trade, care is always to be taken that the
inconvenience exceed not the benefit, and time be allowed for those
that are engaged in it to withdraw to some other business, and for the
commodities that are consumed by it, to be introduced at some other
market, or directed to some other use.

These cautions are in this bill very judiciously observed. The trade,
which all allow to administer supplies to debauchery, and fuel to
diseases, will, by the provisions in this bill, sink away by degrees,
and the health and virtue of the people will be preserved or restored
without murmurs or commotions.

We must consider, likewise, my lords, the necessity of raising
supplies, and the success with which they have hitherto been raised
upon the scheme which is now under your consideration.

In examining the necessity of procuring supplies, I shall not
expatiate upon the present danger of the liberties of all this part of
the world; upon the distress of the house of Austria, the necessity of
preserving the balance of power, or the apparent designs of the
ancient and incessant disturbers of mankind, topicks which have been
on former occasions sufficiently explained.

It is now only necessary to observe, that the state of our affairs
requires expedition, and that a happy peace can only be expected from
a successful war, and that war can only be made successful by vigour
and despatch.

If by liberal grants of money, and ready concurrence in all necessary
measures, we enable his majesty to raise a powerful army, there is no
reason to doubt that a single campaign may procure peace, that it may
establish the liberties of Europe, and raise our allies, who were so
lately distressed, to their former greatness.

These supplies, my lords, which are so evidently necessary, may, by
the method now proposed, be easily, speedily, and cheaply raised. Upon
the security which this act will afford, large sums are already
offered to the government at the low interest of three for a hundred,
by those who, if the conditions of the loan are changed, will,
perhaps, demand four in a few days, or raise money by a combination to
the rate of five or six for a hundred; of which I would not remark how
much it will embarrass the publick measures, or how much it will
encourage our enemies to an obstinate resistance.

Such, my lords, are the inconveniencies to be feared from rejecting
this bill, or from postponing it; by which is plainly intended only a
more ge