For this reason, sir, they were either denied the security of convoys,
or forsaken in the most dangerous parts of the sea, by those to whose
protection they were, in appearance, committed. For this reason, they
were either hindered from engaging in their voyage by the loss of those
men who were detained unactive in the ships of war, or deprived of their
crews upon the high seas, or suffered to proceed only to become a prey
to the Spaniards.
But it was not, sir, a sufficient gratification of our implacable
minister, that the merchants were distressed for alarming the nation; it
was thought, likewise, necessary to punish the people for believing too
easily the reports of the merchants, and to warn them for ever against
daring to imagine themselves able to discern their own interest, or to
prescribe other measures to the ministers, than they should be
themselves inclined to pursue; our minister was resolved to show them,
by a master-stroke, that it was in his power to disappoint their
desires, by seeming to comply, and to destroy their commerce and their
happiness, by the very means by which they hoped to secure them.
For this purpose, sir, did this great man summon all his politicks
together, and call to council all his confidants and all his dependants;
and it was, at length, after mature deliberation, determined, by their
united wisdom, to put more ships into commission, to aggravate the
terrours of the impress by new violence and severity, to draw the
sailors by the promise of large rewards from the service of the
merchants, to collect a mighty fleet, and to despatch it on a _secret
expedition_.
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