It may not be improper, my lords, to observe, that on this contract depends the justice of our conduct with regard to the company established at Ostend for carrying on a trade to the East Indies. These provinces were granted to the confederate powers, and consigned to the emperour to be enjoyed by him for the common benefit: it was, therefore, plainly intended by this contract, that he should use none of the advantages which these new dominions afforded him, to the detriment of those powers by whose gift he enjoyed them; nor could it be supposed that the Dutch and Britons debarred each other from those opportunities of trade only to enable the emperour to rival them both. The towns, therefore, my lords, were at this time determined by the senate to be the general property of all the confederate powers, acquired by their united arms, and to be preserved for their common advantage, as the pledge of peace, and the palladium of Europe. If, therefore, it should at any time happen, that they should be endangered either by the weakness or neglect of any one of those powers, the rest are to exert their right, and endeavour their preservation and security; nor is there any new stipulation or law necessary for this; since, with respect to the confederates, it is implied in the original stipulation, and with regard to the senate of Britain, in the approbation which was bestowed upon that contract, when it was made. The time, my lords, in which this common right is to be exerted, is now arrived; the queen of Hungary, invaded in her hereditary dominions, and pressed on every side by a general combination of almost all the surrounding princes, declares herself no longer able to support the garrisons of the barrier, and informs us, that she intends to recall her troops for the defence of their own country. What, then, is more apparent, my lords, than that either these towns must fall again into the hands of the French, and that we shall be obliged to recover them, if they can ever be recovered, at the expense of another ten years' war, or that either we or the Dutch must send troops to supply the place of those which the necessities of their sovereign oblige her to withdraw. That the towns of Flanders should be resigned gratuitously to France, that the enemies of mankind should be put in possession of the strongest bulwarks in the world, surrounded by fields and pastures able to maintain their garrisons without expense, will not be proposed by any of this assembly. But it may easily and naturally be objected, that the Dutch ought to garrison these towns, as more nearly interested in their preservation, and more commodiously situated for their defence; nor can it be, indeed, denied, that the Dutch may be justly censured for their neglect, as they appear to leave the common cause to our protection, and to prefer their commerce and their ease to their own safety and the happiness of the world.