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o divide power so equally, that no party may have any certain prospect of advantage by making war upon another. For this reason, my lords, it was apparently contrary to our interest to grant those provinces to those to whom, by their situation, they might have been most useful. Such countries, and such manufactures in the hands of a people versed, perhaps, beyond all others, both in the science and the stratagems of trade, and always watchful to improve every opportunity of increasing their riches, would have enabled them in a short time to purchase an interest in the councils of all the monarchs of the world, to have maintained fleets that might have covered the ocean, and to have obtained that universal dominion to which the French have so long aspired, and which it is, perhaps, more for the interest of mankind, that if slavery cannot be prevented, they should obtain, as they would, perhaps, use their power with more generosity. The same reason, my lords, naturally made the Dutch unwilling to put these provinces in the hands of Britain; for we, likewise, make a profession of trade, though we do not pursue it with the same ardour, or, to confess the truth, with the same success: it was not, however, to be imagined, that there would not be found among us some men of sagacity to discern, and of industry to improve the opportunities which the new dominions would have put into our hands of vending our manufactures in parts where, at present, they are very little known. Nor was this the only danger to be feared from such an increase of dominion: the Dutch have not yet forgotten, that though we at first rescued them from slavery, patronised the infancy of their state, and continued our guardianship till it was grown up to maturity, and enabled to support itself by its own strength, yet we afterwards made very vigorous attempts to reduce it to its original weakness, and to sink it into pupillage again; that we attempted to invade the most essential part of its rights, and to prescribe the number of ships that it should maintain. They know, likewise, my lords, that by the natural rotation of human affairs, the same counsels may in some future reign be again pursued, or that some unavoidable conflict of interest may produce a contest that can be decided only by the sword; and then it may easily be perceived how much they would be endangered, by the neighbourhood of British garrisons, and of countries, where we might mainta
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