Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/46

 34 of foreigners in preference to native troops. He called on their lordships to consider the unwieldy bulk of the empire, and the operations necessary even in case of a defensive war, and asked if it were possible for such an inconsiderable spot as the island of Great Britain, in the nature of things, to furnish numbers sufficient to carry on operations the nature of such a service would necessarily demand.

The debate was continued at great length and with considerable violence. On the Whig side the Duke of Cumberland lamented “to see Brunswickers who once, to their great honor, were employed in the defence of the liberties of the subject, now sent to subjugate his constitutional liberties in another part of this vast empire.” The Duke of Manchester pointed out that “that man must be deemed a mercenary soldier who fights for pay in the cause in which he has no concern.” The Earl of Effingham suggested that by a decree of the Imperial Chamber the directors of the circle might be ordered to march into the Landgrave's country to compel him to some act of justice or retribution; in which case England would be obliged to excuse her breach of the treaty by her ministers' ignorance of the imperial constitutions, or else to enter into a war, like that in America, not to maintain, but to subvert, the liberties of the Germanic body. The Earl of Shelburne denied the necessity of employing foreigners, and was supported in this by Lord Camden, who also appealed to their lordships, if the whole transaction were not a compound of the most solemn mockery, fallacy, and gross imposition that was ever attempted to be put upon a House of Parliament. “Is there one