This, my lords, has been the consequence of assembling the army,
which, by the motion now under our consideration, some of your
lordships seem desirous to disband, an inclination of which I cannot
discover from whence it can arise.
For what, my lords, must be the consequence, if this motion should be
complied with? what but the total destruction of the whole system of
power which has been so laboriously formed and so strongly compacted?
what but the immediate ruin of the house of Austria, by which the
French ambition has been so long restrained? what but the subversion
of the liberties of Germany, and the erection of an universal empire,
to which all the nations of the earth must become vassals?
Should the auxiliary troops be disbanded, the queen of Hungary would
find what benefit she has received from them by the calamities which
the loss of them would immediately bring upon her. All the claims of
all the neighbouring princes, who are now awed into peace and silence,
would be revived, and every one would again believe, that nothing was
to be hoped or feared but from France. The French would again rush
forward to new invasions, and spread desolation over other countries,
and the house of Austria would be more weakened than by the loss of
many battles in its present state.
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