The towns, therefore, my lords, were at this time determined by the
senate to be the general property of all the confederate powers,
acquired by their united arms, and to be preserved for their common
advantage, as the pledge of peace, and the palladium of Europe. If,
therefore, it should at any time happen, that they should be
endangered either by the weakness or neglect of any one of those
powers, the rest are to exert their right, and endeavour their
preservation and security; nor is there any new stipulation or law
necessary for this; since, with respect to the confederates, it is
implied in the original stipulation, and with regard to the senate of
Britain, in the approbation which was bestowed upon that contract,
when it was made.
The time, my lords, in which this common right is to be exerted, is
now arrived; the queen of Hungary, invaded in her hereditary
dominions, and pressed on every side by a general combination of
almost all the surrounding princes, declares herself no longer able to
support the garrisons of the barrier, and informs us, that she intends
to recall her troops for the defence of their own country. What, then,
is more apparent, my lords, than that either these towns must fall
again into the hands of the French, and that we shall be obliged to
recover them, if they can ever be recovered, at the expense of another
ten years' war, or that either we or the Dutch must send troops to
supply the place of those which the necessities of their sovereign
oblige her to withdraw.
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