no means follow, that because he voted for
him he thinks him lawfully elected, nor that it is unjust to
dispossess him; though it is to be observed, that we are not making
war to dethrone the emperour, however elected, but to support the
Pragmatick sanction.

This observation, though somewhat foreign from the present debate, I
have thought it not improper to lay before your lordships, that no
scruples might remain in the most delicate and scrupulous, and to show
that the measures of his majesty cannot be justly charged with
inconsistency.

But this, my lords, is not the only, nor the greatest benefit which
the queen of Hungary has received from these troops; for it is highly
probable, that the states will be induced to concur in the common
cause, when they find that they are not incited to a mock confederacy,
when they perceive that we really intend to act vigorously, that we
decline neither expense nor danger, and that a compliance with our
demands will not expose them to stand alone and unassisted against the
power of France, elated by success, and exasperated by opposition.

If this, my lords, should be the consequence of our measures, and this
consequence is, perhaps, not far distant, it will no longer be, I
hope, asserted, that these mercenaries are an useless burden to the
nation, that they are of no advantage to the common cause, or that the
people have been betrayed by the ministry into expenses, merely that
Hanover might be enriched. When the grand _confederacy_ is once
revived, and revived by any universal conviction of the destructive
measures, the insatiable ambition, and the outrageous cruelty of the
French, what may not the friends of liberty presume to expect? May
they not hope, my lords, that those haughty troops which have been so
long employed in conquests and invasions, that have laid waste the
neighbouring countries with slaughters and devastations, will be soon
compelled to retire to their own frontiers, and be content to guard
the verge of their native provinces? May we not hope, that they will
soon be driven from their posts; that they will be forced to retreat
to a more defensible station, and admit the armies of their enemies
into their dominions; and that they will be pursued from fortress to
fortress, and from one intrenchment to another, till they shall be
reduced to petition for peace, and purchase it by the alienation of
part of their territories.

I hope, my lords, it may be yet safel