But I know, my lords, how easily it may be replied, that the expenses of a land war are certain, and the event hazardous, and that it is always prudent to act with evident advantage on our side, and that the superiority of Britain consists wholly in naval armaments.

That the fleets of Britain are equal in force and number of ships to the united navies of the greatest part of the world; that our admirals are men of known bravery, and long experience, and, therefore, formidable not only for their real abilities and natural courage, but for the confidence which their presence necessarily excites in their followers, and the terrour which must always accompany success, and enervate those who are accustomed to defeats; that our sailors are a race of men distinguished by their ardour for war, and their intrepidity in danger, from the rest of the human species; that they seem beings superiour to fear, and delighted with those objects which cannot be named without filling every other breast with horrour; that they are capable of rushing upon apparent destruction without reluctance, and of standing without concern amidst the complicated terrours of a naval war, is universally known, and confessed, my lords, even by those whose interest it is to doubt or deny it.

Upon the ocean, therefore, we are allowed to be irresistible; to be able to shut up the ports of the continent, imprison the nations of Europe within the limits of their own territories, deprive them of all foreign assistance, and put a stop to the commerce of the world.  It is allowed that we are placed the sentinels at the barriers of nature, and the arbiters of the intercourse of mankind.

These are appellations, my lords, which, however splendid and ostentatious, our ancestors obtained and preserved with less advantages than we possess, by whom I am afraid they are about to be forfeited.  The dominion of the ocean was asserted in former times in opposition to powers far more able to contest it, than those which we have so long submissively courted, and of which we are now evidently afraid.

For that we fear them, my lords, they are sufficiently convinced; and it must be confessed, with whatsoever shame, that their opinion is well founded; for to what motive but fear can it be imputed, that we have so long supported their insolence without resentment, and their ravages without reprisals; that we have fitted out fleets without any design of dismissing them from our harbours, or sent them to the sea only to be gazed at from the shores, by those whose menaces or artifice had given occasion to their equipment, and in whom they raised no other emotions than contempt of our cowardice, or pity of our folly?

To what, my lords, can it be attributed, that the queen of Hungary has yet received no assistance from allies thus powerful; from allies whose fleets cover the sea, whose commerce extends to the remotest part of the world, and whose wealth may be justly expected to be proportionate to their commerce.  To what can we ascribe the confidence with which the house of Bourbon threatens the ruin of a princess, who numbers among her allies the emperour of Britain?