cases which do not admit of long consultations, which do not allow time
to convoke senates or inquire into the sentiments of the people.

For this reason, in times of war the imperial power is much enlarged,
and has still a greater extent as exigencies are more pressing. If the
nation is invaded by a foreign force, the authority of the crown is
almost without limits, the whole nation is considered as an army of
which the king is general, and which he then governs by martial laws, by
occasional judicature, and extemporary decrees.

Such, sir, is the power of the king on particular emergencies, and such
power the nature of human affairs must, sometimes, require; for all
forms of government are intended for common good, and calculated for the
established condition of mankind, but must be suspended when they can
only obstruct the purposes for which they were contrived, and must vary
with the circumstances to which they were adapted. To expect that the
people shall be consulted in questions on which their happiness depends,
supposes there is an opportunity of consulting them without hazarding
their lives, their freedom, or their possessions, by the forms of
deliberation.

The necessity of extending the prerogative to the extremities of power,
is, I hope, at a very great distance from us; but if the danger of the
exportation of victuals be so urgent as some gentlemen have represented
it, and so formidable as it appears to the whole nation, it is surely
requisite that the latent powers of the crown should be called forth for
our protection, that plenty be secured within the nation, by barring up
our ports, and the people hindered from betraying themselves to their
enemies, and squandering those blessings which the fertility of our soil
has bestowed upon them.

Sir Robert WALPOLE replied in the following manner:--Sir, it is so
unusual among the gentlemen who have opposed my opinion to recommend an
exertion of the regal authority, or willingly to intrust any power to
the administration, that, though they have on this occasion expressed
their sentiments without any ambiguity of language, or perplexity of
ideas, I am in doubt whether I do not mistake their meaning, and cannot,
without hesitation and uncertainty, propose the motion to which all
their arguments seem necessarily to conduct me; arguments of which I do
not deny the force, and which I shall not attempt to invalidate by
slight objections, when I am convinced, in gener