I was always of opinion, my lords, that peace is the most eligible
state, and that the ease of security is to be preferred to the honour
of victory. I always thought peace particularly necessary to a trading
people; and as I have yet found no reason to alter my sentiments, and
as auxiliaries cannot be of any use but in time of war, I shall
endeavour to promote peace by joining in the motion.
Lord CHOLMONDELEY spoke to this effect:--My lords, notwithstanding the
atrocious charges which have been urged with so much vehemence against
the ministry; notwithstanding the folly and absurdity which some lords
have imagined themselves to have discovered in the present measures, I
cannot yet prevail upon myself, whatever may be my veneration for
their integrity, or my confidence in their abilities, to approve the
motion for which they so earnestly contend.
To comply with this motion, my lords, would be, in my opinion, to
betray the general cause of mankind, to interrupt the success of the
assertors of liberty, to give up all the continent, at once, to the
house of Bourbon, to defeat all the measures of our ancestors and
ourselves, and to invite the oppressors of mankind to extend their
claims of universal dominion to the island of Britain.
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