sent question, sir, there is very little room for fallacy; nor
do I see what remains to the decision of it, but that those gentlemen
who have been acquainted with military operations, inform us, what
degree of superiority is conferred by any assignable number of officers;
that we may compare their service with the price, and discover whether
the same money will not purchase greater advantages.

The experience of the late war may evince, sir, that those troops which
have the greatest number of officers are not always victorious; for our
establishment never admitted the same, or nearly the same number with
that of the French, our enemies; nevertheless, we still boast of our
victories; nor is it certain that we might not have been equally
successful, though the number of our officers had been yet less.

Foreigners, sir, are very far from discovering the defect of their own
establishment, or imagining that they should become more formidable by
imitating our methods. When I travelled, I took opportunities of
conversing with the generals of those nations which are most famous for
the valour of their troops, and was informed by them, that they thought
a multitude of officers by no means useful, and that they were so far
from desiring to see their own regulation changed, that they should make
no scruple of recommending it to other nations, who, in their opinion,
squandered their treasure upon useless commissions, and increased the
calamities of war by unnecessary burdens.

I hope no man will think it sufficient to reply to these arguments with
general assertions, or will deny the necessity of frugality, and extol
the opulence of the nation, the extent of our commerce, and the
happiness of our condition. Such indeed, sir, is the method of
argumentation made use of by the hireling scribblers of the court, who,
because they feel none of the publick calamities, represent all
complaints as criminal murmurs, and charge those with sedition who
petition only for relief. Wretches like these would celebrate our
victories, though our country should be overrun by an invader, would
praise the lenity of any government by which themselves should be
spared, and would boast of the happiness of plenty, when half the people
should be languishing with famine.

I do not suppose, sir, that the despicable sophistry of prostitutes like
these has any effect here, nor should I have thought them worthy of the
least notice, had it not been proper to in