ouse from his security, and awaken all his vigilance and
all his zeal, lest the bold attempt that has been now made should, if
it be not vigorously repressed, be an encouragement to the more
dangerous encroachments; and lest that fabrick of power should be
destroyed, which has been erected at such expense and with such
labour; at which one generation has toiled after another, and of which
the wisdom of the most experienced and penetrating statesmen have been
employed to perfect its symmetry, and the industry of the most
virtuous patriots to repair its decays.

The first object which the estimates force upon our observation is a
numerous body of foreign troops, for the levy and payment of which a
very large sum is demanded; and demanded at a time when the nation is
to the last degree embarrassed and oppressed, when it is engaged in a
war with a powerful empire, and almost overwhelmed with the debts that
were contracted in former confederacies; when it is engaged in a war,
not for the recovery of forgotten claims, or for the gratification of
restless ambition, not for the consumption of exuberant wealth, or for
the discharge of superfluous inhabitants; but a war, in which the most
important interests are set to hazard, and by which the freedom of
navigation must be either established or lost; a war which must
determine the sovereignty of the ocean, the rights of commerce, and
the state of our colonies; a war, in which we may, indeed, be
victorious without any increase of our reputation; but in which we
cannot be defeated without losing all our influence upon foreign
powers, and becoming subject to the insolence of petty princes.

When foreign troops are hired, at a time like this, it is natural to
expect that they have been procured by contracts uncommonly frugal;
because no nation can be supposed to be lavish in a time of distress.
It is natural, my lords, to expect that they should be employed in
expeditions of the utmost importance; because no trifling advantage
ought to incite a people overburdened with taxes, to oppress
themselves with any new expense; and it may be justly supposed, that
these troops were hired by the advice of the senate; because no
minister can be supposed so hardened in defiance of his country, in
contempt of the laws, and in disregard of the publick happiness, as to
dare to introduce foreigners into the publick service, in prosecution
of his own private schemes, or to rob the nation which he pro