se who shall hereafter offer themselves. Nor, in my
opinion, ought those who have hitherto been pressed into our fleets to
be discouraged from their duty by an exclusion from the same advantage.
For if they were compelled to serve in the fleet, they were compelled
when there was not this encouragement for volunteers, which, perhaps,
they would have accepted if it had been then proposed, Every man, at
least, will allege, that he would have accepted it, and complain he
suffers only by the fault of the government; a government which he will
not be very zealous to defend, while he is considered with less regard
than others, from whom no greater services are expected.

A prospect of new rewards, sir, will add new alacrity to all the forces,
and an equal distribution of favour will secure an unshaken and
inviolable fidelity. Nothing but union can produce success, and nothing
can secure union but impartiality and justice.

Mr. SANDYS rose, and spoke as follows:--Sir, the efficacy of rewards,
and the necessity of an impartial distribution, are no unfruitful
subjects for rhetorick; but it may, perhaps, be more useful at present
to consider, with such a degree of attention as the question must be
acknowledged to deserve, to whom these rewards are to be paid, and from
what fund they are expected to arise.

With regard to those who are to claim the reward, sir, they seem very
negligently specified; for they are distinguished only by the character
of having served five years; a distinction unintelligible, without
explanation.

It is, I suppose, sir, the intent of the bill, that no man shall miss
the reward but by his own fault; and, therefore, it may be inquired,
what is to be the fate of him who shall be disabled in his first
adventure, whom in the first year, or month, of his service, an unlucky
shot shall confine for the remaining part of his life to inactivity: as
the bill is now formed, he must be miserable without a recompense; and
his wounds, which make him unable to support himself, will, though
received in defence of his country, entitle him to no support from the
publick.

Nor is this the only difficulty that may arise from the specifying of so
long a service; for how can any man that shall enter on board the fleet
be informed that the war will continue for five years? May we not all
justly hope, that alacrity, unanimity, and prudence, may, in a much
shorter time, reduce our enemies to beg for peace? And shall our sai