North America, which ought to have been settled at the Treaty of Utrecht instead of being left as a subject of subsequent negotiation (a dangerous example which determined me to leave nothing to be settled by subsequent negotiation in the peace of 1783), and the mutual claims of Austria and Prussia in Silesia, quickly joined in producing the war of 1756. The real motives so far as regards the Continent are abundantly developed by the papers published by the King of Prussia, which were found in the archives at Dresden. But I am confident the real causes on our side were entirely of a domestic nature, and arising from the plan above-mentioned adopted by the Hanover family of governing by a House of Commons: the same cause which produced the Spanish war, which prevented the carrying into execution the Sinking Fund as first proposed by Sir Robert Walpole, and the Excise proposed by him, which has since been adopted and carried to such a length as never occurred to his imagination. Governing by the House of Commons is in fact converting the Legislature into a false Executive, and lays the foundation of a succession of Parties and Factions. One generation naturally drives out another. An old Ministry, like an old house, contains a great number of cobwebs and some dirt, while activity, talent and enterprise naturally belong to the younger part. At the same time it should be remembered that building a new house is expensive, and most commonly without a plan; for how can a plan be framed, much less executed, in the midst of tumult and misunderstanding? Our Constitution, at least as it has been administered for the last ninety years, is admirably calculated to resist grievances, but the moment that is done degenerates. I am sorry to say upon an experience of forty years, that the publick is incapable of embracing two objects at a time, or of extending their views beyond the object immediately before them. The worship of images and idols prevailing over the greatest part of the globe is proof—and for that reason they consider men more than things; which is the only thing they are good for, and in that they are
