It has been objected by the noble lord, that this change is not to be expected from an army composed of auxiliary troops from any of the provinces of the German empire, because they cannot act against the general head. I can easily, my lords, solve this difficulty, from my long acquaintance with the constitution of the empire, which I understood before the noble lord, who has entertained you with a discourse upon it, was in being; but I will not engross your time, or retard your determination by a superfluous disquisition, which may be now safely omitted; since I am allowed by his majesty to assure your lordships, that the Hessian and Hanoverian troops shall be employed in assisting the queen of Hungary, and that they have already received orders to make the preparations necessary for marching into the empire.
After this declaration, my lords, the most formidable objection against the present measures will, I hope, be no more heard in this debate; for it will be by no means proper for any lord to renew it by inquiring, whether his majesty's resolution is not a breach of the imperial constitution, or whether it will not expose his electoral dominions to danger. For it is not our province to judge of the laws of other nations, to examine when they are violated, or to enforce the observation of them; nor is it necessary, since the interests of Britain and Hanover are irreconcilably opposite, to endeavour the preservation of dominions which their own sovereign is inclined to hazard.
Thus, my lords, I hope it appears, that the common interest of Britain and Europe is steadily pursued; that the Spaniards feel the effects of a war with Britain by their distress and embarrassment; that the queen of Hungary discovers, that the ancient allies of her family have not deserted her; and that France, amidst her boasts and her projects, perceives the determined opposers of her grandeur again setting her at defiance.
The duke of BEDFORD spoke to the following effect:—My lords, the assurance which the noble lord who spoke last declares himself to have conceived of being able to demonstrate the propriety of the present measures, must surely arise from some intelligence which has been hitherto suppressed, or some knowledge of future events peculiar to himself; for I cannot discover any force in the arguments which he has been pleased to use, that could produce in him such confidence of success, nor any circumstances in the present appearance of Europe, that do not seem to demand a different conduct.
The reasonableness of our measures at this time, as at all others, must be evinced by arguments drawn from an attentive review of the state of our own country, compared with that of the neighbouring nations; for no man will deny, that those methods of proceeding which are at one time useful, may at another be pernicious; and that either a gradual rotation of power, or a casual variation of interest, may very properly produce changes in the counsels of the most steady and vigorous administration.
It is therefore proper, in the examination of this question, to consider what is the state of our own nation, and what is to be hoped or feared from the condition of those kingdoms, which are most enabled by their situation to benefit or to hurt us: and in inquiry, my lords, an inquiry that can give little pleasure to an honest and benevolent mind, it immediately occurs, that we are a nation exhausted by a long war, and impoverished by the diminution of our commerce; and the result, therefore, of this first consideration is, that those measures are most eligible which are most frugal; and that to waste the publick treasure in unnecessary expenses, or to load the people with new taxes only to display a mockery of war on the continent, or to amuse ourselves, our allies, or our enemies, with the idle ostentation of unnecessary numbers, is to drain from the nation the last remains of its ancient vigour, instead of assisting its recovery from its present languors.
But money, however valuable, however necessary, has sometimes been imprudently and unseasonably spared; and an ill-timed parsimony has been known to hasten calamities, by which those have been deprived of all who would not endeavour to preserve it by the loss of part. It is therefore to be considered, whether measures less expensive would not have been more dangerous; and whether we have not, by hiring foreign troops, though at a very high rate, at a rate which would have been demanded from no other nation, purchased an exemption from distresses, insults, and invasions.
The only nations, my lords, whom we have any reason to suspect of a design to invade us, or that have power to put any such design in execution, are well known to be the French and Spaniards; from these, indeed, it may justly be expected, that they will omit no opportunity of gratifying that hatred which difference of religion and contrariety of interest cannot fail to continue from age to age; and therefore we ought never to imagine ourselves safe, while it is in their power to endanger us. But of these two nations, my lords, the one is already disarmed by the navies of Britain, which confine her fleets to their harbours, and, as we have been just now informed, preclude her armies from supplies: the other is without a fleet able to transport an army, her troops are dispersed in different countries, and her treasures exhausted by expeditions or negotiations equally expensive.
There is, therefore, my lords, no danger of an invasion, even though we had no forces by which it could be opposed; but much less is it to be feared, when it is remembered, that the sea is covered with our ships of war, and that all the coasts of Europe are awed and alarmed by the navies of Britain.
This then, my lords, is surely the time, when we ought not to have sacrificed any immediate and apparent interest to the fear of attempts from Spain or France; when we might without danger have assisted our allies with our national troops, and have spared that money which we have so lavishly bestowed upon auxiliaries; when we might securely have shown the powers of the continent how much the British valour is yet to be feared, and how little our late losses or disgraces are to be imputed to the decline of our courage or our strength.