t
indolent awakened at any danger which threatens themselves, and will
exert their utmost power to obviate or escape it.

For this reason, sir, I have long considered the publick funds
established in this nation, as a barrier to the government, which cannot
easily be broken: a foreign prince cannot now be placed upon the throne,
but in opposition almost to every wealthy man, who, having trusted the
government with his money, has reposited a pledge of his own fidelity.

But to this gentleman, sir, whom I am now answering, arguments can be of
very little importance, because, by his own confession, he is retained
as a mere machine, to speak at the direction of another, and to utter
sentiments which he never conceived, and which his hesitation and abrupt
conclusion shows him to admit with very little examination. He had not
even allowed himself time to know the opinion which he was to assert, or
to imprint upon his memory those arguments to which he was to add the
sanction of his authority. He seems to have boldly promised to speak,
and then to have inquired what he was to say. Yet has this gentleman
often declaimed here with all the apparent ardour of integrity, and been
heard with that regard which is only due to virtue and independence.

Some of his assertions are such, however, as require confutation, which
is, perhaps, more necessary since he has produced an authority for them,
which many of those who heard him may think of much greater weight than
his own. He affirms, that we can suffer only by an invasion, and infers
from this position, that we need only to guard our own coasts. I am of
an opinion very different, and having not yet prevailed upon myself to
receive notes from any other person, cannot forbear to speak what I
think, and what the publick prosperity requires to be generally known.
We may surely suffer by many other causes, by the ignorance, or
treachery, or cowardice of the ministry, by the negligence of that
person to whom this gentleman was probably indebted for his notes. We
may suffer by the loss of our sugar colonies, which may be justly valued
at ten millions.

These plantations, which afford us almost all the profitable trade that
is now left us, have been exposed to the insults of the enemy, without
any other guard than two ships, almost unfit for service. They have been
left to the protection of chance, with no other security, at a time when
the Spaniards had fitted out a squadron, to infest a