any other part of the world. He will probably
seek, in the service of some foreign prince, a kinder treatment; and
will not fail, in any country but his own, to see himself, at least, on
a level with other men.

Nor will this bill, sir, only give the seamen new reasons of disgust,
but it will tend, likewise, to aggravate those grievances, which already
have produced a detestation of the publick service, scarcely to be
conquered.

The officers of the navy, sir, will hardly be made less insolent by an
increase of power; they whose tyranny has already alienated their
fellow-subjects from the king's service, though they could only depend
upon the character of probity and moderation for the prospect of manning
their ships in succeeding expeditions, will probably, when they are
animated by a law like this, and made absolute both by land and sea,
indulge themselves in the enjoyment of their new authority, contrive new
hardships and oppressions, and tyrannise without fear and without mercy.
Thus, sir, will the bill not only be tyrannical in itself, but the
parent of tyranny; it will give security to the cruel, and confidence to
the arrogant.

That any man, at least any man bred from his infancy to change his
residence, and accustomed to different climates and to foreign nations,
will fix by choice in that country where he finds the worst reception,
is hardly to be imagined. We see indeed, that men unqualified to support
themselves in other countries, or who have, by long custom, contracted a
fondness for particular methods of life, will bear very uncomfortable
circumstances, without endeavouring to improve their conditions by a
change of their habitations. But the temper of a sailor, acquainted with
all parts, and indifferent to all, is of another kind. Such, sir, is his
love of change, arising either from wantonness, or curiosity, that he is
hard to be retained by the kindest treatment and most liberal rewards;
and will, therefore, never struggle with his habitual dispositions, only
to continue in a state of slavery.

I think it, therefore, sir, very evident that this new method of
_encouraging_ sailors will be so far from _increasing_ them, that it may
probably drive them out of the empire, and at once ruin our trade and
our navy; at once beggar and disarm us.

Let me now suppose, sir, for a moment, the bill less pernicious in its
consequences, and consider only the difficulties of executing it. Every
seafaring man is