Men are never so likely to settle a question rightly as when they discuss it freely.

Macaulay’s line expresses a classic liberal confidence in open debate: people reach sounder judgments when ideas are tested publicly, objections are aired, and reasoning is exposed to criticism. The claim is not that discussion guarantees truth, but that free discussion is the best available method for correcting error—because it forces participants to supply evidence, confront counterarguments, and refine definitions. Implicitly, the quote also warns against decisions made under censorship, intimidation, or deference to authority, where bad premises can survive unchallenged. In a political register, it supports free speech and parliamentary deliberation; in an intellectual register, it anticipates the “marketplace of ideas” view that contestation is a tool for epistemic improvement.