The assistance of Hanover, my lords, was, at this time, apparently necessary.  Our own troops, joined with the Hessians, composed a body too small to make any efficacious opposition to the designs of France; but by the addition of sixteen thousand men, became sufficiently formidable to oblige her to employ those troops for the security of her frontiers, with which she intended to have overwhelmed Italy, and to have exalted another Spanish prince to a new kingdom.  The Spaniards, deprived of this assistance, harassed by the Austrians with perpetual alarms, and debarred by our fleet from the supplies which are provided for them in their own country, must languish with penury and hardships, being equally cut off from succour and from flight.

Thus, my lords, it is evident, that the true and everlasting interest of Britain has been steadily pursued; that the measures formed to promote it have been not only prudent, but successful.  We did not engage sooner in the quarrel, because we were not able to form an army sufficiently powerful.  An advantageous peace is only to be obtained by vigorous preparations for war; nor is it to be expected that our enemies should court our friendship, till they see that our opposition is really formidable.  Such, my lords, is our present state; we may reasonably hope that the French will desist from their designs, because they will have a confederacy to oppose, more powerful than that by which their immortal monarch was lately humbled; and I hope that conduct will always be applauded in this house, which enables us to repress the arrogance of France.

Lord WESTMORELAND then spoke to the following purport:—­My lords, though the warmth with which the noble lord has defended the motion, and the confidence with which he asserts the propriety and efficacy of the measures to which it relates, are such proofs of the strength of his conviction as leave no room to doubt his sincerity; yet as the same arguments do not operate upon different minds with the same force, I hope I shall not be thought less sincere, or less studious of the publick happiness, or the honour of the crown, though I presume to differ from him.

In the motion now before us, I cannot concur, because, though it should be allowed to contain a just representation of foreign affairs, yet it appears to me to omit those considerations which I think it the duty of this house to offer to his majesty.  This nation is, in my opinion, exposed to enemies more formidable than the French; nor do I think that we are at leisure to defend the liberties of Europe, till we have made some provisions for the security of our own; or to regulate the balance of power, till we have restored our constitution to its ancient equilibrium.

That there are flagrant proofs of the most enormous corruption throughout the whole subordination of publick offices; that our publick funds are only nurseries of fraud, and that trust of every kind is only considered as an opportunity of plundering, appears evidently from the universal prevalence of luxury and extravagance, from the sudden affluence of private men, from the wanton riot of their tables, the regal splendour of their equipages, and the ostentatious magnificence of their buildings.