ir services will
be greater.

It is now to little purpose to inquire, whether there are any other
troops that could have been more properly employed, since it is
certain, that whatever may be the general character, or the late
conduct of other nations, it is the interest of Britain to employ
rather any troops than these, as any evil is rather to be chosen than
animosities between our sovereign and our fellow-subjects; and such
animosities must inevitably arise from this detestable preference of
the troops of Hanover.

[The question was carried by 67, the Ayes being 260; Noes 193. This
affair was again debated with vehemence upon the report on Monday,
December 13, 1742, upon a question, whether the levy-money should
stand part of the general question, which was carried by 53; Ayes 230,
Noes 177.]

HOUSE OF LORDS, FEBRUARY 1, 1742-3.

The order of the day for taking into consideration the several
estimates of the charge of the forces in the pay of Great Britain was
read, upon which lord STANHOPE rose up, and spoke in substance as
follows:--

My lords, I have always understood, that the peculiar happiness of the
British nation consists in this, that nothing of importance can be
undertaken by the government, without the consent of the people as
represented by the other house, and that of your lordships, whose
large possessions, and the merits either of your ancestors or
yourselves, have given you the privilege of voting in your own right
in national consultations.

The advantages of this constitution, the security which it confers
upon the nation, and the restraint which it lays upon corrupt
ministers, or ambitious princes, are in themselves too obvious to
admit of explanation, and too well known in this great assembly, by
whose ancestors they were originally obtained, and preserved at the
frequent hazard of life and fortune, for me to imagine, that I can
make them either more esteemed or better understood.

My intention, my lords, is not to teach others the regard which the
constitution of our government, or the happiness of the nation demands
from them, but to show how much I regard them myself, by endeavouring
to preserve and defend them at a time when I think them invaded and
endangered.

Upon the examination of the estimates now before us, I cannot but
think it necessary, my lords, that every man who values liberty,
should exert that spirit by which it was first established; that every
man should r