we determine upon their propriety, and pass no bill on this important
occasion without such deliberation as may leave us nothing to change or
to repent.

Mr. EARLE spoke next to this effect:--Sir, notwithstanding the dangers
which have been represented as likely to arise from any errour in the
prosecution of this great affair, I cannot but declare my opinion, that
no delay ought to be admitted, and that not even the specious pretence
of more exact inquiries, and minute considerations, ought to retard our
proceedings for a day.

My imagination, sir, is, perhaps, not so fruitful as that of some other
members of this house, and, therefore, they may discover many
inconveniencies which I am not able to conceive. But, as every man ought
to act from his own conviction, it is my duty to urge the necessity of
passing this bill, till it can be proved to me, that it will produce
calamities equally to be dreaded with the consequences of protracting
our debates upon it, equal to the miseries of a famine, or the danger of
enabling our enemies to store their magazines, to equip their fleets,
and victual their garrisons.

If it could be imagined, that there was in this assembly a subject of
France or Spain, zealous for the service of his prince, and the
prosperity of his country, I should expect that he would summon all his
faculties to retard the progress of this bill, that he would employ all
his sophistry to show its inconveniency and imperfections, and exhaust
his invention to suggest the dangers of haste; and certainly he could do
nothing that would more effectually promote the interest of his
countrymen, or tend more to enfeeble and depress the power of the
British nation.