en attacked, is allowed
by every party. Every man, sir, knows that the only power that can
sensibly injure us, by obstructing our commerce, or invading our
dominions, is France, against which no confederacy can be formed, except
with the house of Austria, that can afford us any efficacious support.

The firmest bond of alliances is mutual interest. Men easily unite
against him whom they have all equal reason to fear and to hate; by whom
they have been equally injured, and by whom they suspect that no
opportunity will be lost of renewing his encroachments. Such is the
state of this nation, and of the Austrians. We are equally endangered by
the French greatness, and equally animated against it by hereditary
animosities, and contests continued from one age to another; we are
convinced that, however either may be flattered or caressed, while the
other is invaded, every blow is aimed at both, and that we are divided
only that we may be more easily destroyed.

For this reason we engaged in the support of the Pragmatick sanction,
and stipulated to secure the imperial crown to the daughters of Austria;
which was nothing more than to promise, that we would endeavour to
prevent our own destruction, by opposing the exaltation of a prince who
should owe his dignity to the French, and, in consequence of so close an
alliance, second all their schemes, admit all their claims, and
sacrifice to their ambition the happiness of a great part of mankind.

Such would probably be the consequence, if the French should gain the
power of conferring the imperial crown. They would hold the emperour in
perpetual dependence, would, perhaps, take possession of his hereditary
dominions, as a mortgage for their expenses; would awe him with the
troops which they sent under a pretence of assisting him, and leave him
only the titles of dominion, and the shadows of empire.

In this state would he remain, whilst his formidable allies were
extending their dominions on every side. He would see one power subdued
after another, and himself weakened by degrees, and only not deprived of
his throne, because it would be unnecessary to dethrone him; or he would
be obliged to solicit our assistance to break from his slavery, and we
should be obliged, at the utmost hazard, and at an expense not to be
calculated, to remedy what it is, perhaps, now in our power to prevent
with very little difficulty.

That this danger is too near to be merely chimerical, that the qu