captain of the convoy may be, therefore, harassed by them
with prosecutions, in which it may be difficult to make his innocence
appear. The convoy may be sometimes accused of deserting the traders,
when the traders in reality have forsaken the convoy, in confidence that
they should either arrive safe at the port without protection, or be
able, if they should happen to fall into the enemy's hands, to charge
their misfortune upon the negligence of their protector.

The eighth clause, my lords, is so far from being such as might be
expected from merchants, that it seems rather to have been drawn up by
men who never saw the sea, nor heard of the violence of a storm. For who
that had the slightest idea of the uncertainty and hazard of a sailor's
condition, who that had been ever told of a shipwreck, or but looked on
the pictures of naval distress, would propose that no ship should retire
to a harbour, or quit the station to which it was assigned, _on any
pretence whatsoever_ without permission, which sometimes could not be
obtained in many months, and which never could be received soon enough
to allow of a remedy for sudden disasters, or pressing calamities. It
might with equal reason be enacted, that no man should extinguish a fire
without an act of the senate, or repel a thief from his window, without
a commission of array.

It is happy, my lords, that this clause is not enforced by a penalty,
and, therefore, can never have the obligatory sanction of a law; but
since it may reasonably be supposed, that the authors of it intended
that the observation should be by some means or other enjoined, let us
examine how much security it would add to our navigation, and how much
strength to our naval power, if the breach of it had been made capital,
which is in itself by no means unreasonable; for what punishment less
than death can secure the observation of a law, which, without the
hazard of life, cannot be obeyed?

Let us, therefore, my lords, suppose a crew of gallant sailors surprised
in their cruise by such a hurricane as is frequent in the American seas,
which the highest perfection of skill, and the utmost exertion of
industry has scarcely enabled them to escape; let us consider them now
with their masts broken, their ship shattered, and their artillery
thrown into the sea, unable any longer either to oppose an enemy, or to
resist the waves, and yet forbidden to approach the land, and cut off
from all possibility of relief