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Updated: September 19, 2025
No clause appeared to me more unworthy of the judgment and penetration of the merchants than the last, nor was there any which I should have rejected at the first perusal with less regret; yet, having taken this opportunity of considering it a second time, I find it by no means indefensible, for the direction of ships stationed for the defence of our American territories, is not committed to the governours alone.
Mr. NUGENT then spoke to this effect: Sir, I know not for what reason the honourable gentleman has thought it convenient, to retard the deliberations of this house, by expatiating upon the falsehood and malignity of a pamphlet, of which the author is unknown, of which no man has attempted the vindication, and which, however diligently dispersed, or however generally credited, appears to have had no great influence upon the nation, nor to have produced any effects that might give just occasion to so tragical an outcry, to censures as vehement and bitter, as if the trumpet of rebellion had been sounded, as if half the people had taken arms against their governours, as if the commonwealth was on the brink of dissolution, and armies were in full march against the metropolis.
In those countries insults are borne by the sovereign, which, if offered to one of our governours, would fill us with horrour, and we should think the government dissolving. The common conclusion from this reasoning is an exceedingly unfair one, that we must then separate, and form distinct confederacies. This would be true if there was no principle to substitute in the room of power.
Our governours thought it more nearly concerned them to humble our merchants than to succour our allies, and therefore admitted the Spaniards into Italy; by which prudent conduct they dexterously at once gratified the house of Bourbon, embarrassed the queen of Hungary, and endangered the effects of the British merchants, lying at Leghorn; effects which were lately valued at six hundred thousand pounds, but which, by the seasonable arrival of the Spaniards, are happily reduced to half their price.
Their captaines or colonels were Diego Pimentelli, Don Francisco de Toledo, Don Alonço de Luçon, Don Nicolas de Isla, Don Augustin de Mexia, who had eche of them thirty-two companies under their conduct. Besides the which companies, there were many bands also of Castilians and Portugals, every one of which had their peculiar governours, captaines, officers, colors, and weapons."
"There were in the said navie five terzaes of Spaniards which terzaes the Frenchmen call regiments under the command of five governours, termed by the Spaniards masters of the field, and among the rest there were many olde and expert souldiers chosen out of the garisons of Sicilie, Naples, and Terçera.
That governours have been sometimes given them, only that a great man might get ease from importunity, and that they have had judges, not always of the deepest learning, or the purest integrity, we have no great reason to doubt, because such misfortunes happen to ourselves. Whoever is governed, will, sometimes, be governed ill, even when he is most "concerned in his own government."
Having premis'd thus much concerning the Notions Men vulgarly have had of Vertue and Religion, let us now proceed to see how it has come to pass, That they have with Allowance, Approbation, and oftentimes, with injunction of their Lawmakers and Governours, transgress'd against the most visible Dictates of the Law of Nature, or Reason, in Things not favourable to their Natural Passions and Appetites; but even, sometimes, contrary thereunto; as are denying themselves the lawfullest Enjoyments of Life; Macerating their Bodies; Prostituting their Wives; and exposing their Off-spring and Themselves to cruel Torments, and even Death it self.
Nor is it less easy for them to discover that these calamities are not brought upon them by the immediate hand of heaven, or the irresistible force of natural causes; that their towns are not ruined by an invasion, nor their trade confined by a pestilence; they may then easily collect, that they are only unhappy by the misconduct of their governours; they may assign their infelicity to that cause, as the only remaining cause that is adequate to the effect.
But things Inanimate, cannot be Authors, nor therefore give Authority to their Actors: Yet the Actors may have Authority to procure their maintenance, given them by those that are Owners, or Governours of those things. And therefore, such things cannot be Personated, before there be some state of Civill Government. Irrational
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