That we ought not to descend to the meanest of flattery, that we ought to preserve the privilege of speaking, without exaggerated praises, or affected acknowledgments, our regard not only to ourselves, but to our sovereign ought to remind us.  For nothing is more evident, my lords, than that no monarch can be happy while his people are miserable; that the throne can be secure only by being guarded by the affections of the people; and the prince can only gain and preserve their affections, by promoting their interest, and supporting their privileges.

But how, my lords, shall that monarch distinguish the interest of his people, whom none shall dare to approach with information?  How shall their privileges be supported, if when they are infringed, no man will complain?  And who shall dare to lay any publick grievances, or private wrongs before the king of Britain, if the highest assembly of the nation shall never address him but in terms of flattery?

The necessity of putting an end to this corrupt custom, becomes every day more and more urgent; the affairs of Europe are hastening to a crisis, in which all our prudence, and all our influence will be required; and we ought, therefore, to take care not to perplex our resolutions by voluntary ignorance, or destroy our credit by a publick approbation of measures, which we are well known not to understand.

I suppose, none of your lordships, who are not engaged in the administration of affairs, will think it derogatory from the reputation of your abilities and experience, to confess, that you do not yet see all the circumstances or consequences of the measures which you are desired to applaud; measures which have been too lately taken to discover their own tendency, and with relation to which no papers have been laid before us.  We are told of armies joined, and treaties concluded, and, therefore, called upon to praise the wisdom of our negotiations, and the usefulness and vigour of our military preparations; though we are neither acquainted on what terms our alliances are formed, nor on what conditions our auxiliaries assist us.

This, my lords, is surely such treatment as no liberal mind can very patiently support; it is little less than to require that we should follow our guides with our eyes shut; that we should place implicit confidence in the wisdom of our ministers, and having first suffered them to blind ourselves, assist them afterwards to blind the people.

The longer I dwell upon the consideration of this motion, the more arguments arise to persuade me, that we ought not hastily to agree to it.  My lords, the address proposed, like the speech itself, is of a very complicated and intricate kind, and comprises in a few words many transactions of great importance, crowded together with an artful brevity, that the mind may be hindered by the multitude of images, from a distinct and deliberate consideration of particulars.  Here are acts of negotiation confounded with operations of war, one treaty entangled with another, and the union of the Hanoverians with our troops, mentioned almost in the same sentence with the Spanish war.  This crowd of transactions, so different in their nature, so various in their consequences, who can venture to approve in the gross? or who can distinguish without long examination.