Nor in our present state is
it to be mentioned as a trifling consideration, that we shall hinder
the wealth of the nation from being ravished from our merchants, our
farmers, and our manufacturers, to be squandered upon foreigners, and
foreigners from whom we can hope for no advantage.
But it may be asked, my lords, how the great cause of liberty is to be
supported, how the house of Austria is to be preserved from ruin, and
how the ambition of France is to be repressed? How all this is to be
effected, my lords, I am very far from conceiving myself qualified to
determine; but surely it will be very little hindered by the
dismission of troops, whose allegiance obliges them not to fight
against the emperour, and of whom, therefore, it does not easily
appear how they can be very useful allies to the queen of Hungary.
But whatever service is expected from them, it may surely, my lords,
be performed by the same number of British troops; and that number may
be sent to supply their place, without either delay or difficulty; I
will venture to say, without any hazard. If it be objected, as it has
often been, that by sending out our troops, we shall leave our country
naked to invasion, I hope I may be allowed to ask, who will invade us?
The French are well known to be the only people whom we can suspect of
any such design.
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