Even at this time, my lords, was I sufficiently confident of the power of my own country, to set at defiance, in my own mind, this gigantick state.  I considered all additions to its greatness rather as the tumour of disease than the shootings of vigour, and thought that its nerves grew weaker as its corpulence increased.  Of my own nation I saw, that neither its numbers nor its courage were diminished; I had no reason to believe our soldiers or our sailors less brave than their fathers; and, therefore, imagined that whenever they should be led out against the same enemies, they would fight with the same superiority and the same success.

But for these hopes, my lords, I was sometimes pitied by those who thought themselves better acquainted with the state of Europe than myself, and sometimes ridiculed by those who had been long accustomed to depress their own country, and to represent Britain as only the shadow of what it once was; to deride our armies and our fleets, and describe us impoverished and corrupted, sunk into cowardice, and delighted with slavery.

That my opinion is now likely to be justified, and that those who have hitherto so confidently opposed me, will soon be obliged to acknowledge their mistake, is of very small importance; nor is my self-love so predominant as to incline me to reckon the confirmation of my predictions, or the vindication of my sagacity among the benefits which we are now about to receive.  We are now soon to be convinced that France is not irresistible, nor irresistible to Britain.  We are now to see the embroilers of the universe entangled in their own schemes, and the depopulators of kingdoms destroyed in those fields which they have so wantonly laid waste.  We shall see justice triumphant over oppression, and insolence trampled by those whom she has despised.  We shall see the powers of Europe once more equally balanced, and the balance placed again in the hands of Britain.

If it be required upon what events these expectations are founded; and if it be alleged, that we have no such resolutions to hope from the measures that have been hitherto pursued; it has been affirmed by a noble lord, that our armies in Flanders are useless, and that our motions have given neither courage nor strength to any other powers; that the queen of Hungary is yet equally distressed, and that the French still pursue their schemes without any interruption from us or our allies, I shall hope by an impartial account of the present state of the continent to show, that his assertions are groundless, and his opinion erroneous.