ky collection of papers which are now
laid before you, from which you will discover the number of our fleets,
the frequency of our convoys, the stations of our ships of war, and the
times of their departure and return; you will find that no provision for
war, no expedient likely to promote success has been neglected; that we
have now more ships equipped than in the late war with France, that
nothing can be added to the exactness with which our maritime force is
regulated, and that there is not the least reason to doubt of the
fidelity with which it has been employed.

In every war, my lords, it is to be expected that losses will be
suffered by private persons on each side, nor even in a successful war
can the publick always hope to be enriched; because the advantage may
arise, not immediately from captures, but, consequently, from the
treaties or conditions in which a prosperous war may be supposed to
terminate.

What concessions we shall in this war extort from the Spaniards, what
security will be procured for our merchants, what recompense will be
yielded for our losses, or what extent will be added to our commerce, it
cannot yet be expected that any man should be able to declare; nor will
his majesty's counsellors be required to give an account of futurity. It
is a sufficient vindication of their conduct, and an evident proof of
the wisdom with which the war has been conducted, that we have hitherto
gained more than we have lost.

This, my lords, will appear from a diligent and minute comparison of the
captures on each side, and an exact computation of the value of our
losses and our prizes. It will be found that if the Spaniards have
taken, as it is not improbable, a greater number of ships, those which
they have lost have been far more wealthy.

The merchants, indeed, seem to have distrusted the strength of the
evidence which they produced in support of their allegations, by
bringing it only before the other house, where, as an oath could not be
administered, every man delivered what he believed as what he knew, and
indulged himself without scruple in venting his resentment, or declaring
his suspicions; a method of allegation very proper to scatter reproaches
and gratify malevolence, but of very little use for the discovery of
truth.

Had they come before your lordships, every circumstance had been
minutely examined, every assertion compared with other evidence, all
exaggerations repressed, and all foreign co