sir, that the magistrate disbelieves what he cannot confute; and if in one instance in a hundred he should be mistaken, and, acting in consequence of his errour, force a freeman into the service, what reparation may not be demanded?

I, therefore, propose it to the consideration of the committee, whether any man ought to claim exemption from this law by a title, that may so readily be procured, or so safely usurped.

The ATTORNEY GENERAL spoke next:—Sir, the practice of impressing, which has been declaimed against with such vehement exaggerations, is not only founded on immemorial custom, which makes it part of the common law, but is likewise established by our statutes; for I remember to have found it in the statutes of queen Mary, and therefore cannot allow that it ought to be treated as illegal, and anti-constitutional.

That it is not inconsistent with our constitution may be proved from the practice of erecting the royal standard, upon great emergencies, to which every man was obliged immediately to repair; this practice is as old as our constitution, and as it may be revived at pleasure, may be properly mentioned as equivalent to an impress.

Mr. VYNER answered:—This word, sir, which the learned member has by his wonderful diligence discovered in the statutes, may perhaps be there, but in a signification far different from that which it bears at present. The word was, without doubt, originally French, prêt, and implied what is now expressed by the term ready; and to impress any man was in those days only to make him ready, or engage him to hold himself in readiness, which was brought about not by compulsion, pursuit, and violence, but by the allurements of a pecuniary reward, or the obligation of some ancient tenure.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, MARCH 9, 1740-1.

On the sixty-sixth day, the consideration of the bill for raising seamen was resumed, and a clause read, by which every constable, headborough, tithingman, or other person, was liable to be examined upon oath by the justices of peace, who were empowered to lay a fine upon them for any neglect, offence, or connivance.

Sir John BARNARD rose up, and spoke to the following effect:—Mr. Chairman, it is the peculiar happiness of the Britons, that no law can be made without the consent of their representatives, and I hope no such infatuation can ever fall upon them as may influence them to choose a representative capable of concurring in absurdities like this.

The folly, the iniquity, the stupidity of this clause, can only be conceived by hearing it repeated; it is too flagrant to be extenuated, and too gross to admit exaggerations: to oblige a man to make oath against himself, to subject himself by his own voice to penalties and hardships, is at once cruel and ridiculous, a wild complication of tyranny and folly.

To call upon any man to accuse himself, is only to call upon him to commit perjury, and has therefore been always accounted irrational and wicked: in those countries where it is practised, the confession is extorted by the rack, which indeed is so necessary on such occasions, that I should not wonder to hear the promoters of this clause openly declaring for the expediency of tortures.

Nothing is more evident than that this bill, however the importance of the occasion may be magnified, was drawn up without reflection, and that the clauses were never understood by those that offered them: errours like these must arise only from precipitation and neglect, for they are too gross to be committed either by ignorance or design.

To expose such absurdities is, indeed, easy, but not pleasing; for what end is answered by pointing at folly, or how is the publick service advanced by showing that the methods proposed are totally to be rejected? Where a proposition is of a mixed kind, and only erroneous in part, it is an useful and no disagreeable task to separate truth from errour, and disentangle from ill consequences such measures as may be pursued with advantage to the publick; but mere stupidity can only produce compassion, and afford no opportunities for inquiry or dispute.

Admiral WAGER replied:—Sir, this clause, however contemptuously treated, has been already passed into a law by a senate which brought no dishonour upon the British nation, by a senate which was courted and dreaded by the greatest part of the universe, and was drawn up by a ministry that have given their posterity no reason to treat them with derision and contumely.

In the reign of the late great queen, this method of proceeding was approved and established, and we may judge of the propriety of the measures followed in that war by the success which they procured.

Those, therefore, by whom this bill was drawn up have committed no new absurdities, nor have proposed any thing which was not enacted by the wisest of our predecessors, in one of the most illustrious periods of our history.

Mr. GYBBON answered:—Sir, I am far from thinking a proposition sufficiently defended by an assertion that it was admitted by our predecessors; for though I have no inclination to vilify their memory, I may without scruple affirm, that they had no pretensions to infallibility, and that there are in many of our statutes instances of such ignorance, credulity, weakness, and errour, as cannot be considered without astonishment.

In questions of an abstruse and complicated nature, it is certain, sir, that experience has taught us what could never have been discovered previously by the wisdom of our ancestors; and we have found, by their consequences, the impropriety of many practices which they approved, and which we should have equally applauded in the same circumstances.

But to what purpose is observation, if we must shut our eyes against it, and appeal for ever to the wisdom of our ancestors?—if we must fall into errour, merely because they were mistaken, and rush upon rocks out of veneration to those who were wrecked against them.

In questions easily to be examined, and determinations which comprised no perplexing contrarieties of interest, or multiplicity of circumstances, they were equally liable with ourselves to be supine and negligent, to sink into security, or be surprised by haste. That the clause now before us was enacted by them, must be ascribed merely to the hurry of the session in which it was brought before them; a time in which so many inquiries of the highest importance were to be made, and great diversity of views to be regarded, that it is no wonder that some absurdities should escape without detection.

In the fourth of the reign of the queen, this bill was brought in, as now, at the latter end of a session, when the attention of the senate was fatigued and distracted; and it was hurried through both houses, and ratified by the queen, with very little consideration.

But then, as this circumstance may be justly termed an extenuation of their errour, it ought to be a lesson of caution to us, that we may not be, in the like manner, betrayed into the same weakness.

Mr. Henry PELHAM next rose up:—Sir, the conduct of our predecessors seems not to stand in need of any excuse; for it might be easy to vindicate it by arguments, but that it is more proper to approve it by imitation.

Whenever the bill was passed, or how hastily soever the law was enacted, it was, I believe, rather the effect of necessity than of inadvertency; of the same necessity which now presses, and which is very ill consulted by tedious debates.

They were then involved in a war, and were not so distracted by private interests as not to unite in the most vigorous opposition of their enemies. They knew that the publick good is often promoted by the temporary inconveniencies of individuals; and when affairs of the highest importance demanded their attention, when the security of the whole nation and the happiness of their posterity were the subject of their inquiries, they wisely suffered less considerations to pass, without superfluous and unseasonable solicitude.

How justly they reasoned, sir, and what vigour their resolutions gave to the military operations, our victories are a sufficient proof: and if experience be the surest guide, it cannot be improper to imitate those who, in the same circumstances with ourselves, found means to raise the honour, and improve the commerce of their country.

That our circumstances are the same with those of the senate by which this law was made, is obvious beyond dispute; or where they vary, the difference is, perhaps, to our disadvantage. We have, sir, the same enemies, or, at least, have reason to apprehend the same; but have little hope of the same allies. The present war is to be carried on at a greater distance, and in more places at the same instant; we cannot, therefore, supply our ships occasionally, but must raise great numbers in a short time.

If, therefore, it was then concluded, that the method under our examination was useful; if measures, not eligible in themselves, may be authorized by necessity, why may not we, in compliance with the same exigencies, have recourse to the same expedients?

Sir William YONGE then spoke:—Sir, how much weight is added to the determinations of the senate, by the dignity of their procedure, and the decency of their disputations, a slight knowledge of mankind is sufficient to evince. It is well known that government is supported by opinion; and that he who destroys the reputation, destroys the authority of the legislative power. Nor is it less apparent, that he who degrades debate into scurrility, and destroys the solemnity of consultation, endeavours to sink the senate into contempt.

It was, therefore, sir, with indignation and surprise, that I heard the clause before us censured with such indecency of language, and the authors of it treated with contumelies and reproaches that mere errour does not deserve, however apparent, but which were now vented before any errour was detected.

I know not, sir, why the gentlemen, who are thus indecently attacked, have suffered such reproaches without censure, and without reply. I know not why they have omitted to put the honourable gentleman in mind of the respect due to this assembly, or to the characters of those whom he opposes; gentlemen equally skilled with himself in the subject of our inquiries, and whom his own attainments, however large, or his abilities, however comprehensive, cannot give him a right to charge with ignorance or folly.

To reproach men with incapacity, is a cheap method of answering their arguments; but a method which the rules of this house ought to exclude from our debates, as the general civility of the world has banished it from every other place of concourse or conversation.