Mr. SANDYS spoke next, in substance as follows:—Sir, the bill before us, as it is of too great importance to be negligently delayed, is likewise too dangerous to be precipitately hurried into a law.
It has been always the practice of this house to consider money bills with particular attention, because money is power in almost the highest degree, and ought not, therefore, to be given but upon strong assurances that it will be employed for the purposes for which it is demanded, and that those purposes are in themselves just.
But if we consider, sir, the bill now before us, it will appear yet more than a money bill, it will be found a bill for regulating the disposal of that, which it is the great use of money to procure, and is, therefore, not to be passed into a law without a close attention to every circumstance that may be combined with it, and an accurate examination of all the consequences that may be produced by it.
Some of these circumstances or consequences, it is the duty of every member to lay before the house, and I shall, therefore, propose that the inducements to the discovery of any provisions illegally exported, and the manner of levying the forfeiture, may be particularly discussed; for by a defect in this part, the regulation lately established by the regency, however seasonable, produced tumults and distractions, which every good government ought studiously to obviate.
By their proclamation, sir, half the corn that should be found designed for exportation was to be given to those who should discover and seize it. The populace, alarmed at once with the danger of a famine, and animated by a proclamation that put into their own hands the means of preventing it, and the punishment of those from whose avarice they apprehended it, rose in throngs to execute so grateful a law. Every man, sir, whose distress had exasperated him, was incited to gratify his resentment; every man, whose idleness prompted him to maintain his family by methods more easy than that of daily labour, was delighted with the prospect of growing rich on a sudden by a lucky seizure. All the seditious and the profligate combined together in the welcome employment of violence and rapine, and when they had once raised their expectations, there was no small danger lest their impatience of disappointment should determine them to conclude, that corn, wherever found, was designed for exportation, and to seize it as a lawful prize.
Thus, sir, by an imprudent regulation, was every man's property brought into hazard, and his person exposed to the insults of a hungry, a rapacious, and ungovernable rabble, let loose by a publick proclamation, and encouraged to search houses and carriages by an imaginary law.
That we may not give occasion to violence and injustice of the same kind, let us carefully consider the measures which are proposed, before we determine upon their propriety, and pass no bill on this important occasion without such deliberation as may leave us nothing to change or to repent.
Mr. EARLE spoke next to this effect:—Sir, notwithstanding the dangers which have been represented as likely to arise from any errour in the prosecution of this great affair, I cannot but declare my opinion, that no delay ought to be admitted, and that not even the specious pretence of more exact inquiries, and minute considerations, ought to retard our proceedings for a day.
My imagination, sir, is, perhaps, not so fruitful as that of some other members of this house, and, therefore, they may discover many inconveniencies which I am not able to conceive. But, as every man ought to act from his own conviction, it is my duty to urge the necessity of passing this bill, till it can be proved to me, that it will produce calamities equally to be dreaded with the consequences of protracting our debates upon it, equal to the miseries of a famine, or the danger of enabling our enemies to store their magazines, to equip their fleets, and victual their garrisons.
If it could be imagined, that there was in this assembly a subject of France or Spain, zealous for the service of his prince, and the prosperity of his country, I should expect that he would summon all his faculties to retard the progress of this bill, that he would employ all his sophistry to show its inconveniency and imperfections, and exhaust his invention to suggest the dangers of haste; and certainly he could do nothing that would more effectually promote the interest of his countrymen, or tend more to enfeeble and depress the power of the British nation.