Abstract of the BILL for the Encouragement of Seamen, to enter voluntarily into his Majesty's Service.  
ART. I. EVERY Seaman who enters voluntarily with a Commission-Officer, Justice of the Peace, or Mayor of a Town, and appears within fourteen Days on board the Ship, if the Distance be within one hundred Miles, twenty Days if more, and thirty Days in North-Britain, shall begin Wages from the Time of his Entry, have Conduct Money, and receive two Months Wages Advance before the Ship goes to Sea.  
It is undoubtedly in the Power of the Admiralty to publish by Proclamation what Conduct Money and advanced Wages they think proper to give for the Encouragement of Men; therefore it is needless to have Recourse to Parliament.  
Justices of Peace and Mayors of inland Towns cannot tell Seamen by their Faces, and therefore may very easily be imposed upon by Rogues, who by this Clause may demand a Certificate which will serve as a Pass to protect them from the Statutes against Rogues, Vagabonds, and sturdy Beggars, and this Article will fill the country with that kind of Vermin by Certificate.  
II. Every voluntary able Seaman shall have three Shillings a Month, and every ordinary Seaman one Shilling more Wages than he has now.  
This also may be done by Proclamation, since 4 l. per Month is given for each Man aboard the Navy, and it is in the Power of the Admiralty to dispose of that Money in such manner as they shall think best for the Service; and if they would abate upon the Head of rebuilding first Rates they might out of the Savings advance the Pay of the Men without having Recourse to Parliament.  
It is presumed, that if Wages are thus advanced in a Time of Peace, the Men will expect a new Advance in a Time of War, and a Want of Seamen.  
III. When a Ship has been eight Months in Pay, two Months Wages shall be paid to the volunteers; after fourteen Months, two Months more; and so every six Months till the final Pay of the Ship.  
The Commissioners of the Navy are by this Clause required to cause immediate Payment to be made of two Months Wages in six, but as there is no additional Money given them by this Act for to enable them to make those prompt Payments, and as there is no Penalty upon them in case they do not comply with this Direction, it is to be feared that this Clause will have as little Effect as a Promise of the same Nature in the Register Act. If the Money given by Parliament is sufficient for to make this prompt Payment, the Advance might be made by Order of the Admiralty without having Recourse to Parliament, and if the 4 l. per Man be not sufficient, this Bill does not augment it, so consequently does not give any Remedy.  
IV. When a voluntary Seaman dies, his Wages shall be forthwith paid to his Executors, without staying for the Pay of the Ship.  
This Disposition of the Seamens Pay is entirely in the Power of the Admiralty, and they need not have Recourse to Parliament on this Head.  
V. Voluntary Seamen shall never be turned over into other Ships, but in Cases of extreme Necessity, and then they shall not serve in worse Qualities than they had in the first Ship, and( besides being paid all their Wages which they have a Right to by a former Law) they shall have two Months Wages advanced before the Ship goes to Sea.  
If this Clause passes, a Power will be given to the Admiralty which indeed they have not, and which will repeal the most valuable Part of the Magna Charta, the Petition of Right, and the Habeas Corpus Act. It says that no voluntary Seamen shall be turned over into other Ships; this is granting nothing, for the turning of them over is already against Law; it is banishing them without trial by their Peers, which is against the Magna Charta, and the Words which follow ( but in Cases of extreme Necessity) will, if passed, authorize by Act of Parliament the turning over in Cases of Necessity, and will make the Admiralty Judges of that Necessity; if this Clause passes, it will give a Power to the Admiralty over the Liberties of the Seamen unknown to the Laws of this Realm, and justify a practise which is the Terror of the Seamen and the greatest Reason of their Unwillingness to list.  
VI. All the Preferments and petty Offices in the Ship, as Mates, Midshipmen, and so downward, shall be conferred on voluntary Seamen only, and such as actually do the Duty of their Places.  
This Clause insinuates as if pressing were to be continued, since it makes a Difference between volunteers and some other kind of Seamen, by whom if pressed Men are meant, it is presumed that this Distinction will make Bullies of the volunteers, and Slaves of the pressed Men; besides which, the Government will be deprived by it of the Service of many excellent Mariners, since it is known that Mates of Merchant Men, who have had liberal Education, and who can get comfortable Livings will not go volunteers, but are often pressed on board the Men of War, and are as fit to make petty Officers of as any Men whatsoever.  
VII. When the Ship is paid off, any voluntary Seaman may have a Protection for one Month from the Press, if there be one on Foot, and he desires it.  
In this Clause the Meaning of the Bill begins to be seen; it sets forth, that a Licence shall be given, which shall be to such Person a Security and Protection against being impressed for the Space of one Month, which is as much as to say they might be pressed if they had not such Licence: This is at once allowing all the illegal Acts which have been committed under Press Warrants, and continuing the Power of Pressing in the Breast of the Admiralty without any Limitation whatsoever. It seems very extraordinary to have Recourse to Parliament to order Men to be protected for one Month only, against a Violence from which by their Birthright they ought to be eternally exempted.  
VIII. If a Ship is fitted out at one Port, and laid up in another distant Port, the voluntary Seamen who live near the first Port, shall be allowed Conduct Money home.  
This is a very good Clause, and in the Power of the Admiralty without Act of Parliament.  
IX. Seamen who desert, shall forfeit no Wages but what are due in the Ship they deserted from.  
This Clause shows, that the Custom of turning Men over is intended to be continued, and that it is not intended to pay off the Men as soon as the Ships are laid up; for if all the Wages due unto them on board the last Ship on which they served be discharged, there can be no Arrears for them to forfeit.  
After this Clause follows a Proviso not inserted in the Articles: Provided nevertheless, that nothing in this Act contained, shall extend to take away or alter the Punishment appointed by an Act made in the thirteenth Year of King Charles the Second, for such Captains, Officers or Mariners as shall desert the Service of his Majesty, his Heirs or Successors, in his Ships, or entice others so to do: And the Clause referred to, 13 Car. II. cap. 9. sect. 17. All Sea-Captains, Officers or Mariners, that shall desert the Services or their Employment in the Ships, or shall run away, or entice any others so to do, shall be punished with Death.  
X. All Bills of Sale of Seamens Wages shall be voided in Law, and the Treasurer shall pay all Wages to the Parties themselves, or to the lawful Attorneys, or their Executors.  
Bills of Sale are suppressed, but Letters of Attorney are constituted in their Stead, and the Treasurer of the Navy made Judge whether the Sailor shall be paid his Wages or not. Doubtless the Sailor ought, like other Subjects, to have the Liberty of Receiving his Wages, and let the Creditor be left to his Remedy at Law.  
XI. All Letters of Attorney shall be witnessed either by the Captain of the Ship, a Clerk of the Checque at any of the Dock Yards, or a Mayor of a Town, or a Notary public in London and Westminster.  
This enableth the Sailor to give many Letters Attorney, and consequently lessons the Security of any one of them; for he may give a Letter of Attorney signed by the Captain of the Ship, another by the Mayor of a Town, and as many more different Letters of Attorney for the same Pay as there are Notary Publicks in London and Westminster; and if many different Letters of Attorney, signed by the same Person and for the same Wages, come to the Pay-Table together, there is no Rule laid down for the Treasurer to proceed upon, and 'tis left in his Breast which of the Creditors shall receive and which lose their Money.  
Here comes in another Proviso not mentioned in the Abstract, by which Masters are to receive the Wages of their Servants. This gives a Power of making Slaves, because the Age of the Servant is not limited; therefore a Sailor of full Age being arrested or made drunk by his Creditor, may be drawn in to sign an Indenture by which he may bind himself for a Number of Years, and that Creditor may sell him to a Man of War, and receive all his Pay at the Pay-Table for as many Years as his Indenture lasts.  
XII. Seamen may dispose of their Tickets by Sale, which shall be paid to the lawful Purchaser, even though the Party deserts afterwards.  
This seems to be an Encouragement to Desertion.  
XIII. Seamen applying for their Wages after the Ships Books are made up and closed, shall have Tickets made out for their Wages, payable in a Month.  
Tickets are continued but ordered to be paid within a Month, but no Provision is made for the Paying of them.  
XIV. If a Land Officer enlists a Seaman, upon Proof made that he is such, he shall be discharged.  
If this Clause passes, all the Captains in the Land Service may be undone; for after they have been at great expense in listing a Man, and bringing him to the Regiment, he may, even the Day before the Muster, be demanded as having served on Board a Ship.  
XV. Governours, Ministers, Consuls, and Merchants abroad, shall subsist poor straggling Seamen, at the Rate of sixpence a Day, and sand them Home by the first Opportunity; and Masters of Merchant-Ships shall bring them Home, and be allowed sixpence a Day for their Passage and Provisions.  
XVI. Foreign Seamen serving three Years voluntarily in his Majesty's Ships, shall have the same Privileges as natural born Englishmen.  
It is presumed that this Clause cannot be reconciled to the following Part of the Act of Navigation, 12 Car. II. Cap. 18. Sect. 1. No Goods or Commodities whatsoever shall be imported into, or exported out of any Lands, Islands, Plantations, or Territories to his Majesty belonging or in his Possession, or which may hereafter belong unto, or be in the Possession of his Majesty, his Heirs and Successors, in Asia, Africa, or America, in any other Ship or Ships, Vessel or Vessels whatsoever, but in such Ships or Vessels as do truly and without Fraud belong only to the People of England or Ireland, Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick upon Tweed; or are of the Built of, and belonging to any of the said Lands, Islands, Plantations, or Territories, as the Proprietors and right Owners thereof, and whereof the Master and three fourths of the Mariners at least are English.  
12 Car. II. Cap. 4. Sect. 1. We the Commons, &c. Give and grant unto you our supreme liege Lord and Sovereign, one Subsidy called tonnage, that is to say, of every Tun of Wine of the Growth of France, or of any the Dominions of the French King, or Crown of France, that shall come into the Port of London, and the Members thereof, by Way of merchandise, by your natural born Subjects the Sum of 4 l. 10 s. of current English Money; and so after that Rate, and by Strangers and Aliens six Pounds of like Money.  
It is presumed that if this Clause passes, the Dutch or any other Foreigners may, by sending their Mariners on Board an English Man of War for three Years, make them Englishmen. By Manning their Ships with such Englishmen, and entering them in some of their Names, they may elude the King of his Foreign Duties, and destroy the Trade of the Merchants, besides which, it is liable to infinite Frauds, since there is no Register nor Certificate to be produced of their having served.  
XVII. Seamen who serve voluntarily Twenty Years, and are not under Fifty Five Years of Age, shall be protected for ever from the Press, shall be free from all Parish Offices, and shall be admitted into Greenwich Hospital preferable to any others.  
This Clause, under the Pretence of giving Ease to the Sailors, admits Pressing to be lawful, and sanctifies all the Oppression that has or may be committed by that extraordinary Manner of Raising Seamen; if this Clause passes as it now stands, it may be pleaded as the Sense of the Legislature against any Person who shall bring an Action of Damage for having been beaten, plundered, or abused by a Press-Gang: And how apt they are already to beat, plunder, and abuse, every Merchant in the Kingdom is deeply sensible.   

Abstract of the BILL for the Encouragement of SEAMEN, to enter voluntarily into his Majesty's Service.