, my lords, the
propriety of a new war against the most formidable power of the
universe, at a time when we have been defeated and disgraced in our
conquests with a kingdom of inferiour force. We are to declare our
readiness to pay and to raise new taxes, since no war can be carried
on without them, at a time when our commerce, the great source of
riches, is obstructed; when the interest of debts contracted during a
long war, and a peace almost equally expensive, is preying upon our
estates; when the profits of the trade of future ages, and the rents
of the inheritances of our latest descendants, are mortgaged; and what
ought yet more to affect us, at a time when the outcry of distress is
universal, when the miseries of hopeless poverty have sunk the nation
into despair, when industry scarcely retains spirit sufficient to
continue her labours, and all the lower ranks of mankind are
overwhelmed with the general calamity.

There may, perhaps, be some among your lordships who may think this
representation of the state of the publick exaggerated beyond the
truth. There are many in this house who see no other scenes than the
magnificence of feasts, the gaieties of balls, and the splendour of a
court; and it is not much to be wondered at, if they do not easily
believe what it is often their interest to doubt, that this luxury is
supported by the distress of millions, and that this magnificence
exposes multitudes to nakedness and famine. It is my custom, when the
business of the senate is over, to retire to my estate in the country,
where I live without noise, and without riot, and take a calm and
deliberate survey of the condition of those that inhabit the towns and
villages about me. I mingle in their conversation, and hear their
complaints; I enter their houses, and find by their condition that
their complaints are just; I discover that they are daily
impoverished, and that they are not able to struggle under the
enormous burdens of publick payments, of which I am convinced that
they cannot be levied another year without exhausting the people, and
spreading universal beggary over the nation.

What can be the opinion of the publick, when they see an address of
this house, by which new expenses are recommended? Will they not
think that their state is desperate, and that they are sold to
slavery, from which nothing but insurrections and bloodshed can
release them? If they retain any hopes of relief from this house, they
mus