The reasonableness of our measures at this time, as at all others,
must be evinced by arguments drawn from an attentive review of the
state of our own country, compared with that of the neighbouring
nations; for no man will deny, that those methods of proceeding which
are at one time useful, may at another be pernicious; and that either
a gradual rotation of power, or a casual variation of interest, may
very properly produce changes in the counsels of the most steady and
vigorous administration.
It is therefore proper, in the examination of this question, to
consider what is the state of our own nation, and what is to be hoped
or feared from the condition of those kingdoms, which are most enabled
by their situation to benefit or to hurt us: and in inquiry, my lords,
an inquiry that can give little pleasure to an honest and benevolent
mind, it immediately occurs, that we are a nation exhausted by a long
war, and impoverished by the diminution of our commerce; and the
result, therefore, of this first consideration is, that those measures
are most eligible which are most frugal; and that to waste the publick
treasure in unnecessary expenses, or to load the people with new taxes
only to display a mockery of war on the continent, or to amuse
ourselves, our allies, or our enemies, with the idle ostentation of
unnecessary numbers, is to drain from the nation the last remains of
its ancient vigour, instead of assisting its recovery from its present
languors.
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