Let us not subject the commonwealth to a hazardous and uncertain security, while we have in our hands the means of producing the same end, with less danger and inconveniency; and since we may obviate the exportation of our corn by methods more speedily efficacious than the forms of making laws can allow, let us not oppress our fellow-subjects by hasty or imprudent measures, but make use of temporary expedients, while we deliberate upon the establishment of a more lasting regulation.

Mr. Campbell spoke to the following purpose;—­Sir, that an embargo on merchandise or provisions may, upon sudden emergencies, or important occasions, be imposed by the prerogative, cannot be doubted by any man whose studies have made him acquainted with the extent of the regal power, and the manner in which it has been exerted in all ages.  The chief use of the prerogative is to supply the defects of the laws, in cases which do not admit of long consultations, which do not allow time to convoke senates or inquire into the sentiments of the people.

For this reason, in times of war the imperial power is much enlarged, and has still a greater extent as exigencies are more pressing.  If the nation is invaded by a foreign force, the authority of the crown is almost without limits, the whole nation is considered as an army of which the king is general, and which he then governs by martial laws, by occasional judicature, and extemporary decrees.

Such, sir, is the power of the king on particular emergencies, and such power the nature of human affairs must, sometimes, require; for all forms of government are intended for common good, and calculated for the established condition of mankind, but must be suspended when they can only obstruct the purposes for which they were contrived, and must vary with the circumstances to which they were adapted.  To expect that the people shall be consulted in questions on which their happiness depends, supposes there is an opportunity of consulting them without hazarding their lives, their freedom, or their possessions, by the forms of deliberation.

The necessity of extending the prerogative to the extremities of power, is, I hope, at a very great distance from us; but if the danger of the exportation of victuals be so urgent as some gentlemen have represented it, and so formidable as it appears to the whole nation, it is surely requisite that the latent powers of the crown should be called forth for our protection, that plenty be secured within the nation, by barring up our ports, and the people hindered from betraying themselves to their enemies, and squandering those blessings which the fertility of our soil has bestowed upon them.