ssigned? what, but an inclination to aggrandize and enrich a
contemptible province, and to deck with the plunder of Britain the
electorate of Hanover?

It has been suspected, my lords, (nor has the suspicion been without
foundation,) that our measures have long been regulated by the
interest of his majesty's electoral territories; these have been long
considered as a gulf into which the treasures of this nation have been
thrown; and it has been observed, that the state of the country has,
since the accession of its princes to this throne, been changed
without any visible cause; affluence has begun to wanton in their
towns, and gold to glitter in their cottages, without the discovery of
mines, or the increase of their trade; and new dominions have been
purchased, of which it can scarcely be imagined, that the value was
paid out of the revenues of Hanover.

This, my lords, is unpopular, illegal, and unjust; yet this might be
borne, in consideration of great advantages, of the protection of our
trade, and the support of our honour. But there are men who dare to
whisper, and who, perhaps, if their suspicions receive new
confirmation, will publickly declare, that for the preservation of
Hanover, our commerce has been neglected, and our honour impaired;
that to secure Hanover from invasion, the house of Bourbon has been
courted, and the family of Austria embarrassed and depressed. These
men assert, without hesitation, that when we entered into a league
with France against the emperour and the Spaniards, in the reign of
the late emperour, no part of the British dominions were in danger;
and that the alarm which was raised to reconcile the nation to
measures so contrary to those which former ages had pursued, was a
fictitious detestable artifice of wicked policy, by which Britain was
engaged in the defence of dominions to which we owe no regard, as we
can receive no real advantage from them.

It were to be wished, that no late instance could be produced of
conduct regulated by the same principles; and that this shameful, this
pernicious partiality had been universally allowed to have ceased with
the late reign; but it has never yet been shown, that the late
neutrality, by which Hanover was preserved, did not restrain the arms
of Britain; nor when it has been asked, why the Spanish army was, when
within reach of the cannon of the British navy, peaceably transported
to Italy, has any other reason been assigned, than that the t