Decency is a proper circumstance; but liberty is the essence of senatorial disquisitions:  liberty is the parent of truth; but truth and decency are sometimes at variance:  all men and all propositions are to be treated here as they deserve; and there are many who have no claim either to respect or decency.

Mr. WINNINGTON then rose:—­Sir, that it is improper in its own nature, and inconsistent with our constitution, to lay any man under an obligation to accuse himself, cannot be denied; it is, therefore, evident, that some amendment is necessary to the clause before us.

I have, for this reason, drawn up an amendment, sir, which, if approved by the committee, will, in my opinion, remove all the objections to this part of the bill, and, by reconciling it with our natural and legal rights, I hope, induce those to approve it, who have hitherto opposed it.

I therefore propose, that these words should be substituted instead of those which are the subject of the debate; or some other to this purpose:  That no person shall be liable to be fined by virtue of this act, unless a witness, being examined, shall make oath of the misdemeanour or neglect.

Thus the necessity of examining men upon oath in their own cause will be entirely taken away; and, as the clause will then stand, there will remain no suspicion of injustice, or oppression, because none can be practised without the concurrence of many persons of different interests.

[This clause, though agreed to in the committee, was at last rejected.]

Mr. Horace WALPOLE spoke next, to this effect:—­Mr. Chairman, it does not yet appear that the gentlemen who have engaged in this debate, have sufficiently attended to the exigence of our affairs, and the importance of the question.  They have lavished their oratory in declaiming upon the absurdity of the methods proposed, and discovered their sagacity, by showing how future navies may be supplied from charity schools, but have substituted no expedients in the place of those which they so warmly condemn, nor have condescended to inform us, how we may now guard our coasts, or man our fleets for immediate service.

There are some circumstances, sir, of the present war, which make our necessity of raising sea forces greater than in those of William, and Anne that succeeded him.  The chief advantages that we gained over the French, in their wars, were the consequences of our victories by land.

At sea, sir, the balance was almost equal, though the Dutch fleet and ours were united; nor did they quit the sea because their fleets were destroyed, but because they were obliged to recruit their land forces with their sailors.  Should they now declare war against us, they would be under no such necessity of defrauding the sea service, for they have now on foot an army of one hundred and sixty thousand men, which are maintained at no greater expense than forty thousand, by the British government; as they are, therefore, sir, so formidable by land, we have no way of opposing them but by our sea forces.