ance, the Austrian family shall be ruined, who shall defend
him against the ambition of France?

While the liberties of mankind are thus equally endangered by folly and
ambition, attacked on one side, and neglected on the other, it is
necessary for those who foresee the calamity that threatens them, to
exert themselves in endeavours to avert it, and to retard the fatal
blow, till those who are now lulled by the contemplation of private
advantage, can be awakened into a just concern for the general happiness
of Europe, and be convinced that they themselves can only be secure by
uniting in the cause of liberty and justice.

For this reason, sir, our sovereign has asserted the Pragmatick
sanction, and promised to assist the queen of Hungary with the forces
which former treaties have entitled her to demand from him; for this
reason he has endeavoured to rouse the Dutch from their supineness, and
excite them to arm once more for the common safety, to intimidate, by
new augmentations, those powers whose ardour, perhaps, only subsists
upon the confidence that they shall not be resisted, and to animate, by
open declarations in favour of the house of Austria, those who probably
are only hindered from offering their assistance, by the fear of
standing alone against the armies of France.

That by this conduct he may expose his dominions on the continent to
invasions, ravages, and the other miseries of war, every one who knows
their situation must readily allow; nor can it be doubted by any man who
has heard of the power of the Prussians and French, that they may commit
great devastations with very little opposition, the forces of the
electorate not being sufficient to give them battle; for though the
fortified towns might hold out against them, that consideration will
very little alleviate the concern of those who consider the miseries of
a nation, whose enemies are in possession of all the open country, and
who from their ramparts see their harvest laid waste, and their villages
in flames. The fortifications contain the strength, but the field and
the trading towns comprise the riches of a people, and the country may
be ruined which is not subdued.

As, therefore, sir, the electoral dominions of his majesty are now
endangered, not by any private dispute with the neighbouring princes,
but by his firmness in asserting the general rights of Europe; as the
consequences of his conduct, on this occasion, will be chiefly
beneficial