Feb. 13. The House being in a Committee of Supply,

Mr. [John] Buller moved, That an additional number of 2,000 men be allowed for Sea Service for the year 1775. He stated the respective services our ships were on, and said that the proposed augmentation was necessary to enforce the measures of government in America.

Lord North remarked, that the subject had been so amply discussed on Friday, by being so much blended with the means of restraining the fishery of Massachuset's Bay, that he should have the less to offer upon this occasion; that the rebellious disposition and motions of that and other colonies made it necessary to have such a guard upon the coasts of North America, that the augmentation was highly necessary; and as the people of New England could not be restrained from the fishery without some sloops stationed for that purpose, the circumstance made it doubly requisite to provide accordingly. . . .

Lord John Cavendish and Colonel Barré accused the noble lord of great inconsistency, in thinking so far to blind the House as to have it believed that the augmentation asked for could answer any purpose but to convince the Americans of the inveteracy of the mother country against them, and to throw a reconciliation to a yet greater distance: that a few thousand seamen added to the service would never effectually answer the purpose, if that purpose was to prohibit the trade of the most commercial colonies in America; that the noble lord must mean only to trifle with the House, and with mankind, in declaring one day America to be in rebellion, the next prohibiting the commerce of Massachuset's Bay, and the third coming for so insignificant an augmentation; that the gentlemen on the same side of the House had repeatedly asserted, that the commerce of the New Englanders, and much of that of the other colonies, was contraband; and that America was peopled with smugglers, to the great detriment of that advantage, which would otherwise flow to this country: how could administration, therefore, with any degree of consistency, suppose that such a system of smuggling, added to a new created system of the same, the fishery, be all kept under by any thing less than the most powerful armaments?

Captain [Thomas DeGroy, Baron] Walsingham insisted that our present naval force was by no means adequate to the execution of our professed intentions; for that the squadron we designed for America would answer no purpose of stopping their commerce; or if we did send a sufficient one, our own coasts, comparatively speaking, must be left totally defenceless; as he was well informed, that France alone had 75 men of war of the line now, more than one half of which were manned, and fit for actual service. He then gave an account of a conversation which passed lately between him and a French gentleman well acquainted with the state of their navy; from which he was fully satisfied that the whole of our force, in every part of the world, would not be sufficient to defend us at home, should we blindly rush into a civil war.

Mr. Sawbridge said, he perceived that administration were hurrying the nation to certain ruin, but he should reserve himself to speak on our present conduct towards America, till a fitter and some more convenient opportunity.

The motion was agreed to without a division.