I shall, therefore, allow, that what justice requires from a
private man, becomes, in parallel circumstances, the duty of a nation;
and shall, therefore, never advise the violation of a solemn treaty.
The stipulations in which we engaged, when we became guarantees of the
Pragmatick sanction, are, doubtless, to be observed; and it is,
therefore, one of the strongest objections against the measures which
we are now pursuing, that we shall be perfidious at a greater expense
than fidelity would have required, and shall exhaust the treasure of
the nation without assisting the queen of Hungary.
To explain this assertion, my lords, it is necessary to take a view of
the constitution of the German body, which consists of a great number
of separate governments independent on each other, but subject, in
some degree, to the emperour as the general head. The subjects of each
state are governed by their prince, and owe no allegiance to any other
sovereign; but the prince performs homage to the emperour, and having
thereby acknowledged himself his feudatory, or dependant, may be
punished for rebellion against him. The title of the emperour, and
consequently his claim to this allegiance, and the right of issuing
the ban against those who shall refuse it, is confirmed by many solemn
acknowledgments of the diet, and, amongst others, by the grant of a
pecuniary aid; this the present emperour has indisputably received, an
aid having been already granted him in the diet, of a subsidy for
eighteen months; and, therefore, none of the troops of Germany can now
be employed against him, without subjecting the prince to whom they
belong to the censure of the ban, a kind of civil excommunication.
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