In any of these cases, my lords, the law is not to be condemned for
its inefficacy, since it only fails by the defect of those who are to
direct its operations; the best and most important laws will
contribute very little to the security or happiness of a people, if no
judges of integrity and spirit can be found amongst them. Even the
most beneficial and useful bill that ministers can possibly imagine, a
bill for laying on our estates a tax of the fifth part of their yearly
value, would be wholly without effect, if collectors could not be
obtained.
I am, therefore, my lords, yet doubtful, whether the inefficacy of the
law now subsisting necessarily obliges us to provide another; for
those that declared it to be useless, owned at the same time, that no
man endeavoured to enforce it; so that, perhaps, its only defect may
be, that it will not execute itself.
Nor though I should allow, that the law is at present impeded by
difficulties which cannot be broken through, but by men of more spirit
and dignity than the ministers may be inclined to trust with
commissions of the peace, yet it can only be collected, that another
law is necessary, not that the law now proposed will be of any
advantage.
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