usly to solicit and
diligently to cultivate their friendship; but whether any, except the
Moscovites, are now independent, or sufficiently confident of their own
strength to engage in such a hazardous alliance, may be justly doubted.

The late grand alliance, sir, was supported at the expense of this
nation alone; nor was it required from the other confederates to exhaust
the treasure of their country in the common cause. I hope the debt which
that war has entailed upon us will instruct us to be more frugal in our
future engagements, and to stipulate only what we may perform without
involving the nation in misery, which victories and triumphs cannot
compensate.

The necessity, sir, of publick economy obliges me to insist, that before
any money shall be granted, an account be laid before the senate, in
particular terms, of the uses to which it is to be applied. To ask for
supplies in general terms, is to demand the power of squandering the
publick money at pleasure, and to claim, in softer language, nothing
less than despotick authority.

It has not been uncommon for money, granted by the senate, to be spent
without producing any of those effects which were expected from it,
without assisting our allies, or humbling our enemies; and, therefore,
there is reason for suspecting that money has sometimes been asked for
one use and applied to another.

If our concurrence, sir, is necessary to increase his majesty's
influence on the continent, to animate the friends of the house of
Austria, or to repress the disturbers of the publick tranquillity, I
shall willingly unite with the most zealous advocates for the
administration in any vote of approbation or assistance, not contrary to
the act of settlement, that important and well-concerted act, by which
the present family was advanced to the throne, and by which it is
provided, that Britain shall never be involved in war for the
enlargement or protection of the dominions of Hanover, dominions from
which we never expected nor received any benefit, and for which,
therefore, nothing ought to be either suffered or hazarded.

If it should be again necessary to form a confederacy, and to unite the
powers of Europe against the house of Bourbon, that ambitious, that
restless family, by which the repose of the world is almost every day
interrupted, which is incessantly labouring against the happiness of
human nature, and seeking every hour an opportunity of new
encroachments, I decl