'Accursed be the man,' he continued, 'who will not do all he can to strengthen the King's hands, and he will indeed receive the malediction. Strengthen the Sovereign by laying bare the weakness of his Councils: urge him to substitute reality to incapacity, futility, and the petty love of power. It is the little spirit of domination, the ambition of being the only figure among cyphers, which has caused the decay of this country. The ignominious indulgence of patronage, the poor desire to dispose of places, should be left for times of relaxation: rough times such as these require wisdom. The cost of the augmentation proposed to-day, two hundred and eighty thousand pounds, would last year have given us security. Yet the danger was last year as visible as now to the eye of foresight. The first attribute of a wise Minister is to leave as little as possible exposed to contingencies. Now, for want of that foresight, stocks will fall, and hurry along with them the ruin of the City, vulnerable in proportion to its opulence. In other countries the treasure remains in a city which is not sacked. But paper credit like ours may be wounded even in Kent. It is like the sensitive plant, it need not be cropped; extend but your hand, it withers and dies.' Barrington, the orator continued, had cited the Romans. He need not go so far afield, our own days had produced as great examples. In 1746, thirteen regiments had been raised by noblemen who, though they had not like the Romans left their ploughs, had left their palaces to save their country. With what scorn, depression, and cruelty, so far as contempt is cruelty, had they been treated! He wished the country gentry encouraged to raise a militia, for he was anxious to call the country out of that enervated condition that the menace of twenty thousand men from France could shake it. It was our Government that was degenerate, not our people. He wished the breed restored that had formerly carried our glory so high. What did those Ministers deserve, and again he insinuated mysterious hints of connivance and collusion, what did those Ministers deserve, who, after Washington had been defeated and our forts taken, advised his Majesty to trust to so slender a force as had been sent. He was for no vindictive proceedings against them; they erred from the weakness of their heads rather than their hearts. But a sagacity something less than that of a Richelieu or a Burleigh could have foreseen what would happen.