176] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1795. 
Jords, on the gth of February. The 
marquis of Lansdowne opposed it 
with remarkable warmth. Herepro. 
bated the connexions of Great Bri- 
tain with the continent, especially 
with the princes of Germany. He 
reminded the house of the reduction 
from six to four per cent, interest in 
the bank of Vienna: a proof how 
little reliance could be placed on 
the security to arise from the impe- 
rial finances. With his numerous 
subjets, and his wide extended 
domains, the emperor was not, it 
fairly appeared, able to raise four 
millions to support himself in a con- 
test, in which he was more deeply 
involved than any other prince in 
the coalition. Was this a situation 
wherein he could be expected to re- 
fund the prodigious advances which 
his ministers had the confidence to 
claim from this country? There 
were other powers to have recourse- 
to, if we wanted allies. Denmark 
and Sweden, for a fourth of what 
was demanded by Austria, were 
able to secure to us the uncontrolled 
superiority of the North and Baltic 
seas, and to prote& our trade in 
those parts from all molestation, 
This would be a@ing more wisely 
than to provoke them by injudicious 
restraints upon the freedom of their 
navigation, which could not fail to 
render them inimical to this coun- 
try, and favourable to its enemies. 
He concluded by moving, that the 
house should so far take the royal 
message into consideration, as to de. 
liberate what measures were advise- 
able in the present circumstances of 
the nation. 
He was answered by the earl of 
Mansfield, who supported the pro- 
priety of continental alliances, par- 
ticularly with the house of Austria, 
in conjunction with which we long 
had so effectually curbed the ambi- 
tionof France. Lord Mansfield was 
seconded by the lords Hawkesbury 
and Auckland, and opposed by the 
earls of Guildford and Lauderdale :. 
the latter of whom observed that the 
emperor’s subjects were notoriously 
averse to the war, and that it was 
absurd to expect that they would 
make greater efforts to regain than 
they had done to retain the possession 
of the low countries. The Imperial 
troops were well disciplined men 
during the two last campaigns, and 
yet were repeatedly defeated by the 
French. Was it consistent with 
reason to presume, that unexpes 
rienced recruits would be more suc- 
cessful? for “of such must the Au- 
strian armies be chiefly composed, 
after the destruction that had been 
made of them during the three last 
years, It was ridiculous, he said, 
to build on the pecuniary resources 
of the Austrian dominions, after 
the loss of the Netherlands, the 
richest part of the Austrian domains, 
when even these were not considered 
as sufficient security for the loans so- 
licited by the Imperial ministers. 
The issue of the debate was, that 
the address in approbation of the 
loan was carried. 
The disasters of the preceding 
campaign had been so fatal to the 
coalesced powers, and had so tho~ 
roughly broken the spirit that had 
hitherto kept them together, that 
England and Austria were the only 
sovereign states that remained true 
toeach other. But the exertions of 
both, it was apprehended, however 
earnest and zealozs, would not prove 
adequate to the object they still had 
in view, the redu¢tion of the French 
republic. It now seemed so &rmly 
established, by the uninterrupted 
successes that had every where at. 
tended. 
