onger proofs ought surely to be
produced, before we take auxiliaries into pay, and transport troops
into another country, which has been so often represented to have been
raised for the defence of their own, or collect money from the publick
by the propagation of wickedness.

Of this favourable inclination in the Dutch I am the more doubtful,
because it is contrary to the expectations of all mankind, and to the
maxims by which they have generally regulated their conduct. There
have been many late instances of their patient submission to the
invasion of privileges to which they have thought themselves entitled,
and of their preference of peace, though sometimes purchased with the
loss of honour; or, what may be supposed to touch a Dutchman much more
nearly, of profit, to the devastation and expense and hazards of war;
and it can hardly be supposed by any who know their character, that
they will be more zealous for the rights of others than for their own;
or that they will, for the support of the queen of Hungary, sacrifice
that security and tranquillity which they have preferred at the
expense of their commerce at one time, and by passive submission to
insults at another.

That a nation like this, my lords, will in the quarrel of another
engage in any but moderate measures, is not to be expected: it is not
improbable, that they may endeavour by embassies and negotiations to
adjust the present disputes, or offer their mediation to the
contending powers; but I am very far from imagining, that they will
find in themselves any disposition to raise armies, or equip fleets,
that they will endanger the barrier which has been so dearly
purchased, or expose themselves to the hazards and terrours of a
French war; and am, therefore, inclined to believe, that if any
tendency towards such measures now appears, it is only the effect of
the present heat of some vehement declaimers, or the secret
machination of some artful projectors among them, who have formed
chimerical plans of a new system of Europe, and have, in their
imaginations, regulated the distribution of dominion and power, or
who, perhaps, have diminished their patrimonies by negligence and
extravagance, and hope to repair them in times of confusion, and to
glean part of that harvest of treasure which the publick must be
obliged to yield in time of war. I am still inclined to believe, that
the true interest of the republick will be consulted, that policy will
prevail ove