een of
Hungary is invaded, and her right to the imperial dignity contested, is
well known; it is, therefore, the time for fulfilling our engagements;
engagements of the utmost importance to ourselves and our posterity; and
I hope the government will not be accused of profusion, if, for three
hundred thousand pounds, the liberties of Europe shall be preserved.

We cannot deny this grant without acting in opposition to our late
professions of supporting his majesty in his endeavours to maintain the
Pragmatick sanction, and of assisting him to defend his foreign
dominions from any injuries to which those endeavours should expose
them; for how can he without forces defend his dominions, or assist his
ally? or how can he maintain forces without supplies?

Mr. SHIPPEN next rose, and spoke thus:--Sir, as I have always
endeavoured to act upon conviction of my duty, to examine opinions
before I admit them, and to speak what I have thought the truth, I do
not easily change my conduct, or retract my assertions; nor am I
deterred from repeating my arguments when I have a right to speak, by
the remembrance that they have formerly been unsuccessful.

Every man, when he is confident himself, conceives himself able to
persuade others, and imagines that their obstinacy proceeds from other
motives than reason; and that, if he fails at one time to gain over his
audience, he may yet succeed in some happier moment, when their
prejudices shall be dissipated, or their interest varied.

For this reason, though it cannot be suspected that I have forgotten the
resentment which I have formerly drawn upon myself, by an open
declaration of my sentiments with regard to Hanover, I stand up again,
with equal confidence, to make my protestations against any
interposition in the affairs of that country, and to avow my dislike of
the promise lately made to defend it: a promise, inconsistent, in my
opinion, with that important and inviolable law, the _act of
settlement!_--a promise, which, if it could have been foreknown, would,
perhaps, have for ever precluded from the succession that illustrious
family, to which we owe such numberless blessings, such continued
felicity!

Far be it from me to insinuate that we can be too grateful to his
majesty, or too zealous in our adherence to him; only let us remember,
that true gratitude consists in real benefits, in promoting the true
interest of him to whom we are indebted; and surely, by hazarding the
welfa