troops to the forces of our own nation can raise no scruples, nor be
represented as any violation of the act of settlement.

Of the meaning of that memorable act, I believe, I do not need any
information. I know it is provided, that this nation shall not be
engaged in war in the quarrel of Hanover; but I see no traces of a
reciprocal obligation, nor can discover any clause, by which we are
forbidden to make use in our own cause of the alliance of Hanover, or
by which the Hanoverians are forbidden to assist us.

I hope, my lords, this representation of the state of our transactions
with Hanover, will not be charged with artifice or sophistry. I know
how invidious a task is undertaken by him who attempts to show any
connexion between interests so generally thought opposite, and am
supported in this apology only by the consciousness of integrity, and
the intrepidity of truth.

The assistance of Hanover, my lords, was, at this time, apparently
necessary. Our own troops, joined with the Hessians, composed a body
too small to make any efficacious opposition to the designs of France;
but by the addition of sixteen thousand men, became sufficiently
formidable to oblige her to employ those troops for the security of
her frontiers, with which she intended to have overwhelmed Italy, and
to have exalted another Spanish prince to a new kingdom. The
Spaniards, deprived of this assistance, harassed by the Austrians with
perpetual alarms, and debarred by our fleet from the supplies which
are provided for them in their own country, must languish with penury
and hardships, being equally cut off from succour and from flight.

Thus, my lords, it is evident, that the true and everlasting interest