econded by Mr.
Clutterbuck, and opposed by sir Wilfred Lawson, Mr. Shippen, Mr. W.
Pulteney, sir William Wyndham, and Mr. Oglethorpe. They did not argue
against a general address of thanks; but exposed the absurdity and bad
tendency of expressions which implied a blind approbation of all
the measures of the ministry. Sir Wilfred Lawson observed, that
notwithstanding the great things we had done for the crown of Spain, and
the favours we had procured for the royal family of that kingdom,
little or no satisfaction had as yet been received for the injuries our
merchants had sustained from that nation. Mr. Pulteney took notice, that
the nation, by becoming guarantee to the pragmatic sanction, laid itself
under an obligation to assist the Austrian family when attacked by
any potentate whatever, except the grand seignor; that they might be
attacked when it would be much against the interest of the kingdom to
engage itself in a war upon any foreign account; that it might one day
be for the interest of the nation to join against them, in order to
preserve the balance of Europe, the establishing of which had already
cost England such immense sums of money. He insisted upon the absurdity
of concluding such a number of inconsistent treaties; and concluded
with saying, that if affairs abroad were now happily established, the
ministry which conducted them might be compared to a pilot, who, though
there was a clear, safe, and straight channel into port, yet took it in
his head to carry the ship a great way about, through sands, rocks, and
shallows; who, after having lost a great number of seamen, destroyed
a great deal of tackle and rigging, and subjected the owners to an
enormous expense, at last by chance hits the port, and triumphs in
his good conduct. Sir William Wyndham spoke to the same purpose. Mr.
Oglethorpe, a gentlemen of unblemished character, brave, generous,
and humane, affirmed that many other things related more nearly to
the honour and interest of the nation, than did the guarantee of the
pragmatic sanction. He said he wished to have heard that the new works
at Dunkirk had been entirely razed and destroyed; that the nation had
received full and complete satisfaction for the depredations committed
by the natives of Spain; that more care was taken in disciplining the
militia, on whose valour the nation must chiefly depend in case
of invasion; and that some regard had been shown to the oppressed
protestants in Germany. He