The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. Volume 10: Parlimentary Debates IJohnson, Samuel
History
The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. Volume 10: Parlimentary Debates I
Johnson, Samuel
Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons -- History -- 18th century
Mr. SANDYS rose, and spoke as follows:--Sir, the efficacy of rewards,
and the necessity of an impartial distribution, are no unfruitful
subjects for rhetorick; but it may, perhaps, be more useful at present
to consider, with such a degree of attention as the question must be
acknowledged to deserve, to whom these rewards are to be paid, and from
what fund they are expected to arise.
With regard to those who are to claim the reward, sir, they seem very
negligently specified; for they are distinguished only by the character
of having served five years; a distinction unintelligible, without
explanation.
It is, I suppose, sir, the intent of the bill, that no man shall miss
the reward but by his own fault; and, therefore, it may be inquired,
what is to be the fate of him who shall be disabled in his first
adventure, whom in the first year, or month, of his service, an unlucky
shot shall confine for the remaining part of his life to inactivity: as
the bill is now formed, he must be miserable without a recompense; and
his wounds, which make him unable to support himself, will, though
received in defence of his country, entitle him to no support from the
publick.
Nor is this the only difficulty that may arise from the specifying of so
long a service; for how can any man that shall enter on board the fleet
be informed that the war will continue for five years? May we not all
justly hope, that alacrity, unanimity, and prudence, may, in a much
shorter time, reduce our enemies to beg for peace? And shall our sailors
lose the reward of their hazards and their labours, only because they
have been successful? What will this be less than making their bravery a
crime or folly, and punishing them for not protracting the war by
cowardice or treachery?
But let us suppose, sir, those defects supplied by a more explicit and
determinate specification; there will yet arise an objection far more
formidable; an objection, which the present state of our revenues will
not suffer to be answered. The consideration of the greatness of the
annual payment which this proposal requires, ought to incite every man
to employ all his sagacity in search of some other method, equally
efficacious, and less expensive.
We have already, sir, forty thousand seamen in our pay, to whom eight
thousand more are speedily to be added: when each of these shall demand
his stipend, a new burden of two hundred and eighty-eight thousand
pounds must be laid upon the nation; upon a nation, whose lands are
mortgaged, whose revenues are anticipated, and whose taxes cannot be
borne without murmurs, nor increased without sedition.
The nation has found, by experience, that taxes once imposed for just
reasons, and continued upon plausible pretences, till they are become
familiar, are afterwards continued upon motives less laudable, are too
productive of influence, and too instrumental towards facilitating the
measures of the ministry, to be ever willingly remitted.
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