In Marlborough's campaigns, and from that day to this, the number of
German troops and officers assisting her have been about equal with
her own; ten thousand Hessians were sent to England last war to
protect her from a French invasion; and she would have cut but a poor
figure in her Canadian and West Indian expeditions, had not America
been lavish both of her money and men to help her along. The only
instance in which she was engaged singly, that I can recollect, was
against the rebellion in Scotland, in the years 1745 and 1746, and in
that, out of three battles, she was twice beaten, till by thus
reducing their numbers, (as we shall yours) and taking a supply ship
that was coming to Scotland with clothes, arms and money, (as we have
often done,) she was at last enabled to defeat them. England was
never famous by land; her officers have generally been suspected of
cowardice, have more of the air of a dancing-master than a soldier,
and by the samples which we have taken prisoners, we give the
preference to ourselves. Her strength, of late, has lain in her
extravagance; but as her finances and credit are now low, her sinews
in that line begin to fail fast. As a nation she is the poorest in
Europe; for were the whole kingdom, and all that is in it, to be put
up for sale like the estate of a bankrupt, it would not fetch as much
as she owes; yet this thoughtless wretch must go to war, and with the
avowed design, too, of making us beasts of burden, to support her in
riot and debauchery, and to assist her afterwards in distressing
those nations who are now our best friends. This ingratitude may suit
a Tory, or the unchristian peevishness of a fallen Quaker, but none
else.

'Tis the unhappy temper of the English to be pleased with any war,
right or wrong, be it but successful; but they soon grow discontented
with ill fortune, and it is an even chance that they are as clamorous