ransports
could not be destroyed without a breach of the neutrality of Hanover?

This, my lords, is a subject on which I could have only been induced
to dwell, by my zeal for the present establishment, and my personal
affection for his majesty. It is universally allowed, that not only
the honour and prosperity, but the safety of a British monarch,
depends upon the affections of his subjects; and that neither splendid
levees, nor large revenues, nor standing armies, can secure his
happiness or his power any longer than the people are convinced of his
tenderness and regard, of his attention to their complaints, and his
zeal for their interest. If, therefore, it should ever be generally
believed, that our king considers this nation only as appendent to his
electoral dominions, that he promotes the interest of his former
subjects at the expense of those by whom he has been exalted to this
awful throne, and that our commerce, our treasures, and our lives, are
sacrificed to the safety, or to the enlargement of distant
territories, what can be expected? what but murmurs, disaffection, and
distrust, and their natural consequences, insurrection and rebellion;
rebellion, of which no man can foresee the event, and by which that
man may perhaps be placed upon the throne, whom we have so wisely
excluded and so solemnly abjured.

Of this unreasonable regard to the interest of Hanover, the contract
which we are now considering exhibits, if not a proof too apparent to
be denied, yet such an appearance as we ought for our own sakes and
that of his majesty to obviate; and therefore I think the, address
which is now proposed in the highest degree reasonable; and am
convinced, that by complying with our request, his majesty will regain
the affections of many of his subjects, whom a long train of
pernicious measures have filled with discontent; and preserve the
loyalty of many others, who, by artful representations of the motives
and consequences of this contract, may be alienated and perverted.

Lord BATHURST replied to the following purport:--My lords, as I have
no reason to doubt of the noble duke's affection to the present royal
family, I am convinced, that the ardour of his expressions is the
effect of his zeal, and that the force of his representations proceeds
only from the strength of his conviction; and, therefore, I am far
from intending to censure any accidental negligence of language, or
any seeming asperity of sentiment. I k