The only nations, my lords, whom we have any reason to suspect of a design to invade us, or that have power to put any such design in execution, are well known to be the French and Spaniards; from these, indeed, it may justly be expected, that they will omit no opportunity of gratifying that hatred which difference of religion and contrariety of interest cannot fail to continue from age to age; and therefore we ought never to imagine ourselves safe, while it is in their power to endanger us.  But of these two nations, my lords, the one is already disarmed by the navies of Britain, which confine her fleets to their harbours, and, as we have been just now informed, preclude her armies from supplies:  the other is without a fleet able to transport an army, her troops are dispersed in different countries, and her treasures exhausted by expeditions or negotiations equally expensive.

There is, therefore, my lords, no danger of an invasion, even though we had no forces by which it could be opposed; but much less is it to be feared, when it is remembered, that the sea is covered with our ships of war, and that all the coasts of Europe are awed and alarmed by the navies of Britain.

This then, my lords, is surely the time, when we ought not to have sacrificed any immediate and apparent interest to the fear of attempts from Spain or France; when we might without danger have assisted our allies with our national troops, and have spared that money which we have so lavishly bestowed upon auxiliaries; when we might securely have shown the powers of the continent how much the British valour is yet to be feared, and how little our late losses or disgraces are to be imputed to the decline of our courage or our strength.

I suppose, my lords, no man will confess, that foreign troops have been hired as more to be trusted for their skill or bravery than our own.  To dispute the palm of courage with any nation would be a reproach to the British name; and if our soldiers are not at least equally disciplined with those of other countries, it must be owned, that taxes have been long paid to little purpose, that the glitter of reviews has been justly ridiculed as an empty show, and that we have long been flattered by our ministers and generals with false security.

But though I am far from believing, that the army has been supported only for the defence of our country; and though I know, that their officers are frequently engaged in employments more important in the opinion of their directors, than that of regulating the discipline of their regiments, and teaching the use of arms and the science of war; yet, as I believe the courage of Britons such as may often supply the want of skill, I cannot but conclude, that they are at least as formidable as the troops of other countries, especially when I remember, that they enter the field incited and supported by the reputation of their country.

Why then, my lords, is the nation condemned to support, at once, a double burden; to pay at home an army which can be of no use, and to hire auxiliaries, perhaps, equally unactive; to make war, if any war be intended, at an unnecessary expense, and to pay, at once, a fleet which only floats upon the ocean, an army which only awes the villages from which it is supported, and a body of mercenaries, of which no man can yet conjecture with what design they have been retained.