y lords, in my opinion, a just maxim, that our deliberations
can receive very little assistance from merriment and ridicule, and
that truth is seldom discovered by those who are chiefly solicitous to
start a jest. To convince the understanding, and to tickle the fancy,
are purposes very different, and must be promoted by different means;
nor is he always to imagine himself superiour in the dispute, who is
applauded with the loudest laugh.

To laugh, my lords, and to endeavour to communicate the same mirth to
others, when great affairs are to be considered, is certainly to
neglect the end for which we are assembled, and the reasons for which
the privilege of debating was originally granted us. For doubtless, my
lords, our honours and our power were not conferred upon us that we
might be merry with the better grace, or that we might meet at certain
times to divert ourselves with turning the great affairs of the nation
to ridicule.

But, my lords, still less defensible is this practice, when we are
contriving the relief of misery, or the reformation of vice; when
calamities are preying upon thousands, and the happiness not only of
the present age, but of posterity, must depend upon our resolutions.
He that can divert himself with the sight of misery, has surely very
little claim to the great praise of humanity and tenderness; nor can
he be justly exempted from the censure of increasing evils, who wastes
in laughter and jocularity that time in which he might relieve them.

The bill now before us has been represented by those that oppose it,
as big with destruction, and dangerous both to the lives and to the
virtue of the people. We have been told, that it will at once fill the
land with sickness and with villany, and that it will be at the same
time fatal to our trade, and to our power; yet those who are willing
to be thought fearful of all these evils, and ardently desirous of
averting them from their country, cannot without laughter mention the
bill which they oppose, or enumerate the consequences which they dread
from it, in any other language than that of irony and burlesque.

Surely, my lords, such conduct gives reason for questioning either
their humanity, or their sincerity; for if they really fear such
dreadful calamities, how can they be at leisure for mirth and gaiety I
How can they sport over the grave of millions, and indulge their vain
ridicule, when the ruin of their country is approaching?

But without i