elves to the
danger of suffering them.

If we consider, sir, with what effect methods nearly approaching these
were practised in the reign of the late queen, we shall find that not
more than one thousand five hundred seamen were raised, and those at the
expense of more than four thousand pounds; so that the effects bore no
proportion to the means; our laws were infringed, and our constitution
violated to no purpose.

But what reason, sir, can be assigned for which it must be more
difficult to supply the fleet now with sailors than at any other time?
This war, sir, was demanded by the publick voice, in pursuance of the
particular remonstrances of the merchants, and it is not to be supposed
that the sailors or any other body of men engage in it with a particular
reluctance.

I am, therefore, inclined to believe that the suspicion of great numbers
hid in the country, at a distance from the coast, is merely chimerical;
and that if we should pass this bill, we should do nothing more than
grant an oppressive and unconstitutional power of search for what, in
reality, is not to be found.

How oppressive this power may become in the hands of a corrupt or
insolent magistrate, any man may discover, who remembers that the
magistrate is made judge without appeal, of his own right to denominate
any man a sailor, and that he may break open any man's doors at any
time, without alleging any other reason than his own suspicion; so that
no man can secure his house from being searched, or, perhaps, his person
from being seized.

It may, indeed, be alleged, sir, that this will be only a temporary law,
and is to cease with the exigence that made it necessary: but long
experience has informed us, that severe laws are enacted more readily
than they are repealed; and that most men are too fond of power to
suffer willingly the diminution of it.

But, sir, though this law should not be perpetuated, every precedent of
an infringement of our constitution, makes way for its dissolution; and
the very cessation of an oppressive law, may be a plea, hereafter, for
the revival of it.

This bill, therefore, must be confessed to be at once violent and
ineffectual; to be a transgression of the laws of justice to particular
men, without any prospect of real benefit to the community; and,
therefore, cannot be passed without deviating at once from prudence and
our constitution.

Captain CORNWALL then rose, and spoke to this effect:--I have observed,