manifest absurdity of their
conduct upon any other supposition, but from the general scheme which
has always been pursued by the man whose dictatorial instructions
regulate the opinions of all those that constitute the ministry, and of
whom it is well known, that it has been the great purpose of his life to
aggrandize France, by applying to her for assistance in imaginary
distresses from fictitious confederacies, and by sacrificing to her in
return the house of Austria, and the commerce of Britain.

How then, my lords, can it be asserted by us, that the house of Austria
has been vigilantly supported? How can we approve measures, of which we
discover no effect but the expense of the nation? A double expense,
produced first by raising troops, which though granted for the
assistance of the Austrians, have been made use of only for the
protection of Hanover, and by the grant of money in the place of these
troops, which were thus fallaciously obtained, and thus unprofitably
employed!

For what purpose these forces were in reality raised, I suppose no man
can be ignorant, and no man to whom it is known can possibly approve it.
How then, my lords, can we concur in an address by which the people must
be persuaded, that we either are deceived ourselves, or endeavour to
impose upon them; that we either dare not condemn any measures, however
destructive, or that, at least, we are in haste to approve them, lest
inquiry should discover their tendency too plainly to leave us the power
of applauding them, without an open declaration of our own impotence, or
disregard for the welfare of the publick.

The complaints of the people are already clamorous, and their discontent
open and universal; and surely the voice of the people ought, at least,
to awake us to an examination of their condition. And though we should
not immediately condemn those whom they censure and detest, as the
authors of their miseries, we ought, at least, to pay so much regard to
the accusation of the whole community, as not to reject it without
inquiry, as a suspicion merely chimerical.

Whether these complaints and suspicions, my lords, proceed from real
injuries and imminent dangers, or from false accusations and groundless
terrours, they equally deserve the attention of this house, whose great
care is the happiness of the people: people equally worthy of your
tenderness and regard, whether they are betrayed by one party or
another; whether they are plundered