fore you by the noble lords who made
and seconded the motion, are so important in themselves, and have been
urged with so much force and judgment, that I shall not endeavour to
add any new arguments; since, where those fail which have been already
offered, it is not likely that any will be effectual: but I shall
endeavour to preserve them in their full force by removing the
objections which have been made to them.

The first consideration that claims our attention is the reverence due
to the senate, to the great council of the nation, which ought always
to be consulted when any important design is formed, or any new
measures adopted; especially if they are such as cannot be defeated by
being made publick, and such as an uncommon degree of expense is
necessary to support.

These principles, my lords, which I suppose no man will contest, have
been so little regarded by the ministry on the present occasion, that
they seem to have endeavoured to discover, by a bold experiment, to
what degree of servility senates may be reduced, and what insults they
will be taught to bear without resentment; for they have, without the
least previous hint of their design, made a contract for a very
numerous body of mercenaries, nor did they condescend to inform the
senate, till they asked for money to pay them.

To execute measures first, and then to require the approbation of the
senate, instead of advice, is surely such a degree of contempt as has
not often been shown in the most arbitrary reigns, and such as would
once have provoked such indignation in the other house, that there
would have been no need in this of a motion like the present.

But, my lords, in proportion as the other house seems inclined to pay
an implicit submission to the dictates of the ministry, it is our duty
to increase our vigilance, and to convince our fellow-subjects, by a
steady opposition to all encroachments, that we are not, as we have
been sometimes styled, an useless assembly, but the last resort of
liberty, and the chief support of the constitution.

The present design of those, who have thus dared to trample upon our
privileges, appears to be nothing less than that of reducing the
senates of Britain to the same abject slavery with those of France; to
show the people that we are to be considered only as their agents, to
raise the supplies which they shall be pleased, under whatever
pretences, to demand, and to register such determinations as they
shal