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Aano 8. Geo. H. Power, yet fome of them may be blind to their own Intereft; nay, it is very probable fome of them always will; and are we to neglect what is neceffary for our own Security, or to refuse contributing any Thing towards preferving or reftoring the Balance of Power, becaufe every one of the other Parties concerned will not contribute their proportionable Share? This, in my Opinion, would be a very odd Sort of Maxim for us to lay down; it is fuch a one as I hope will never be infifted on in the Councils of Great Britain. Suppofe, for Example, our Neighbours, the States General, fhould be fo blind to the real Intereft of their Country, as to look quietly on till they faw any one of the Powers of Europe extend their Conquefts fo far, as to be able to give the Law to all the reft; would that be a Reafon for our behaving in the fame Manner? No, Sir, let our Neighbours do what they will, it is incumbent upon us to look in Time to our own Security; and I hope we shall always be ready to do what our Honour and our Safety may require, upon every fuch Occafion; for if ever we should refolve to put ourselves to no Charges for preferving the Balance of Power, unless the States General, or any other Nation in Europe, would agree to join with us, and to bear a proportionable Share of the Expence, we should from that Moment become dependent upon that other State, and confequently should be neglected and defpifed by all the other Powers of Europe.

Id Morpeth.

L Noel Somerfet.
Mr Shippen.

Sir Tho. Anton.
Mr Difs.

Mr Gibeon.

M: Sandy s.

Mr Plumer.

Therefore, Sir, as the Amendment propofed tends, in my Opinion, towards fhewing a Diffidence in his Majesty's Conduct; and as it tends towards placing this Nation in a Sort of Dependency upon other Powers, I cannot but be against it.'

To the above it was replied by the fame Members, who were for the Amendment, as follows:

Mr Speaker,

Although I have had the Honour to be long a Member of this Houfe, yet I find I never knew the whole of my Mr W. Pultcacy. Duty till this Day; for I always imagined that we met here to do Bufinefs, and not to make Compliments. I fhall never be against expreffing our Loyalty and our Fidelity to our Sovereign, upon every proper Occafion; because I take it to be no Compliment, I take it to be our Duty, and immemorial Cuftom has established it as fuch, at the Beginning of every Seffion of Parliament; but to applaud his Majefly's Wisdom, his Goodnefs, and his tender Regard for his People in every Part of his Conduct, which he may be pleafed to mention in his Speech, is a Method of expreffing ourfelves which ought indeed to be called Complimenting; it can be called nothing elfe, because it cannot be fincere, when

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when we bestow thofe high Epithets upon what we know Anno 8. Geo. H nothing about. This, indeed, I never before understood to be any Part of our Duty, and I am fure the Cuftom is not @immemorial; for if Gentlemen will look but a very little Way back in our Journals they will fee when it began; and I muft fay, I am forry it was ever begun; for, in my Opinion, it derogates highly from the Honour and Dignity of Parliament, and from that Sincerity and Simplicity, for which this Nation was, in ancient Times, so deservedly famous.

6

The honourable Gentlemen appear under a great Con

cern for those who have the Honour to ferve the Crown: Perhaps my Concern for them is not fo great; and for this Keafon it may be, that I do not think their Task so hard; I confefs that when I obferve any Modefty in them, I am apt enough to fufpect that it proceeds from Confcioufnefs of Guilt, rather than from Consciousness of Merit; and in their Motions for Addreffes they have of late so very seldom fhewn any Modefty, that I was furprized to find the least Appearance of it upon the prefent Occafion. However, Sir, it cannot be faid that the Modesty they have now fhewn is in any Degree exceffive; for as the Speeches from the Throne are, by the Cuftom of Parliament, fuppofed to be Speeches from the Minifters; and as his Majefty's Conduct, when it comes to be confider'd in this Houfe, is always fuppofed to be the Conduct of his Minifters, I cannot allow that thofe, who propofe that we should talk fo much in our Addrefs of their Wisdom and Goodness, and of their tender Regard for the publick Repofe and Tranquility, have teftified any exceffive Degree of Modefty, though it may perhaps appear to be a little more than what has lately been usual upon fuch Occafions. If the Gentlemen had been pleased to have left out the two Paragraphs in which thefe Compliments are contained, their Modefty furely would have been greater, and their Task would certainly have been eafier, because the Motion would have been shorter ; and I am convinced it would have given more Satisfaction to the Majority of the Nation, and I hope, to the Majority of this House.

I muft fay, Sir, I am not a little furprized to hear any Gentleman undertake to fhew, that neither of the two Paragraphs found Fault with, contain an Encomium upon any Minifter, or an Approbation of any Meafure: I am perfuaded, every Man without Doors that reads them will think otherwife; nay, I am convinced, that all thofe, who are not acquainted with our modern Refinements in Politicks, will think that we could not with any Sincerity exprefs ourelves fo, without having been made acquainted with all the ate Measures relating to War or Peace, fo as to be able to

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Anno 8. Geo. II. fee that they deferved thofe fine Epithets we are to give them: They will not confider that thefe fine Expreffions are defigned only as Compliments, and therefore do not require any Sincerity.

As to the firft Paragraph, the honourable Gentleman has acknowledged, that if the Words too precipitately had not been put in, it would have been a Declaration, at least, that it was neither neceflary nor incumbent upon us to engage in the War, which was a Declaration this Houfe could not decently make, without knowing fomething more of our late Tranfactions than have been yet communicated to us: And an honourable Gentleman, who spoke before him, has fhewed, I think, to a Demonstration, that the putting of those Words in our Address will carry an Infinuation, which I hope no Man will apply to his Majefty, whatever may be done with refpect to the Minifters: But the Paragraph, even with these Words, imports a Declaration from us, that it would have been precipitate, it would have been rafh, to have involved the Nation in War before this Time; which is a Declaration we cannot, in my Opinion, make, without more Lights than we have at prefent before us : But fuppofe that we are convinced of the Truth of this Declaration, what are we then to do? We are to acknowledge his Majefty's Wisdom and Goodness, or rather the Wisdom and Goodness of his Minifters, in not having been guilty of a rash Action; and whether fuch an Acknowledgment be confiftent with the Dignity of this Houfe, or even with common Senfe, I must leave to Gentlemen to judge?

With regard to the other Paragraph, allow me to fuppofe, Sir, that we were by the Treaty of Vienna, or otherwife, obliged in Honour to fend immediate Succours to the Emperor, would it not look very odd in us, to make our Acknowledgments to those who advised his Majefty to interpofe only as a Mediator, when he was in Honour obliged to engage as a Party in the Difpute? Let me fuppofe again, that there were feveral Difputes and Differences fubfifting between this Nation and any one of the Parties concerned in the present War, which Difputes and Differences we had no Hopes of accommodating in a friendly Manner; and which were of fuch a Nature as could not be given up, without injuring both the Honour and the Intereft of the Nation: In fuch a Cafe, could we have had a more proper Opportunity to vindicate our Honour and our juft Rights? and if fo, cart we make any Acknowledgments to thofe who have advised his Majesty not to lay hold of fuch a fair Opportunity? Then, as to our Concert with the Dutch, whether there has been any fuch or not, does not, I am fure, appear from any publick Step they have taken; and therefore I do not

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fee how we can make our Acknowledgments on that Account: Anno 8. Geo. II. I hope, however, it is fo; I hope they have acted in every Thing in Concert with us, as well as we have done with them. I believe it is their Intereft as well as ours to act in that Manner; but a Nation may miftake its own Interest, and therefore I may fuppofe that they have been from the very Beginning of this War, and even before it broke out, engaged in a feparate Intereft; if fo, can we make any Acknowledgments to those who have advised his Majesty to concert any Measures with them? All these Suppofitions may be true, for what we know; and yet by agreeing to this Paragraph we must prefume every one of them to be false, otherwise we must appear to be inconfiftent with ourselves.

Thus, Sir, even to take thefe two Paragraphs in the Senfe that the honourable Gentleman has put upon them, we must suppose we were no way engaged, either in Honour or Intereft, to take a Share in the prefent War; that it would have been precipitate and rash in us to have engaged in it, and that the Dutch are engaged in the fame Interest, and have acted in every Thing in Concert with us; which are Suppofitions we have not, I am afraid, any great Reason to make: But our Conftituents, the People who fent us hither, and whofe good Opinion we ought to preferve, will go farther: They will, from these two Paragraphs in our Addrefs, fuppofe, that the Measures purfued by the Minifters, for procuring Peace and Accommodation, have been wife and good; that the Plan of Peace is fuch a one as it ought to be, and that the most prudent Measures have been taken to make it effectual; and if they should afterwards find themselves mistaken, what Opinion can they have of our Wisdom and Goodness? I am afraid it will be but a poor Excufe, to an honeft, fincere Country-Gentleman, that he is never to look for Sincerity in the Addreffes of this House, and that we never mean any Thing but Compliment by any general Expreffions in them.

From what I have faid, Sir, I think it will appear, that both our Ignorance and our Sufpicions are good Arguments against our making fuch high Compliments to the Ministers; for it is upon them thefe Compliments are, by the Custom of Parliament, prefumed to be bestowed: His Majesty has no Concern in the Debate, and therefore we may treat the Subject with the more Freedom. Our Ignorance, as to all our late Transactions, is very great, and if future Parliaments fhould be always of the fame Opinion the laft was of, we are like to remain for ever in the most profound Ignorance; for I did not hear one Argument made Ufe of in the laft Parliament against the Motions then made, for fome Infight into our Foreign Affairs, but what will for ever be as ftrong as it VOL. IV.

C

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Arno 8. Geo. II. was at that Time: The Motions then made were not for a Discovery of any of the Tranfactions then upon the Anvil: These Motions were only for fome Papers, relating to Tranfactions that had been quite finished several Years before; and the only Reafon I heard given for refufing us that Fa vour was, that the publishing of fuch Papers, the difcovering of fuch Transactions, might open old Sores, they might relate fome way or another to the present Transactions, and therefore it was not proper they should be laid before us; nay, we were not fo much as allowed to call for them, in order to have had that Answer from his Majefty, from whom only it was proper for this House to take any fuch Anfwer. At this Rate, Sir, we fhall never have any Account of the Tranfactions of any Minister 'till fome new Favourite starts up, and refolves to difgrace his Predeceffor, by expofing the Wickedness or the Folly of his Conduct.

That our late Conduct has not been quite fo prudent is, I am fure, very much fufpected by the Generality of the Nation, whatever it may be by the Majority of this Houfe. We have been long amufed, Sir, we have had a great deal of Patience, but it is not, Sir, that Sort of People, meant by the honourable Gentlemen, who have been fo amused: It is not the Difaffected, the Enemies to his Majefty's Family and the prefent happy Establishment, who have been obliged to have Patience; no, Sir, fuch Men are, I believe, glad to fee fuch Measures purfued: It is those who are well affected towards his Majelly, thofe who are real Friends to the prefent Establishment, who have been lately amused, and it muft be acknowledged they have had a great deal of Patience. That the Nation has been affronted, that our Trade has been interrupted, that our Merchants have been plundered, and our Seamen moft cruelly ufed, are Facts not to be controverted. Whether they have proceeded from the ambitious Projects of foreign Courts, or from, the Blunders of fome of our own People at home, is a Question this Houfe ought to look into; and for that Purpose we ought to infift upon having all neceffary Lights laid before us. But for the prefent, I shall fuppofe, that they have all proceeded from the ambitious Projects of foreign Courts: What Satisfaction then have we obtained for the Infults and Indignities we have fuffered? What Reparation have our Merchants got for the Loffes they have fuftained? Is this Nation brought fo low, that we must submit to fuffer, to be disturbed, by the ambitious Projects of foreign Courts, without daring once to infift upon an adequate Satisfaction, a full Reparation? I hope not, Sir; and 'till an adequate Satisfaction and full Reparation be obtained, I fhall not be ready to agree to pafs Compliments upon our late Conduct. If we