This bill, my lords, is, indeed, founded upon a law made in a reign
celebrated for the wisdom of our conduct and the success of our arms;
but it will not, I suppose, be asserted, that nothing was, even in that
period, ill conducted; nor will it be an argument, sufficient for the
justification of an expedient, that it was practised in the victorious
reign of queen Anne.
If we inquire into the consequences of that law, we shall find no
inducement to revive it on this or any future occasion. For it had no
other effect than that of exposing us to our enemies by dividing our
forces; a disadvantage of which we soon found the effects, by the loss
of two large ships of seventy guns, and of a multitude of trading
vessels, which, by that diminution of our naval armament, necessarily
fell into the hands of privateers and small cruisers, that ravaged the
ocean without fear or molestation.
If we examine the present establishment of our navy, my lords, it will
be discovered, that nothing is proposed in this bill, which is not more
efficaciously performed by the methods now in use, and more judiciously
established by laws, of which long experience has shown the usefulness.
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