ance and liberties
of Europe, the salvation of this country, depend.

But was this fatal measure the recommendation of parliament, or was it
the offspring of some bold enterprising minister, hatched in the
interval of parliament, under the wings of prerogative; daring to
presume upon the corruption of this house, as the necessary means of
his administration? The object, indeed, might be recommended, but if
any wrong measure is undertaken to attain it, that measure surely
should be dropt; for it is equally culpable to pursue a good end by
bad measures, as it is a bad end by those that are honest.

But as to the address, I wish gentlemen would a little consider the
occasion which produced it. Sir, it proceeded from the warmth of
expectation, the exultation of our hearts, immediately after, and with
the same breath that you established your committee of inquiry; and it
is no forced construction to say, that it carries this testimony along
with it, that national securities and granting supplies were
reciprocal terms.

But, sir, I must own for my part, was the occasion never so cogent,
Hanoverian auxiliaries are the last that I would vote into British
pay; not upon the consideration only, that we ought otherwise to
expect their assistance, and that we should rather make sure of others
that might be engaged against us; but from this melancholy
apprehension, that administrations will for ever have sagacity enough
to find out such pretences, that we may find it difficult to get rid
of them again.

Besides, the elector of Hanover, as elector of Hanover, is an
arbitrary prince; his electoral army is the instrument of that power;
as king of Great Britain he is a restrained monarch. And though I
don't suspect his majesty, and I dare say the hearts of the British
soldiery are as yet free and untainted, yet I fear that too long an
intercourse may beget a dangerous familiarity, and they may hereafter
become a joint instrument, under a less gracious prince, to invade our
liberties.

His majesty, if he was rightly informed, I dare say would soon
perceive the danger of the proposition which is now before you. But,
as he has every other virtue, he has, undoubtedly, a most passionate
love for his native country, a passion which a man of any sensation
can hardly divest himself of; and, sir, it is a passion the more
easily to be flattered, because it arises from virtue. I wish that
those who have the honour to be of his councils, woul