But, my lords, he whose security depends only on a supposition that men will not deviate from right reason or true policy, is in a state which can afford him very little tranquillity or confidence:  whatever is necessarily to be preserved, ought to be defended, not only from certain and constant danger, but from casual and possible injuries; and amongst the rest, from those which may proceed from the mutability of will, or the depravation of understanding; nor shall we sufficiently establish the house of Austria, if we leave it liable to be shaken whenever the king of Prussia shall feel his ambition rekindled, or his malevolence excited; we must not leave it dependant on the friendship or policy of the neighbouring powers, but must enable it once more to awe the empire, and set at defiance the malice of its enemies.

This, my lords, might have been done by a liberal subsidy, by which armies might have been levied, garrisons established, and cities fortified; and why any other method was pursued, what reason can be assigned? what, but an inclination to aggrandize and enrich a contemptible province, and to deck with the plunder of Britain the electorate of Hanover?

It has been suspected, my lords, (nor has the suspicion been without foundation,) that our measures have long been regulated by the interest of his majesty’s electoral territories; these have been long considered as a gulf into which the treasures of this nation have been thrown; and it has been observed, that the state of the country has, since the accession of its princes to this throne, been changed without any visible cause; affluence has begun to wanton in their towns, and gold to glitter in their cottages, without the discovery of mines, or the increase of their trade; and new dominions have been purchased, of which it can scarcely be imagined, that the value was paid out of the revenues of Hanover.

This, my lords, is unpopular, illegal, and unjust; yet this might be borne, in consideration of great advantages, of the protection of our trade, and the support of our honour.  But there are men who dare to whisper, and who, perhaps, if their suspicions receive new confirmation, will publickly declare, that for the preservation of Hanover, our commerce has been neglected, and our honour impaired; that to secure Hanover from invasion, the house of Bourbon has been courted, and the family of Austria embarrassed and depressed.  These men assert, without hesitation, that when we entered into a league with France against the emperour and the Spaniards, in the reign of the late emperour, no part of the British dominions were in danger; and that the alarm which was raised to reconcile the nation to measures so contrary to those which former ages had pursued, was a fictitious detestable artifice of wicked policy, by which Britain was engaged in the defence of dominions to which we owe no regard, as we can receive no real advantage from them.