This invasion of our rights, my lords, is too flagrant to be borne,
though were the measures which we are thus tyrannically, required to
support, really conducive in themselves to the interest of Britain,
which, indeed, might reasonably have been expected; for what head can
be imagined so ill formed for politicks as not to know, that the first
acts of arbitrary power ought to be in themselves popular, that the
advantage of the effect may be a balance to the means by which it is
produced.
But these wonderful politicians, my lords, have heaped one blunder
upon another; they have disgusted the nation both by the means and the
end; and have insulted the senate with no other view than that of
plundering the people. They have ventured, without the consent of the
senate, to pursue measures, of which it is obvious that they were
only kept secret because they easily foresaw that they would not be
approved.
For that the hire of mercenaries from Hanover, my lords, would have
been rejected with general indignation; that the proposal would have
produced hisses rather than censures; and that the arguments which
have been hitherto used to support it, would, if personal regards did
not make them of some importance, produce laughter oftener than
replies, cannot surely be doubted.
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