[DEBATE ON ADDRESSING THE KING.]
A copy of his majesty's speech being read, Mr. CLUTTERBUCK-BUCK rose,
and spoke as follows:--
Sir, the present confusion in Europe, the known designs of the French,
the numerous claims to the Austrian dominions, the armies which are
levied to support them, and the present inability of the queen of
Hungary to maintain those rights which descend to her from her
ancestors, and have been confirmed by all the solemnities of treaties,
evidently require an uncommon degree of attention in our consultations,
and of vigour in our proceedings.
Whatever may be the professions of the French, their real designs are
easily discovered, designs which they have carried on, either openly, or
in private, for near a century, and which it cannot be expected that
they will lay aside, when they are so near to success. Their view, sir,
in all their wars and treaties, alliances and intrigues, has been the
attainment of universal dominion, the destruction of the rights of
nature, and the subjection of all the rest of mankind; nor have we any
reason to imagine that they are not equally zealous for the promotion of
this pernicious scheme, while they pour troops into Germany, for the
assistance of their ally, as when they wasted kingdoms, laid cities in
ashes, and plunged millions into misery and want, without any other
motive than the glory of their king.
But the French are not the only nation at this time labouring for the
subversion of our common liberties. Our liberties, sir, are endangered
by those equally interested with ourselves in their preservation; for in
what degree soever any of the princes who are now endeavouring to divide
among themselves the dominions of Austria, may be pleased with the
acquisition of new territories, and an imaginary increase of influence
and power, it must be evident to all who are not dazzled by immediate
interest, that they are only fighting for France, and that by the
destruction of the Austrian family, they must in a short time fall
themselves.
It is well known, sir, though it is not always remembered, that
political as well as natural greatness is merely comparative, and that
he only is a powerful prince, who is more powerful than those with whom
he can have any cause of contention. That prince, therefore, who
imagines his power enlarged by a partition of territories, which gives
him some additional provinces, may be at last disappointed in his
expectations: for, if this partition gives to another prince already
greater than himself, an opportunity of increasing his strength in a
degree proportionate to his present superiority, the former will soon
find, that he has been labouring for nothing, and that his danger is
still the same.
Such, sir, is the case of the king of Prussia, who, when he has overrun
that part of Germany, to which he now lays claim, will only have
weakened the house of Austria, without strengthening himself.
He is at present secure in the possession of his dominions, because
neither the Austrians would suffer the French, nor the French permit the
Austrians to increase-their power by subduing him. Thus, while the
present equipoise of power is maintained, jealousy and caution would
always procure him an ally whenever he should be attacked; but when, by
his assistance, the Austrian family shall be ruined, who shall defend
him against the ambition of France?
While the liberties of mankind are thus equally endangered by folly and
ambition, attacked on one side, and neglected on the other, it is
necessary for those who foresee the calamity that threatens them, to
exert themselves in endeavours to avert it, and to retard the fatal
blow, till those who are now lulled by the contemplation of private
advantage, can be awakened into a just concern for the general happiness
of Europe, and be convinced that they themselves can only be secure by
uniting in the cause of liberty and justice.
For this reason, sir, our sovereign has asserted the Pragmatick
sanction, and promised to assist the queen of Hungary with the forces
which former treaties have entitled her to demand from him; for this
reason he has endeavoured to rouse the Dutch from their supineness, and
excite them to arm once more for the common safety, to intimidate, by
new augmentations, those powers whose ardour, perhaps, only subsists
upon the confidence that they shall not be resisted, and to animate, by
open declarations in favour of the house of Austria, those who probably
are only hindered from offering their assistance, by the fear of
standing alone against the armies of France.
That by this conduct he may expose his dominions on the continent to
invasions, ravages, and the other miseries of war, every one who knows
their situation must readily allow; nor can it be doubted by any man who
has heard of the power of the Prussians and French, that they may commit
great devastations with very little opposition, the forces of the
electorate not being sufficient to give them battle; for though the
fortified towns might hold out against them, that consideration will
very little alleviate the concern of those who consider the miseries of
a nation, whose enemies are in possession of all the open country, and
who from their ramparts see their harvest laid waste, and their villages
in flames. The fortifications contain the strength, but the field and
the trading towns comprise the riches of a people, and the country may
be ruined which is not subdued.
As, therefore, sir, the electoral dominions of his majesty are now
endangered, not by any private dispute with the neighbouring princes,
but by his firmness in asserting the general rights of Europe; as the
consequences of his conduct, on this occasion, will be chiefly
beneficial to Britain, we ought surely to support him in the prosecution
of this design; a design which we cannot but approve, since our
ancestors have always carried it on without regard either to the danger
or the expense.
In conformity to this maxim of politicks, so clearly founded in equity,
and so often justified by the votes of the senate, has his majesty been
pleased to declare to us his resolution to adhere to his engagements,
and oppose all attempts that may be forming in favour of any unjust
pretensions to the prejudice of the house of Austria. 'Tis for this end
he desires the concurrence of his senate. I hope every gentleman in this
house will agree with me that we ought to declare our approbation of
these measures, in such terms as may show the world, that those who
shall dare to obstruct them, must resolve to incur the resentment of
this nation, and expose themselves to all the opposition which the
senate of Britain can send forth against them. We ought to pronounce
that the territories of Hanover will be considered, on this occasion, as
the dominions of Britain, and that any attack on one or the other will
be equally resented. I, therefore, move, that an humble address be
presented by this house to his majesty,
To return our thanks for his speech; to express our dutiful sense of his
majesty's just regard for the rights of the queen of Hungary, and for
maintaining the Pragmatick sanction; to declare our concurrence in the
prudent measures which his majesty is pursuing for the preservation of
the liberties and balance of power in Europe; to acknowledge his
majesty's wisdom and resolution, in not suffering himself to be diverted
from steadily persevering in his just purposes of fulfilling his
engagements with the house of Austria; also, further to assure his
majesty, that, in justice to and vindication of the honour and dignity
of the British crown, we will effectually stand by and support his
majesty against all insults and attacks, which any prince or power, in
resentment of the just measures which he has so wisely taken, shall make
upon any of his majesty's dominions, though not belonging to the crown
of Great Britain. And that in any future events, which might make it
necessary for him to enter into still larger expenses, this house will
enable him to contribute, in the most effectual manner, to the support
of the queen of Hungary, to the preventing, by all reasonable means, the
subversion of the house of Austria, and to the maintaining the
Pragmatick sanction and the liberties and balance of Europe.
Mr. FOX seconded the motion in this manner:--Sir, the expediency, if not
the necessity of the address now moved for, will, I believe, be readily
allowed by those who consider the just measures which are pursued by his
majesty, the end which is intended by them, and the powers by which they
are opposed.
How much it is our duty to support the house of Austria it is not
necessary to explain to any man who has heard the debates of this
assembly, or read the history of the last war. How much it is our duty
to support it, is evident, as soon as it is known by whom it is
attacked; by the ancient enemy of these nations, by the general
disturber of the universe, by the formidable oppressors of liberty,
exulting in new acquisitions, inflamed with the madness of universal
monarchy, and elated with an opportunity of subjecting Germany, by
exalting to the supreme power a prince who shall hold his authority only
by their permission.
The house of Austria, which has so often stood forth in defence of our
common rights, which has poured armies into the field, in confederacy
with Britain, to suppress the insolence of that family which nothing
could satisfy but boundless power, now demands the assistance which it
has so often afforded; that assistance is demanded from us by every
claim which the laws of society can enact, or the dictates of nature can
suggest, by treaties maturely considered, and solemnly confirmed, by the
ties of ancient friendship, and the obligations of common interest.
To violate the publick faith, and to neglect the observation of
treaties, is to sink ourselves below barbarity, to destroy that
confidence which unites mankind in society. To deny or evade our
stipulations, sir, is to commit a crime which every honest mind must
consider with abhorrence, and to establish a precedent which may be used
hereafter to our own destruction.
To forsake an ancient ally only because we can receive no immediate
advantage from his friendship, or because it may be in some degree
dangerous to adhere to him; to forsake him when he most wants our good
offices, when he is distressed by his enemies, and deserted by others
from whom he had reason to hope for kinder treatment, is the most
despicable, the most hateful degree of cowardice and treachery.
The obligations of interest, sir, it is not often needful to enforce,
but it may be observed on this occasion, that a single year of neglect
may never be retrieved. We may, sir, now be able to support those whom,
when once dispossessed, it will not be in our power to restore; and that
if we suffer the house of Austria to be overborne, our posterity,
through every generation, may have reason to curse our injudicious
parsimony, our fatal inactivity, and our perfidious cowardice.
With what views the king of Prussia concurs in the French measures, or
upon what principles of policy he promises to himself any security in
the enjoyment of his new dominions, it is not easy to conjecture; but as
it is easy to discover, that whatever he may propose to himself, his
conduct evidently tends to the ruin of Europe, so he may, in my opinion,
justly be opposed, if he cannot be diverted or made easy.
Nor can we, sir, if this opposition should incite him, or any other
power, to an invasion of his majesty's foreign dominions, refuse them
our protection and assistance: for as they suffer for the cause which we
are engaged to support, and suffer only by our measures, we are at
least, as allies, obliged by the laws of equity and the general compacts
of mankind, to arm in their defence; and what may be claimed by the
common right of allies, we shall surely not deny them, only because they
are more closely united to us, because they own the same monarch with
ourselves.
Mr. PULTENEY spoke to the following purpose:--Sir, with what eagerness
the French snatch every opportunity of increasing their influence,
extending their dominions, and oppressing their neighbours, the
experience of many years has convinced all Europe; and it is evident
that unless some power be preserved in a degree of strength nearly equal
to theirs, their schemes, pernicious as they are, cannot be defeated.
That the only power from which this opposition can be hoped, is the
house of Austria, a very superficial view of this part of the globe,
will sufficiently demonstrate; of this we were long since so strongly
convinced, that we employed all our forces and all our politicks to
aggrandize this house. We endeavoured not only to support it in all its
hereditary rights, but to invest it with new sovereignties, and extend
its authority over new dominions.
Why we afterwards varied in our councils and our measures, I have long
inquired without any satisfaction, having never, sir, with the utmost
application, been able to discover the motives to the memorable treaty
of Hanover, by which we stipulated to destroy the fabrick that we had
been so long and so laboriously endeavouring to erect; by which we
abandoned that alliance which we had so diligently cultivated, which we
had preferred to peace, plenty, and riches, and for which we had
cheerfully supported a tedious, a bloody, and an expensive war.
This conduct, sir, raises a greater degree of admiration, as the authors
of it had exhausted all their eloquence in censuring the treaty of
Utrecht, and had endeavoured to expose those who transacted it to the
general hatred of the nation; as they always expressed in the strongest
terms their dread and detestation of the French; as they animated all
their harangues, and stunned their opponents with declarations of their
zeal for the liberties of Europe.
By what impulse or what infatuation, these asserters of liberty, these
enemies of France, these guardians of the balance of power, were on the
sudden prevailed on to declare in favour of the power whom they had so
long thought it their chief interest and highest honour to oppose, must
be discovered by sagacity superiour to mine. But after such perplexity
of councils and such fluctuation of conduct, it is necessary to inquire
more particularly what are the present intentions of the ministry, what
alliances have been formed, and what conditions are required to be
fulfilled.
If we are obliged only to supply the queen of Hungary with twelve
thousand men, we have already performed our engagements; if we have
promised any pecuniary assistance, the sum which we have stipulated to
furnish ought to be declared; for I suppose, at least, our engagements
have some limits, and that we are not to exert all the force of the
nation, to fight as if fire and sword were at our gates, or an invader
were landing armies upon our coasts.
I have, sir, from my earliest years been zealous for the defence and
exaltation of the house of Austria, and shall be very far from proposing
that any danger or distress should influence us to desert it; but I do
not easily discover by what means we shall be able to afford any
efficacious assistance: for the power of Britain consists chiefly in
naval armaments, which can be of very little use to the queen of
Hungary, and I know not any state that will easily consent to unite with
us on this occasion.
If there be, sir, any states remaining in Europe which the French can
neither intimidate nor bribe, we ought studiously 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 declare, sir, that I shall not only, with the greatest
cheerfulness, bear my share of the publick expense, but endeavour to
reconcile others to their part of the calamities of war. This, sir, I
have advanced in confidence, that sufficient care shall be taken, that
in any new alliance we shall be parties, not principals; that the
expense of war, as the advantage of victory, shall be common; and that
those who shall unite with us will be our allies, not our mercenaries.
Mr. WALPOLE then spoke, to the following purpose:--Sir, it is not
without reason that the honourable gentleman desires to be informed of
the stipulations contained in the treaty by which we have engaged to
support the Pragmatick sanction; for I find that he either never knew
them or has forgotten them; and, therefore, those reasonings which he
has formed upon them fall to the ground.
We are obliged, sir, by this treaty, to supply the house of Austria with
twelve thousand men, and the Dutch, who were engaged in it by our
example, have promised a supply of five thousand. This force, joined to
those armies which the large dominions of that family enable them to
raise, were conceived sufficient to repel any enemy by whom their rights
should be invaded.
But because in affairs of such importance nothing is to be left to
hazard, because the preservation of the equipoise of power, on which the
liberties of almost all mankind, who can call themselves free, must be
acknowledged to depend, ought to be rather certain, than barely
probable; it is stipulated farther, both by the French and ourselves,
that if the supplies, specified in the first article, shall appear
insufficient, we shall unite our whole force in the defence of our ally,
and struggle, once more, for independence, with ardour proportioned to
the importance of our cause.
By these stipulations, sir, no engagements have been formed that can be
imagined to have been prohibited by the act of settlement, by which it
is provided, that the house of Hanover shall not plunge this nation into
a war, for the sake of their foreign dominions, without the consent of
the senate; for this war is by no means entered upon for the particular
security of Hanover, but for the general advantage of Europe, to repress
the ambition of the French, and to preserve ourselves and our posterity
from the most abject dependence upon a nation exasperated against us by
long opposition, and hereditary hatred.
Nor is the act of settlement only preserved unviolated by the reasons of
the present alliance, but by the regular concurrence of the senate which
his majesty has desired, notwithstanding his indubitable right of making
peace and war by his own authority. I cannot, therefore, imagine upon
what pretence it can be urged, that the law, which requires that no war
shall be made on account of the Hanoverian dominions without the consent
of the senate, is violated, when it is evident that the war is made upon
other motives, and the concurrence of the senate is solemnly desired.
But such is the malevolence with which the conduct of the administration
is examined, that no degree of integrity or vigilance can secure it from
censure. When, in the present question, truth and reason are evidently
on their side, past transactions are recalled to memory, and those
measures are treated with the utmost degree of contempt and ridicule, of
which the greatest part of the audience have probably forgotten the
reasons, and of which the authors of them do not always stand up in the
defence, because they are weary of repeating arguments to those who
listen with a resolution never to be convinced.
How well, sir, those by whom the ministry is opposed, have succeeded in
hardening their minds against the force of reason, is evident from their
constant custom of appealing from the senate to the people, and
publishing, in pamphlets, those arguments which they have found
themselves, in this assembly, unable to support; a practice which
discovers rather an obstinate resolution to obstruct the government,
than zeal for the prosperity of their country, and which, to speak of it
in the softest terms, seems to be suggested more by the desire of
popularity than the love of truth.
Mr. SANDYS spoke to the effect following:--Sir, notwithstanding the
confidence with which this motion has been offered and defended,
notwithstanding the specious appearance of respect to his majesty, by
which it is recommended, I am not ashamed to declare, that it appears to
me inconsistent with the trust reposed in us by our constituents, who
owe their allegiance to the king of Britain, and not to the elector of
Hanover.
It will be urged, sir, by the people, whom we sit here to represent,
that they are already embarrassed with debts, contracted in a late war,
from which, after the expense of many millions, and the destruction of
prodigious multitudes, they receive no advantage; and that they are now
loaded with taxes for the support of another, of which they perceive no
prospect of a very happy or honourable conclusion, of either security or
profit, either conquests or reprisals; and that they are, therefore, by
no means willing to see themselves involved in any new confederacy, by
which they may entail on their posterity the same calamities, and oblige
themselves to hazard their fortunes and their happiness in defence of
distant countries, of which many of them have scarcely heard, and from
which no return of assistance is expected.
Mr. WALPOLE spoke again, to this purpose:--Sir, though it is not
necessary to refute every calumny that malice may invent, or credulity
admit, or to answer those of whom it may reasonably be conceived that
they do not credit their own accusations, I will yet rise, once more, in
vindication of the treaty of Hanover, to show with how little reason it
is censured, to repress the levity of insult, and the pride of
unreasonable triumph.
The treaty of Hanover, sir, how long soever it has been ridiculed, and
with whatever contempt those by whom it was negotiated have been
treated, was wise and just. It was just, because no injury was intended
to any power, no invasion was planned, no partition of dominions
stipulated, nothing but our own security desired. It was wise, because
it produced the end proposed by it, and established that security which
the Austrians and Spaniards were endeavouring to destroy.
The emperour of Germany, sir, had then entered into a secret treaty of
alliance with Spain, by which nothing less was designed than the total
destruction of our liberties, the diminution of our commerce, the
alienation of our dominions, and the subversion of our constitution. We
were to have been expelled from Gibraltar, and totally excluded from the
Mediterranean, the pretender was to have been exalted to the throne, and
a new religion, with the slavery that always accompanies it, to have
been introduced amongst us, and Ostend was to have been made a port, and
to have shared the poor remains of our commerce to foreign nations.
This unjust, this malicious confederacy, was then opposed with the
utmost vehemence by the imperial general, whose courage and military
capacity are celebrated throughout the world, and whose political
abilities and knowledge of the affairs of Europe, were equal to his
knowledge of war. He urged, with great force, that such a confederacy
would disunite the empire for ever from the maritime powers, by which it
had been supported, and which were engaged by one common interest in the
promotion of its prosperity: but his remonstrances availed nothing, and
the alliance was concluded.
When our ancient allies, who had been so often succoured with our
treasure, and defended by our arms, had entered into such engagements;
when it was stipulated not only to impoverish but enslave us; not only
to weaken us abroad, but to deprive us of every domestick comfort; when
a scheme was formed that would have spread misery over the whole nation,
and have extended its consequences to the lowest orders of the
community, it was surely necessary to frustrate it by some alliance, and
with whom could we then unite, but with France?
This is not the only fact on which gentlemen have ventured to speak with
great freedom without sufficient information; the conduct of our allies
in the late war has been no less misrepresented than that of our
ministers in their negotiations. They have been charged with imposing
upon us the whole expense of the confederacy, when it may be proved,
beyond controversy, that the annual charge of the Dutch was five
millions.
Nor did they, sir, only contribute annually thus largely to the common
cause, but when we forsook the alliance, and shamefully abandoned the
advantages we had gained, they received our mercenaries into their own
pay, and expended nine millions in a single year.
Of the truth of these assertions it is easy to produce incontestable
evidence, which, however, cannot be necessary to any man who reflects,
that from one of the most wealthy nations in the world, the Dutch, with
all their commerce, and all their parsimony, are reduced to penury and
distress; for who can tell by what means they have sunk into their
present low condition, if they suffered nothing by the late war?
How this gentleman, sir, has been deceived, and to whose insinuations
his errours are to be imputed, I am at no loss to discover. I hope he
will, by this confutation, be warned against implicit credulity, and
remember with what caution that man is to be trusted, whose pernicious
counsels have endangered his country.
Mr. VYNER spoke thus:--Sir, it is, in my opinion, an incontestable
maxim, that no measures are eligible, which are unjust; and that,
therefore, before any resolutions are formed, we ought to examine not
what motives may be suggested by expedience, but what arguments may be
advanced by equity on one part or the other.
If I do not mistake the true intent of the address now proposed, we are
invited to declare that we will oppose the king of Prussia in his
attempts upon Silesia, a declaration in which I know not how any man can
concur, who knows not the nature of his claim, and the laws of the
empire. It ought, therefore, sir, to have been the first endeavour of
those by whom this address has been so zealously promoted, to show that
his claim, so publickly explained, so firmly urged, and so strongly
supported, is without foundation in justice or in reason, and is only
one of those imaginary titles, which ambition may always find to the
dominions of another.
But no attempt has been yet made towards the discussion of this
important question, and, therefore, I know not how any man can call upon
us to oppose the king of Prussia, when his claim may probably be just,
and, by consequence, such as, if it were necessary for us to engage in
the affairs of those distant countries, we ought to join with him in
asserting.
Lord GAGE spoke next, in substance as follows:--Sir, as no member of
this assembly can feel a greater degree of zeal for his majesty's honour
than myself; none shall more readily concur in any expression of duty or
adherence to him.
But I have been always taught that allegiance to my prince is consistent
with fidelity to my country, that the interest of the king and the
people of great Britain is the same; and that he only is a true subject
of the crown, who is a steady promoter of the happiness of the nation:
For this reason I think it necessary to declare, that Hanover is always
to be considered as a sovereignty separate from that of Britain, and as
a country with laws and interests distinct from ours; and that it is the
duty of the representatives of this nation, to take care that interests
so different may never be confounded, and that Britain may incur no
expense of which Hanover alone can enjoy the advantage.
If the elector of Hanover should be engaged in war with any of the
neighbouring sovereigns, who should be enabled, by a victory, to enter
into the country, and carry the terrours of war through all his
territories, it would by no means be necessary for this nation to
interpose; for the elector of Hanover might lose his dominions without
any disadvantage or dishonour to the king or people of Britain.