on of a new law, when they
needed only an enforcement of former statutes.

That our naval force has, in the present war, been misapplied; that our
commerce has been exposed to petty spoilers, in a degree never known
before; that our convoys have been far from adding security to our
traders; and that with the most powerful fleet in the world, we have
suffered all that can fall upon the most defenceless nation, cannot be
denied.

Nor is it any degree of temerity, my lords, to affirm, that these
misfortunes have been brought upon us by either negligence or treachery;
for, besides that no other cause can be assigned for the losses which a
powerful people suffer from an enemy of inferiour force, there is the
strongest authority for asserting, that our maritime affairs have been
ill conducted, and that, therefore, the regulation of them is very
seasonably and properly solicited by the merchants.

For this assertion, my lords, we may produce the authority of the other
house, by which a remonstrance was drawn up against the conduct of the
commissioners of the admiralty. This alone ought to influence us to an
accurate discussion of this affair. But when an authority yet more
venerable is produced, when it appears that his majesty, by the
dismission of the commissioners from their employments, admitted the
justice of the representation of the commons, it surely can be of no use
to evince, by arguments, the necessity of new regulations.

It is, indeed, certain, that men of integrity and prudence, men of
ability to discern their duty, and of resolution to execute it, can
receive very little assistance from rules and prescriptions; nor can I
deny what the noble lord has affirmed, that they may be sometimes
embarrassed in their measures, and hindered from snatching opportunities
of success, and complying with emergent occasions; but, my lords, we are
to consider mankind, not as we wish them, but as we find them,
frequently corrupt, and always fallible.

If men were all honest and wise, laws of all kinds would be superfluous,
a legislature would become useless, and our authority must cease for
want of objects to employ it; but we find, my lords, that there are men
whom nothing but laws and penalties can make supportable to society;
that there are men, who, if they are not told their duty, will never
know it, and who will, at last, only perform what they shall be punished
for neglecting.

Were all men, like the noble lord whom I