intending to charge them with weakness or injustice, or from
pretending to have discovered in them a secret tendency to advance any
interest in opposition to that of Britain, I am yet not able to
prevail upon myself to suppress those scruples which hinder me from
concurring with them, and from approving the address which is now
proposed.

I am less inclined, my lords, to favour the present motion, because I
have long been desirous of seeing the ancient method of general
addresses revived by this house; a method of address by which our
princes were reverenced without flattery, and which left us at liberty
to honour the crown, without descending to idolize the ministry.

I know not, my lords, what advantages have been procured by an annual
repetition of the speeches from the throne, however gracious or
excellent. For ourselves, we have certainly obtained no new confidence
from the crown, nor any higher degree of honour among the people. The
incense, which from our censers has so long perfumed the palace, has
inclined the nation to suspect, that we are long enough inured to
idolatry, to offer up their properties for a sacrifice, whenever they
shall be required; and I cannot dissemble my suspicions, that a long
continuance of this custom may give some ambitious or oppressive
prince in some distant age, when, perhaps, this beneficent and
illustrious family may be extinct, the confidence to demand it.

I cannot but be of opinion, and hope your lordships will be convinced
upon very short reflection, that there is a style of servility, which
it becomes not this house to use even to our monarchs: we are to
remember, indeed, that reverence which is always due from subjects,
but to preserve likewise that dignity which is inseparable from