by our own ministry, or that
the ministers were almost the only men in the kingdom utterly
unacquainted with our claims, our injuries, and our danger.

A war could now no longer be avoided, it was not in the power of the
ministry any longer to refuse to send out our fleets, and make an
appearance of hostile measures; but they had still some expedients
remaining to shelter the Spaniards from our resentment, and to make
their country yet more contemptible: they could contrive such orders for
their admirals as should prevent them from destroying their enemies with
too little mercy; and if any one was suspected of intentions less
pacifick, there were methods of equipping his fleet in such a manner as
would effectually frustrate his schemes of revenge, reprisals, and
destruction.

These, my lords, are not the murmurs of the disappointed, nor the
insinuations of the factious; it is well known to our countrymen and to
our enemies, how ill admiral Vernon was furnished with naval and
military stores, and how little his importunate demands of a supply were
regarded. What opportunities were lost, and what advantages neglected,
may be conjectured from the success of his inconsiderable force. A very
little reflection on the situation and state of those countries will
easily satisfy your lordships, how far a small body of land-forces might
have penetrated, what treasures they might have gained, and what
consternation they might have spread over the whole Spanish America.

That our squadrons in the Mediterranean have been, at least, useless,
that they have sailed from point to point, and from one coast to
another, only to display the bulk of our ships, and to show the opulence
of our nation, can require no proof: I wish, my lords, there was less
reason for suspecting that they acted in concert with our enemies, that
they retired from before their ports only to give them an opportunity of
escaping, and that they, in reality, connived at some attempts which
they were, in appearance, sent to prevent.

There are some miscarriages in war, my lords, which every reasonable man
imputes to chance, or to causes of which the influence could not be
foreseen; there are others that may justly be termed the consequences of
misconduct, but of misconduct involuntary and pardonable, of a
disregard, perhaps, of some circumstances of an affair produced by too
close an attention to others. But there are miscarriages, too, for which
candour itself can