This, my lords, has been very warmly asserted in their own assemblies, nor have there been wanting men of spirit and integrity amongst them who have despised the gold and promises, and detected the artifices of France; who have endeavoured by all the arts of argument and persuasion to rouse their countrymen to remembrance of their former danger, and to an inquiry into their real interest; who have advised the levy of new forces, and the establishment of a new confederacy; who have called upon the state to face danger while it is yet distant, and to secure their own country by pouring their garrisons into the towns and citadels by which their frontiers are protected. If their arguments, however just, have not yet attained their end, it is to be imputed to the constitution, embarrassed by the combination of different interests, which must be reconciled, before any resolution can be formed. A single town, my lords, can, by refusing its consent, put a stand to the most necessary designs, and it is easily to be imagined, that by a monarch equally crafty and rich, a single town may sometimes be bribed into measures contrary to the publick interest. But, my lords, the negligence of the Dutch is a motive which ought to incite us to vigour and despatch; since it is not for the sake of the Dutch but ourselves, that we desire the suppression of France. If the Dutch are at length convinced of the ease of slavery, and think liberty no longer worth the labour of preserving it,--if they are tired with the task of labouring for the happiness of others, and have forsaken the stand on which they were placed, as the general watch of the world, to indulge themselves in tranquillity and slumber,--let not us, my lords, give way to the same infatuation; let not us look with neglect on the deluge that rolls towards us till it has advanced too far to be resisted. Let us remember, that we are to owe our preservation only to ourselves, and redouble our efforts in proportion as others neglect their duty. Let us show mankind, that we are neither afraid to stand up alone in defence of justice and of freedom, nor unable to maintain the cause that we have undertaken to assert.