He apprehended that the Peace of Europe was upon the Point of being difturbed again; and without confidering the Nature of fuch Disturbance, that it could not prejudice this Country; that it was, on the contrary, the most defirable Event that could have happened, and that France could alone have Reafon to confider this Union with a jealous Eye: He fuffered himself to be imposed upon by imaginary Fears, infinuated by France, and immediately exerted himself to form a Confederacy against the Emperor and Spain; whofe Union was effected by themselves, for no other Reafon but because we had refused to mediate for them; and that neither Decency nor Refentment could permit Spain to accept the Mediation of France, from whom she had received a recent Indignity of a very high Nature, by fending back the Infanta, who had been betrothed to the King of France.

This Confederacy, which went by the Name of the Hanover Treaty, was concluded between France, Prussia, and Great Britain, the 23d of September, 1725, about four Months after the Treaty between the Emperor and Spain, concluded at Vienna.-The late King of Pruffia was then living, and it is obvious by the Conduct of the Son, what Views the Father might have had to induce him, among other Discontents with the Imperial Court, to come into this Measure. — And it was ftill much more obvious, why France fhould have joined in a Project, which was of her own Invention, and the only Measure, that could have recovered her out of the most dangerous Situation that she was ever in. The Houfe of Bourbon was divided against itself, and fhe was very fenfible it could not have ftood, if this Alliance between the Emperor and Spain had continued in Force. The natural Antipathy of the Imperial Court, and the Refentments of Spain to France, too plainly accounted for the Sums remitted from the Spanish Court to Vienna, and the vast Encrease of the Imperial Armies. These Armies could not have waded through the Ocean to have attacked Great Britain: The Emperor had not a fingle Ship to bring them hither, and the Fleets of Spain had been destroyed in the Mediterranean in the Year 1718.--Had it therefore been as folemnly true, as it was undoubtedly falfe, that thofe Stipulations had been made in the Vienna Treaty to affect Great Britain, which the Minifter had been imposed upon himself, or defired to impofe on others to believe, Great Britain must have been out of its Senfes to have been alarmed at them.--- A Squadron of Ships of War fent upon the Coasts of Spain, and another of Obfervation on our own Coafts, together with the Body of Forces conftantly maintained at Home, would

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have prevented all Poffibility of the smallest Danger of Invafion, which can never be justly feared but from France alone, or France and Spain united, a Cafe vifibly not then existing, and more remote than it ever was.--The French therefore well knew that these Preparations must have been defigned against themselves; and if the very diftant Sound of War had not terrified the Minister to the Lofs of his Wits, we might probably have feen an Event at that Time, which we fhall probably never have in our Power to fee again---The House of Bourbon ruined by itself, and France reduced, without the Expence of a single Shilling to this Country.

We have now seen France preferved, and the Houfe of Auftria confederated against by its natural and old Ally Great Bri tain; we have feen the fame effected by the Pufillanimity of a Whig Minifter, which was the conftant View of a Tory Adminiftration.---The fame honest Zeal which animated the Whigs against the Tories, most justly and indifpenfibly induced many of them to enter into an Oppofition to an Administration, who with different Principles purfued the fame End ---This will warrant, before God and Man, the Oppofition that we have lately feen. It fhews, that it was carried on upon Whig Principles; that it was the grand Principle of humbling France, and of affifting the House of Auftria, to which they adhered, and which they intended to maintain by this Oppofition --- It was not a Quarrel about particular Laws or Alterations of the Conftitution, as it is now falfely fuggefted to have been. Something of this kind is attempted in the Courfe of every Oppofition, and fomething of this kind is from time to time neceffary, within the Bounds of Moderation, to be done, to confine Government to its firft Principles, and proper to be attempted in fome Conjunctures, even in a further Degree than it is intended to be done, to keep Ministers of a certain Character in Awe, and to maintain the People in a Senfe of their Advantages, which such Minifters, without that lively Senfe in them, might have it otherwife in their Power to impair--- But thefe were fecondary Views; the grand Point intended, and what these were employed only as Engines to attain, was to remove the Minister, and to bring back the Councils of this Country to its true Intereft.

The Conjuncture was now come, which had been long im patiently expected by the Faction---Confufion was begun---and the Government attacked without the leaft Appearance that the Faction had been the Authors of it---The Whigs, who opposed, did it with great Vigour, but were still known to be true in their Principles, both to the King and to the Conftitution---The Faction, who could not, as I have already bferved, venture te

have avowedly begun a new Oppofition themselves, or practifed their former Arts, which were too recent to impofe upon Mankind, or pretended a Converfion, which would have been too fudden and unnatural to have gained Belief, found the Occafion extreamly apt to bufy themselves again-They would have joined with the Minister, who was now indifcreetly doing what they wifhed, if they had believed he had wished it too; but as they knew he did it by a kind of fatal Neceffity, which a Series of Errors had induced, they knew that neither he, nor that Part of the Whigs, who continued to fupport him, fome through the fame Blindnefs, fome through Gratitude to him, fome through the very Apprehenfion of them, and fome for other Reasons; yet none of them did it upon their Views, or would ever concur to bring it to their defired Conclufion.-They therefore knew that they would fooner or later change this Conduct, and that befides they would * never join with them.-The only Game they therefore had to play, was to act an under Part with this Whig OppofitionBy this Conduct they had a double Policy; first, to concur in raifing the Ferment of the Nation to the highest Point they could (which by long Obfervation never was yet raifed fince the Revolution, but that it took a Turn in favour of their great View) and fecondly, to efface the Sufpicions that the Nation entertained of them.

The grand Criterion of the Conduct of the two Parties being (as I have already obferved,) of the Whigs, to oppose the Growth of the Power of France, and of the Tories, to advance the Interests of that Power-The Faction concurring in this Oppofition, which fo directly formed itself upon the Whig Principle, exerting themfelves with the utmost Rancour and seeming Sincerity against the Minifter, for his Conduct with regard to France, uniting in all the popular Bills, and Republican Propofitions, (which were by this, and have commonly been by all Whig Oppofitions, more especially indulged,) and being filent upon the Topicks of Paffive Obedience, Non-refiftance, and the Danger of the Church, from all these Circumstances joined to a Partiality to believe well of those who affift us, let the Motives be what they will, and a Tendency to difbelieve the Minifter,. who very conftantly rung the Alarm against their fecret Principles, all which was improved by the most folemn Affurances of their good Intentions; they at length wrought upon the Publick to believe, that their Views were intirely changed-Many were by this Time dead, who remembered all thofe Arts and Practices which I have formerly mentioned, and a new Race were by this Time fprung up in their Room, by their Age, and the Nature of Youth, fufceptible of light Impreffions, actuated by warm Paffions, and ignorant of what had paffed before their Times.

Times. To this were added fuch a Series of Mistakes, and fuch unfortunate Events, as brought the Interests of all our Allies, and confequently the Interefts of Britain, into the utmost Danger, the Minifter ftill unavoidably blundering on, not able to make a Peace, nor to carry on a War-Harraffing the Country by great and fruitless Expences, to provide Forces against Events, which were neither fufficient to answer the End, and which he never had Refolution to employ towards the End--bubbled by France, infulted by Spain, hated by the Publick. Thus the Refentments of the Nation rose at last so high, that they became incapable to confider any Danger, or to fufpect any Treachery but from him.---In this Situation of Affairs, it is eafy to account why the Faction still fubfifted, and why it must have been a vain, perhaps not a wife Attempt at that Time, to have endeavoured to have convinced the Publick that they did.--The Whigs, in the Oppofition, thought honeftly, and they thought truly, that the Nation was inevitably ruined, if this Minifter continued to govern in our Councils longer. The House of Auftria, which is as much the Barrier to the Liberties of Britain as the ftrong Towns of Flanders are to the Dutch Republick, was reduced to the lowest Ebb, and upon the very Brink of utter Deftruction.---No effectual Means propofed, no Means in his Situation poffible to give it any Affistance. In this Condition they were compelled to use the Aid of any Set of Men whatever, to procure the Removal of this Minifter; and they thought they might depend fafely upon the national Experience of the paft Behaviour of the Faction, upon the Integrity and Well-meaning of the Generality of the People, upon the real Excellency and peculiar Bleffings of this Conftitution, never in any Event to be overborne by either a Jacobite or Tory Faction.---In fine, they trufted to their own Influence, which then governed and directed the whole Oppofition without Controul, to fettle and confolidate the Principles of the Nation, as foon as the Minifter was removed, and his Meafures rectified.

These are the true, and they are fufficient Reasons to explain why the Nation gradually leffened in its Apprehenfion of this Faction, why the Tories thus combined were conceived to be no longer what they had been formerly. But the Whigs, who led the Oppofition, and were moft confiderable in it, who now compofe the Administration in Part, and who now oppofe no longer, were not fo easily deceived. They could not but

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obferve the Views of thefe Men in their pretended Coalition with them, ---- They could not avoid feeing (though they prevented, and difcouraged them as much as they could, and kept them down in a very great Degree) the malevolent En

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deavours of thefe Men, to poifon the Minds of the People against the Royal Family, and to give the general Discontent a Tendency to a Difaffection against the Prince upon the Throne; which they laboured wholly to confine to the Perfon of the Minifter. They faw too evidently, to be duped by any of their Pretences, that they maintained the fame Inveteracy to the Whigs. They fupported no Whig in any Election, where they could poffibly avoid it, without a Detection of themselves, or the Ruin of an Opposition fo conve nient to their View.-The Whigs even faw much more, which in that Circumftance it was not their Intereft to discover to the Publick, that they endeavoured, by refufing to concur in feveral perfonal Propofitions against the Minifter, to try whether they could not induce him to ftrike a separate Bargain with themfelves and at the Clofe of the Oppofition, in the first Seffions of this Parliament, when they adhered more firmly to these perfonal Propofitions, they knew it was because the Minister had not catched at the Bait they had thrown out for him, and was not to be deluded by their Arts.

From all that we have here obferved, it is very notorious, that the last Oppofition was a Whig Oppofition, and not a Tory Faction.That the plain Origin, and avowed Views of this Oppofition, were the Removal of the Minister, and the Change of his Measures. That when this was done, they, from the very Beginning of that Oppofition, intended no more, never meant, nor were ever expected to maintain it longer.. That it would have been inconfiftent with their avowed Profeffions, and with their real Principles, if they had.

It is farther obvious, that the Tory Faction, though they concurred with them, had done it without either Principle or Affection, and never had the Influence to give this Oppofition any Taint or Colour, nor were they fuffered to compass one publick Measure of their own-That the Whigs, though they could not refufe the Concurrence of their Votes, and their Affiftance to fwell the Number of Opponents, never pretended, or had any real Friendship with them, nor ever had Reason from their Sincerity to have it, much less ever gave them any Encouragement to hope that they would join with them any longer, than till they had changed the Minifter, and changed the Measures.

If then it shall appear, that the Minifter and the Measures are now changed-If it fhall appear, that thefe Men after this commenced a new Oppofition, when the principal Whigs, who before directed the Oppofition, had done with that Direction, What Man can deny, that the Leaders of the late Oppofition haue

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