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, till they have represented their
distress to some distant power, and received a gracious permission to
save their lives.
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