of all the ravages which have been committed and all
the blood that has been shed, since the death of the emperour, in the
defence of the Pragmatick sanction which he invaded, though ratified
by the solemn consent of the imperial diet.

In defence of the Pragmatick sanction, my lords, which all the princes
of the empire, except his majesty, saw violated without concern, are
we now required to exert our force; we are required only to perform
what we promised by the most solemn treaties, which, though they have
been broken by the cowardice or ambition of other powers, it will be
our greatest honour to observe with exemplary fidelity.

With this view, as your lordships have already been informed, the
Hanoverian troops will march into the empire; nor has their march been
hitherto delayed, either because there was yet no regular scheme
projected, or because they were obliged to wait for the permission of
the king of Prussia, or because they intended only to amuse Europe
with an empty show: they were detained, my lords, in Flanders, because
it was believed that they were more useful there than they would be in
any other place, because they at once encouraged the states, alarmed
the French, defended the Low Countries, and kept the communication
open between the queen's dominions and those of her allies. Nor were
these advantages, my lords, chimerical, and such as are only suggested
by a warm imagination; for it is evident that by keeping their station
in those countries they have changed the state of the war, that they
have protected the queen of Hungary from being oppressed by a new army
of French, and given her an opportunity of establishing herself in the
possession of Bavaria; that the French forces, instead of being sent
either to the assistance of the king of Spain against the king of
Sardinia, or of the emperour, for the recovery of those dominions
which he has lost by an implicit confidence in their alliance, have
been necessarily drawn down to the opposite extremity of their
dominions, where they are of no use either to their own country, or to
their confederates. The united troops of Britain and Hanover,
therefore, carried on the war, by living at ease in their quarters in
Flanders, more efficaciously than if they had marched immediately into
Bavaria or Bohemia.

Thus, my lords, I have endeavoured to show the justice of our designs,
and the usefulness of the measures by which we have endeavoured to
execute them;