being
the advice of any single man, or transacted with that solicitous
secrecy which is the usual refuge of bad designs.

It has been asserted, likewise, my lords, and with much greater
appearance of justice, that this whole design has been formed and
conducted without the concurrence or approbation of the senate; and
that, therefore, it can be considered only as a private scheme to be
executed at the publick expense, as a plan formed by the ministry to
aggrandize or ingratiate themselves at the hazard of the nation.

But even this, my lords, is a misrepresentation, though a
misrepresentation more artful, and more difficult to defeat; because,
in order to the justification of our measures, it is necessary to take
a review of past transactions, and to consider what was necessarily
implied by former determinations of the senate.

The period, my lords, to which this consideration will necessarily
carry us back, is the time at which, after the late tedious war, a
peace was, on whatever terms, concluded with France. It is well known,
that the confederates demanded, among other advantages, a cession of
that part of Flanders, which had been for many years in the possession
of Spain, and which opened a way by which the ambition of the house of
Bourbon might make inroads at pleasure into the dominions of either
the Austrians or Dutch. This they were immediately interested in
preventing; and as we knew the necessity of preserving the equipoise
of power, we likewise were remotely engaged to promote any measures by
which it might be secured. In this demand, therefore, all the
confederate powers naturally united, and by their united influence
enforced compliance. But though it was easy, with no great profundity
of political knowledge, to discover from whom these provinces should
be taken away, to whom they should be given, was a question of more
difficulty; since they might add to the power that had opportunities
of improving them, such an increase of commerce and wealth as might
defeat the end for which they were demanded, and destroy the balance
of power, by transferring too much weight into another scale. And
mankind has learned, my lords, by experience, that exorbitant power
will always produce exorbitant pride; that very few, when they can
oppress with security, will be contained within the bounds of equity
by the restraints of morality or of religion; and that, therefore, the
only method of establishing a lasting peace is t