t could be
performed, it would produce consequences fatal to our government, as it
would expose our most secret measures to our enemies, and weaken the
confidence of our allies. I hope every man who regards either his own
reputation, or that of the senate, or professes any solicitude for the
publick good, will oppose the motion.

Lord QUARENDON spoke to this effect:--Sir, I am always inclined to
suspect a man who endeavours rather to terrify than persuade.
Exaggerations and hyperboles are seldom made use of by him who has any
real arguments to produce. The reasonableness of this motion (of which I
was convinced when I first heard it, and of which, I believe, no man can
doubt who is not afraid of the inquiry proposed by it) is now, in my
opinion, evinced by, the weak opposition which has been made by the
honourable gentleman, to whose abilities I cannot deny this attestation,
that the cause which he cannot defend, has very little to hope from any
other advocate.

And surely he cannot, even by those who, whenever he speaks, stand
prepared to applaud him, be thought to have produced any formidable
argument against the inquiry, who has advanced little more than that it
is impossible to be performed.

Impossibility is a formidable sound to ignorance and cowardice; but
experience has often discovered, that it is only a sound uttered by
those who have nothing else to say; and courage readily surmounts those
obstacles that sink the lazy and timorous into despair.

That there are, indeed, impossibilities in nature, cannot be denied.
There may be schemes formed which no wise man will attempt to execute,
because he will know that they cannot succeed; but, surely, the
examination of arithmetical deductions, or the consideration of treaties
and conferences, cannot be admitted into the number of impossible
designs; unless, as it may sometimes happen, the treaties and
calculations are unintelligible.

The only difficulty that can arise, must be produced by the confusion
and perplexity of our publick transactions, the inconsistency of our
treaties, and the fallaciousness of our estimates; but I hope no man
will urge these as arguments against the motion. An inquiry ought to be
promoted, that confusion may be reduced to order, and that the
distribution of the publick money may be regulated. If the examination
be difficult, it ought to be speedily performed, because those
difficulties are daily increasing; if it be impossible, it o