may
support a war against us, and he that can fit out privateers to
interrupt our trade, may, without obtaining a victory, reduce us to
distress.

Our situation, sir, as it preserves us from the danger of an invasion,
except from that powerful monarch, the pretender, who is, indeed, always
to be dreaded, has, likewise, the effect of securing other nations from
being invaded by us; for it is very difficult to transport in one fleet,
and to land at one time, a number sufficient to force their way into a
country where the ports are fortified, and the inhabitants in arms.

Our wars, sir, are, therefore, to be determined by naval battles, and
those nations have very little to fear from us who have no trade to be
disturbed, and no navies to be destroyed; if they can only fit out
cruisers, which may always be done by granting commissions to foreign
adventurers, they may ruin our merchants by captures, exhaust the nation
by the necessity of convoys, and give neutral traders an opportunity of
establishing their credit at those markets which have been, hitherto,
supplied by our manufactures.

This is, indeed, far from being at present an exact account of the state
of Spain, whose wide-extended dominions are liable to insults, and from
whom many of her most wealthy provinces may be torn without great hazard
or difficulty. The particular state of her commerce, which, being only
carried on from one part of her dominions to another, can only be for a
time interrupted, but is in no danger of being invaded by any rival, or
lost by disuse, at least requires our consideration, and we ought to
make war with the utmost frugality, against a people whom no hostilities
can really impoverish, whose commerce may be said to lie at rest rather
than to be shackled, as it will rise into greater vigour at the end of
the war, and whose treasures, though the want of them is a present
inconvenience, are only piled up for a time of security.

As the only method, sir, of reducing this nation, must be that of
invading its colonies, and dismembering its provinces, by which the
chief persons will be deprived of their revenues, and a general
discontent be spread over the people, the forces which are levied for
this expedition, an expedition on which so much of the honour of our
arms and the prosperity of our trade must necessarily depend, ought to
be selected with the greatest care, and disciplined with the exactest
regularity.

On this occasion, ther