in the unsettled and dangerous situation of affairs in Europe, the sending a considerable body of British forces into the Austrian Netherlands, and augmenting the same with sixteen thousand of his majesty’s electoral troops, and the Hessians in the British pay, and thereby, in conjunction with the queen of Hungary’s troops in the Low Countries, forming a great army for the service of the common cause, was a wise, useful, and necessary measure, manifestly tending to the support and encouragement of his majesty’s allies, and the real and effectual assistance of the queen of Hungary, and the restoring and maintaining the balance of power, and has already produced very advantageous consequences.”

The earl of OXFORD spoke next, to the following effect:—­My lords, the necessity of supporting our reputation, and of preserving the confidence of the publick, I am by no means inclined to dispute, being convinced, that from the instant in which we shall lose the credit which our ancestors have delivered down to us, we shall be no longer considered as a part of the legislature, but be treated by the people only as an assembly of hirelings and dependants, convened at the pleasure of the court to ratify its decisions without examination, to extort taxes, promote slavery, and to share with the ministry the crime and the infamy of cruelty and oppression.

For this reason, it is undoubtedly proper, that we avoid not only the crime, but the appearance of dependence; and that every doubtful question should be freely debated, and every pernicious position publickly condemned; and that when our decisions are not agreeable to the opinion or expectations of the people, we should at least show them that they are not the effects of blind compliance with the demands of the ministry, or of an implicit resignation to the direction of a party.  We ought to show, that we are unprejudiced, and ready to hear truth; that our determinations are not dictated by any foreign influence, and that it will not be vain to inform us, or useless to petition us.

In these principles I agree with the noble lord who has made the motion; but in the consequences which are on this occasion to be drawn from them, I cannot but differ very widely from him; for, in my opinion, nothing can so much impair our reputation, as an address like that which is proposed; an address not founded either upon facts or arguments, and from which the nation can collect only, that the protection of this house is withdrawn from them, that they are given up to ruin, and that they are to perish as a sacrifice to the interest of Hanover.