Chapter XVII: Part 17

Among these, my lords, the clergy have distinguished themselves by a zealous opposition to this growing evil, and have warned their hearers with the warmest concern against the misery and wickedness which must always be the attendants or the followers of drunkenness. One among them [Footnote: Bishop of SARUM.], whose merit has raised him to a seat in this august, assembly, and whose instructions are enforced by the sanctity of his life, has, in a very cogent and pathetical manner, displayed the enormity of this detestable sin, the universality of its prevalence, and the malignity of its effects; and in his discourse on the infirmary of this city, has observed with too much justness, that the lowest of the people are infected with this vice, and that _even necessity is become luxurious_.

Many other authorities [Footnote: He read the preamble to a former bill, the opinion of the college of physicians.] might be produced, and some others I have now in my hand; but the recital of them would waste the day to no purpose: for surely it is not necessary to show, by a long deduction of authorities, the guilt of drunkenness, or to prove that it weakens the body, or that it depraves the mind, that it makes mankind too feeble for labour, too indolent for application, too stupid for ingenuity, and too daring for the peace of society.

This, surely, my lords, is, therefore, a vice which ought, with the utmost care, to be discouraged by those whose birth or station has conferred upon them the province of watching over the publick happiness; and which, surely, no prospect of present advantage, no arguments of political convenience, will prevail upon this house to promote.

That the natural and evident tendency of this bill is the propagation of drunkenness, cannot be denied, when it is considered that it will increase the temptations to it by making that liquor, which is the favourite of the common people, more common, by multiplying the places at which it is sold, so that none can want an opportunity of yielding to any sudden impulse of his appetite, which will solicit him more powerfully and more incessantly as they are more frequently and more easily gratified.

In defence of a bill like this, my lords, it might be expected, that at least many specious arguments should be offered. It may be justly hoped that no man will rise up in opposition to all laws of heaven and earth, to the wisdom of all legislators, and the experience of every human being, without having formed such a train of arguments as will not easily be disconcerted, or having formed at least such a chain of sophistry as cannot be broken but with difficulty.

And yet, my lords, when I consider what has been offered by all who have hitherto appeared either in publick assemblies, or in private conversation, as advocates for this bill, I can scarcely believe, that they perceive themselves any force in their own arguments; and am inclined to conclude, that they speak only to avoid the imputation of being able to say nothing in defence of their own scheme; that their hope is not to convince by their reasons, but to overpower by their numbers; that they are themselves influenced, not by reason, but by necessity; and that they only encourage luxury, because money is to be raised for the execution of their schemes: and they imagine, that the people will pay more cheerfully for liberty to indulge their appetites, than for any other enjoyment.

The arguments which have been offered, my lords, in vindication of this bill, or at least which I have hitherto heard, are only two, and those two so unhappily associated, that they destroy each other; whatever shall be urged to enforce the second, must in the same proportion invalidate the first; and whoever shall assert, that the first is true, must admit that the second is false.

These positions, my lords, the unlucky positions which are laid down by the defenders of this pernicious bill, are, that it will supply the necessities of the government with a very large standing revenue, on the credit of which, strengthened by the additional security of the sinking fund, a sum will be advanced sufficient to support the expenses of a foreign war; and that at the same time it will lessen the consumption of the liquors from whence this duty is to arise.

By what arts of political ratiocination these propositions are to be reconciled, I am not able to discover. It appears evident, my lords, that large revenues can only be raised by the sale of large quantities; and that larger quantities will in reality be sold, as the price is little or nothing raised, and the venders are greatly increased.

If this will not be the effect, my lords, and if this effect is not expected, why is this bill proposed as sufficient to raise the immense sums which our present exigencies require? Can duties be paid without consumption of the commodity on which they are laid? and is there any other use of spirituous liquors than that of drinking them?

Surely, my lords, it is not expected, that any arguments should be admitted in this house without examination; and yet it might be justly imagined, that this assertion could only be offered in full confidence of an implicit reception, and this tenet be proposed only to those who had resigned their understandings to the dictates of the ministry; for it is implied in this position, that the plenty of a commodity diminishes the demand for it; and that the more freely it is sold, the less it will be bought. It implies, that men will lay voluntary restraints upon themselves, in proportion as they are indulged by their governours; and that all prohibitory laws tend to the promotion of the practices which they condemn; it implies, that a stop can only be put to fornication by increasing the number of prostitutes, and that theft is only to be restrained by leaving your doors open.

I am, for my part, convinced, that drunkards, as well as thieves, are made by opportunity; and that no man will deny himself what he desires, merely because it is allowed him by the laws of his country.

This, my lords, is so evident, that I shall no longer dwell upon the assertion, that the unbounded liberty of retailing spirits will make spirits less used in the nation; but shall examine the second argument, and consider how far it is possible or proper to raise supplies by a tax upon drunkenness.

That large sums will be raised by the bill to which the consent of your lordships is now required, I can readily admit, because the consumption of spirits will certainly be greater, and the licenses taken for retailing them so numerous, that a much lower duty than is proposed will amount yearly to a very large sum; for if the felicity of drunkenness can be more cheaply obtained by buying spirits than ale, when both are to be found at the same place, it is easy to see which will be preferred; this argument, therefore, is irrefragable, and may be urged in favour of the bill without danger of confutation.

But, my lords, it is the business of governours not so much to drain the purses, as to regulate the morals of the people; not only to raise taxes, but to levy them in such a manner as may be least burdensome, and to apply them to purposes which may be most useful; not to raise money by corrupting the nation, that it may be spent in enslaving it.

It has been mentioned by a very celebrated writer, as a rational practice in the exercise of government, to tax such commodities as were abused to the increase of vice, that vice may be discouraged by being made more expensive; and therefore the community in time be set free from it: but the tax which is now proposed, my lords, is of a different kind; it is a tax laid upon vice, indeed, but it is to arise from the licenses granted to wickedness, and its consequences must be the increase of debauchery, not the restraint. It is a tax which will be readily paid, because it will be little felt; and because it will be little felt, it is hoped that multitudes will subject themselves to it.

The act which is now to be repealed, was, indeed, of a very different nature, though perhaps not free from very just objections. It had this advantage at least, that so far as it was put in execution, it obstructed drunkenness; nor has the examination of the officers of excise discovered any imperfection in the law; for it has only failed, because it was timorously or negligently executed. Why it was not vigorously and diligently enforced, I have never yet been able to discover. If the magistrates were threatened by the populace, the necessity of such laws was more plainly proved; for what justifies the severity of coercion but the prevalence of the crime? and what may not be feared from crowds intoxicated with spirits, whose insolence and fury is already such, that they dare to threaten the government by which they are debarred from the use of them?

This, my lords, is a reflection that ought not to be passed slightly over. The nature of our constitution, happy as it is, must be acknowledged to produce this inconvenience, that it inclines the common people to turbulence and sedition; the nature of spirituous liquors is such, that they inflame these dispositions, already too much predominant; and yet the turbulence of the people is made a reason for licensing drunkenness, and allowing, without limitation, the sale of those spirits by which that turbulence must be certainly increased.

It may be, perhaps, urged, (for indeed I know not what else can be decently alleged,) that there is a necessity of raising money, that no other method can be invented, and that, therefore, this ought not to be opposed.

I know, my lords, that ministers generally consider, as the test of each man's loyalty, the readiness with which he concurs with them in their schemes for raising money; and that they think all opposition to these schemes, which are calculated for the support of the government, the effect of a criminal disaffection; that they always think it a sufficient vindication of any law, that it will bring in very large sums; and that they think no measures pernicious, nor laws dangerous, by which the revenue is not impaired.

If government was instituted only to raise money, these ministerial schemes of policy would be without exception; nor could it be denied, that the present ministers show themselves, by this expedient, uncommon masters of their profession. But the end of government is only to promote virtue, of which happiness is the consequence; and, therefore, to support government by propagating vice, is to support it by means which destroy the end for which it was originally established, and for which its continuance is to be desired.

If money, therefore, cannot be raised but by this bill, if the expenses of the government cannot be defrayed but by corrupting the morals of the people, I shall without scruple declare, that money ought not to be raised, nor the designs of the government supported, because the people can suffer nothing from the failure of publick measures, or even from the dissolution of the government itself, which will be equally to be dreaded or avoided with an universal depravity of morals, and a general decay of corporeal vigour. Even the insolence of a foreign conqueror can inflict nothing more severe than the diseases which debauchery produces; nor can any thing be feared from the disorders of anarchy more dangerous or more calamitous, than the madness of sedition, or the miseries which must ensue to each individual from universal wickedness.

Such, my lords, is the expedient by which we are now about to raise the supplies for the present year; and such is the new method of taxation which the sagacity of our ministers has luckily discovered. A foreign war is to be supported by the destruction of our people at home, and the revenue of the government to be improved by the decay of our manufactures. We are to owe henceforward our power to epidemical diseases, our wealth to the declension of our commerce, and our security to riot and to tumult.

There is yet another consideration, my lords, which ought well to be regarded, before we suffer this bill to pass. Many laws are merely experimental, and have been made, not because the legislature thought them indisputably proper, but because no better could at that time be struck out, and because the arguments in their favour appeared stronger than those against them, or because the questions to which they related were so dark and intricate that nothing was to be determined with certainty, and no other method could therefore be followed, but that of making the first attempts at hazard, and correcting these errours, or supplying these defects which might hereafter be discovered by those lights which time should afford.

Though I am far from thinking, my lords, that the question relating to the effects of this law is either doubtful or obscure; though I am certain that the means of reforming the vice which its advocates pretend it is designed to prevent, are obvious and easy; yet I should have hoped, that the projectors of such a scheme would have allowed at least the uncertainty of the salutary effects expected from it, and would, therefore, have made some provision for the repeal of it when it should be found to fail.

But, my lords, our ministers appear to have thought it sufficient to endear them to their country, and immortalize their names, that they have invented a new method of raising money, and seem to have very little regard to any part of the art of government; they will, at least in their own opinion, have deserved applause, if they leave the publick revenue greater, by whatever diminution of the publick virtue.

They have, therefore, my lords, wisely contrived a necessity of continuing this law, whatever may be its consequences, and how fatal soever its abuses; for they not only mortgage the duties upon spirits for the present supply, but substitute them in the place of another security given to the bank by the pot act; and, therefore, since it will not be easy to form another tax of equal produce, we can have very little hope that this will be remitted.

There will be, indeed, only one method of setting the nation free from the calamities which this law will bring upon it; and as I doubt not but that method will at last be followed, it will certainly deserve the attention of your lordships, as the third consideration to which, in our debates on this bill, particular regard ought to be paid.

That the license of drunkenness, and the unlimited consumption of spirituous liquors, will fill the whole kingdom with idleness, diseases, riots, and confusion, cannot be doubted; nor can it be questioned, but that in a very short time the senate will be crowded with petitions from all the trading bodies in the kingdom, for the regulation of the workmen and servants, for the extinction of turbulence and riot, and for the removal of irresistible temptations to idleness and fraud. These representations may be for a time neglected, but must soon or late be heard; the ministers will be obliged to repeal this law, for the same reason that induced them to propose it. Idleness and sickness will impair our manufactures, and the diminution of our trade will lessen the revenue.

They will then, my lords, find that their scheme, with whatever prospects of profit it may now flatter them, was formed with no extensive views; and that it was only the expedient of political avarice, which sacrificed a greater distant advantage to the immediate satisfaction of present gain. They will find, that they have corrupted the people without obtaining any advantage by their crime, and that they must have recourse to some new contrivance by which their own errours may be retrieved.

In this distress, my lords, they can only do what indeed they now seem to design; they can only repeal this act by charging the debt, which it has enabled them to contract, upon the sinking fund, upon that sacred deposit which was for a time supposed unalienable, and from which arose all the hopes that were sometimes formed by the nation, of being delivered from that load of imposts, which it cannot much longer support. They can only give security for this new debt, by disabling us for ever from paying the former.

The bill now before us, my lords, will, therefore, be equally pernicious in its immediate and remoter consequences; it will first corrupt the people, and destroy our trade, and afterwards intercept that fund which is appropriated to the most useful and desirable of all political purposes, the gradual alleviation of the publick debt.

I hope, my lords, that a bill of this portentous kind, a bill big with innumerable mischiefs, and without one beneficial tendency, will be rejected by this house, without the form of commitment; that it will not be the subject of a debate amongst us, whether we shall consent to poison the nation; and that instead of inquiring, whether the measures which are now pursued by the ministry ought to be supported at the expense of virtue, tranquillity, and trade, we should examine, whether they are not such as ought to be opposed for their own sake, even without the consideration of the immense sums which they apparently demand.

I am, indeed, of opinion, that the success of the present schemes will not be of any benefit to the nation, and believe, likewise, that there is very little prospect of success. I am, at least, convinced, that no advantage can countervail the mischiefs of this detestable bill; which, therefore, I shall steadily oppose, though I have already dwelt upon this subject perhaps too long; yet as I speak only from an unprejudiced regard to the publick, I hope, if any new arguments shall be attempted, that I shall be allowed the liberty of making a reply.

Lord BATHURST replied to the following purport:--My lords, I doubt not but the noble lord has delivered, on this occasion, his real sentiments, and that, in his opinion, the happiness of our country, the regard which ought always to be paid to the promotion of virtue, require that this bill should be rejected. I am far from suspecting, that such an appearance of zeal can conceal any private views, or that such pathetick exclamations can proceed but from a mind really affected with honest anxiety.

This anxiety, my lords, I shall endeavour to dissipate before it has been communicated to others; for I think it no less the duty of every man who approves the publick measures, to vindicate them from misrepresentation, than of him to whom they appear pernicious or dangerous, to warn his fellow-subjects of that danger.

I, my lords, am one of those who are convinced that the bill now before us, which has been censured as fundamentally wrong, is in reality fundamentally right; that the end which is proposed by it is just, and the means which are prescribed in it will accomplish the purpose for which they were contrived.

The end of this bill, my lords, is to diminish the consumption of distilled spirits, to restrain the populace of these kingdoms from a liquor which, when used in excess, has a malignity to the last degree dangerous, which at once inebriates and poisons, impairs the force of the understanding, and destroys the vigour of the body; and to attain this, I think it absolutely right to lay a tax upon these liquors.

Of the vice of drunkenness, my lords, no man has a stronger abhorrence than myself; of the pernicious consequences of these liquors, which are now chiefly used by the common people, no man is more fully convinced, and therefore, none can more zealously wish that drunkenness may be suppressed, and distilled spirits withheld from the people.

The disorders mentioned by the noble lord, are undoubtedly the consequences of the present use of these liquors, but these are not its worst effects. The offenders against the law, may by the law be sometimes reclaimed, and at other times cutoff; nor can these practices, however injurious to particular persons, in any great degree impair the general happiness. The worst effects, therefore, of the use of spirits, are that idleness and extravagance which it has introduced among the common people, by which our commerce must be obstructed, and our present riches and plenty every day diminished.

This pernicious practice, my lords, is disseminated farther than could be reasonably believed by those whose interest has not incited, or curiosity induced them to inquire into the practice of the different classes of men. It is well known, that the farmers have been hitherto distinguished by the virtues of frugality, temperance, and industry; that they laboured hard, and spent little; and were, therefore, justly considered as an innocent and useful part of the community, whose employment and parsimony preserved them in a great measure from the general infection of vice which spread its influence among the traders and men of estates.

But even this abstemious class of men, my lords, have of late relaxed their frugality, and suffered themselves to be tempted by this infatuating liquor; nor is any thing now more common than to find it in those houses in which ale, a few years ago, was the highest pitch of luxury to which they aspired, and to see those hours wasted in intoxicating entertainments, which were formerly dedicated wholly to the care of their farms, and the improvement of their fortunes.

Thus, my lords, it appears, that the corruption is become universal, and, therefore, that some remedy ought to be attempted; nor can I conceive any measures more consistent with justice, or more likely to produce the end intended by them, than those which are now offered to your consideration, by which the liquor will be made dearer, too dear to be lavishly drank by those who are in most danger of using it to excess; and the number of those who retail it will be diminished by the necessity of taking a license, and of renewing them every year at the same expense.

The inefficacy, my lords, of violent methods, and the impossibility of a total deprivation of any enjoyment which the people have by custom made familiar and dear to them, sufficiently appears from the event of the law which is now to be repealed. It is well known, that by that law the use of spirituous liquors was prohibited to the common people; that retailers were deterred from vending them by the utmost encouragement that could be given to informers; and that discoveries were incited by every art that could be practised, and offenders punished with the utmost rigour.

Yet what was the effect, my lords, of all this diligence and vigour? A general panick suppressed, for a few weeks, the practice of selling the prohibited liquors; but, in a very short time, necessity forced some, who had nothing to lose, to return to their former trade; these were suffered sometimes to escape, because nothing was to be gained by informing against them, and others were encouraged by their example to imitate them, though with more secrecy and caution; of those, indeed, many were punished, but many more escaped, and such as were fined often found the profit greater than the loss.

The prospect of raising money by detecting their practices, incited many to turn information into a trade; and the facility with which the crime was to be proved, encouraged some to gratify their malice by perjury, and others their avarice; so that the multitude of informations became a publick grievance, and the magistrates themselves complained that the law was not to be executed.

The perjuries of informers were now so flagrant and common, that the people thought all informations malicious; or, at least, thinking themselves oppressed by the law, they looked upon every man that promoted its execution, as their enemy; and, therefore, now began to declare war against informers, many of whom they treated with great cruelty, and some they murdered in the streets.

By their obstinacy they at last wearied the magistrates, and by their violence they intimidated those who might be inclined to make discoveries; so that the law, however just might be the intention with which it was enacted, or however seasonable the methods prescribed by it, has been now for some years totally disused; nor has any one been punished for the violation of it, because no man has dared to offer informations. Even the vigilance of the magistrates has been obliged to connive at these offences, nor has any man been found willing to engage in a task, at once odious and endless, or to punish offences which every day multiplied, and of which the whole body of the common people, a body very formidable when united, was universally engaged.

The practice, therefore, of vending and of drinking distilled spirits, has prevailed for some time without opposition; nor can any man enter a tavern or an alehouse, in which they will be denied him, or walk along the streets without being incited to drink them at every corner; they have been sold for several years, with no less openness and security than any other commodity; and whoever walks in this great city, will find his way very frequently obstructed by those who are selling these pernicious liquors to the greedy populace, or by those who have drank them till they are unable to move.

But the strongest proof of the inefficacy of the late law, and consequently of the necessity of another, which may not be so easily eluded or so violently resisted, is given by the papers which lie upon the table. From these it appears that the quantity of spirits distilled has increased from year to year to the present time; and, therefore, that drunkenness is become more prevalent, and the reasons for repressing it more urgent than ever before.

Let us, therefore, calmly consider, my lords, what can in this exigence be done; that the people should be allowed to poison themselves and their posterity without restraint, is certainly not the intent of any good man; and therefore we are now to consider how it may be prevented. That the people are infected with the vice of drunkenness, that they debauch themselves chiefly with spirituous liquors, and that those liquors are in a high degree pernicious, is confessed both by those who oppose the bill, and those who defend it; but with this advantage on the part of those that defend it, that they only propose a probable method of reforming the abuses which they deplore. I know that the warm resentment which some lords have on former occasions expressed against the disorders which distilled liquors are supposed to produce, may naturally incline them to wish that they were totally prohibited, and that this _liquid fire_, as it has been termed, were to be extinguished for ever.

Whether such wishes are not more ardent than rational; whether their zeal against the abuse of things, indifferent in themselves, has not, as has often happened in other cases, hurried them into an indiscreet censure of the lawful use, I shall not now inquire; because it is superfluous to dispute about the propriety of measures, of which the possibility may be justly questioned.

This last act, my lords, was of this kind; the duties established by it were so high that they wholly debarred the lower classes of the, people from the liquor on which they were laid; and, therefore, it was found by a very short experience, that it was impossible to preserve it from violation; that there would be no end of punishing those who offended against it; and that severity produced rather compassion than terrour. Those who have suffered the penalties were considered as persons under unjust persecution, whom every one was obliged by the ties of humanity to encourage, reward, and protect; and those who informed against them, or encouraged informations, were detested, as the oppressors of the people. The law had, indeed, this effect, that it debarred, at least for a short time, all those from retailing spirits who lived in reputation; and, therefore, encouraged others to vend them in private places, where they were more likely to be drank to excess.

Having, therefore, made trial of violent and severe methods, and had an opportunity of obtaining a full conviction of their inefficacy, it is surely proper to profit by our experience, by that experience which shows us that the use of distilled liquors, under its present discouragements, has every year increased; and, therefore, proves at once the unprofitableness of the law now in force, and the necessity of some other by which the same purposes may be more certainly promoted.

The reformation of a vice so prevalent must be slow and gradual; for it is not to be hoped, that the whole bulk of the people will at once be divested of their habits; and, therefore, it will be rational to endeavour, not wholly to debar them from any thing in which, however absurdly, they place their happiness, but to make the attainment of it more and more difficult, that they may insensibly remit their ardour, and cease from their pursuit.

This, my lords, is proposed in the present bill, which, by the duties which are to be laid upon distilled spirits, will raise the price a third part, and as it is reasonable to expect, hinder a third part of the consumption; for it is observed, that those who drink them set no limits to their excesses, but indulge their appetites to the utmost of their power; if he, therefore, who used to spend threepence a-day in spirits, can now have no more than could formerly be bought for twopence, he must necessarily content himself with only two thirds of the quantity which he has hitherto drank; and, therefore, must by force, though, perhaps, not by inclination, be less intemperate.

It is not to be doubted, my lords, but that spirits will, by this additional duty, be made one third part dearer; for it has been hitherto observed, that retailers levy upon the buyer twice the duty that is paid to the government, as is every day apparent in other commodities; so that the yearly quantity of spirits which is usually distilled will cost five hundred thousand pounds more than before, a tax which, I suppose, those who are charged with this kind of debauchery will not be supposed able to pay, and which yet must be paid by them, unless they will be content with a less quantity.

That spirits will now be sold in every publick-house, of whatever denomination, has been, I believe, justly asserted; but the assertion has not been properly urged as an argument against the bill. One of the circumstances which has contributed to the enormous abuse of these liquors, has been the practice of retailing them in obscure places, by persons without character and without money; who, therefore, neither feared penalties nor infamy, and offended against law and decency with equal security. But when the cheapness of licenses shall make it convenient for every man that pleases to retail spirits in a publick manner, they will be generally drank in houses visited by publick officers, observed by the neighbouring inhabitants, and frequented by persons of morals and civility, who will always endeavour to restrain all enormous excesses, and oblige the masters of the houses to pay some regard to the laws. Those whose appetites are too importunate to be restrained, may now gratify them without being tempted to enter into houses of infamy, or mingling with beggars, or thieves, or 'profligates; and, therefore, though the use of spirits should continue the same, its consequences will be less fatal, since they may be had without the necessity of associating with wickedness.

But, my lords, it is not improbable, that by this bill the number of retailers, at least in this city, where they are most pernicious, may be lessened. It is well known, that the reason for which they are sold in cellars, and in the streets, is the danger of retailing them in other places; and that if they were generally sold by those who could procure the best of each sort, these petty traders would be immediately undone; for it is reasonable to imagine, my lords, that they buy the cheapest liquors, and sell them at the dearest rate.

When, therefore, reputable houses shall be opened for the sale of these liquors, decency will restrain some, and prudence will hinder others from endangering their health by purchasing those liquors which are offered in the street, and from hazarding their morals, or perhaps their lives, by drinking to excess in obscure places.

It is likewise to be remembered, my lords, that many of those who now poison their countrymen with petty shops of debauchery, are not able to purchase a license, even at the cheap rate at which it is now proposed, and that therefore they will be restrained from their trade by a legal inability; for it is not, my lords, to be imagined, that they will be defended with equal zeal by the populace, when the liquors may be had without their assistance, nor will information be equally infamous, when it is not the act only of profligates, who pursue the practice of it as a trade, but of the proper officers of every place, incited by the lawful venders of the same commodities, or of the venders themselves, who will now be numerous enough to protect each other, and whom their common interest will incite against clandestine dealers.

The price of licenses, therefore, appears to me very happily adjusted: had it been greater there would not have been a sufficient number of lawful retailers to put a stop to clandestine sellers; and if it was lower, every petty dealer in this commodity might, by pretending to keep an alehouse, continue the practice of affording an harbour to thieves, and of propagating debauchery.

Thus, my lords, it appears to me that the bill will lessen the consumption of these destructive spirits, certainly in a great degree, by raising the price, and probably by transferring the trade of selling them into more reputable hands. What more can be done by human care or industry I do not conceive. To prohibit the use of them is impossible, to raise the price of them to the same height with that of foreign spirits, is, indeed, practicable, but surely at this time no eligible method; for so general is this kind of debauchery, that no degree of expense would entirely suppress it; and as foreign spirits, if they were to be sold at the same price, would always be preferred to our own, we should only send into other nations that money which now circulates among ourselves, and impoverish the people without reforming them.

The regulation provided by the bill before us is, therefore, in my opinion, the most likely method for recovering the ancient industry and sobriety of the common people; and, my lords, I shall approve it, till experience has shown it to be defective. I shall approve it, not with a view of obtaining or securing the favour of any of those who may be thought to interest themselves in its success, but because I find some new law for this purpose indispensably necessary, and believe that no better can be contrived. We are now, my lords, to contend with the passions of all the common people. We are endeavouring to reform a vice almost universal; a vice which, however destructive, is now no longer reproachful. We have tried the force of violent methods and found them unsuccessful; we are now, therefore, to treat the vulgar as children, with a kind of artful indulgence, and to take from them secretly, and by degrees, what cannot be wholly denied them, without exasperating them almost to rebellion. This is the first attempt, and by this, if one third of the consumption be diminished, we may next year double the duty, and, by a new augmentation of the price, take away another third, and what will then be drank, will, perhaps, by the strictest moralists, be allowed to be rather beneficial than hurtful. By this gradual procedure, we shall give those, who have accustomed themselves to this liquor, time to reclaim their appetites, and those that live by distilling, opportunities of engaging in some other employment; we shall remove the distemper of the publick, without any painful remedies, and shall reform the people insensibly, without exasperating or persecuting them.

The bishop of OXFORD spoke to the following purport:--My lords, as I am not yet convinced of the expedience of the bill now before us, nor can discover any reason for believing that the advantages will countervail the mischiefs which it will produce, I think it my duty to declare, that I shall oppose it, as destructive to virtue, and contrary to the inviolable rules of religion.

It appears to me, my lords, that the liberty of selling liquors, which are allowed to be equally injurious to health and virtue, will by this law become general and boundless; and I can discover no reason for doubting that the purchasers will be multiplied by increasing the numbers of the venders, and the increase of the sale of distilled spirits, and the propagation of all kinds of wickedness are the same; I must conclude that bill to be destructive to the publick by which the sale of spirits will be increased.

It has been urged that other more vigorous methods have been tried, and that they are now to be laid aside, because experience has shown them to be ineffectual, because the people unanimously asserted the privilege of debauchery, opposed the execution of justice, and pursued those with the utmost malice that offered informations.

I should think, my lords, that government approaching to its dissolution, that was reduced to submit its decrees to their judgment who are chiefly accused of the abuse of these liquors; for surely, when the lowest, the most corrupt part of the people, have obtained such a degree of influence as to dictate to the legislature those laws by which they expect to be governed, all subordination is at an end.

This, my lords, I hope I shall never see the state of my own country: I hope I shall never see the government without authority to enforce obedience to the laws, nor have I, indeed, seen any such weakness on this occasion: the opposition that was made, and the discontent that was excited, were no greater than might be reasonably expected, when the vice which was to be reformed was so enormously predominant; nor was the effect of the law less than any one who foresaw such opposition might reasonably have conceived.

In this city alone there were, before the commencement of that law, fifteen hundred large shops, in which no other trade was carried on than that of retailing these pernicious liquors; in which no temptation to debauchery was forgotten; and, what cannot be mentioned without horrour, back rooms and secret places were contrived for receptacles of those who had drank till they had lost their reason and their limbs; there they were crowded together till they recovered strength sufficient to go away or drink more.

These pestilential shops, these storehouses of mischief, will, upon the encouragement which this law will give them, be set open again; new invitations will be hung out to catch the eyes of passengers, who will again be enticed with promises of being made drunk for a penny, and that universal debauchery and astonishing licentiousness which gave occasion to the former act will return upon us.

It is to little purpose, my lords, that the licenses for selling distilled spirits are to be granted only to those who profess to keep houses for the sale of other liquors, since nothing will be more easy than to elude this part of the law. Whoever is inclined to open a shop for the retail of spirits, may take a license for selling ale; and the sale of one barrel of more innocent liquors in a year will entitle to dispense poison with impunity, and to contribute without control to the corruption of mankind.

It is confessed, that since this law was made, these liquors, have been sold only at corners of the streets in petty shops, and in private cellars; and, therefore, it must be allowed, that if the consumption has increased, it, has, at least, increased less than if the free and open sale had been permitted; for the necessity of secrecy is always a restraint, and every restraint must in some degree obstruct any practice, since those that follow it under restraint would pursue it more vigorously, if that restraint were taken away; and those that are now totally hindered, would, at least, be more strongly tempted by greater liberty; and where the temptation is more powerful, more will probably be overcome by it.

But, my lords, however the law may in this crowded city have been eluded and defied, however drunkenness may here have been protected by the insolence which it produces, and crimes have been sheltered by the multitudes of offenders, I am informed, that in parts less populous, the efficacy of the late act never was denied; and that it has in many parts rescued the people from the miseries of debauchery, and only failed in others by the negligence of those to whom the execution of it was committed.

Negligently and faintly as it was executed, it did in effect hinder many from pursuing this destructive kind of trade; and even in the metropolis itself, almost a total stop was for a time put to the use of spirits; and had the magistrates performed their duty with steadiness and resolution, it is probable, that no plea would have arisen in favour of this bill from the inefficacy of the last.

I cannot, indeed, deny, that the multitude of false informers furnished the magistrates with a very specious pretence for relaxing their vigilance; but it was only, my lords, a specious pretence, not a warrantable reason; for the same diligence should have been used to punish false informers as clandestine retailers; the traders in poison and in perjury should have been both pursued with incessant vigour, the sword of justice should have been drawn against them, nor should it have been laid aside, till either species of wickedness had been exterminated.

In the execution of this, as of other penal laws, my lords, it will be always possible for the judge to be misled by false testimonies; and, therefore, the argument which false informations furnish may be used against every other law, where information is encouraged. Yet, my lords, it has been long the practice of this nation to incite criminals to detect each other; and when any enormous crime is committed, to proclaim at once pardon and rewards to him that shall discover his accomplices. This, my lords, is an apparent temptation to perjury; and yet no inconvenieucies have arisen from it, that can reasonably induce us to lay it aside.

Perjury may in the execution of this law be detected by the same means as on other occasions; and whenever it is detected, ought to be rigorously punished; and I doubt not but in a short time the _difficulties_ and _inconveniencies_ which are asserted in the preamble of this bill to have _attended the putting the late act in execution_, would speedily have vanished; the number of delinquents would have been every day lessened, and the virtue and industry of the nation would have been restored.

It is not, indeed, asserted, that the execution of the late act was impossible, but that it was attended with difficulties; and when, my lords, was any design of great importance effected without difficulties? It is difficult, without doubt, to restrain a nation from vice; and to reform a nation already corrupted, is still more difficult. But as both, however difficult, are necessary, it is the duty of government to endeavour them, till it shall appear that no endeavours can succeed.

For my part, my lords, I am not easily persuaded to believe that remissness will succeed, where assiduity has failed; and, therefore, if it be true, as is supposed in the preamble, that the former act was ineffectual by any defects in itself, I cannot conceive that this will operate with greater force. I cannot imagine that appetites will be weakened by lessening the danger of gratifying them, or that men who will break down the fences of the law to possess themselves of what long habits have, in their opinion, made necessary to them, will neglect it, merely because it is laid in their way.

With regard to this act, my lords, it is to be inquired, whether it is likely to be executed with more diligence than the former, and whether the same obstacles may not equally obstruct the execution of both.

The great difficulty of the former method, a method certainly in itself reasonable and efficacious, arose from the necessity of receiving informations from the meanest and most profligate of the people, who were often tempted to lay hold of the opportunities which that law put into their hands, of relieving their wants, or gratifying their resentment; and very frequently intimidated the innocent by threats of accusations, which were not easily to be confuted. They were, therefore, equally dangerous to those that obeyed the act, and to those that disregarded it; for they sometimes put their threats in execution, and raised prosecutions against those who had committed no other crime than that of refusing to bribe them to silence.

An abuse so notorious, my lords, produced a general detestation of all informers, or, at least, concurred with other causes to produce it; and that detestation became so prevalent in the minds of the populace, that at last it became to the highest degree dangerous to attempt the conviction of those, who, in the most open and contemptuous manner, every day violated the laws of their country; and in time the retailers trusting to the protection of the people, laid aside all cautions, at least in this great city, and prosecuted their former practice with the utmost security.

This, my lords, was the chief difficulty and inconvenience hitherto discovered in the law which is now to be repealed. Thus was its execution obstructed, and the provisions enacted by it made ineffectual. This defect, therefore, ought to be chiefly regarded in any new regulations. But what securities, my lords, are provided against the same evil in the bill before us? Or why should we imagine that this law will be executed with less opposition than the last? The informers will undoubtedly be of the same class as before; they are still to be incited by a reward; and, therefore, it may be reasonably feared, that they will act upon the same motives, and be persecuted with the same fury.

To obviate this inconvenience appears to me very easy, by converting the duty upon licenses to a large duty upon the liquors to be paid by the distiller; the payment of which will be carefully exacted by proper officers, who, though their employment is not very reputable, pursue it at least without any personal danger; and who inform their superiours of any attempts to defraud the revenue, without being censured as officious or revengeful, and, therefore, are without any terrours to hinder them from their duty.

It has been asserted, indeed, that the price of a license is now so small, that none who are inclined to deal in spirits will neglect to secure themselves from punishment and vexation by procuring it; and that no man will subject himself to the malice of a profligate, by carrying on an illicit trade, which the annual expense of twenty shillings will make legal.

If this argument be just, my lords, and to the greatest part of this assembly I believe it will appear very plausible, how will this law lessen the consumption of distilled liquors? It is confessed that it will hinder nobody from selling them; and it has been found, by experience, that nothing can restrain the people from buying them, but such laws as hinder them from being sold.

This plea, therefore, by removing an objection to a particular clause, will strengthen the great argument against the tenour of the bill, that instead of lessening, it will increase the consumption of those liquors which are allowed to be destructive to the people, to enfeeble the body, and to vitiate the mind, and, consequently, to impair the strength and commerce of the nation, and to destroy the happiness and security of life.

That the cheapness of licenses will induce multitudes to buy them, may be expected; but it cannot be hoped that every one will cease to sell spirits without a license; for they, are, as I am informed, offered every hour in the streets by those to whom twenty shillings make a very large sum, and who, therefore, will not, or cannot purchase a license. These ought, undoubtedly, to be detected and punished; but there is no provision made for discovering them, but what has been found already to be ineffectual.

It appears, therefore, my lords, that this bill will increase the number of lawful retailers, without diminishing that of private dealers; so that the opportunities of debauchery will be multiplied, in proportion to the numbers who shall take licenses.

There is another fallacy by which the duties upon distilled liquors have been hitherto avoided, and which will still make this bill equally useless as the former, for the ends which are to be promoted by it.

It is expected, my lords, by those who purchase spirits from the distillers, that they should be of a certain degree of strength, which they call proof: if they are of a lower degree, their price is diminished; and if of a higher, it is raised proportionally; because if the spirits exceed the degree of strength required, they may be mixed with other liquors of little value, and still be sold to the drinker at the common price.

It is, therefore, the practice of the distillers to give their spirits thrice the degree of strength required, by which contrivance, though they pay only the duty of one pint, they sell their liquors at the price of three; because it may be increased to thrice the quantity distilled, and yet retain sufficient strength to promote the purposes of wickedness.

This practice, my lords, should be likewise obviated; for while one gallon, after having paid the present low duty which is laid upon it, may be multiplied to three, the additional price will, in the small quantities which are usually demanded, become imperceptible.

But to show yet farther the inefficacy of this bill, let us suppose, what will not be found by experience, that a halfpenny is added to the price of every pint, it will yet be very practicable to revel in drunkenness for a penny, since a very small quantity of these hateful liquors is sufficient to intoxicate those who have not been habituated to the use of them; who though their reformation is, undoubtedly, to be desired, do not so much demand the care of the legislature, as those who are yet untainted with this pernicious practice, and who may, perhaps, by the frequency of temptation, and the prevalence of example, be induced in time to taste these execrable liquors, and perish in their first essays of debauchery. For such is the quality of these spirits, that they are sometimes fatal to those who indiscreetly venture upon them without caution, and whose stomachs have not been prepared for large draughts, by proper gradations of intemperance; a single spoonful has been found sufficient to hurry two children to the grave.

It is, therefore, my opinion, that those whose stations and employments make it their duty to superintend the conduct of their fellow-subjects, ought to contrive some other law on this occasion; ought to endeavour to rescue the common people from the infatuation which is become general amongst them, and to withhold from them the means of wickedness. That instead of complying with their prejudices, and flattering their appetites, they should exert that authority with which they are intrusted in a steady and resolute opposition to predominant vices; and without having recourse to gentle arts, and temporizing expedients, snatch out of their hands at once those instruments which are only of use for criminal purposes, and take from their mouths that draught with which, however delicious it may seem, they poison at once themselves and their posterity.