arried on only by the merchants, it is not easy to conceive; for surely
it will not be pretended, that all these losses were the necessary
consequence of our situation with regard to Spain, which, if it exposed
the Portugal traders to hazard, did not hinder us from guarding our own
coasts.

And yet on our own coasts, my lords, have multitudes of our ships been
taken by the Spaniards; they have been seized by petty vessels as they
were entering our ports, and congratulating themselves upon their escape
from danger.

In the late war with France, an enemy much more formidable both for
power and situation, methods were discovered by which our trade was more
efficaciously protected: by stationing a squadron at the mouth of the
Channel, of which two or three ships at a time cruized at a proper
distance on the neighbouring seas, the privateers were kept in awe, and
confined to their own harbours, or seized if they ventured to leave
them.

But of such useful regulations in the present war there is little hope;
for if the publick papers are of any credit, the king of Spain considers
the captures of our merchants as a standing revenue, and has laid an
indulto upon them as upon other parts of the Spanish trade.

It is, therefore, to little purpose that measures are proposed in this
house, or schemes presented by the merchants for the preservation of our
commerce; for the merchants are considered as the determined enemies of
our minister, who therefore resolved that they should repent of the war
into which he was forced by them, contrary to those favourite schemes
and established maxims, which he has pursued till the liberties of
mankind are almost extinguished.

There are, indeed, some hopes, my lords, that new measures, resolutely
pursued, might yet repair the mischiefs of this absurd and cowardly
conduct, and that by resolution and dexterity, the ambition of France
might once more be disappointed. The king of Prussia appears, at length,
convinced that he has not altogether pursued his real interest, and that
his own family must fall in the ruin of the house of Austria. The king
of Sardinia appears firm in his determination to adhere to the queen of
Hungary, and has therefore refused a passage through his dominions to
the Spanish troops. The States of Holland seem to have taken the alarm,
and nothing but their distrust of our sincerity can hinder them from
uniting against the house of Bourbon.

This distrust, my lords, we