n
_there shall be no just and sufficient reason_ for neglecting them, and
some operations to be performed as often _as there shall be occasion,_
and ships are to cruise in a certain latitude, unless _there is a
necessity of employing them elsewhere._

Did not the title of this bill, my lords, give it some claim to a
serious consideration; and did not the integrity and capacity of those
by whom it was drawn up, exempt them from contempt and ridicule, I
should be inclined to treat a law like this with some degree of levity;
for who, my lords, can be serious when his consent is desired to a bill,
by which it is enacted, that men shall act on certain occasions, as they
shall think most expedient?

Nor is this, my lords, the only instance of precipitancy and want of
consideration, for many of the injunctions are without any penal
sanction; so that though we should pass this bill with the greatest
unanimity, we should only declare our opinion, or offer our advice, but
should make no law, or what, with regard to the purposes of government,
is the same, a law which may be broken without danger.

But general objections, my lords, will naturally produce general
evasions; and a debate may be prolonged without producing any clear view
of the subject, or any satisfactory decision of a single question: I
shall, therefore, endeavour to range my objections in order, and, by
examining singly every paragraph of the bill, show the weakness of some
expedients, the superfluity of others, and the general unfitness of the
whole to produce the protection and security intended by it.

In the first clause alone may be found instances of all the
improprieties which I have mentioned to your lordships. It is proposed
that in a time of war between this empire and any other state, such a
number of ships shall be employed as cruisers or convoys in the Channel,
as the admiralty shall judge most proper for that purpose. What is this,
my lords, but to continue to the admiralty the power which has been
always executed? What is it but to enact that the ships shall be
stationed in time of war as the commissioners of the admiralty shall
determine and direct?

Of these ships, it is farther enacted, that they shall be careened three
times a-year, or oftener if there shall be occasion; but it is not
declared who shall judge of the necessity of careening, or who shall be
punished for the neglect of it when it is requisite, or for the
permission or command