A jealousy of Hanover has, indeed, for a long time prevailed in the
nation. The frequent visits of our kings to their electoral dominions,
contrary to the original terms on which this crown was conferred upon
them, have inclined the people of Britain to suspect, that they have
only the second place in the affection of their sovereign; nor has
this suspicion been made less by the large accessions made to those
dominions by purchases, which the electors never appeared able to make
before their exaltation to the throne of Britain, and by some measures
which have been apparently taken only to aggrandize Hanover at the
expense of Britain.
These measures, my lords, I am very far from imputing to our sovereign
or his father; the wisdom of both is so well known, that they cannot
be imagined to have incurred, either by contempt or negligence, the
disaffection of their subjects. Those, my lords, are only to be
blamed, who concealed from them the sentiments of the nation, and for
the sake of promoting their own interest, betrayed them, by the most
detestable and pernicious flattery, into measures which could produce
no other effect than that of making their reign unquiet, and of
exasperating those who had concurred with the warmest zeal in
supporting them on the throne.
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