I am far, sir, from thinking that the gentleman's indignation was excited rather by malice than mistake; but mistakes of this kind may produce consequences which cannot be too cautiously avoided. How unwillingly would that gentleman propagate through the nation an opinion that the merchants were insulted in this house, their interest neglected, and their intelligence despised, at a time when no aspersion was thrown upon them, nor any thing intended but tenderness and regard? And yet such had been the representation of this day's debate, which this numerous audience would have conveyed to the populace, had not the mistake been immediately rectified, and the rumour crushed in the birth.
Nothing, sir, can be more injurious to the character of this assembly, by which the people are represented, than to accuse them of treating any class of men with insolence and contempt; and too much diligence cannot be used in obviating a report which cannot be spread in the nation, without giving rise to discontent, clamours, and sedition.
Those who shall be inclined to reject the petition, may, perhaps, act with no less regard to the merchants, and may promote their interest and their security with no less ardour than those who most solicitously labour for its reception: for, if they are not allowed to be heard, it is only because the publick interest requires expedition, and because every delay of our preparations is an injury to trade.
That this is not a proper time for petitions against the bill to be heard, is universally known; and I can discover nothing in the petition that restrains it to this particular clause, which is so far from being specified, that it appears to be the only part of the bill of which they have had no intelligence.
Let the warmest advocates for the petition point out any part of it that relates to this single clause, and I will retract my assertion; but as it appears that there are only general declarations of the inexpediency of the measures proposed, and the pernicious tendency of the methods now in use, what is the petition, but a complaint against the bill, and a request that it should be laid aside.
The practice of impresses, sir, is particularly censured, as severe and oppressive; a charge which, however true, has no relation to this clause, which is intended to promote the voluntary engagement of sailors in the service of the crown; yet it may not be improper to observe, that as the practice of impressing is, in itself, very efficacious, and well adapted to sudden emergencies; as it has been established by a long succession of ages, and is, therefore, become almost a part of our constitution; and as it is at this time necessary to supply the navy with the utmost expedition, it is neither decent nor prudent to complain too loudly against, or to heighten the discontent of the people at a necessary evil.
We have, sir, examined every part of this bill with the attention which the defence of the nation requires; we have softened the rigour of the methods first proposed, and admitted no violence or hardship that is not absolutely necessary, to make the law effectual, which, like every other law, must be executed by force, if it be obstructed or opposed. We have inserted a great number of amendments, proposed by those who are represented as the most anxious guardians of the privileges of the people; and it is not, surely, to no purpose that the great council of the nation has so long and so studiously laboured.
Those who are chosen by the people to represent them, have undoubtedly, sir, some claim as individuals to their confidence and respect; for to imagine that they have committed the great charge of senatorial employments, that they have trusted their liberties and their happiness to those whose integrity they suspect, or whose understandings they despise, is to imagine them much more stupid than they have been represented by those who are censured as their enemies.
But far different is the regard due to the determinations formed by the collective wisdom of the senate; a regard which ought to border upon reverence, and which is scarcely consistent with the least murmur of dissatisfaction.
If we are to hear the present petitioners, is it not probable, that before we have despatched them, we shall be solicited by others, who will then plead the same right, supported by a new precedent? And is it not possible that by one interruption upon another, our measures may be delayed, till they shall be ineffectual?