ssed princess has been already voted
by the senate, it is now no longer to be inquired, what advantages can
be gained to this nation by protecting her, or whether the benefits of
victory will be equivalent to the hazards of war? These questions are
already determined. It has already appeared necessary to this house,
to restore the balance of power by preserving the house of Austria;
and the only question, therefore, that remains is, by what means we
shall endeavour to preserve it? and whether the means that have
already been used, deserve our approbation?

Among the several schemes that were proposed for this end, it appeared
most proper to the ministry to form an army in the low countries,
whence they might be ready to march wherever their presence might be
required, and where they might be easily supplied with necessaries.
This army was to be raised with expedition; the affairs of the queen
of Hungary could admit of no delay; auxiliary troops were, therefore,
to be hired, and it appeared to them more proper to hire the troops of
Hanover than of any other nation.

That the affairs of the queen of Hungary would admit of no delay, and
that, therefore, the army in the low countries was very speedily to be
formed, cannot be doubted by any one that compares her power with that
of the nation against which she was contending; a nation incited by a
long train of success to aspire to universal monarchy; a nation which
has long been assembling armies, and accumulating treasures, in order
to give law to the rest of the world; which had for many years stood
against the united force of all the bordering powers, and to which the
house of Austria is not equal in its full strength, much less when its
treasures had been exhausted, and its troops destroyed in an
unfortunate war before the death of the emperour; and when almost
every part of its dominions was threatened by a particular power, and
the troops of each province were employed in the defence of their own
towns; so that no great armies could be collected, because no place
could be left without defenders.

Such was the state of the Austrian dominions, when the troops of
France broke in upon them; and in this state it must readily be
acknowledged, that neither courage nor prudence could procure success;
that no stratagems could long divert, nor any resistance repel such
superiority of power, and that, therefore, relief must be speedy, to
be efficacious.

That to bring the re