bly elastic maxim, and in times nearer to our own than those of
Walpole has been made to expand into a justification of the most
extravagant and unnecessary military armaments and of schemes of
fortification which afterwards were abandoned before they had been half
realized. In this instance, however, there was something more to be
said against the proposal of the Government. Some of the speakers in
the debate pointed out that England in former days, if it engaged in a
quarrel with its neighbors, fought the quarrel out with its own
strength, and was not in the habit of buying and maintaining the forces
of foreign princes to help Englishmen to hold their own. The
resolution, of course, was carried. It was even carried by an
overwhelming majority: 256 were on the "court side," as it was called,
against 91 on the "country side." Fifty thousand pounds was also voted
as "one year's subsidy to the King of Sweden," and twenty-five thousand
pounds for one year's subsidy to the Duke of Brunswick. In order,
however, to appease the consciences of some of those who supported the
resolution as well as those who had opposed it, the Government
permitted what we should now call a "rider" to be added to the
resolution requesting his Majesty that whenever it should be necessary
to take any foreign troops into his service, "he will be graciously
pleased to use his endeavors that they be clothed with the manufactures
of Great Britain." It was supposed to be some solace to the wounded
national pride of Englishmen to be assured that if they had to pay
foreigners to fight for them, the foreigners should at least not be
allowed to come to this country clothed in the manufactures of their
own land, but would be compelled to buy their garments over the counter
of an English shop.

On Friday, February 21st, an event which led directly and indirectly to
results of some importance occurred. Three petitions from the
merchants trading in tobacco {294} in London, Bristol, and Liverpool
were presented to the House of Commons. These petitions complained of
great interruptions for several years past of the trade with the
British colonies in America by the Spaniards. The depredations of the
Spanish, it was said, endangered the entire loss of that valuable trade
to England. The Spaniards were accused of having treated such of his
Majesty's subjects as had fallen into their hands in a barbarous and
cruel manner. The petitioners prayed for the co