cannot but suspect, my lords, that it was concerted for purposes very
different from those mentioned in the title, which it has, indeed, no
tendency to promote. I believe, my lords, the projectors of it intended
not so much to advance the interest of the merchants, as to depress the
reputation of those whom they have long taken every opportunity of
loading with reproaches, whom they have censured as the enemies of
trade, the corrupters of the nation, and the confederates of Spain.

To confirm these general calumnies, it was necessary to fix on some
particular accusation which might raise the resentment of the people,
and exasperate them beyond reflection or inquiry. For this purpose
nothing was more proper than to charge them with betraying our merchants
to the enemy.

As no accusation could be more efficacious to inflame the people, so
none, my lords, could with more difficulty be confuted. Some losses must
be suffered in every war, and every one will necessarily produce
complaints and discontent; every man is willing to blame some other
person for his misfortunes, and it was, therefore, easy to turn the
clamours of those whose vessels fell into the hands of the Spaniards,
against the ministers and commanders of the ships of war.

These cries were naturally heard with the regard always paid to
misfortune and distress, and propagated with zeal, because they were
heard with pity. Thus in time, what was at first only the outcry of
impatience, was by malicious artifices improved into settled opinion,
that opinion was diligently diffused, and all the losses of the
merchants were imputed, not to the chance of war, but the treachery of
the ministry.