It appears, sir, to me, a considerable defect in our naval regulations, that wages are not proportioned to ability; and I think it may not be now unseasonably proposed, that sailors should be paid according to the skill which they have acquired; a provision by which an emulation would be raised among them, and that industry excited, which now languishes for want of encouragement, and those capacities awakened which now slumber in ignorance and sloth, from the despair of obtaining any advantage by superiority of knowledge.

Sir Robert WALPOLE then rose, and spoke as follows:—­That this charge, sir, however positively urged, is generally unjust, the declarations of these honourable gentlemen are sufficient to evince, since it is not probable that the injured persons would not have found some friend to have represented these hardships to the admiralty, and no such representations could have been made without their knowledge.

Yet, sir, I am far from doubting that by accident, or, perhaps, by malice, some men have been treated in this manner; for it is not in the power of any administration to make all those honest or wise whom they are obliged to employ; and when great affairs are depending, minute circumstances cannot always be attended to.  If the vigilance of those who are intrusted with the chief direction of great numbers of subordinate officers be such, that corrupt practices are not frequent, and their justice such, that they are never unpunished when legally detected, the most strict inquirer can expect no more.  Power will sometimes be abused, and punishment sometimes be escaped.

It is, sir, easy to be conceived that a report may become general, though the practice be very rare.  The fact is multiplied as often as it is related, and every man who hears the same story twice, imagines that it is told of different persons, and exclaims against the tyranny of the officers of the navy.

But these, in my opinion, sir, are questions, if not remote from the present affair, yet by no means essential to it.  The question now before us is, not what illegalities have been committed in the execution of impresses, but how impresses themselves may become less necessary? how the nation may be secured without injury to individuals? and how the fleet may be manned with less detriment to commerce?

Sir, the reward now proposed is intended to excite men to enter the service without compulsion; and if this expedient be not approved, another ought to be suggested:  for I hope gentlemen are united in their endeavours to find out some method of security to the publick, and do not obstruct the proceedings of the committee, that when the fleets lie inactive and useless, they may have an opportunity to reproach the ministry.