The several clauses of the bill have relations and consequences so different, that scarce any one man can approve them all; and in our present deliberation, an objection to a particular clause is considered as an argument against the whole bill.
It is, therefore, necessary, to prevent an unprofitable expense of time, to resolve the house into a committee, in which the bill may be considered by single clauses, and that part which cannot be defended may be rejected, and that only retained which deserves our approbation. In the committee, when we have considered the first clause, and heard the objections against it, we may mend it; or, if it cannot be amended, reject or postpone it, and so proceed through the whole bill with much greater expedition, and at the same time, with a more diligent view of every clause, than while we are obliged to take the whole at once into our consideration.
I shall, for my part, approve some clauses, and make objections to others; but think it proper to reserve my objections, and the reasons of my approbation, for the committee into which we ought to go on this occasion.
[The bill was referred to a committee, but not forty members staying in the house, it was dropped.]
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