to comply with
particular circumstances, and to give way to sudden accidents.

I think it, therefore, my lords, necessary to propose, that this bill
shall be more particularly examined in a committee, that, after having
received the necessary explanations and amendments, it may be referred
again to the other house.

Lord DELAWARE rose next, and spoke to the purpose following:--My lords,
the noble duke has, by his arguments in favour of this bill, given a
very eminent proof of great abilities; he has shown every clause in that
light which may least expose to view its improprieties and defects; but
has at length only shown, that it is not impossible to make a useful
law, for the purposes mentioned in the title of this bill; not that any
of the expedients, now proposed, will afford the desired advantage to
the publick, or obviate any of the inconveniencies of which the traders
have been so long and so importunately complaining.

This bill, my lords, is, indeed, founded upon a law made in a reign
celebrated for the wisdom of our conduct and the success of our arms;
but it will not, I suppose, be asserted, that nothing was, even in that
period, ill conducted; nor will it be an argument, sufficient for the
justification of an expedient, that it was practised in the victorious
reign of queen Anne.

If we inquire into the consequences of that law, we shall find no
inducement to revive it on this or any future occasion. For it had no
other effect than that of exposing us to our enemies by dividing our
forces; a disadvantage of which we soon found the effects, by the loss
of two large ships of seventy guns, and of a multitude of trading
vessels, which, by that diminution of our naval armament, necessarily
fell into the hands of privateers and small cruisers, that ravaged the
ocean without fear or molestation.

If we examine the present establishment of our navy, my lords, it will
be discovered, that nothing is proposed in this bill, which is not more
efficaciously performed by the methods now in use, and more judiciously
established by laws, of which long experience has shown the usefulness.
This, my lords, will easily appear from the perusal of the orders which
every commander of a convoy regularly receives, and of the printed
rules, established by his majesty in council, for the royal navy.

In these, my lords, much more is comprehended than can properly be
inferred in a law not occasionally variable; nor do I think any