trength. I allow that such a stipulation was made, and
that treaties ought to be observed, at whatever hazard, with
unviolated faith. It has been, indeed, objected, that many nations
engaged with us in the same treaty, whom interest or cowardice have
inclined to neglect it; and that we ought not to become the standing
garrison of Europe, or to defend alone those territories, to the
preservation of which so many states are obliged to contribute equally
with ourselves. But this, my lords, appears to me an argument of which
the ill consequences can never be fully discovered; an argument which
dissolves all the obligations of contracts, destroys the foundation of
moral justice, and lays society open to all the mischiefs of perfidy,
by making the validity of oaths and contracts dependant upon chance,
and regulating the duties of one man by the conduct of another. I
pretend not, my lords, to long experience, and, therefore, in
discussing intricate questions, may be easily mistaken. But as, in my
opinion, my lords, morality is seldom difficult, but when it is
clouded with an intention to deceive others or ourselves, I shall
venture to declare with more confidence, that in proportion as one man
neglects his duty, another is more strictly obliged to practise his
own, that his example may not help forward the general corruption, and
that those who are injured by the perfidy of others, may from his
sincerity have a prospect of relief.

I believe all politicks that are not founded on morality will be found
fallacious and destructive, if not immediately, to those who practise
them; yet, consequentially, by their general tendency to disturb
society, and weaken those obligations which maintain the order of the
world. I shall, therefore, allow, that what justice requires from a
private man, becomes, in parallel circumstances, the duty of a nation;
and shall, therefore, never advise the violation of a solemn treaty.
The stipulations in which we engaged, when we became guarantees of the
Pragmatick sanction, are, doubtless, to be observed; and it is,
therefore, one of the strongest objections against the measures which
we are now pursuing, that we shall be perfidious at a greater expense
than fidelity would have required, and shall exhaust the treasure of
the nation without assisting the queen of Hungary.

To explain this assertion, my lords, it is necessary to take a view of
the constitution of the German body, which consists of a great