pare the number and the value of our ships and cargoes with those of
the Spaniards, and see on which side the loss will fall.

And let us not forget, what in all the calculations which I have yet
seen on either part has been totally overlooked, the number of men
killed, or captives in the British and Spanish dominions. Men, my lords,
are at once strength and riches; and, therefore, it is to be considered,
that the most irreparable loss which any nation can sustain is the
diminution of its people: money may be repaid, and commerce may be
recovered; even liberty may be regained, but the loss of people can
never be retrieved. Even the twentieth generation may have reason to
exclaim, How much more numerous and more powerful would this nation have
been, had our ancestors not been betrayed in the expedition to
Carthagena!

What loss, my lords, have the Spaniards sustained which can be put in
balance with that of our army in America, an army given up to the
vultures of an unhealthy climate, and of which those who perished by the
sword, were in reality rescued from more lingering torments?

What equivalent can be mentioned for the liberty of multitudes of
Britons, now languishing in the prisons of Spain, or obliged by
hardships and desperation to assist the enemies of their country? What
have the Spaniards suffered that can be opposed to the detriment which
the commerce of this nation feels from the detention of our sailors?

These, my lords, are losses not to be paralleled by the destruction of
Porto Bello, even though that expedition should be ascribed to the
ministry. These are losses which may extend their consequences to many
ages, which may long impede our commerce, and diminish our shipping.

It is not to be imagined, my lords, that in this time of peculiar
danger, parents will destine their children to maritime employments, or
that any man will engage in naval business who can exercise any other
profession; and therefore the death or captivity of a sailor leaves a
vacuity in our commerce, since no other will be ready to supply his
place. Thus, by degrees, the continuance of the war will contract our
trade, and those parts of it which we cannot occupy, will be snatched by
the French or Dutch, from whom it is not probable that they will ever be
recovered.

This, my lords, is another circumstance of disadvantage to which the
Spaniards are not exposed; for their traffick being only from one part
of their dominions to