But, my lords, whether moderation was not recommended to them by such powerful oratory as your lordships have heard, or whether its advocates met with an audience not easily to be convinced, it is plain that they seem to have acted upon very different principles, and I wish their policy had not been so strongly justified by its success.  By sending an army into Germany, my lords, when there were no forces ready to oppose them, they reduced all the petty princes to immediate submission, and obliged those to welcome them as friends, who would gladly have united against them as the inveterate enemies of the whole German body; and who, had they been firmly joined by their neighbours, under a general sense of their common danger, would have easily raised an army able to have repelled them.

This, my lords, was the effect of vigour, an effect very different from that which we had an opportunity of experiencing as the consequence of moderation; it was to no purpose that we endeavoured to alarm mankind by remonstrances, and to procure assistance by entreaties and solicitations; the universal panick was not to be removed by advice and exhortations, and the queen of Hungary must have sunk under the weight of a general combination against her, had we not at last risen up in her defence, and with our swords in our hands, set an example to the nations of Europe, of courage and generosity.

It then quickly appeared, my lords, how little is to be expected from cold persuasion, and how necessary it is, that he who would engage others in a task of difficulty, should show himself willing to partake the labour which he recommends.  No sooner had we declared our resolution to fulfil our stipulations, and ordered our troops to march for the relief of the queen of Hungary, than other princes discovered that they had the same dispositions, though they had hitherto thought it prudent to conceal them; that they, equally with ourselves, hated and feared the French; that they were desirous to repress their insolence and oppose their conquests, and only waited for the motions of some power who might stand at the head of the confederacy, and lead them forwards against the common enemy.  The liberal promises of dominion made by the French, by which the sovereigns of Germany had been tempted to concur in a design which they thought themselves unable to oppose, were now no longer regarded; they were considered only as the boasts of imaginary greatness, which would at last vanish into air; and every one knew, that the ultimate design of Europe was to oppress equally her enemies and friends; they wisely despised her offers, and either desisted from the designs to which they had been incited by her, or declared themselves ready to unite against her.

This, my lords, has been the consequence of assembling the army, which, by the motion now under our consideration, some of your lordships seem desirous to disband, an inclination of which I cannot discover from whence it can arise.