In an affair of so great importance, my lords, an affair in which the interest of all the western world is engaged, it is necessary to take away all suspicions, when the nation is about to be involved in a war for the security of ourselves and our posterity; in a war which, however prosperous, must be at least expensive, and which is to be carried on against an enemy who, though not invincible, is, in a very high degree, powerful. It is surely proper to show, in the most publick manner, our conviction, that neither prudence nor frugality has been wanting; that the inconveniencies which will be always felt in such contentions, are not brought upon us by wantonness or negligence; and that no care is omitted by which they are alleviated, and that they may be borne more patiently, because they cannot be avoided. This attestation, my lords, we can only give by a solemn address to his majesty of a tendency contrary to that of the motion now rejected; and by such an attestation only can we hope to revive the courage of the nation, to unite those in the common cause of liberty whom false reports have alienated or shaken, and to restore to his majesty that confidence which all the subtilties of faction have been employed to impair. I, therefore, move, that an humble address be presented to his majesty, importing, "That in the unsettled and dangerous situation of affairs in Europe, the sending a considerable body of British forces into the Austrian Netherlands, and augmenting the same with sixteen thousand of his majesty's electoral troops, and the Hessians in the British pay, and thereby, in conjunction with the queen of Hungary's troops in the Low Countries, forming a great army for the service of the common cause, was a wise, useful, and necessary measure, manifestly tending to the support and encouragement of his majesty's allies, and the real and effectual assistance of the queen of Hungary, and the restoring and maintaining the balance of power, and has already produced very advantageous consequences." The earl of OXFORD spoke next, to the following effect:--My lords, the necessity of supporting our reputation, and of preserving the confidence of the publick, I am by no means inclined to dispute, being convinced, that from the instant in which we shall lose the credit which our ancestors have delivered down to us, we shall be no longer considered as a part of the legislature, but be treated by the people only as an assembly of hirelings and dependants, convened at the pleasure of the court to ratify its decisions without examination, to extort taxes, promote slavery, and to share with the ministry the crime and the infamy of cruelty and oppression.