If their
arguments, however just, have not yet attained their end, it is to be
imputed to the constitution, embarrassed by the combination of
different interests, which must be reconciled, before any resolution
can be formed. A single town, my lords, can, by refusing its consent,
put a stand to the most necessary designs, and it is easily to be
imagined, that by a monarch equally crafty and rich, a single town may
sometimes be bribed into measures contrary to the publick interest.
But, my lords, the negligence of the Dutch is a motive which ought to
incite us to vigour and despatch; since it is not for the sake of the
Dutch but ourselves, that we desire the suppression of France. If the
Dutch are at length convinced of the ease of slavery, and think
liberty no longer worth the labour of preserving it,--if they are
tired with the task of labouring for the happiness of others, and have
forsaken the stand on which they were placed, as the general watch of
the world, to indulge themselves in tranquillity and slumber,--let not
us, my lords, give way to the same infatuation; let not us look with
neglect on the deluge that rolls towards us till it has advanced too
far to be resisted.
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