ve a possibility
of knowing it, and that those may not be punished for failing in their
duty, whom nothing but inevitable ignorance has betrayed into offence.

But if the operation of this law should commence to-morrow, what numbers
may break it, and suffer by the breach of it involuntarily, and without
design; and how shall we vindicate ourselves from having been accessory
to the crime which we censure and punish?

Mr. FOX replied:--Sir, I shall not urge in defence of my motion what is
generally known, and has been frequently inculcated in all debates upon
this bill, that private considerations ought always to give way to the
necessities of the publick; for I think it sufficient to observe, that
there is a distinction to be made between punishments and restraints,
and that we never can be too early in the prevention of pernicious
practices, though we may sometimes delay to punish them.

The law will be known to-morrow, to far the greatest number of those who
may be tempted to defeat it; and if there be others that break it
ignorantly, how will they find themselves injured by being only obliged
to pay less than they promised, which is all that I should propose
without longer warning. The debate upon this particular, will be at
length reduced to a question, whether a law for this purpose is just and
expedient? If a law be necessary, it is necessary that it should be
executed; and it can be executed only by commencing to-morrow.

Lord BALTIMORE spoke thus:--Sir, it appears to me of no great importance
how soon the operation of the law commences, or how long it is delayed,
because I see no reason for imagining that it will at any time produce
the effects proposed by it.

It has been the amusement, sir, of a great part of my life, to converse
with men whose inclinations or employments have made them well
acquainted with maritime affairs, and amidst innumerable other schemes
for the promotion of trade, have heard some for the regulation of wages
in trading ships; schemes, at the first appearance plausible and likely
to succeed, but, upon a nearer inquiry, evidently entangled with
insuperable difficulties, and never to be executed without danger of
injuring the commerce of the nation.

The clause, sir, now before us contains, in my opinion, one of those
visionary provisions, which, however infallible they may appear, will be
easily defeated, and will have no other effect than to promote cunning
and fraud, and to teach m