This is, indeed, a dreadful prospect; but what other can arise to us from a war with France, with the most wealthy empire of the universe, of which we were sufficiently shown the strength in the late war, by the resistance which all the surrounding nations found it able to make against their united efforts, and which the debts that they then contracted, and the towns that were then destroyed, will not easily suffer them to forget. Of this empire, my lords, thus powerful, thus formidable, neither the dominions are contracted, nor the trade impaired, nor the inhabitants diminished. The French armies are no less numerous than under their late mighty monarch, their territories are increased by new acquisitions, their trade has long been promoted by the destruction of ours, and their wealth has been, by consequence, increased. They have not, my lords, like this unhappy nation, been exhausted by temporary expedients and useless armaments; they have not harassed their merchants to aggrandize the court, nor thrown away the opportunities which this interval of quiet has afforded them, in the struggles of faction; they have not been multiplying officers to betray the people, and taxing the people to support their oppressors; but have with equal policy, diligence, and success, recovered the losses which they then sustained, and enabled themselves to make another stand against a general confederacy. Against this empire, my lords, are we now to be engaged in a war, without trade, and without money, loaded with debts, and harassed with exactions; for what consequences can be expected from sending our troops into the frontier towns, but that the French will charge us with beginning hostilities, and declare war against us, or attack us without a declaration; and that we shall be obliged to stand alone against the whole power of the house of Bourbon, while all our ancient allies stand at a distance spiritless and intimidated, or, perhaps, secretly incite our enemies against us, in hopes of sharing our plunder, or of rising on our ruin. I know it has been alleged, and alleged with such a degree of confidence, as it is reasonable to hope nothing could produce but a consciousness of truth, that the Dutch have already consented to assist us; nor is it without regret, that I find myself obliged to declare, that this assertion is nothing more than one of those transient visions with which it has been for a long time the custom of British ministers to delude the people, to pacify their clamours, and lull them in security; one of those artifices from which nothing more is expected, than that it shall operate upon the nation, till the circumstances of our affairs furnish out another, which is likewise, in a short time, to be exploded only to make way for new falsehoods in a perpetual succession.