convinced of the
reasonableness of the measures which have been defended with so much
subtilty, I shall at least endeavour to show, that my disapprobation
is not merely the effect of obstinacy, and that I have at least
considered the proposals of the ministry, before I have ventured to
condemn them.

Whether we ought to think ourselves indispensably obliged to maintain,
at all events, the balance of power on the continent, to maintain it
without allies, to maintain it against a combination of almost all
Europe, I shall not now inquire; I will suppose it, for once, our duty
to struggle with impossibility, and not only to support the house of
Austria when it is attacked, but to raise it when it is fallen; fallen
by our own negligence, and oppressed with the weight of all the
surrounding powers; and shall, therefore, at present, only inquire by
what means we may afford that assistance with most benefit to our
allies, and least danger to ourselves.

With regard to our ally, that assistance will be apparently most
advantageous to her, by which her strength will be most increased, and
therefore it may, perhaps, be more useful to her to find her money
than troops; but if we must supply her with troops, I doubt not but it
will readily appear, that we may easily find troops which may be of
more use and less expense than those of Hanover.

It has been observed, with regard to the convenient situation of those
troops, that it cannot now be denied, since they are acting in
Flanders in conjunction with the British forces. This is an assertion
to which, though it was uttered with an air of victorious confidence,
though it was produced as an insuperable argument, by which all those
who intended opposition were to be reduced to silence and despair,
many objections may be made, which it will require another harangue
equally elaborate to remove.

That the troops of Hanover are now acting in conjunction with the
Britons, I know not how any man can affirm, unless he has received
intelligence by some airy messengers, or has some sympathetick
communication with them, not indulged to the rest of mankind. None of
the accounts which have been brought hither of the affairs of the
continent have yet informed us of any action, or tendency to action;
the Hanoverians have, indeed, been reviewed in conjunction with our
forces, but have, hitherto, not acted; nor have the armies yet
cemented the alliance by any common danger, or shown yet that the