The support of the house of Austria appears not, indeed, much to
engage the attention of those by whom this motion is supported. It has
been represented as a house equally ambitious and perfidious with that
of Bourbon, and equally an enemy both to liberty and to true religion;
and a very celebrated author has been quoted to prove, that it is the
interest of the Germans themselves to see a prince at their head,
whose hereditary dominions may not incite him to exert the imperial
power to the disadvantage of the inferiour sovereigns.
In order to the consideration of these objections, it is necessary to
observe, my lords, that national alliances are not like leagues of
friendship, the consequences of an agreement of disposition, opinions,
and affections, but like associations of commerce, formed and
continued by no similitude of any thing but interest. It is not,
therefore, necessary to inquire what the house of Austria has deserved
from us or from mankind; because interest, not gratitude, engages us
to support it. It is useless to urge, that it is equally faithless and
cruel with the house of Bourbon, because the question is not whether
both shall be destroyed, but whether one should rage without control.
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