ticular ties of honour that lie on their present King to impofe en us a Prince, who must prove fatal to our country if he ever reigns over us.

As we are thus in a natural state of war, if I may fo call it, with the French nation; it is our misfortune, that they are not only the most inveterate, but most formidable of our enemies; and have the greatest power, as well as the strongest inclination, to ruin us. No other ftate equals them in the force of their fleets and armies, in the nearness and conveniency of their fituation, and in the number of friends and well-wishers, which, it is to be feared, they have among us.

For these reasons, our wars with France have always affected us in our moft tender interests, and concerned us more than those we have had with any other nation; but I may venture to fay, this Kingdom was never yet engaged in a war of fo great confequence, as that which now lies upon our hands. Our All is at stake, and irretrievably loft, if we fail of fuccefs. At other times, if a war ended in a dishonourable peace, or with equal lofs, we could comfort ourselves with the hopes of a more favourable juncture, that might set the balance right, or turn it to our advantage. We had ftill the profpect of forming the fame alliance, or perhaps ftrengthening it with new confederacies, and by that means of trying our fortune a fecond time, in cafe the injaftice or ambition of the enemy forced us into the field. At prefent, if we make a drawn game of it, or procure but moderate advantages," we are in a condition which every British heart muft tremble at the thought of. There are no

fecond

fecond trials, no wars in referve, no new fchemes of alliance to which we can have recourse. Should the French King be able to bear down fuch an united force as now makes 'head' against him, at a time when Spain affords him: no greater affiftance; what will he do when the trade of the Levant lies at his mercy; when the whole kingdom of Spain is fupplied with his manufactures, and the wealth of the Indies flow's into his coffers; and, what is yet worse, when this additional ftrength muft arife in all its particulars from a proportionable decay in the States that now make war upon him? It is no wonder therefore that our late King of glorious memory, who, by the confeffion of his greatest enemies, was a Prince that perfectly understood the intereft of Europe, fhould in his last speech recommend to his Parliament the declaring war against France in those memorable words: You' have yet an opportunity, by God's bleffing, to fecure to you and your pofterity the quiet enjoyment of your religion and liberties, if you are not wanting to your felves, but will exert the ancient vigour of the Englith nation: but I tell you plainly, my opinion is, if you do not lay hold on this occafion, you have norejon to hope for another.

We have already a dreadful proof of the increase of power that accrues to France from its conjunction with Spain. So expensive a war as that which the French Monarchy had been carrying on in fo many and fo remote parts at once, muft long fince have drained and exhaufted all its fubftance, had there not been several fecret fprings, that fwelled their treafury from time to time, in proportion as the war has funk it. The

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King's

King's coffers have been often reduced to the lowest ebb, but have ftill been seasonably refreshed by frequent and unexpected fupplies from the Spanish America. We hear indeed of the arrival but of very few fhips from those parts; but as in every veffel there is ftowage for immense treasures, when the cargo is pure Bullion, or merchandise of as great a value: fo we find by experience they have had such prodigious fums of money conveyed to them by these fecret channels, that they have been enabled to pay more numerous armies, than they ever had on foot before; and that at a time when their trade fails in all its other branches, and is diftreffed by all the arts and contrivances of their neighbouring nations. During the laft four years, by a modeft computation, there have been brought into Breft above fix millions of pounds fterling in bullion. What then shall we suppose would be the effect of this correspondence with America, might the wealth of those parts come to them on squadrons of men of war, and fleets of galeons? if thefe little by-currents that creep into the country by stealth, have fo great a force, how fhall we ftem the whole torrent, when it breaks in upon us with its full violence? and this certainly will be our cafe, unlefs we find a means to diffolve the union between France and Spain. I have dwelt the longer on this confideration, because the prefent war hath already furnished us with the experiment, and fenfibly convinced us of the increase of power, which France has received from ite intercourse with the Spanish Weft-Indies.

As there are many who look upon every thing

*

which they do not actuallly fee and feel as bare probability and fpeculation, I fhall only touch on those other reasons of which we have already had fome experience, for our preventing this coalition of interefts and defins in the twomonarchies.

The Woollen manufacture is the British strength, the staple commodity and proper growth. of our country; if this fails us, our trade and eftates must fink together, and all the cafh of the nation be confumed on foreign merchandize. The French at present gain very much upon us in this great article of our trade, and fince the acceflion of the Spanish monarchy, fupply with cloth, of their own making, the very beft mart we had in Europe. And what a melancholy profpect have we, if ever a peace give them leave to enrich their manufacture with mixtures of Spanish wool, to multiply the hands employed in it, to improve themselves in all the niceties of the art, and to vend their wares in those places where was the greatest consumption of our woollen works, and the moft confiderable gain for the British merchant? Notwithstanding our many feasonable recruits fro.n Portugal and our plantations, we already complain of our want of bullion; and must at laft be reduced to the greatest exigencies, if this great fource be dried up, and our traffick with Spain continue under its present difcouragement.

The trade of the Levant muft likewife flourish or decay in our hands, as we are friends or enemies of the Spanish monarchy. The late conqueft of Naples will very little alter the cafe, though Sicily fhould follow the fate of her filter kingdom, The Strait's mouth is the key of the

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Levant,

Levant, and will be always in the poffeffion of thofe who are Kings of Spain. We may only. add, that the fame caufes which ftraiten the British commerce, will naturally enlarge the French; and that the naval force of either nation will thrive or languish in the fame degree as their commerce gathers or lofes ftrength. And if fo powerful and populous a nation as that of France become fuperior to us by sea, our whole is loft, and we are no more a people. The confideration of fo narrow a channel betwixt us, of fuch uumbers of regular troops on the enemies fide, of fo fmall a ftanding force on our own, and that too in a country deftitute of all fuch forts and ftrong places as might ftop the progrefs of a victorious army, hath something in it fo terrifying, that one does not care for fetting it in its proper light. Let it not therefore enter into the heart of any one that hath the leaft zeal for his religion, or love of liberty, that hath any regard either to the honour or fafety of his country, or a well-wisher for his friends or pofterity, to think of a peace with France, till the Spanish monarchy be entirely torn from it, and the houfe of Bourbon difabled from ever giving the law to Europe.

Let us fuppofe that the French King would grant us the most advantageous terms we can defire; without the feparation of the two monarchies they must infallibly end in our deftruction. Should he fecure to us all our prefent acquifitions; fhould he add two or three frontier-towns to what we have already in Flanders; fhould he join the kingdoms of Sicily and Sardinia to Milan and Naples; fhould he leave King Charles in the peaceable poffeffion of Catalonia;

fhould