han the lower. However, the circumstances that attended it, made the
publication of the bill, with the amendments and the reasons offered by
the lords on both sides, expected with the more impatience.]

HOUSE OF LORDS, NOVEMBER 16, 1742.

Parliament having met, according to the royal summons, on this day,
his majesty made a speech from the throne, which being afterwards read
by the president, lord TWEEDALE rose, and spoke as follows:

My lords, it is not without the highest satisfaction, that every lover
of mankind must look upon the alterations that have lately been
produced in the state of Europe; nor can any Briton forbear to express
an immediate and particular pleasure to observe his country rising
again into its former dignity, to see his own nation shake off
dependence, and rouse from inactivity, cover the ocean with her
fleets, and awe the continent with her armies; bid, once more,
defiance to the rapacious invaders of neighbouring kingdoms, and the
daring projectors of universal dominion; once more exert her influence
in foreign courts, and summon the monarchs of the west to another
confederacy against the power of France.

The queen of Hungary, who was lately obliged to retire at the approach
of her enemies, to leave her capital in danger of a siege, and seek
shelter in the remotest corner of her dominions, who was lately so
harassed with invasions, and so encircled with dangers, that she could
scarcely fly from one ravager, without the hazard of falling into the
hands of another, is now able to give laws to her persecutors, to
return the violence which she has suffered, and instead of imploring
mercy from those who had no regard but to their own interest, and were
determined to annihilate her family and divide her dominions, now sits
in full security on her throne, directs the march of distant armies,
and dictates the terms on which those who have entered her dominions
shall be suffered to escape.

Such, my lords, is the present state of the German empire; nor have
the affairs of the rest of Europe been less changed; the power of the
house of Bourbon has been diminished on every side, its alliance has
been rejected, and its influence disregarded.

The king of Sardinia has openly engaged to hinder the Spaniards from
erecting a new kingdom in Italy; and though he has hitherto been
somewhat embarrassed in his measures, and oppressed by the superiority
of his enemies, has at least, by preventing the