_thanks should be returned to his majesty for his royal care in
prosecuting the war against Spain_; for what has been the consequence of
that care, for which our thanks are to be, with so much solemnity,
returned, but defeats, disgrace, and losses, the ruin of our merchants,
the imprisonment of our sailors, idle shows of armaments, and useless
expenses?

What are the events which are to be recorded in an impartial account of
this war; a war provoked by so long a train of insults and injuries, and
carried on with so apparent an inequality of forces? Have we destroyed
the fleets of our enemies, fired their towns, and laid their fortresses
in ruins? Have we conquered their colonies, and plundered their cities,
and reduced them to a necessity of receding from their unjust claims,
and repaying the plunder of our merchants? Are their ambassadors now
soliciting peace at the court of Britain, or applying to the
neighbouring princes to moderate the resentment of their victorious
enemies?

I am afraid that the effects of our preparations, however formidable,
are very different; they have only raised discontent among our
countrymen, and contempt among our enemies. We have shown that we are
strong indeed, but that our force is made ineffectual by our cowardice;
that when we threaten most loudly, we perform nothing; that we draw our
swords but to brandish them, and only wait an opportunity to sheath them
in such a manner, as not plainly to confess that we dare not strike.

If we consider, therefore, what effect our thanks for conduct like this
must naturally produce, it will appear that they can only encourage our
enemies, and dispirit our fellow-subjects. It will be imagined that the
Spaniards are a powerful nation, which it was the highest degree of