Chapter 28

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, _prĂȘt_, 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.

I, for my part, sir, shall always endeavour to confine my attention to the question before us, without suffering my reason to be biassed, or my inquiries diverted by low altercations, or personal animosities; nor when any other man deviates into reproachful and contemptuous language, shall I be induced to think more highly of either his arguments or capacity.

Sir John BARNARD replied:--Sir, I have always heard it represented as an instance of integrity, when the tongue and heart move in concert, when the words are representations of the sentiments; and have, therefore, hitherto, endeavoured to explain my arguments with perspicuity, and impress my sentiments with force; I have thought it hypocrisy to treat stupidity with reverence, or to honour nonsense with the ceremony of a confutation. As knavery, so folly, that is not reclaimable, is to be speedily despatched; business is to be freed from obstruction, and society from a nuisance.

Nor, sir, when I am censured by those whom I may offend, by the use of terms correspondent with my ideas, will I, by a tame and silent submission, give reason to suspect that I am conscious of a fault, but will treat the accusation with open contempt, and show no greater regard to the abettors, than to the authors of absurdity.

That decency is of great use in publick debates, I shall readily allow; it may sometimes shelter folly from ridicule, and preserve villany from publick detection; nor is it ever more carefully supported, than when measures are promoted that nothing can preserve from contempt, but the solemnity with which they are established.

Decency is a proper circumstance; but liberty is the essence of senatorial disquisitions: liberty is the parent of truth; but truth and decency are sometimes at variance: all men and all propositions are to be treated here as they deserve; and there are many who have no claim either to respect or decency.

Mr. WINNINGTON then rose:--Sir, that it is improper in its own nature, and inconsistent with our constitution, to lay any man under an obligation to accuse himself, cannot be denied; it is, therefore, evident, that some amendment is necessary to the clause before us.

I have, for this reason, drawn up an amendment, sir, which, if approved by the committee, will, in my opinion, remove all the objections to this part of the bill, and, by reconciling it with our natural and legal rights, I hope, induce those to approve it, who have hitherto opposed it.

I therefore propose, that these words should be substituted instead of those which are the subject of the debate; or some other to this purpose: _That no person shall be liable to be fined by virtue of this act, unless a witness, being examined, shall make oath of the misdemeanour or neglect_.

Thus the necessity of examining men upon oath in their own cause will be entirely taken away; and, as the clause will then stand, there will remain no suspicion of injustice, or oppression, because none can be practised without the concurrence of many persons of different interests.

[This clause, though agreed to in the committee, was at last rejected.]