52 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN.

CHAP. authority , which remained, or was afterwardsI,ii. exercised , was to press Ihips into the public

i637. service , to be paid for by the public. How wide

are these precedents from a power of obligingthe people, at their own charge, to build .newships, to victual and pay them, for the pu.blic ;nay, to furnish money to the crown for thatpurpose ? What security either against the fartherextension of this claim , or against diverting toother purposes the public money , so levied ?The plea of necessity would warrant any othertaxation as well as that of ship - money : Where-etfer any difficulty shall occur , the administration,instead of endeavouring to elude or overcome it,by gentle and prudent measures, will instantlyrepresent it as a reason for infringing all ancientlaws and institutions : And if such maxims andsuch practices prevail ; what has become ofnational liberty ? What authority is left to thegreat charter, to the statutes , and to that verypetition of right, which, in the present reign,had been so solemnly enacted by the concurrenceof the whole legislature ?

The defenceless condition of the kingdoiftwhile unprovided with a navy ; the inability ofthe king, from his established revenues , withthe utmost care and frugality, to equip andmaintain one; the impossibility of obtaining, onreasonable terms, any voluntary supply'from par-liament : All these are reasons of state, not topicsof law. If these reasons appear to the king sourgent as to dispense with th§ legal rules of