the whole power of
government.

But the proof of this enormous usurpation has not yet been produced;
for it does not yet appear, that there was time to communicate their
designs to the senate, or that they would not have been defeated by
communication; and, therefore, it is yet not evident, but that when
they are censured for not having laid their scheme before the senate,
they are condemned for omitting what was not possibly to be done, or
what could not have been done, without betraying their trust, and
injuring their country.

It is allowed, that the senate had resolved to assist the queen of
Hungary; and, therefore, nothing remained for the ministers but to
execute with their utmost address the resolution that had been formed;
if for the prosecution of this design they should be found to have
erred in their choice of means, their mistakes, unless some ill
designs may justly be suspected, are to be imputed to the frailty of
human nature, and rather to be pitied, and relieved as misfortunes,
than punished as crimes.

But I doubt not, that in the course of our deliberations, we shall
find reason for concluding that they have acted not only with fidelity
but prudence; that they have chosen the means by which the great end
which the senate proposed, the succour of the queen of Hungary, and
consequently the reestablishment of the balance of power, will be most
easily attained; and that they have taken into the pay of this nation
those troops which may be trusted with the greatest security, as they
have the same prince, and the same interest.

But the honourable gentleman appears inclined to advance a new
doctrine, and to insinuate, that when any vote is passed by the
senate, the ministers are to suppose some conditions which are to be
observed, though they were never mentioned, and without which the
voice of the senate is an empty sound. In pursuance of this
supposition, he calls upon us to recollect the time and circumstances
in which this vote was passed; he reminds us, that the concession was
made in a sudden exultation of our hearts, in the raptures of triumph,
and amidst the shouts of conquest, when every man was forming
expectations which have never been gratified, and planning schemes
which could never be perfected.

He seems therefore to think, that our ministers insidiously took
advantage of our intoxication, and betrayed us in a fit of thoughtless
jollity to a promise, which when made, we hardly understo