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picious that the war will not be pushed in fuch a vigorous manner as a people greatly injured, and juftly enraged, may have reason to expect. If this be the cafe, they have good reason to warn us against animofities and divifions; but their warnings will be in vain. Our former divifions will revive, and our animofities may increase to fuch a degree, as to endanger the tranquillity of the nation, unless they be appeased by a facrifice of those who were the cause of their being revived.

For this reason, I fay, my Lords, I wish I had heard nothing of animofities and divifions upon this occafion, and I am furprised how any fuch thing could creep into His Majesty's fpeech. In a free country, fuch as this, Lords or Gentlemen may differ in their opinions about public measures; and, as the intereft of their country is concerned, they may, they ought to support their opinions with fervency and zeal: but that difference in opinion is not to be called a divifion; nor is that fervency to be called animofity. Something of our divisions and animofities was, I remember, mentioned in a piece that was handed about as the manifesto of Spain. This I was no way furprised at; because in Spain they can have no difference in opinion about public measures; at least, if they have, they dare as little declare it, as they dare declare their difference of opinion about matters of faith or religion; therefore they might, probably, miftake the one for the other, by fuppofing that to be a divifion amongst us, which was really nothing but a difference in opinion. But I hope His Majesty's Ministers are better acquainted with the conftitution of their country, than to fall into any fuch mistake; and they should particularly upon this occasion have avoided faying any thing about divifions or animofities, because it will confirm the Spaniards in the mistake they are in, and may, as the noble Lord apprehends, encourage them to continue the war, in hopes that they may be able to reap fome advantage from our divifions.

From hence your Lordships muft fee, that no fuch thing ought to have been mentioned in His Majefty's fpeech from

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the throne, and much less, I am fure, ought it to be mentioned in our addrefs. If His Majesty's Ministers have fallen into a mistake, and a mistake, too, that may be attended with fuch a bad confequence as that of prolonging the war, shall we, in our addrefs, out of pure complaifancé, echo that miftake back to the throne, and thereby render infallible the bad confequence which we might otherwife have prevented? Shall we, my Lords, be fo uncharitable as to think, and much less to fay, that all those who differ from us in opinion about public measures, are promoters of divifions, and fomenters of heats and animofities? It is impoffible that any Lord fhould expect an unanimous concurrence in fuch expreffions. They are expreffions that can be properly made use of by none but the arbitrary Minifters of an abfolute Monarch, and therefore I was not a little surprised at feeing any thing like them in His Majesty's fpeech from the throne; but I was much more surprised to find the obftinacy of the Spaniards imputed to the heats and animofities that have been fomented amongst us. It is a inaxim of this House, to look upon His Majefty's fpeech from the throne as the fpeech of his Ministers; and nothing can contribute more to fhew the juftness of this maxim, than that of imputing the obftinacy of the Spaniards to any heats or animofities that have been fomented amongst us.

Almost every man in the nation, I believe, is now convinced, at least, every man that thinks at all about public affairs must be convinced, that the ftrange obftinacy of the Spaniards has all along proceeded from the paffivity of our Minif ters, We fubmitted tamely to the first infult they put upon us; that encouraged them to put a fecond: we bore the fecond with patience; that encouraged them to put a third: upon the third, we modeftly complained, and humbly prayed to negotiate; that encouraged them to put a fourth: and thus we continued fubmitting and negociating, and they continued plundering and insulting, till at laft, I really believe, they began to think that no fort of treatment could provoke us to

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commence hostilities, or declare war against them. Thus, by the tame and fubmiffive temper of our Ministers, the Spaniards have been encouraged to hold out fuch a conduct towards us, as to make it neceffary even for our Minifters to have recourse to arms; and now thofe very Ministers, in order to remove the load off their own fhoulders, come and tell us, that thofe who complained of their fubmiffive conduct, and often told them what it would end-in, were fomenters of heats and animofities; and that thofe heats and animofities were the chief cause of that obftinacy which Spain had fhewed in her conduct towards us.

I fhall readily grant, my Lords, that the just complaints of our plundered merchants, and the regard fhewn to those complaints by the whole nation, excepting a very few perfons, were the immediate caufe of the war, because they forced our Ministers to alter their conduct: but, I hope, neither the complaints of the merchants, nor the regard fhewn to them by the people, are to be called heats and animofities; and call them by what names you will, they were not the cause, but the effect of that obftinacy in Spain, in the tameness of which alone we are to seek for the original caufe of the present war: for if our Ministers had refented as they ought the first injury done to our merchants by the Spaniards, it would have prevented a second; and, for the firft, we might by reprisals, if not by fair means, have obtained redrefs, without coming to an open rupture; or if we had then come to an open rupture, we should have prevented a very great prejudice the nation has fuffered by an interruption of its trade, and many confiderable loffes our merchants have fuftained by the plundering and feizing their fhips; and I believe no man will fay, we had not then as favourable an opportunity for engaging in a war against Spain as we have at prefent.

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Having thus, my Lords, fhewn what it really was couraged the Spaniards to provoke us to war, I must observe, that if they still continue obftinate, it will, I believe, be ow

ing to the fame caufe. They are fenfible of the fuperiority of our naval force, which, at the fame time that it enables us to hurt them in the moft fenfible part, may prevent their being able to hurt us in any; and they can have no hopes to reap any advantage from thofe divifions and animofities, which, if there were any amongst us, His Majefty has put a final end to by declaring war against them.

Lord Carteret, Nov. 15, 1739.

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THE honourable gentleman who spoke laft, (Mr. Will.

Pulteney) ended his fpeech with faying, that he would not willingly caft the firft ftone; but it seems he had then forgot what he had faid but a very little before; by which, if he did not fling a stone, he, at least, in my opinion, threw a very great pebble at the whole House. After having told us, that it was allowable to fay any thing against what was done by the majority of this House, he said, "That there were, notwithstanding, fome methods of speaking, which were not against order, and by which gentlemen might be made to feel, that an answer might be given to what the majority had thought unanswerable." Then he talked of scandalous things having been done in former Parliaments by a corrupt majority. Now, I would be glad to know how this House can feel any thing that is faid of former Parliaments, unless it be meant, that the present Parliament is of the fame nature with the forVOL. II.

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mer Parliaments talked of. This, Sir, as I have faid, feems to be a very great pebble thrown at the whole House; befides the dirt he had before flung at the fuppofed author of a pamphlet just published, whom he took care to describe so particularly, that I believe every gentleman thinks the author, or, at leaft, the fuppofed author of that pamphlet, is now speaking to you: but I can freely declare, that I am not the author of it; I have, indeed, read it; and I believe the greatest quarrel that gentleman and his friends have with it, is, that they do not know how to anfwer it.

Mr. Horatio Walpole, Jan. 23, 1734.

Those who call themselves Whigs, are, indeed, the only perfons who can with any confidence argue against a standing army; for if any noted Tory, or fufpected Jacobite, fhould argue against our keeping up a few regular troops by authority of Parliament, it would be easy to answer him. Every man would compare him to the fat man, who muttered and complained against the crowd, which he himself was the principal cause of.

Sir J. Sanderfon, Jan. 28, 1738.

The feceffion, as it is called, which happened upon a very remarkable occafion laft feffion, is a point that cannot be reafoned upon here, and therefore I fhall make no application of what I am going to fay. I have heard, Sir, of phyficians taking their leave of a fick house, when they thought they could do no good there, and were not over-speedy of fees; for some are so keen after fees, that they would stay and prescribe to a dead body: but I have heard of others, of a more generous character, refufing to continue their attendance, when they feared it was of no benefit, and yet returning again upon being called to a new confultation, when better fymptoms appeared,

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