If these maxims were once generally understood, from how much
perplexity would our councils be set free? how many thousands of our
fellow-subjects would be preserved from slaughter? and how much would
our wealth be increased, by saving those sums which are yearly
squandered in idle expeditions, or in negotiations equally useless,
and, perhaps, equally expensive? Had these principles been received by
our forefathers, we might now have given laws to the world, and,
perhaps, our posterity will, with equal reason, say, How happy, how
great and formidable they should have been, had not we attempted to
fix and to hold the balance of power, and neglected the interest of
our country for the preservation of the house of Austria!
Thus, my lords, I have endeavoured to explain and enforce my opinion
of the measures in which our ministers have engaged the nation; and
hope that I shall not be accused of being influenced in my
determinations by personal prejudices, nor of having changed my
opinions with regard to publick affairs, in consequence of any change
of the persons by whom they are conducted. For if my sentiments have
ever been thought important enough to be retained in memory, I can,
with the utmost confidence, appeal to all those who can recollect what
I have formerly said, when the reestablishment of the house of Austria
was the subject of our consultations; and defy the most rigorous and
attentive examiner of my conduct, to prove, that there ever was a time
in which I thought it necessary or expedient for the British nation to
be entangled in disputes on the continent, or to employ her arms in
regulating the pretensions of contending powers.
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