y are
friends otherwise than by sleeping and eating together, by eating at
the expense of the same nation.

Nor am I at present inclined to grant, that either army is situated
where it may be of most use to the queen of Hungary; for they now
loiter in a country which no enemy threatens, and in which nothing,
therefore, can be feared; a country very remote from the seat of war,
and which will probably be last attacked. If the assistance of the
queen of Hungary had been designed, there appears no reason why the
Hanoverians should have marched thither, or why this important
conjunction should have been formed, since they might, in much less
time, and with less expense, have joined the Austrians, and, perhaps,
have enabled them to defeat the designs of the French, and cut off the
retreat of the army which was sent to the relief of Prague. But this
march, though it would have been less tedious, would have been more
dangerous, and would not have been very consistent with the designs of
those who are more desirous of receiving wages than of deserving them;
nor is it likely, that those who required levy-money for troops
already levied, and who demanded that they should be paid a long time
before they began to march, would hurry them to action, or endeavour
to put a period to so gainful a trade as that of hiring troops which
are not to be exposed.

This conduct, however visibly absurd, I am very far from imputing
either to cowardice or ignorance; for there is reason to suspect, that
they marched into Flanders only because they could not appear in any
other place as the allies of the queen of Hungary, without exposing
their sovereign to the imperial interdict.

It is, therefore, not only certain, that these troops, these boasted
and important troops, have not yet been of any use; but probable, that
no use is intended for them, and that the sole view of those who have
introduced them into our service, is to pay their court by enriching
Hanover with the spoils of Britain.

That this is in reality their intention, appears from the estimates to
which an appeal has been so confidently made, but which, if they are
compared with a contract made for the troops of the same nation in the
last war, will show how much their price has risen since their
sovereign was exalted to this throne; though I cannot find any proof
that their reputation has increased, nor can discover, from their
_actions_ in Flanders, any reason to believe that the