to produce no effect upon our
counsels? And what effect can be wished from them, but unanimity, with
that vigour and despatch which are its natural consequences, and that
success with which steadiness and expedition are generally rewarded?

It might be hoped, my lords, that those who have so clear a view of our
present embarrassments, and whose sagacity and acuteness expose them to
a sensibility of future miseries, perhaps more painful than would be
excited by any present and real calamities, should not be thus tortured
to no purpose. Every passion, my lords, has its proper object by which
it may be laudably gratified, and every disposition of mind may be
directed to useful ends. The true use of that foresight of future
events, with which some great capacities are so eminently endowed, is
that of producing caution and suggesting expedients. What advantage, my
lords, would it be to navigators, that their pilot could, by any
preternatural power, discover sands or rocks, if he was too negligent or
too stubborn to turn the vessel out of the danger?

Or how, my lords, to pursue the comparison, would that pilot be treated
by the crew, who, after having informed them of their approach to a
shoal or whirlpool, and set before them, with all his rhetorick, the
horrours of a shipwreck, should, instead of directing them to avoid
destruction, and assisting their endeavours for their common safety,
amuse them with the miscarriages of past voyages, and the blunders and
stupidity of their former pilot?

Whether any parallel can be formed between such ill-timed satire, and
wild misconduct, and the manner in which your lordships have been
treated on this occasion, it is not my province to determine. Nor have I
any other design than to show that the only proper conduct in time of
real danger, is preparation against it; and that wit and eloquence
themselves, if employed to any other purpose, lose their excellence,
because they lose their propriety.

It does not appear, my lords, that the address now proposed includes any
approbation of past measures, and therefore it is needless to inquire,
on this occasion, whether the conduct of our ministers or admirals
deserves praise or censure.

It does not appear, my lords, that by censuring any part of our late
conduct, however detrimental to the publick it may at present be
imagined, any of our losses will be repaired, or any part of our
reputation retrieved; and, therefore, such proceedings