If there be, sir, any states remaining in Europe which the French can neither intimidate nor bribe, we ought studiously to solicit and diligently to cultivate their friendship; but whether any, except the Moscovites, are now independent, or sufficiently confident of their own strength to engage in such a hazardous alliance, may be justly doubted.

The late grand alliance, sir, was supported at the expense of this nation alone; nor was it required from the other confederates to exhaust the treasure of their country in the common cause.  I hope the debt which that war has entailed upon us will instruct us to be more frugal in our future engagements, and to stipulate only what we may perform without involving the nation in misery, which victories and triumphs cannot compensate.

The necessity, sir, of publick economy obliges me to insist, that before any money shall be granted, an account be laid before the senate, in particular terms, of the uses to which it is to be applied.  To ask for supplies in general terms, is to demand the power of squandering the publick money at pleasure, and to claim, in softer language, nothing less than despotick authority.

It has not been uncommon for money, granted by the senate, to be spent without producing any of those effects which were expected from it, without assisting our allies, or humbling our enemies; and, therefore, there is reason for suspecting that money has sometimes been asked for one use and applied to another.

If our concurrence, sir, is necessary to increase his majesty’s influence on the continent, to animate the friends of the house of Austria, or to repress the disturbers of the publick tranquillity, I shall willingly unite with the most zealous advocates for the administration in any vote of approbation or assistance, not contrary to the act of settlement, that important and well-concerted act, by which the present family was advanced to the throne, and by which it is provided, that Britain shall never be involved in war for the enlargement or protection of the dominions of Hanover, dominions from which we never expected nor received any benefit, and for which, therefore, nothing ought to be either suffered or hazarded.

If it should be again necessary to form a confederacy, and to unite the powers of Europe against the house of Bourbon, that ambitious, that restless family, by which the repose of the world is almost every day interrupted, which is incessantly labouring against the happiness of human nature, and seeking every hour an opportunity of new encroachments, I declare, sir, that I shall not only, with the greatest cheerfulness, bear my share of the publick expense, but endeavour to reconcile others to their part of the calamities of war.  This, sir, I have advanced in confidence, that sufficient care shall be taken, that in any new alliance we shall be parties, not principals; that the expense of war, as the advantage of victory, shall be common; and that those who shall unite with us will be our allies, not our mercenaries.