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INTERESTS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 431indeed were attained thereby, which form the true criterionof approbation or censure. Besides, how often has ithappened, indeed almost invariably in continental wars, that thecountries which furnish troops for pay, were themselves interested in the war ! What an advantageit was in such acase, not only to devolve upon others the expenses of a war,in which they could not have avoided taking a part, but alsoto contribute towards keepingit at a distance from their ownfrontiers ;for which object scarcely anysacrifice is too greatfor small and weak states to make.England had already, before the breaking out of the war,concluded some negotiations with Hesse and Denmark forauxiliary troops.But as an active participationin the continental war was decided upon when Carteret succeededWalpole in office, and as Denmark also renewed her treaty,a Hanoverian corps of 16,000 men was taken into Britishpay. How much it contributed to the successful issue ofthe war, particularly at the battle of isDettingen, wellknown. Yet never have the measures of government duringthe whole period of the house of Hanover excited a moreviolent opposition than at that time, when the quiet spectator would certainlyleast have expectedit. Never were theold objections more vehemently and unbecomingly re-echoedthan at that juncture.We shall be disappointedif we expect to find in any British historian, so far cts I am aware, a dispassionate and impartial examination of this opposition.The positions fromwhich they set out render this impossible. They have theinterests of England alone in view, and perhaps not merelyis a disregard of them, of which they themselves cannot quoteany well-grounded proof, an offence in their eyes, but eventhe attempt to identify the interests of England and Hanover.But, naturally asks the impartial kfquirer, had your kingsthen ceased to be electors of Hanover ? Is it to be supposedthat England had demanded this from them Had ?they inthat capacity no duties towards their German subjects, forwhich they were responsible? Did they owe them no protection, as far as negotiation and continental connexionscould afford it ? It is scarcely credible how far and in whattone such claims have been urged in England. A personmust have read the parliamentary speechesof those times,