To allow, sir, five pints of small beer a-day to our soldiers, for a single year, can produce no formidable inconveniency, and may, though it should not be entirely approved, be of less disadvantage to the publick, than the waste of another day.

[An alteration was made to five pints, instead of three quarts; and the bill, thus amended, was ordered to be engrossed, and a few days afterwards, being read a third time, was passed, and ordered to the lords, where it occasioned no debate.]

HOUSE OF COMMONS, APRIL 12, 1741.

[DEBATE ON ADDRESSING THE KING.]

A copy of his majesty’s speech being read, Mr. CLUTTERBUCK-BUCK rose, and spoke as follows:—­

Sir, the present confusion in Europe, the known designs of the French, the numerous claims to the Austrian dominions, the armies which are levied to support them, and the present inability of the queen of Hungary to maintain those rights which descend to her from her ancestors, and have been confirmed by all the solemnities of treaties, evidently require an uncommon degree of attention in our consultations, and of vigour in our proceedings.

Whatever may be the professions of the French, their real designs are easily discovered, designs which they have carried on, either openly, or in private, for near a century, and which it cannot be expected that they will lay aside, when they are so near to success.  Their view, sir, in all their wars and treaties, alliances and intrigues, has been the attainment of universal dominion, the destruction of the rights of nature, and the subjection of all the rest of mankind; nor have we any reason to imagine that they are not equally zealous for the promotion of this pernicious scheme, while they pour troops into Germany, for the assistance of their ally, as when they wasted kingdoms, laid cities in ashes, and plunged millions into misery and want, without any other motive than the glory of their king.

But the French are not the only nation at this time labouring for the subversion of our common liberties.  Our liberties, sir, are endangered by those equally interested with ourselves in their preservation; for in what degree soever any of the princes who are now endeavouring to divide among themselves the dominions of Austria, may be pleased with the acquisition of new territories, and an imaginary increase of influence and power, it must be evident to all who are not dazzled by immediate interest, that they are only fighting for France, and that by the destruction of the Austrian family, they must in a short time fall themselves.

It is well known, sir, though it is not always remembered, that political as well as natural greatness is merely comparative, and that he only is a powerful prince, who is more powerful than those with whom he can have any cause of contention.  That prince, therefore, who imagines his power enlarged by a partition of territories, which gives him some additional provinces, may be at last disappointed in his expectations:  for, if this partition gives to another prince already greater than himself, an opportunity of increasing his strength in a degree proportionate to his present superiority, the former will soon find, that he has been labouring for nothing, and that his danger is still the same.