ns in idle preparations,
and ostentatious folly; we have equipped fleets which never left the
harbour, and raised armies which were never to behold any other enemy
than the honest traders and husbandmen that support them. We have,
indeed, heard many reasons alleged for oppressing the empire with
standing troops, which can have little effect upon those who have no
interest to promote by admitting them: sometimes we are in danger of
invasions, though it is not easy to imagine for what purpose any prince
should invade a nation, which he may plunder at pleasure, without the
least apprehension of resentment, and which will resign any of its
rights whenever they shall be demanded: sometimes, as we have already
heard, the pretender is to be set upon the throne by a sudden descent of
armies from the clouds; and sometimes the licentiousness and
disobedience of the common people requires the restraint of a standing
army.

That the people are, to the last degree, exasperated and inflamed, I am
far from intending to deny, but surely they have yet been guilty of no
outrage so enormous as to justify so severe a punishment; they have
generally confined themselves to harmless complaints, or, at least, to
executions in effigy. The people, my lords, are enraged because they are
impoverished, and, to prevent the consequences of their anger, their
poverty is increased by new burdens, and aggravated by the sight of an
useless, despicable herd, supported by their industry, for no other
purpose than to insult them.

By these useless armaments and military farces, our taxes, my lords,
have been continued without diminishing our debts, and the nation seems
condemned to languish for ever under its present miseries, which, by
furnishing employment to a boundless number of commissioners, officers,
and slaves, to the court, under a thousand denominations, by diffusing
dependence over the whole country, and enlarging the influence of the
crown, are too evidently of use to the minister for us to entertain any
hopes of his intention to relieve us.

Let it not be boasted that nine millions are paid, when a new debt of
seven millions appears to be contracted; nothing is more easy than to
clear debts by borrowing, or to borrow when a nation is mortgaged for
the payment.

But the weight of the present taxes, my lords, though heavier than was
perhaps ever supported by any nation for so long a time, taxes greater
than ever were paid, to purchase neithe