abilities
above question, and fix their reputation for policy out of the reach of
censure and inquiries.

The only act, sir, by which it can be discovered that they have any
degree of penetration proportionate to their employments, is the embargo
lately laid upon provisions in Ireland, by which our enemies have been
timely hindered from furnishing themselves, from our dominions, with
necessaries for their armies and their navies, and our fellow-subjects
have been restrained from exposing themselves to the miseries of famine,
by yielding to the temptation of present profit; a temptation generally
so powerful as to prevail over any distant interest.

But as nothing is more contrary to my natural disposition, or more
unworthy of a member of this house, than flattery, I cannot affirm that
I ascribe this useful expedient wholly to the sagacity or the caution of
the ministry, nor can I attribute all the happy effects produced by it
to their benign solicitude for the publick welfare.

I am inclined to believe that this step was advised by those who were
prompted to consider its importance by motives more prevalent than that
of publick spirit, and that the desire of profit which has so often
dictated pernicious measures, has, for once, produced, in return, an
expedient just and beneficial; and it has, for once, luckily fallen out,
that some of the friends of the administration have discovered that the
publick interest was combined with their own.

It is highly probable, sir, that the contractors for supplying the navy
with provisions, considering, with that acuteness which a quick sense of
loss and gain always produces, how much the price of victuals would be
raised by exportation, and, by consequence, how much of the advantage of
their contracts would be diminished, suggested to the ministry the
necessity of an embargo, and laid before them those arguments which
their own observation and wisdom would never have discovered.

Thus, sir, the ministers, in that instance of their conduct, on which
their political reputation must be founded, can claim, perhaps, no
higher merit, than that of attending to superiour knowledge, of
complying with good advice when it was offered, and of not resisting
demonstration when it was laid before them.

But as I would never ascribe to one man the merit of another, I should
be equally unwilling to detract from due commendations, and shall
therefore freely admit, that not to reject good couns