In this manner, sir, are the wives of the sailors also treated when they come to receive the pay of their husbands; women, distressed, friendless, and unsupported; they are obliged to endure every insult, and to yield to every oppression.  And to such a height do these merciless exacters raise their extortions, that sometimes a third part of the wages is deducted.

Thus, sir, do the vilest, the meanest of mankind, plunder those who have the highest claim to the esteem, the gratitude, and the protection of their country.  This is the hardship which withholds the sailors from our navies, and forces them to seek for kinder treatment in other countries.  This hardship, sir, both justice and prudence call upon us to remedy; and while we neglect it, all our deliberations will be ineffectual.

Mr. SOUTHWELL then spoke to this effect:—­Sir, of the hardships mentioned by the honourable gentleman who spoke last, I have myself known an instance too remarkable not to be mentioned.  A sailor in Ireland, after his voyage, met with so much difficulty in obtaining his wages, that he was at length reduced to the necessity of submitting to the reduction of near a sixth part.  Such are the grievances with which those are oppressed, upon whom the power, security, and happiness of the nation are acknowledged to depend.

Sir Robert WALPOLE, the prime minister, then rose, and spoke as follows:—­Sir, it is not without surprise that I hear the disgust of the sailors ascribed to any irregularity in the payment of their wages, which were never, in any former reign, so punctually discharged.  They receive, at present, twelve months’ pay in eighteen months, without deduction; so that there are never more than six months for which any demand remains unsatisfied.

But, sir, the punctuality of the payment has produced of late great inconveniencies; for there has been frequently a necessity of removing men from one ship to another; and it is the stated rule of the pay-office, to assign every man so removed his full pay.  These men, when the government is no longer indebted to them, take the first opportunity of deserting the service, and engaging in business to which they are more inclined.

This is not a chimerical complaint, founded upon rare instances, and produced only to counterbalance an objection; the fact and the consequences are well known; so well, that near fourteen hundred sailors are computed to have been lost by this practice.

The PRESIDENT of the commons, who always in a committee takes his seat as another member, rose here, and spoke to the following effect, his honour being paymaster of the navy:—­Mr. Chairman, the nature of the employment with which I am intrusted makes it my duty to endeavour that this question may be clearly understood, and the condition of the seamen, with regard to the reception of their pay, justly represented.

I have not been able to discover that any sailor, upon producing his ticket, was ever obliged to submit to the deduction of any part of his wages, nor should any clerk or officer under my inspection, escape, for such oppression, the severest punishment and most publick censure:  I would give him up to the law without reserve, and mark him as infamous, and unworthy of any trust or employment.