With this view, my lords, it has been asked, why the Hanoverians are preferred to all other nations? why they have been selected from all other troops, to fight, against France, the cause of Europe?  They were chosen, my lords, because they were most easily to be procured.  Of the other nations from whom forces have usually been hired, some were engaged in the care of protecting, or the design of extending their own dominions, and others had no troops levied, nor could, therefore, furnish them with speed enough for the exigence that demanded them.

It has been asked with an air of triumph, as a question to which no answer could be given, why an equal number of Britons was not sent, since their valour might be esteemed at least equal to that of Hanoverians?  I am far, my lords, from intending to diminish the reputation of the British courage, or detract from that praise which has been gained by such gallant enterprises, and preserved by a long succession of dangers, and of victories; nor do I expect that any nation will ever form a just claim to superiority.  The reason, therefore, my lords, for which the troops of Hanover were hired, was not that the bravery of our countrymen was doubted, but that the transportation of such numbers might leave us naked to the insults of an enemy.  For though the noble lord has declared, that after having sent sixteen thousand into Flanders, we should still have reserved for our defence a body of seven thousand, equal to that to which the protection of this kingdom was intrusted in the late war, his opinion will upon examination be found to have arisen only from the enumeration of the names of our regiments, many of which are far from being complete, and some almost merely nominal; so that, perhaps, if a body of sixteen thousand more had been sent, there would not have remained a single regiment to have repelled the crew of any daring privateer that should have landed to burn our villages, and ravage the defenceless country.

It was desired, my lords, by the queen of Hungary, that a British army might appear on the continent in her favour, for she knew the reputation and terrour of our arms; and as her demand was equitable in itself, and honourable to the nation, it was complied with; and as many of our native troops were sent, as it was thought convenient to spare, the rest were necessarily to be hired; and it is the business of those lords who defend the motion, to show from whence they could be called more properly than from Hanover.

It has been urged with great warmth, that the contract made for these troops has not been laid before the senate, a charge which the noble lord who spoke last but one, has shown to be ill grounded; because the former determinations of the senate enabled the crown to garrison the frontier towns without any new deliberations, but which may be, perhaps, more satisfactorily confuted by showing, that it is an accusation of neglecting that which was in reality not possible to be performed, or which at least could not be performed without subjecting the government to imputations yet more dangerous than those which it now suffers.