ovoked without danger, nor opposed
without such a profusion of expense as the publick is at present not
able to bear.

It is not to be supposed, my lords, that the bulk of the British
people are affected with the distresses, or inflamed by the
magnanimity of the queen of Hungary. This illustrious daughter of
Austria, whose name has been so often echoed in these walls, and of
whom I am far from denying, that she deserves our admiration, our
compassion, and all the assistance which can be given her,
consistently with the regard due to the safety of our own country, is
to the greatest part of the people an imaginary princess, whose
sufferings or whose virtues make no other impression upon them, than
those which are recorded in fictitious narratives; nor can they easily
be persuaded to give up for her relief the produce of their lands, or
the profits of their commerce.

Some, indeed, there are, my lords, whose views are more extensive, and
whose sentiments are more exalted; for it is not to be supposed, that
either knowledge or generosity are confined to the senate or the
court: but these, my lords, though they perhaps may more readily
approve the end which the ministry pretends to pursue, are less
satisfied with the means by which they endeavour to attain it. By
these men it is easily discovered, that the hopes which some so
confidently express of prevailing upon the Dutch to unite with us for
the support of the Pragmatick sanction, are without foundation; they
see that their consent to place garrisons in the frontier towns,
however it may furnish a subject of exultation to those whose interest
it is to represent them as ready to concur with us, is only a new
proof of what was never doubted, their unvariable attention to their
own interest, since they must for their own security preserve their
own barrier from being seized by France. By this act they incur no new
expense, they provoke no enemies, nor give any assistance to the queen
of Hungary, by which they can raise either resentment in one part, or
gratitude in the other; and therefore it is not hard to perceive that,
whatever is pretended, the Dutch hitherto observe the most exact laws
of neutrality; and it is too evident, that if they refuse their
assistance, we have very little to hope from a war with France.

Nor is this the only objection against the present measures; for it is
generally, and not without sufficient reason suspected, that the real
assistance of