, appeal to all those who can recollect what
I have formerly said, when the reestablishment of the house of Austria
was the subject of our consultations; and defy the most rigorous and
attentive examiner of my conduct, to prove, that there ever was a time
in which I thought it necessary or expedient for the British nation to
be entangled in disputes on the continent, or to employ her arms in
regulating the pretensions of contending powers.

I was always of opinion, my lords, that peace is the most eligible
state, and that the ease of security is to be preferred to the honour
of victory. I always thought peace particularly necessary to a trading
people; and as I have yet found no reason to alter my sentiments, and
as auxiliaries cannot be of any use but in time of war, I shall
endeavour to promote peace by joining in the motion.

Lord CHOLMONDELEY spoke to this effect:--My lords, notwithstanding the
atrocious charges which have been urged with so much vehemence against
the ministry; notwithstanding the folly and absurdity which some lords
have imagined themselves to have discovered in the present measures, I
cannot yet prevail upon myself, whatever may be my veneration for
their integrity, or my confidence in their abilities, to approve the
motion for which they so earnestly contend.

To comply with this motion, my lords, would be, in my opinion, to
betray the general cause of mankind, to interrupt the success of the
assertors of liberty, to give up all the continent, at once, to the
house of Bourbon, to defeat all the measures of our ancestors and
ourselves, and to invite the oppressors of mankind to extend their
claims of universal dominion to the island of Britain.

Of the measures which we are now to consider, I think the defence at
once obvious and unanswerable; and should advise, that instead of
exerting an useless sagacity in uncertain conjectures on future
events, or displaying unseasonable knowledge by the citation of
authorities, or the recollection of ancient facts, every lord should
attentively compare the state into which Europe was reduced soon after
the death of the late emperour, with that in which it now appears; and
inquire to what causes such sudden and important changes are to be
ascribed. He will then easily discover the efficacy of the British
measures; and be convinced, that nothing has been omitted which the
interest of this nation required.

When I hear it asked by the noble lords, what effe