provisions, by which they might be enabled more
powerfully to carry on the war against us.

To this design no objection has been made, but it is well known, that a
good end may be defeated by an absurd choice of means, and I am not able
to discover how we shall increase our own strength, or diminish that of
our enemies, by compelling one part of our fellow-subjects to starve the
other.

It is necessary, sir, to prohibit the exportation of corn to the ports
of our enemies, and of those nations by which our enemies will be
supplied, but surely it is of no use to exclude any part of our own
dominions from the privilege of being supplied from another. Nor can any
argument be alleged in defence of such a law, that will not prove with
equal force, that corn ought to remain in the same granaries where it is
now laid, that all the markets in this kingdom should be suspended, and
that no man should be allowed to sell bread to another.

There is, indeed, sir, a possibility that the liberty for which I
contend, may be used to wicked purposes, and that some men may be
incited by poverty or avarice to carry the enemy those provisions, which
they pretend to export to British provinces. But if we are to refuse
every power that may be employed to bad purposes, we must lay all
mankind in dungeons, and divest human nature of all its rights; for
every man that has the power of action, may sometimes act ill.

It is, however, prudent to obstruct criminal attempts even when we
cannot hope entirely to defeat them, and, therefore, I am of opinion,
that no provisions ought to be exported without some method of security,
by which the governours of every place may be assured that they will be
conveyed to our own colonies. Such securities will easily be contrived,
and may be regulated in a manner that they shall not be defeated without
such hazard, as the profit that can be expected from illegal commerce,
will not be able to compensate.

It is, therefore, sir, proper to delay the bill so long, at least, as
that we may produce by it the ends intended, and distress our enemies
more than ourselves; that we may secure plenty at home, without the
destruction of our distant colonies, and without obliging part of our
fellow-subjects to desert to the Spaniards for want of bread.

Mr. BOWLES spoke in this manner:--Sir, the necessity of excepting rice
from the general prohibition, is not only sufficiently evinced by the
agent of South Carolina, but c