the facts upon which they are founded
may be denied at pleasure: nothing is more easy than to deny, because
proofs are not required of a negative. But as negatives require no
proof, so they have no authority, nor can any consequence be deduced
from them. I might, therefore, suffer the facts to remain in their
present state, asserted on one side by those that have reasons to
believe them, and doubted on the other without reasons; for surely he
cannot be said to reason, who questions an assertion only because he
does not know it to be true.

But as every question, by which the liberty of a Briton may be affected,
is of importance sufficient to require that no evidence should be
suppressed by which it may be cleared, I cannot but think it proper that
a committee should be formed to examine the conduct of the officers in
this particular; and in confidence of the veracity of those from whom I
received my information, I here promise to produce such evidence as
shall put an end to controversy and doubt.

If this is not granted, sir, the fact must stand recorded and allowed;
for to doubt, and refuse evidence, is a degree of prejudice and
obstinacy without example. Nor is this the only objection to the clause
before us, which appears very imperfect, with regard to the
qualifications specified as a title to the reward. The reward ought not
to be confined to those who shall hereafter be invited by the promise of
it to engage in the service, while those who entered into it without any
such prospect, are condemned to dangers and fatigues without a
recompense. Where merit is equal, the reward ought to be equal; and,
surely, where there is greater merit, the reward proposed by the senate,
as an encouragement to bravery, ought not to be less. To be excluded
from the advantages which others have obtained, only by avoiding the
service, cannot but depress the spirit of those whose zeal and courage
incited them, at the beginning of the war, to enter into the fleet; and
to deject those from whom we expect defence and honour, is neither
prudent nor just.

Nor is it, in my opinion, proper to offer the same reward
indiscriminately to all that shall accept it; rewards ought to be
proportioned to desert, and no man can justly be paid for what he cannot
perform; there ought, therefore, to be some distinction made between a
seaman by profession, one that has learned his art at the expense of
long experience, labour, and hazard, and a man who o