That there may come a time in which this scheme will be no longer practicable, when a coalition of dominions may be inevitable, and when one power will be necessarily exalted above the rest, is, indeed, not absolutely impossible, and, therefore, not to be peremptorily denied.  But it is not to be inferred, that our care is vain at present, because, perhaps, it may some time be vain hereafter; or that we ought now to sink into slavery without a struggle, because the time may come, when our strongest efforts will be ineffectual.

It has, indeed, been almost asserted, that the fatal hour is now arrived, and that it is to no purpose that we endeavour to raise any farther opposition to the universal monarchy projected by France.  We are told, that the nation is exhausted and dispirited; that we have neither influence, nor riches, nor courage remaining; that we shall be left to stand alone against the united house of Bourbon; that the Austrians cannot, and that the Dutch will not, assist us; that the king of Sardinia will desert his alliance; that the king of Prussia has declared against us; and, therefore, that by engaging in the support of the Pragmatick sanction, we are about to draw upon ourselves that ruin which every other power has foreseen and shunned.

I am far from denying, my lords, that the power of France is great and dangerous; but can draw no consequence from that position, but that this force is to be opposed before it is still greater, and this danger to be obviated while it is yet surmountable, and surmountable I still believe it by unanimity and courage.

If our wealth, my lords, is diminished, it is time to confine the commerce of that nation by which we have been driven out of the markets of the continent, by destroying their shipping, and intercepting their merchants.  If our courage is depressed, it is depressed not by any change in the nature of the inhabitants of this island, but by a long course of inglorious compliance with the demands, and of mean submission to the insults, of other nations, to which it is necessary to put an end by vigorous resolutions.

If our allies are timorous and wavering, it is necessary to encourage them by vigorous measures; for as fear, so courage, is produced by example:  the bravery of a single man may withhold an army from flight, and other nations will be ashamed to discover any dread of that power which France along sets at defiance.  They will be less afraid to declare their intentions, when they are convinced that we intend to support them; and if there be, in reality, any prince who does not favour our design, he will be at least less inclined to obstruct it, as he finds the opposition, which he must encounter, more formidable.

For this reason, my lords, I am far from discovering the justness of the opinion which has prevailed very much in the nation, on this occasion, that we are not to act without allies, because allies are most easily to be procured by acting, and because it is reasonable and necessary for us to perform our part, however other powers may neglect theirs.