e opposition, according to custom, cavilled at the
nature of this address. They observed, that the late pacification was
the worst and most inglorious of all the bad treaties to which the
English nation had ever subscribed; that it was equally disgraceful,
indefinite, and absurd; they said, the British navy had gained such an
ascendancy over the French at sea, that the sources of their wealth
were already choked up; that the siege of Maestricht would have employed
then-arms in the Low Countries till the arrival of the Russians;
and that the accession of these auxiliaries would have thrown the
superiority into the scale of the allies. They did not fail to take
notice that the most important and original object of the war was left
wholly undecided; and demonstrated the absurdity of their promising in
the address to make good such engagements as his majesty had entered
into with his allies, before they knew what those engagements were. In
answer to these objections, the ministers replied, that the peace was in
itself rather better than could be expected; and that the smallest delay
might have proved fatal to the liberties of Europe. They affirmed, that
the Dutch were upon the point of concluding a neutrality, in consequence
of which their troops would have been withdrawn from the allied army;
and, in that case, even the addition of the Russian auxiliaries would
not have rendered it a match for the enemy. They asserted, that if
the Avar had been prolonged another year, the national credit of Great
Britain must have been entirely ruined, many of the public funds having
sunk below par in the preceding season, so that the ministry had begun
to despair of seeing the money paid in on the new subscription. With
respect to the restoration of Cape Breton, the limits of Nova Scotia,
and the right of navigating without search in the American seas, which
right had been left unestablished in the treaty, they declared, that the
first was an unnecessary expense, of no consequence to Great Britain;
and that the other two were points in despute, to be amicably settled
in private conferences by commissaries duly authorized; but by no means
articles to be established by a general treaty.

What the opposition wanted in strength, it endeavoured to make up
with spirit and perseverance. Every ministerial motion and measure was
canvassed, sifted, and decried with uncommon art and vivacity; but all
this little availed against the single article of