ws:--Sir, the bill before
us, as it is of too great importance to be negligently delayed, is
likewise too dangerous to be precipitately hurried into a law.

It has been always the practice of this house to consider money bills
with particular attention, because money is power in almost the highest
degree, and ought not, therefore, to be given but upon strong assurances
that it will be employed for the purposes for which it is demanded, and
that those purposes are in themselves just.

But if we consider, sir, the bill now before us, it will appear yet more
than a money bill, it will be found a bill for regulating the disposal
of that, which it is the great use of money to procure, and is,
therefore, not to be passed into a law without a close attention to
every circumstance that may be combined with it, and an accurate
examination of all the consequences that may be produced by it.

Some of these circumstances or consequences, it is the duty of every
member to lay before the house, and I shall, therefore, propose that the
inducements to the discovery of any provisions illegally exported, and
the manner of levying the forfeiture, may be particularly discussed; for
by a defect in this part, the regulation lately established by the
regency, however seasonable, produced tumults and distractions, which
every good government ought studiously to obviate.

By their proclamation, sir, half the corn that should be found designed
for exportation was to be given to those who should discover and seize
it. The populace, alarmed at once with the danger of a famine, and
animated by a proclamation that put into their own hands the means of
preventing it, and the punishment of those from whose avarice they
apprehended it, rose in throngs to execute so grateful a law. Every
man, sir, whose distress had exasperated him, was incited to gratify his
resentment; every man, whose idleness prompted him to maintain his
family by methods more easy than that of daily labour, was delighted
with the prospect of growing rich on a sudden by a lucky seizure. All
the seditious and the profligate combined together in the welcome
employment of violence and rapine, and when they had once raised their
expectations, there was no small danger lest their impatience of
disappointment should determine them to conclude, that corn, wherever
found, was designed for exportation, and to seize it as a lawful prize.

Thus, sir, by an imprudent regulation, was every m