In the second year of the reign of William, the French gained a victory over the united fleets of the maritime powers, which gave them, for the summer following, the dominion of the Channel, enabled them to shut up our merchants in their ports, and produced a total suspension of our commerce. Those, sir, to whom the importance of trade is so well known, will easily apprehend the weight of this calamity, and will, I hope, reject no measures that have a manifest tendency to prevent it. Our ships, sir, do not lie useless because there is any want of seamen in the nation, but because any service is preferred to that of the publick. There are now, to my knowledge, in one town on the west coast, no fewer than twelve hundred sailors, of which surely a third part may be justly claimed by the publick interest; nor do I know why they who obstinately refuse to serve their country, should be treated with so much tenderness. It is more reasonable that they should suffer by their refusal, than that the general happiness should be endangered. Mr. SOUTHWELL spoke next, to the following purpose:--Sir, when any authority shall be lodged in my hands, to be exercised for the publick benefit, I shall always endeavour to exert it with honesty and diligence; but will never be made the instrument of oppression, nor execute any commission of tyranny or injustice. As, therefore, the power of searching is to be placed in the hands of justices of the peace, I think it necessary to declare, that I will never perform so hateful a part of the office, and that if this bill becomes a law, I will retire from the place to which my authority is limited, rather than contribute to the miseries of my fellow-subjects. Mr. LITTLETON spoke as follows:--Sir, all the arguments which have been offered in support of this bill, are reduced at last to one constant assertion of the necessity of passing it. We have been told, sir, with great acuteness, that a war cannot be carried on without men, and that ships are useless without sailors; and from thence it is inferred that the bill is necessary. That forces are by some means necessary to be raised, the warmest opponents of the bill will not deny, but they cannot, therefore, allow the inference, that the methods now proposed are necessary. They are of opinion, sir, that cruel and oppressive measures can never be justified, till all others have been tried without effect; they think that the law, when it was formerly passed, was unjust, and are convinced, by observing that it never was revived, and that it was by experience discovered to be useless. Necessity, absolute necessity, is a formidable sound, and may terrify the weak and timorous into silence and compliance; but it will be found, upon reflection, to be often nothing but an idle feint, to amuse and to delude us, and that what is represented as necessary to the publick, is only something convenient to men in power.