supposed, fifty thousand licensed venders of these liquors, there will
likewise be fifty thousand informers against unlawful traders; and as
the liquors may then always be had under sanction of the law, the
populace will not interest themselves in that process which can have
no tendency to obstruct their pleasure.
Thus, my lords, shall we, by agreeing to this bill, make a law that
will be at once useful to the government and beneficial to the people,
which will be at once powerful in its effects and easy in its
execution; and, therefore, instead of attending any more to the wild
and impracticable schemes of heavy taxes, rigorous punishments, sudden
reformations, and violent restraints, I hope we shall unanimously
approve this method, from which so much may be hoped, while nothing is
hazarded.
Lord CARTERET then rose up, and spoke in substance as follows:--My
lords, though the noble lord who has been pleased to incite us to an
unanimous concurrence with himself and his associates of the ministry,
in passing this excellent and wonder-working bill, this bill, which is
to lessen the consumption of spirits, without lessening the quantity
which is distilled, which is to restrain drunkards from drinking, by
setting their favourite liquor always before their eyes, to conquer
habits by continuing them, and correct vice by indulging it, according
to the lowest reckoning, for at least another year; yet, my lords,
such is my obstinacy, or such my ignorance, that I cannot yet comply
with his proposal, nor can prevail with myself either to concur with
measures so apparently opposite to the interest of the publick, or to
hear them vindicated, without declaring how little I approve them.
During the course of this long debate I have endeavoured to
recapitulate and digest the arguments which have been advanced, and
have considered them both separate and conjoined; but find myself at
the same distance from conviction as when I entered the house; nor do
I imagine, that they can much affect any man who does not voluntarily
assist them by strong prejudice.
In vindication of this bill, my lords, we have been told that the
present law is ineffectual; that our manufacture is not to be
destroyed, or not this year; that the security offered by the present
bill has induced great numbers to subscribe to the new fund; that it
has been approved by the commons; and that, if it be found
ineffectual, it may be amended another session.
All these arguments, my lords, I shall endeavour to examine, because I
am always desirous of gratifying those great men to whom the
administration of affairs is intrusted, and have always very
cautiously avoided the odium of disaffection which they will
undoubtedly throw, in imitation of their predecessors, upon all those
whose wayward consciences shall oblige them to hinder the execution of
their schemes.
With a very strong desire, therefore, though with no great hopes of
finding them in the right, I venture to begin my inquiry, and engage
in the examination of their first assertion, that the present law
against the abuse of strong liquors is without effect.
I hope, my lords, it portends well to my inquiry, that the first
position which I have to examine is true, nor can I forbear to
congratulate your lordships upon having heard from the new ministry
one assertion not to be contradicted.
It is evident, my lords, from daily observation, and demonstrable from
the papers upon the table, that every year, since the enaction of the
last law, that vice has increased which it was intended to repress,
and that no time has been so favourable to the retailers of spirits as
that which has passed since they were prohibited.
It may, therefore, be expected, my lords, that having agreed with the
ministers in their fundamental proposition, I shall concur with them
in the consequence which they draw from it; and having allowed that
the present law is ineffectual, should admit that another is
necessary.
But, my lords, in order to discover whether this consequence be
necessary, it must first be inquired why the present law is of no
force? For, my lords, it will be found, upon reflection, that there
are certain degrees of corruption that may hinder the effects of the
best laws. The magistrates may be vitious, and forbear to enforce that
law, by which themselves are condemned; they may be indolent, and
inclined rather to connive at wickedness by which they are not injured
themselves, than to repress it by a laborious exertion of their
authority; or they may be timorous, and, instead of awing the vitious,
may be awed by them.
In any of these cases, my lords, the law is not to be condemned for
its inefficacy, since it only fails by the defect of those who are to
direct its operations; the best and most important laws will
contribute very little to the security or happiness of a people, if no
judges of integrity and spirit can be found amongst them. Even the
most beneficial and useful bill that ministers can possibly imagine, a
bill for laying on our estates a tax of the fifth part of their yearly
value, would be wholly without effect, if collectors could not be
obtained.
I am, therefore, my lords, yet doubtful, whether the inefficacy of the
law now subsisting necessarily obliges us to provide another; for
those that declared it to be useless, owned at the same time, that no
man endeavoured to enforce it; so that, perhaps, its only defect may
be, that it will not execute itself.
Nor though I should allow, that the law is at present impeded by
difficulties which cannot be broken through, but by men of more spirit
and dignity than the ministers may be inclined to trust with
commissions of the peace, yet it can only be collected, that another
law is necessary, not that the law now proposed will be of any
advantage.
Great use has been made of the inefficacy of the present law to decry
the proposal made by the noble lord for laying a high duty upon these
pernicious liquors. High duties have already, as we are informed, been
tried without advantage; high duties are at this hour imposed upon
those spirits which are retailed, yet we see them every day sold in
the streets without the payment of the tax required; and, therefore,
it will be folly to make a second essay of means which have been
found, by the experience of many years, unsuccessful.
It has been granted on all sides in this debate, nor was it ever
denied on any other occasion, that the consumption of any commodity is
most easily to be hindered by raising its price, and its price is to
be raised by the imposition of a duty; this, my lords, which is, I
suppose, the opinion of every man, of whatever degree of experience or
understanding, appears likewise to have been thought by the authors of
the present law; and, therefore, they imagined, that they had
effectually provided against the increase of drunkenness, by laying
upon that liquor which should be retailed in small quantities, a duty
which none of the inferiour classes of drunkards would be able to pay.
Thus, my lords, they conceived that they had reformed the common
people, without infringing the pleasures of others, and applauded the
happy contrivance by which spirits were to be made dear only to the
poor, while every man who could afford to purchase two gallons, was at
liberty to riot at his ease, and over a full flowing bumper look down
with contempt upon his former companions, now ruthlessly condemned to
disconsolate sobriety, or obliged to regale themselves with liquor
which did no speedy execution upon their cares, but held them for many
tedious hours in a languishing possession of their senses and their
limbs.
But, my lords, this intention was frustrated, and the project,
ingenious as it was, fell to the ground; for though they had laid a
tax, they unhappily forgot that this tax would make no addition to the
price, unless it was paid; and that it would not be paid, unless some
were empowered to collect it.
Here, my lords, was the difficulty; those who made the law were
inclined to lay a tax from which themselves should be exempt, and,
therefore, would not charge the liquor as it issued from the still;
and when once it was dispersed in the hands of petty dealers, it was
no longer to be found without the assistance of informers, and
informers could not carry on the business of persecution without the
consent of the people.
It is not necessary to dwell any longer upon the law of which the
repeal is proposed, since it appears already, that it failed only from
a partiality not easily defended, and from the omission of what is now
proposed, the collection of the duty as the liquor is distilled.
If this method be followed, there will be no longer any need of
information, or of any rigorous or new measures; the same officers
that collect a smaller duty may levy a greater, nor can they be easily
deceived with regard to the quantities that are made; the deceits, at
least, that can be used, are in use already; they are frequently
detected and suppressed; nor will a larger duty enable the distillers
to elude the vigilance of the officers with more success.
Against this proposal, therefore, the inefficacy of the present law
can be no objection; but it is urged, that such duties would destroy
the trade of distilling; and a noble lord has been pleased to express
great tenderness for a manufacture so beneficial and extensive.
I cannot but sometimes wonder, my lords, at the amazing variety of
intellects, which every day furnishes some opportunity or other of
observing, and which cannot but be remarked on this occasion, when one
produces against a proposal the very argument which another offers in
its favour. That a large duty levied at the still would destroy or
very much impair the trade of distilling, is certainly supposed by
those who defend it, for they proposed it only for that end; and what
better method can they propose, when they are called to deliberate
upon a bill for the prevention of the excessive use of distilled
liquors?
The noble lord has been pleased kindly to inform us, that the trade of
distilling is very extensive, that it employs great numbers, and that
they have arrived at exquisite skill, and therefore,--note well the
consequence--the trade of distilling is not to be discouraged.
Once more, my lords, allow me to wonder at the different conceptions
of different understandings. It appears to me, that since the spirits
which the distillers produce are allowed to enfeeble the limbs, and
vitiate the blood, to pervert the heart, and obscure the intellects,
that the number of distillers should be no argument in their favour!
For I never heard that a law against theft was repealed or delayed,
because thieves were numerous. It appears to me, my lords, that if so
formidable a body are confederated against the virtue or the lives of
their fellow-citizens, it is time to put an end to the havock, and to
interpose, while it is yet in our power to stop the destruction.
As little, my lords, am I affected with the merit of the wonderful
skill which the distillers are said to have attained: it is, in my
opinion, no faculty of great use to mankind, to prepare palatable
poison; nor shall I ever contribute my interest for the reprieve of a
murderer, because he has, by long practice, obtained great dexterity
in his trade.
If their liquors are so delicious, that the people are tempted to
their own destruction, let us at length, my lords, secure them from
these fatal draughts, by bursting the vials that contain them; let us
crush, at once, these artists in slaughter, who have reconciled their
countrymen to sickness and to ruin, and spread over the pitfals of
debauchery such baits as cannot be resisted.
The noble lord has, indeed, admitted, that this bill may not be found
sufficiently coercive, but gives us hopes that it may be improved and
enforced another year, and persuades us to endeavour the reformation
of drunkenness by degrees, and above all, to beware, at present, of
hurting the _manufacture_.
I am very far, my lords, from thinking, that there are this year any
peculiar reasons for tolerating murder; nor can I conceive why the
manufacture should be held sacred now, if it be to be destroyed
hereafter; we are, indeed, desired to try how far this law will
operate, that we may be more able to proceed with due regard to this
valuable manufacture.
With regard to the operation of the law, it appears to me that it will
only enrich the government without reforming the people, and I believe
there are not many of a different opinion: if any diminution of the
sale of spirits be expected from it, it is to be considered, that this
diminution will or will not be such as is desired for the reformation
of the people; if it be sufficient, the manufacture is at an end, and
all the reasons against a higher duty are of equal force against this;
but if it is not sufficient, we have, at least, omitted part of our
duty, and have neglected the health and virtue of the people.
I cannot, my lords, yet discover, why a reprieve is desired for this
manufacture; why the present year is not equally propitious to the
reformation of mankind as any will be that may succeed it. It is true
we are at war with two nations, and, perhaps, with more; but war may
be better prosecuted without money than without men, and we but little
consult the military glory of our country, if we raise supplies for
paying our armies, by the destruction of those armies that we are
contriving to pay.
We have heard the necessity of reforming the nation by degrees urged
as an argument for imposing first a lighter duty, and afterwards a
heavier; this complaisance for wickedness, my lords, is not so
defensible as that it should be battered by arguments in form, and
therefore I shall only relate a reply made by Webb, the noted walker,
upon a parallel occasion.
This man, who must be remembered by many of your lordships, was
remarkable for vigour, both of mind and body, and lived wholly upon
water for his drink, and chiefly upon vegetables for his other
sustenance: he was one day recommending his regimen to one of his
friends who loved wine, and who, perhaps, might somewhat contribute to
the prosperity of this _spirituous manufacture_, and urged him, with
great earnestness, to quit a course of luxury by which his health and
his intellects would equally be destroyed. The gentleman appeared
convinced, and told him, that he would conform to his counsel, and
thought he could not change his course of life at once, but would
leave off strong liquors by degrees. By degrees, says the other, with
indignation! if you should unhappily fall into the fire, would you
caution your servants not to pull you out but by degrees?
This answer, my lords, is applicable in the present case; the nation
is sunk into the lowest state of corruption, the people are not only
vitious, but insolent beyond example; they not only break the laws,
but defy them; and yet some of your lordships are for reforming them
by degrees.
I am not easily persuaded, my lords, that our ministers really intend
to supply the defects that may hereafter be discovered in this bill;
it will doubtless produce money, perhaps much more than they appear to
expect from it; I doubt not but the licensed retailers will be more
than fifty thousand, and the quantity retailed must increase with the
number of retailers. As the bill will, therefore, answer all the ends
intended by it, I do not expect to see it altered, for I have never
observed ministers desirous of amending their own errours, unless they
are such as produce a deficiency in the revenue.
Besides, my lords, it is not certain, that when this fund is mortgaged
to the publick creditors, they can prevail upon the commons to change
the security; they may continue the bill in force for the reasons,
whatever they are, for which they have passed it, and the good
intentions of our ministers, however sincere, may be defeated, and
drunkenness, legal drunkenness, established in the nation.
This, my lords, is very reasonable; and therefore we ought to exert
ourselves for the safety of the nation, while the power is yet in our
own hands, and without regard to the opinion or proceedings of the
other house, show that we are yet the chief guardians of the people,
and the most vigilant adversaries of wickedness.
The ready compliance of the commons with the measures proposed in this
bill, has been mentioned here with a view, I suppose, of influencing
us, but surely by those who had forgotten our independence, or
resigned their own. It is not only the right, but the duty of either
house, to deliberate without regard to the determinations of the
other; for how would the nation receive any benefit from the distinct
powers that compose the legislature, unless their determinations are
without influence upon each other? If either the example or authority
of the commons can divert us from following our own convictions, we
are no longer part of the legislature; we have given up our honours
and our privileges, and what then is our concurrence but slavery, or
our suffrage but an echo?
The only argument, therefore, that now remains, is the expediency of
gratifying those by whose ready subscription the exigencies which the
counsels of our new statesmen have brought upon us, and of continuing
the security by which they have been encouraged to such liberal
contributions.
Publick credit, my lords, is, indeed, of very great importance, but
publick credit can never be long supported without publick virtue; nor
indeed if the government could mortgage the morals and health of the
people, would it be just or rational to confirm the bargain. If the
ministry can raise money only by the destruction of their
fellow-subjects, they ought to abandon those schemes for which the
money is necessary: for what calamity can be equal to unbounded
wickedness?
But, my lords, there is no necessity for a choice which may cost us or
our ministers so much regret; for the same subscriptions may be
procured by an offer of the same advantages to a fund of any other
kind, and the sinking fund will easily supply any deficiency that
might be suspected in another scheme.
To confess the truth, I should feel very little pain from an account
that the nation was for some time determined to be less liberal of
their contribution, and that money was withheld till it was known in
what expeditions it was to be employed, to what princes subsidies were
to be paid, and what advantages were to be purchased by it for our
country. I should rejoice my lords, to hear that the lottery by which
the deficiencies of this duty are to be supplied, was not filled; and
that the people were grown at last wise enough to discern the fraud,
and to prefer honest commerce, by which all may be gainers, to a game
by which the greatest number must certainly lose, and in which no man
can reasonably expect that he shall be the happy favourite of fortune,
on whom a prize shall be conferred.
The lotteries, my lords, which former ministers have proposed, have
always been censured by those that saw their nature and their
tendency; they have been considered as legal cheats, by which the
ignorant and the rash are defrauded, and the subtle and avaricious
often enriched; they have been allowed to divert the people from
trade, and to alienate them from useful industry. A man who is uneasy
in his circumstances, and idle in his disposition, collects the
remains of his fortune, and buys tickets in a lottery, retires from
business, indulges himself in laziness, and waits, in some obscure
place, the event of his adventure. Another, instead of employing his
stock in a shop or warehouse, rents a garret in a private street, and
makes it his business, by false intelligence, and chimerical alarms,
to raise and sink the price of tickets alternately, and takes
advantage of the lies which he has himself invented.
Such, my lords, is the traffick that is produced by this scheme of
raising money; nor were these inconveniencies unknown to the present
ministers in the time of their predecessors, whom they never failed to
pursue with the loudest clamours, whenever the exigencies of the
government reduced them to a lottery.
If I, my lords, might presume to recommend to our ministers the most
probable method of raising a large sum for the payment of the troops
of the electorate, I should, instead of the tax and lottery now
proposed, advise them to establish a certain number of licensed
wheelbarrows, on which the laudable trade of thimble and button might
be carried on for the support of the war, and shoeboys might
contribute to the defence of the house of Austria, by raffling for
apples.
Having now, my lords, examined with the utmost candour, all the
reasons which have been offered in defence of the bill, I cannot
conceal the result of my inquiry. The arguments have had so little
effect upon my understanding, that as every man judges of others by
himself, I cannot believe that they have any influence, even upon
those that offer them; and, therefore, I am convinced, that this bill
must be the result of considerations which have been hitherto
concealed, and is intended to promote designs which are never to be
discovered by the authors before their execution.
With regard to these motives and designs, however artfully concealed,
every lord in this assembly is yet at liberty to offer his
conjectures; and therefore I shall venture to lay before you what has
arisen in my mind, without pretending to have discovered absolute
certainty, what such accomplished politicians have endeavoured to
conceal.
When I consider, my lords, the tendency of this bill, I find it
calculated only for the propagation of diseases, the suppression of
industry, and the destruction of mankind; I find it the most fatal
engine that ever was pointed at a people, an engine by which those who
are not killed will be disabled, and those who preserve their limbs,
will be deprived of their senses.
This bill, therefore, appears to be designed only to thin the ranks of
mankind, and to disburden the world of the multitudes that inhabit it;
and is, perhaps, the strongest proof of political sagacity that our
new ministers have yet exhibited. They well know, my lords, that they
are universally detested, and that wherever a Briton is destroyed,
they are freed from an enemy; they have, therefore, opened the
floodgates of gin upon the nation, that when it is less numerous, it
may be more easily governed.
Other ministers, my lords, who had not attained to so great a
knowledge in the art of making war upon their country, when they found
their enemies clamorous and bold, used to awe them with prosecutions
and penalties, or destroy them like burglars, with prisons and
gibbets. But every age, my lords, produces some improvement, and every
nation, however degenerate, gives birth at some happy period of time
to men of great and enterprising genius. It is our fortune to be
witnesses of a new discovery in politicks; we may congratulate
ourselves upon being contemporaries with those men who have shown that
hangmen and halters are unnecessary in a state, and that ministers may
escape the reproach of destroying their enemies, by inciting them to
destroy themselves.
This new method may, indeed, have upon different constitutions a
different operation; it may destroy the lives of some, and the senses
of others; but either of these effects will answer the purposes of the
ministry, to whom it is indifferent, provided the nation becomes
insensible, whether pestilence or lunacy prevails among them. Either
mad or dead, the greatest part of the people must quickly be, or there
is no hope of the continuance of the present ministry.
For this purpose, my lords, what could have been invented more
efficacious than an establishment of a certain number of shops at
which poison may be vended; poison so prepared, as to please the
palate while it wastes the strength, and to kill only by intoxication.
From the first instant that any of the enemies of the ministry shall
grow clamorous and turbulent, a crafty hireling may lead him to the
ministerial slaughterhouse, and ply him with their wonder-working
liquor, till he is no longer able to speak or think; and, my lords, no
man can be more agreeable to our ministers than he that can neither
speak nor think, except those who speak without thinking.
But, my lords, the ministers ought to reflect, that though all the
people of the present age are their enemies, yet they have made no
trial of the temper and inclinations of posterity; our successours may
be of opinions very different from ours; they may, perhaps, approve of
wars on the continent, while our plantations are insulted, and our
trade obstructed; they may think the support of the house of Austria
of more importance to us than our own defence, and may, perhaps, so
far differ from their fathers, as to imagine the treasures of Britain
very properly employed in supporting the troops, and increasing the
splendour of a foreign electorate.
Since, therefore, it will not be denied by our ministers, that the
affection and gratitude of posterity may atone for the obstinacy,
blindness, and malice of the present age; since those measures which
are now universally censured, may at some distant time be praised with
equal unanimity; why, my lords, should they extend their vengeance to
the succeeding generation? why should they endeavour to torture their
limbs with pains, and load their lives with the guilt of their
parents? why should they hinder that trade to which they must owe all
the comforts which plenty affords? why should they endeavour to
intercept their existence, or suffer them to exist only to be
wretched?
If I may once more declare my sentiments, my lords, I believe the
ministers do not so much wish to debilitate the bodies as the
understandings of posterity, nor so ardently desire a race of cripples
as of fools. For cripples, my lords, can make no figure at a review,
nor strut in a red coat with a tolerable grace; but fools are known by
long experience to be the principal support of an army, since they are
the only persons who are willing to pay it!
Whatever, my lords, be the true reasons for which this bill is so
warmly promoted, I think they ought, at least, to be deliberately
examined; and, therefore, cannot think it consistent with our regard
for the nation to suffer it to be precipitated into a law. The year,
my lords, is not so far advanced, as that supplies may not be raised
by some other method, if this should be rejected; nor do I think that
we ought to consent to this, even though our refusal should hinder the
supplies, since we have no right, for the sake of any advantage,
however certain or great, to violate all the laws of heaven and earth,
to doom thousands to destruction, and to fill the exchequer with the
price of the lives of our fellow-subjects.
Let us, therefore, my lords, not suffer ourselves to be driven forward
with such haste as may hinder us from observing whither we are going;
let us not be persuaded to precipitate our counsels by those who know
that all delays will be detrimental to their designs, because delays
may produce new information, and they are conscious that the bill will
be less approved the more it is understood.
But every reason which they can offer against the motion, is, in my
opinion, a reason for it; and, therefore, I shall readily agree to
postpone the clause, and no less readily to reject the bill.
If, at last, reason and evidence are vain, if neither justice nor
compassion can prevail, but the nation must be destroyed for the
support of the government, let us at least, my lords, confine our
assertions, in the preamble, to truth; let us not affirm that
drunkenness is established by the advice or consent of the lords
spiritual, since I am confident not one of them will so far contradict
his own doctrine, as to vote for a bill which gives a sanction to one
vice, and ministers opportunities and temptations to all others; and
which, if it be not speedily repealed, will overflow the whole nation
with a deluge of wickedness.
Lord ISLAY next spoke to the effect following:--My lords, I have
attended for a long time to the noble lord, not without some degree of
uneasiness, as I think the manner in which he has treated the question
neither consistent with the dignity of this assembly, nor with those
rules which ought to be ever venerable, the great rules of reason and
humanity. Yet being now arrived at a time of life in which the
passions grow calm, and patience easily prevails over any sudden
disgust or perturbation, I forbore to disconcert him, though I have
known interruption produced by much slighter provocations.
It is, my lords, in my opinion, a just maxim, that our deliberations
can receive very little assistance from merriment and ridicule, and
that truth is seldom discovered by those who are chiefly solicitous to
start a jest. To convince the understanding, and to tickle the fancy,
are purposes very different, and must be promoted by different means;
nor is he always to imagine himself superiour in the dispute, who is
applauded with the loudest laugh.
To laugh, my lords, and to endeavour to communicate the same mirth to
others, when great affairs are to be considered, is certainly to
neglect the end for which we are assembled, and the reasons for which
the privilege of debating was originally granted us. For doubtless, my
lords, our honours and our power were not conferred upon us that we
might be merry with the better grace, or that we might meet at certain
times to divert ourselves with turning the great affairs of the nation
to ridicule.
But, my lords, still less defensible is this practice, when we are
contriving the relief of misery, or the reformation of vice; when
calamities are preying upon thousands, and the happiness not only of
the present age, but of posterity, must depend upon our resolutions.
He that can divert himself with the sight of misery, has surely very
little claim to the great praise of humanity and tenderness; nor can
he be justly exempted from the censure of increasing evils, who wastes
in laughter and jocularity that time in which he might relieve them.
The bill now before us has been represented by those that oppose it,
as big with destruction, and dangerous both to the lives and to the
virtue of the people. We have been told, that it will at once fill the
land with sickness and with villany, and that it will be at the same
time fatal to our trade, and to our power; yet those who are willing
to be thought fearful of all these evils, and ardently desirous of
averting them from their country, cannot without laughter mention the
bill which they oppose, or enumerate the consequences which they dread
from it, in any other language than that of irony and burlesque.
Surely, my lords, such conduct gives reason for questioning either
their humanity, or their sincerity; for if they really fear such
dreadful calamities, how can they be at leisure for mirth and gaiety I
How can they sport over the grave of millions, and indulge their vain
ridicule, when the ruin of their country is approaching?
But without inquiry, whether they who oppose the bill will grant their
opposition hypocritical, or their patriotism languid, I shall lay my
opinion of this new regulation before your lordships with equal
freedom, though with less luxuriance of imagination, and less gaiety
of language.
Of this bill, notwithstanding the acuteness with which it has been
examined, and the acrimony with which it has been censured, I am not
afraid to affirm, that it is neither wicked nor absurd, that all its
parts are consistent, and that the effects to be expected from it are
sobriety and health. I cannot find, upon the closest examination,
either that it will defeat its own end, or that the end proposed by it
is different from that which is professed.
The charge of encouraging vice and tolerating drunkenness, with which
the defenders of this bill have been so liberally aspersed, may be, in
my opinion, more justly retorted upon those that oppose it; who,
though they plead for the continuance of a law, rigorous, indeed, and
well intended, own that it has, by the experience of several years,
been found ineffectual.
What, my lords, can a drunkard or a profligate be supposed to wish,
but that the law may still remain in its present state, that he may
still be pursued in a track by which he knows how to escape, and
opposed by restraints which he is able to break? What can he desire,
but that the book of statutes should lie useless, and that no laws
should be made against him, but such as cannot be put in execution?
The defects of the present law, are, indeed, very numerous; nor ought
it to be continued, even though no other were to be substituted. It
seems to suppose the use of distilled liquors absolutely unlawful,
and, therefore, imposed upon licenses a duty so enormous, that only
three were taken in the whole kingdom, and the people were therefore
obliged to obtain by illegal methods, what they could not persuade
themselves wholly to forbear.
The method of detecting offenders was likewise such as gave
opportunity for villany to triumph over innocence, and for perjury to
grow rich with the plunder of the poor. Even charity itself might be
punished by it; and he that gave a glass of spirits to a man fainting
under poverty, or sickness, or fatigue, might be punished as a
retailer of spirits without a license.
These defects, which were not seen when the law was made, soon excited
a dislike. No man enforced the execution of it, because every man knew
that on some occasions he might himself break it; and they who
suffered for the violation of it, were often pitied by those whose
office obliged them to punish them. Thus the law, after having been
executed a few months with rigour, was laid aside as impracticable,
and appears now to be tacitly repealed; for it is apparently an empty
form without effect.
If, therefore, the use of spirits be so destructive as is generally
allowed, it is surely necessary, that the legislature should at last
repair the defects of the former law, and the nation should not be
vitiated and ruined, without some endeavours for its preservation;
and, in my opinion, to lay a double duty upon these liquors, is very
rational and prudent. An increase of the price must lessen the
consumption.
To what degree the consumption will be diminished by this new duty, I
am not able to foretel; but, undoubtedly, some diminution will be
produced, and the least diminution will afford us this comfort, that
the evil does not increase upon us, and that this law is, therefore,
better than that which we have repealed.
For this reason, my lords, I approve the present bill, without
inquiring whether it is perfect; it is sufficient for me, in the
present exigence, that the nation will gain something by the change,
and the people will be drawn nearer to sobriety, temperance, and
industry.
Thus, my lords, without paying any regard to the determination of the
other house, I think the bill sufficiently defensible by reason and
policy; nor can I conceal my opinion, that those who oppose it are the
real enemies of their country.
[The question, whether the house should be now resumed, was then put
and determined in the negative by 56 against 85.
The other clauses were then read, and agreed to.
The course of their proceedings then required, that a day should be
appointed for the third reading, and lord SANDWICH therefore rose, and
spoke to the following effect:]
My lords, as the importance of the bill now before us justly demands
the maturest consideration, it is not without unusual concern, that I
observe the absence of many lords, for whose wisdom and experience I
have the highest veneration, and whom I esteem equally for their
penetration and their integrity. I should hope, that all those who
feel in their hearts the love of their country, and are conscious of
abilities to promote its happiness, would assemble on this great
occasion, and that the collective wisdom of this house would be
exerted, when the lives and fortunes, and, what is yet more worthy of
regard, the virtue of the people is involved in the question.
As there can be no avocations which can possibly withhold a wise man
from counsels of such moment to his country, to himself, and to his
posterity; as there is no interest equivalent to the general
happiness; I cannot suppose that either business or pleasure detain
those who have not attended at the examination of this bill; and
therefore imagine, that they are absent only because they have not
been sufficiently informed of the importance of the question that was
this day to be discussed.
It is therefore, my lords, necessary, in my opinion, that on the day
of the third reading they be again summoned to attend, that the law
which is allowed to be only an experiment, of which the event is
absolutely uncertain, may be examined with the utmost care; that all
its consequences may be known, so far as human wisdom is able to
discover, and that we may at least be exempt from the imputation of
being negligent of the welfare of our country, and of being desirous
of avoiding information or inquiry, lest they should retard our
measures or contradict our assertions.
But since it is reasonable to believe, my lords, that many of those,
who might assist us in this difficult inquiry, are now in the country,
it is necessary, that our summons may have the effect which is
desired, to defer the reading for some time. For to what purpose will
it be to require their presence at a time at which we know it is
impossible for them to comply with our orders? To direct what cannot
be done is surely in its own nature absurd and contemptible, and on
this occasion will expose not only our understanding but our honesty
to doubts; for it will be imagined, that we are only endeavouring to
make false shows of caution and accuracy, and that we in reality
desire to determine without the concurrence of those whose presence we
publickly require.
I therefore move, that the third reading of this bill may be delayed
five days, and that immediate summons be issued for all lords to
attend.
Lord CARTERET spoke next in substance as follows:--My lords, if it is
the intention of the noble lords to debate once more the usefulness or
expedience of this bill, if they have any new argument to produce, or
are desirous of another opportunity to repeat those which have been
already heard, I hope they will not long withhold, either from
themselves or their opponents, that satisfaction.
Your lordships are so well acquainted with the state of the publick,
and know so well the danger of the liberties of the continent, the
power of the enemies whom we are to oppose, the dreadful consequences
of an unsuccessful opposition, and the necessity of vigour and
expedition to procure success, that it cannot be necessary to urge the
impropriety of delaying the bill from which the supplies are to be
expected.
The convenience of deferring this bill, however plausibly represented
by the noble lord who made the motion, is overbalanced by the
necessity of considering it to-morrow. Necessity is an argument which
110 acuteness can overthrow, and against which eloquence will be
employed to little purpose. I therefore, my lords, oppose the motion,
not that it is unreasonable in itself, but because it cannot be
admitted; I recommend despatch on this occasion, not because it is
barely right, but because it is absolutely necessary.
Lord HERVEY then rose up and spoke to the following effect:--My lords,
it is always the last resource of ministers to call those measures
necessary which they cannot show to be just; and when they have tried
all the arts of fallacy and illusion, and found them all baffled, to
stand at bay, because they can fly no longer, look their opponents
boldly in the face, and stun them with the formidable sound of
necessity.
But it is generally the fortune of ministers to discover necessity
much sooner than they whose eyes are not sharpened by employments;
they frequently call that necessity, on which no other man would
bestow the title of expediency; and that is seldom necessary to be
done, which others do not think necessary to be avoided.
At present, my lords, I see nothing necessary but what is equally
necessary at all times, that we do our duty to our country, and
discharge our trust, without suffering ourselves to be terrified with
imaginary dangers or allured by imaginary benefits. The war which is
said to produce the necessity of this bill, is, in my opinion, not
necessary in itself: and, if your lordships differ from me in that
sentiment, it must yet be allowed, that there is time sufficient to
provide supplies by new methods.
But, my lords, if the motion, in which I concur, be overruled on a
pretence of necessity, it will show an eager desire to hasten a bill,
which, if referred to any twelve men, not of either house of the
senate, their examination would terminate in this, that they bring it
in guilty of _wilful murder_.
Lord CHOLMONDELEY spoke next, in substance as follows:--My lords, as
there is no doubt but particular measures may be sometimes necessary,
I discover no reason that ought to hinder the mention of that
necessity; for surely where it can be asserted with truth, it is the
most powerful of all arguments, and cannot be wisely or honestly
neglected.
In the present case, my lords, I can discover no impropriety in
mentioning it; for I suppose that noble lord did not intend to
restrain it to the most rigorous sense; he did not mean, that there is
the same necessity of reading this bill to-morrow for the success of
the war, as of extinguishing a fire for the preservation of a town;
but that the reasons for despatch absolutely overbalanced all the
pleas that could be offered for delays.
This necessity, my lords, I am not ashamed to assert after him; nor
can I think it consistent with common prudence, in the present
situation of our affairs, to defer the third reading beyond to-morrow;
for the supplies which this bill must produce, are to be employed in
attempts of the utmost importance, and which cannot fail without the
ruin of a great part of mankind, and an irreparable injury to this
nation.
I cannot, therefore, but confess my surprise at the vehemence with
which this bill is opposed; vehemence so turbulent and fierce, that
some lords have been transported beyond that decency which it is our
duty and our interest to preserve in our deliberations; nor have
restrained themselves from expressions, which, upon reflection, I
believe they will not think defensible; from among which I cannot but
particularize the horrid and opprobrious term of murder.
The reverend prelates, who have spoken against the bill, may be easily
believed to be as zealous for virtue as those who have indulged
themselves in this violence of language; yet they have never charged
those who defend the measures now proposed with the guilt of murder,
but have decently delivered their own opinions, without, reproaching
those who differ from them.
For my part, my lords, as I cannot think the motion for farther delay,
seasonable or proper, or necessary to the discovery of truth, or
consistent with the welfare of the nation, it is my resolution to vote
against it.
The duke of BEDFORD spoke next, in substance as follows:--My lords,
the ardour with which the noble lord appears to resent the indignity
offered to the bill, shows only that he himself approves it, but not
that it deserves the approbation of the house.
I think it of use, notwithstanding the plausible pleas of decency or
politeness, that every thing should in this house be called by its
right name, that we may not dispute for one thing, and vote for
another; and since the bill will certainly destroy multitudes, if it
promotes the sale of distilled spirits, and it has been proved that it
will promote it, I know not by what appellation to denominate its
effects, if that be denied me, which has been already used.
[The speaker then put the question in form, "Is it your lordships'
pleasure, that the third reading of the bill be put off for five
days?" It was resolved in the negative by 52 to 29.
It was then ordered, that the bill should be read the third time on
the day following, and that the lords should be summoned to attend.
On the next day, the house, according to the order, met, and another
debate ensued, which was begun by lord HERVEY, who spoke in substance
as follows:]
My lords, the tendency of the bill, which we are now to approve or
reject, is so apparently destructive to the ends of government, so
apparently dangerous to publick happiness, and so contrary to the
institutions of the most celebrated lawgivers, and the policy of the
most flourishing nations, that I still continue to think it my duty to
struggle against it.
Almost every legislator of the world, my lords, from whatever original
he derived his authority, has exerted it in the prohibition of such
foods as tended to injure the health, and destroy the vigour of the
people for whom he designed his institutions.
The great instructor of the jews, who delivered his laws by divine
authority, prohibited the use of swine's flesh, for no other cause, so
far as human reason is able to discover, than that it corrupted the
blood, and produced loathsome diseases and maladies which descended to
posterity; and, therefore, in prohibiting, after this example, the use
of liquors which produce the same effects, we shall follow the
authority of the great governour of the universe.
The author of another religion, a religion founded, indeed, on
superstition and credulity, but which prevails over a very great part
of the earth, has laid his followers under restraints still more
severe; he has forbidden them to dispel their cares, or exalt their
pleasures, with wine, has banished from their banquets that useful
opponent of troublesome reflection, and doomed all those who receive
his law, not to sobriety only, but to abstinence.
The authority of this man, my lords, cannot indeed be urged as
unexceptionable and decisive; but the reception of his imposture shows
at least, that he was not unacquainted with human nature, and that he
knew how to adapt his forgeries to the nations among which he vented
them; nor can it be denied, but the prohibition of wine was found
generally useful, since it obtained so ready a compliance.
All nations in the world, my lords, in every age of which there remain
any historical accounts, have agreed in the necessity of laying
restraint upon appetite, and setting bounds to the wantonness of
luxury; every legislature has claimed and practised the right of
withholding those pleasures which the people have appeared inclined to
use to excess, and preferring the safety of multitudes whom liberty
would destroy, to the convenience of those who would have enjoyed it
within the limits of reason and of virtue.
The welfare of the publick, my lords, has always been allowed the
supreme law; and when any governours sacrifice the general good either
to private views, or temporary convenience, they deviate at once from
integrity and policy, they betray their trust, and neglect their
interest.
The prohibition of those commodities which are instrumental to vice,
is not only dictated by policy but nature; nor does it, indeed,
require much sagacity, when the evil is known, to find the proper
remedy; for even the Indians, who have not yet reduced the art of
government to a science, nor learned to make long harangues upon the
different interests of foreign powers, the necessity of raising
supplies or the importance and extent of manufactures, have yet been
able to discover, that distilled spirits are pernicious to society,
and that the use of them can only be hindered by prohibiting the sale.
For this reason, my lords, they have petitioned, that none of this
delicious poison should be imported from. Britain; they have desired
us to confine this fountain of wickedness and misery to stream in our
own country, without pouring upon them those inundations of
debauchery, by which we are ourselves overflowed.
When we may be sent with justice to learn from the rude and ignorant
Indians the first elements of civil wisdom, we have surely not much
right to boast of our foresight and knowledge; we must surely confess,
that we have hitherto valued ourselves upon our arts with very little
reason, since we have not learned how to preserve either wealth or
virtue, either peace or commerce.
The maxims of our politicians, my lords, differ widely from those of
the Indian savages, as they are the effects of longer consideration,
and reasonings formed upon more extensive views. What Indian, my
lords, would have contrived to hinder his countrymen from drunkenness,
by placing that liquor in their houses which tempted them to excess;
or would have discovered, that prohibition only were the cause of
boundless excesses; that to subdue the appetite nothing was necessary
but to solicit it; and that what was always offered would never be
received? The Indians, in the simplicity of men unacquainted with
European and British refinements, imagined, that to put an end to the
use of any thing, it was only necessary to take it away; and
conceived, that they could not promote sobriety more effectually, than
by allowing the people nothing with which they could be drunk.
But if our politicians should send missionaries to teach them the art
of government, they would quickly be shown, that if they would
accomplish their design, they must appoint every tenth man among them
to distribute spirits to the nine, and to drink them himself in what
quantity they shall desire, and that then the peace of their country
will be no longer disturbed by the quarrels of debauchery.
It is, indeed, not without amazement, that I hear this bill seriously
defended as a scheme for suppressing drunkenness, and find some lords,
who admit that fifty thousand houses will be opened for the publick
sale of spirits, assert that a less quantity of spirits will be sold.
The foundation of this opinion is in itself very uncertain; for
nothing more is urged, but that all who sell under the sanction of a
license, will be ready to inform against those by whom no license has
been purchased; and that, therefore, fifty thousand licensed retailers
may hurt a greater number who now sell spirits in opposition to the
law.
All this, my lords, is very far from certainty; for it cannot be
proved, that there are now so great a number of retailers as this act
may produce: it is likely that security will encourage many to engage
in this trade, who are at present deterred from it by danger. It is
possible, that those who purchase licenses may nevertheless forbear to
prosecute those that sell spirits without the protection of the law.
They may forbear, my lords, from the common principles of humanity,
because they think those poor traders deserve rather pity than
punishment; they may forbear from a principle that operates more
frequently, and too often more strongly; a regard to their own
interest. They may themselves offend the law by some other parts of
their conduct, and may be unwilling to provoke an inspection into
their own actions, by betraying officiously the faults of their
neighbours; or they may be influenced by immediate terrours, and
expect to be hunted to death by the rage of the populace.
All these considerations may be urged against the only supposition
that has been made, with any show of reason, in favour of the bill;
and of these various circumstances, some one or other will almost
always be found. Every man will have either fear or pity, because
almost every good man is inclined to compassion, and every wicked man
is in danger from the law; and I do not see any reason for imagining
that the people will tolerate informers more willingly now than in the
late years.
But suppose it should be granted, though it cannot be certain, and has
not yet been shown to be probable, that the clandestine trade will be
interrupted; I am not able to follow these ministerial reasoners
immediately to the consequence which they draw from this concession,
and which must be drawn from it, if it be of any use in the decision
of the question, nor can see that the consumption of spirituous
liquors will be made less.
Let us examine, my lords, the premises and the consequences together,
without suffering our attention to be led astray by useless
digressions. Spirits will be now sold only with license! therefore
less will be sold than when it was sold only by stealth!
Surely, my lords, such arguments will not much influence this
assembly. Why, my lords, should less be bought now than formerly? It
is not denied, that there will be in every place a licensed shop,
where drunkards may riot in security; and what can be more inviting to
wretches who place in drunkenness their utmost felicity I If you
should favourably suppose no more to be sold, yet why should those who
now buy any supposed quantity, buy less when the restraint is taken
away?
If it be urged, that the present law does in reality impose no
restraint, the intended act will make no alteration. There is no real
prohibition now, there will be no nominal prohibition hereafter; and,
therefore, the law will only produce what its advocates expect from
it, a yearly addition to the revenue of the government. But, my lords,
let us at last inquire to what it is to be imputed, that the present
law swells the statute book to no purpose? and why this pernicious
trade is carried on with confidence and security, in opposition to the
law? It will not surely be confessed, that the government has wanted
authority to execute its own laws; that the legislature has been awed
by the populace, by the dregs of the populace, the drunkards and the
beggars! Yet when the provisions made for the execution of a law so
salutary, so just, and so necessary, were found defective, why were
not others substituted of greater efficacy? Why, when one informer was
torn in pieces, were there not new securities proposed to protect
those who should by the same offence displease the people afterwards?
The law, my lords, has failed of a great part of its effect; but it
has failed by cowardice on one part, and negligence on another; and
though the duty, as it was laid, was in itself somewhat invidious, it
would, however, have been enforced, could the revenue have gained as
much by the punishment as was gained by the toleration of debauchery.
It has, however, some effect; it may be imagined, that no man can be
trusted where he is not known, and that some men are known too well to
be trusted; and, therefore, many must be occasionally hindered from
drinking spirits, while the law remains in its present state; who,
when houses are set open by license, will never want an opportunity of
complying with their appetites, but may at any time enter confidently,
and call for poison, and mingle with numerous assemblies met only to
provoke each other to intemperance by a kind of brutal emulation and
obstreperous merriment.
This bill, therefore, my lords, is, as it has been termed, only an
experiment; an experiment, my lords, of a very daring kind, which none
would hazard but empirical politicians. It is an experiment to
discover how far the vices of the populace may be made useful to the
government, what taxes may be raised upon poison, and how much the
court may be enriched by the destruction of the subjects.
The tendency of this bill is so evident, that those who appeared as
its advocates have rather endeavoured to defeat their opponents by
charging their proposals with absurdity, than by extenuating the ill
consequence of their own scheme.
Their principal charge is, that those who oppose the bill recommend a
total prohibition of all spirits. This assertion gives them an
opportunity of abandoning their own cause, to expatiate upon the
innocent uses of spirits, of their efficacy in medicine, and their
convenience in domestick business, and to advance a multitude of
positions which they know will not be denied, but which may be at once
made useless to them, by assuring them, that no man desires to destroy
the distillery for the pleasure of destroying it, or intends any thing
more than some provisions which may hinder distilled spirits from
being drunk by common people upon common occasions.
Having thus obviated the only answer that has hitherto been made to
the strong arguments which have been offered against the bill, I must
declare, that I have heard nothing else that deserves an answer, or
that can possibly make any impression in favour of the bill; a bill,
my lords, teeming with sedition and idleness, diseases and robberies;
a bill that will enfeeble the body, corrupt the mind, and turn the
cities of this populous kingdom into prisons for villains, or
hospitals for cripples; and which I think it, therefore, our duty to
reject.
Lord LONSDALE next spoke to the effect following:--My lords, the
bill, on which we are now finally to determine, is of such a tendency,
that it cannot be made a law, without an open and avowed disregard of
all the rules which it has been hitherto thought the general interest
of human nature to preserve inviolable. It is opposite at once to the
precepts of the wise, and the practice of the good, to the original
principles of virtue and the established maxims of policy.
I shall, however, only consider it with relation to policy, because
the other considerations will naturally coincide; for policy is only
the connexion of prudence with goodness, and directs only what virtue
each particular occurrence requires to be immediately practised.
The first principle of policy, my lords, teaches us, that the power
and greatness of a state arises from the number of its people;
uninhabited dominions are an empty show, and serve only to encumber
the nation to which they belong; they are a kind of pompous ornaments,
which must be thrown away in time of danger, and equally unfit for
resistance and retreat.
In the present war, my lords, if the number of our people were equal
to that of the two nations against which we are engaged, the
narrowness of our dominions would give us a resistless superiority; as
we have fewer posts to defend, we might send more forces to attack our
enemies, who must be weak in every part, because they must be
dispersed to a very great extent. The torrent of war, as a flood of
water, is only violent while it is confined, but loses its force as it
is more diffused.
In consequence of this maxim, my lords, it is proposed, that because
we are at war against two mighty powers, we shall endeavour to destroy
by spirits at home, those who cannot fall by the sword of the enemy,
and that we endeavour to hinder the production of another generation;
for it is well known, my lords, and has in this debate been
universally allowed, that the present practice of drinking spirits
will not only destroy the present race, but debilitate the next.
This surely, my lords, is a time at which we ought very studiously to
watch over the preservation of those lives which we are not compelled
to expose, and endeavour to retrieve the losses of war by encouraging
industry, temperance, and sobriety.
Another principle of government which the wisdom of our progenitors
established, was to suppress vice with the utmost diligence; for as
vice must always produce misery to those whom it infects, and danger
to those who are considered as its enemies, it is contrary to the end
of government; and the government which encourages vice is necessarily
labouring for its own destruction; for the good will not support it,
because they are not benefited by it, and the wicked will betray it,
because they are wicked.
How little then, my lords, do our sagacious politicians understand
their own interest by promoting drunkenness and luxury, of which the
natural train of consequences are idleness, necessity, wickedness,
desperation, sedition, and anarchy! How little do they understand what
it is that gives stability to the fabrick of our constitution, if they
imagine it can long stand, when it is not supported by virtue.
In consequence of these maxims, another may be advanced, that all
trades which tend to impair either the health or virtue of the people,
should be interdicted; for since the strength of the community
consists in the number and happiness of the people, no trade deserves
to be cultivated which does not contribute to the one or the other;
for the end of trade, as of all other human attempts, is the
attainment of happiness.
If any trade that conduces not to the happiness of the community by
increasing either the number or the virtue of the people, be
industriously cultivated, the legislature ought to suppress it; if any
manufacture that administers temptations to wickedness be flourishing
and extensive, it has already been too long indulged; and the
government can atone for its remissness only by rigorous inhibition,
severe prosecutions, and vigilant inquiries.
That the trade of distilling, my lords, had advanced so fast among us,
that our manufacturers of poison are arrived at the utmost degree of
skill in their profession, and that the draughts which they prepare
are greedily swallowed by those who rarely look beyond the present
moment, or inquire what price must be paid for the present
gratification; that the people have been so long accustomed to daily
stupefaction, that they are become mutinous, if they are restrained
from it; and that the law which was intended to suppress their luxury
cannot, without tumults and bloodshed, be put in execution, are, in my
opinion, very affecting considerations, but they can surely be of no
use for the defence of this bill.
The more extensive the trade of distilling, the more must swallow the
poison which it affords; the more palatable the liquor is made, the
more dangerous is the temptation; and the more corrupt the people are
become, the more urgent is the necessity of extirpating those that
have corrupted them.
I am not, my lords, less convinced of the importance of trade, than
those lords who have spoken in the most pathetick language for the
continuance of the manufacture; but my regard for trade naturally
determines me to vote against a bill by which idleness, the pest of
commerce, must be encouraged, and those hands, by which our trade is
to be carried on, must be first enfeebled, and soon afterwards
destroyed.
Nor is this kind of debauchery, my lords, less destructive to the
interest of those whose riches consist in lands, than of those who are
engaged in commerce; for it undoubtedly hinders the consumption of
almost every thing that land can produce; of that corn which should be
made into bread, and brewed into more wholesome drink; of that flesh
which is fed for the market, and even of that wool which should be
worked into cloth. It has been often mentioned ludicrously, but with
too much truth, that strong liquors are to the meaner people, meat,
drink, and clothes; that they depend upon them alone for sustenance
and warmth, and that they desire to forget their wants in drunkenness
rather than supply them. If we, therefore, examine this question with
regard to trade, we shall find, that the money which is spent in
drunkenness for the advantage only of one distiller, would support, if
otherwise expended, a great number of labourers, husbandmen, and
traders; since one man employed at the still may supply with the means
of debauchery such numbers as could not be furnished with innocent
victuals and warm clothes, but by the industry of many hands, and the
concurrence of many trades.
Numbers, my lords, are necessary to success in commerce as in war; if
the manufacturers be few, labour will be dear, and the value of the
commodity must always be proportioned to the price of labour.
These, my lords, are the arguments by which I have hitherto been
incited to oppose this bill, which I have not found that any of its
defenders can elude or repel; for they content themselves with a
cowardly concession to the multitude, allow them to proceed in
wickedness, confess they have found themselves unable to oppose their
sovereign pleasure, or to withhold them from pursuing their own
inclinations; and, therefore, have sagaciously contrived a scheme, by
which they hope to gain some advantage from the vices which they
cannot reform.
But who, my lords, can, without horrour and indignation, hear those
who are entrusted with the care of the publick, contriving to take
advantage of the ruin of their country?
Let others, my lords, vote as their consciences will direct them, I
shall likewise follow the dictates of my heart, and shall avoid any
concurrence with a scheme, which, though it may for a time benefit the
government, must destroy the strength and virtue of the people, and at
once impair our trade and depopulate our country.
Lord CARTERET then rose up, and spoke in substance as follows:--My
lords, the warmth with which this debate has been hitherto carried on,
and with which the progress of this bill has been opposed, is, in my
opinion, to be imputed to strong prejudices, formed when the question
was first proposed; by which the noble lords have been incited to warm
declamations and violent invectives; who, having once heated their
minds with suspicions, have not been able to consider the propositions
before them with calmness and impartiality; but have pursued their
first notions, and have employed their eloquence in displaying the
absurdity of positions never advanced, and the mischief of
consequences which will never be produced.
It is first to be considered, my lords, that this bill is intended,
not to promote, but to hinder, the consumption of spirituous liquors;
it is, therefore, by no means necessary to expatiate upon that which
is presupposed in the bill, the pernicious quality of spirits, the
detestable nature of drunkenness, the wickedness or miseries which are
produced by it. Almost all that has been urged by the noble lords who
have spoken with the greatest warmth against the bill, may reasonably
be conceived to have been advanced for it by those who projected it;
of whom it may be justly imagined, that they were fully convinced how
much spirits were abused by the common people, and how much that abuse
contributed to the wickedness which at present prevails amongst us,
since they thought it necessary to prevent them by a new law.
But, my lords, when they saw that the abuse of distilled liquors was
in a very high degree detrimental to the publick, they saw, likewise,
that the trade of distilling was of great use; that it employed great
numbers of our people, and consumed a great part of the produce of our
lands; and that, therefore, it could not be suppressed, without
injuring the publick, by reducing many families to sudden poverty, and
by depriving the farmers of a market for a great part of their corn.
In the plains of the western part of this island, the grain that is
chiefly cultivated is barley, and that barley is chiefly consumed by
the distillers; nor, if they should be at once suppressed, could the
husbandman readily sell the produce of his labour and his grounds, or
the landlord receive rent for his estate; since it would then produce
nothing, or what is in effect the same, nothing that could be sold.
It is, indeed, possible, my lords, that the Dutch might buy it; but
then it must be considered, that we must pay them money for the
favour, since we allow a premium upon exportation, and that we shall
buy it back again in spirits, and, consequently, pay them for
manufacturing our own product. For it is not to be imagined, that any
law will immediately reclaim the dispositions, or reform the appetites
of the people. They are well known to have drank spirits before they
were made in our country, and to indulge themselves at present in many
kinds of luxury which are yet loaded with a very high tax. It is not,
therefore, probable, that upon the imposition of a high duty they will
immediately desist from drinking spirits; they will, indeed, as now,
drink those which can be most easily procured; and if, by a high tax
suddenly imposed, foreign spirits be made cheaper than our own,
foreign spirits will only be used, our distillery will be destroyed,
and our people will yet not be reformed.
That heavy taxes will not deter the people from any favourite
enjoyment, has been already shown by the unsuccessfulness of the last
attempt to restrain them from the use of spirits, and may be every day
discovered from the use of tobacco, which is universally taken by the
common people, though a very high duty is laid upon it, and though a
king thought it so pernicious that he employed his pen against it. The
commons, therefore, prudently forbore to use violent measures, which
might disgust the people, but which they had no reason to believe
sufficient to reform them, and thought it more expedient to proceed by
more gentle methods, which might operate by imperceptible degrees, and
which might be made more forcible and compulsive, if they should be
found ineffectual.
Another evil will by this method, likewise, be avoided, which is the
certain consequence of high duties; this tax will produce no
clandestine frauds nor rebellious defiance of the legislature; the
distillers will not be tempted to evade this impost by perjuries, too
often practised where the profit of them is great, nor smugglers to
assemble in numerous troops with arms in their hands, and carry
imported liquors through the country by force, in opposition to the
officers of the customs, and the laws of the nation. That this,
likewise, is practised upon other occasions to escape heavy taxes, all
the weekly papers inform us; nor are there many months in which some
of the king's officers are not maimed or murdered doing of their duty.
All these evils, my lords, and a thousand others, will be avoided by
an easy tax; in favour of which I cannot but wonder, that it should be
necessary to plead so long, since every nation, which has any
pretension to civility or a regular government, will agree, that heavy
imposts are not to be wantonly inflicted, and that severity is never
to be practised till lenity has failed.
It, therefore, appears to me, my lords, that justice, reason, and
experience, unite in favour of this bill; and that nothing is to be
feared from it, but that it will not be sufficiently coercive, nor
restrain the abuse of spirits so much as is hoped by those that have
stood up in its vindication. That it can encourage drunkenness, or
increase the consumption of distilled liquors, is surely impossible;
for they are now drunk without restraint; and therefore no restraint
will be taken away: and since their price must be increased by a
double duty, it may reasonably be conceived, that those who now spend
all that they can gain by their labour in drunkenness, must be content
with less than before, because they will have no more to spend; and
what has hitherto enabled them to riot in debauchery will no longer be
sufficient for the same purposes; the same excess will require more
money, and more money cannot be had.
I do not affirm, my lords, that the success of this bill is
demonstrably certain; nor can I deny that many arguments have been
alleged against it which cannot easily be confuted; all that I can
venture to assert is, that in my opinion, the reasons _for_ the bill
preponderate, not that those _against_ it, are without weight.
Of this, at least, we are certain, that the bill can produce no ill
consequences; and that if the experience of the ensuing year shall
show it to be ineffectual, it may be amended in the next session by
new provisions, which we shall be then more able to adjust for the
benefit of the publick.
All laws, especially those which regard complicated and intricate
affairs, have been perfected by degrees; experience has discovered
those deficiencies which sagacity could not foresee, and the progress
of human wisdom has been always slow. To charge any scheme with
imperfection, is only to allege that it is the production of men, of
beings finite in their capacity, and liable to errour; nor do I see
what can be recommended to such beings, more than what the government
is now endeavouring to practise, that nothing should be done
precipitately, and that experience should always be trusted rather
than conjecture.
Lord LONSDALE next spoke to the effect following:--My lords, the
arguments of the noble lord have by no means influenced me to alter my
opinion; nor do I now rise up to pronounce a recantation of any of my
former assertions, but to explain one of them, which the noble lord
has been pleased to controvert.
He observes, in opposition to my argument, that the distillery
contributes to the consumption of the produce of our grounds, and, by
consequence, to the advantage of those who possess them; but I, my
lords, am inclined to believe that it produces a contrary effect, and
that it hinders the consumption, even of that grain which is employed
in it.
We may reasonably suppose, my lords, that they who now drink distilled
liquors, would, if they were debarred from them, endeavour to obtain
from ale and beer the same renovation of their vigour, and relaxation
of their cares; and that, therefore, more ale would be brewed, as
there would be more purchasers: if, therefore, the same quantity of
malt, which is sufficient, when distilled, to produce intoxication,
would, when brewed into ale, have the same effect, the consumption
would still be the same, whether ale or spirits were in use; but it is
certain, that the fourth part of the malt which is necessary to
furnish ale for a debauch, will, when exalted in the still, be
sufficient to satisfy the most greedy drunkard; and it is, therefore,
evident, that he who drinks ale, consumes more barley by three parts
in four than he who indulges, the use of spirits, supposing them both
equally criminal in the excess of their enjoyments.
The noble lord has taken occasion to mention tobacco as an instance of
the obstinacy with which the people persevere in a practice to which
they are addicted. Of the obstinacy of the people, my lords, I am
sufficiently convinced; but hope that it will never be able to
overpower the legislature, who ought to enforce their laws, and
invigorate their efforts in proportion to the atrociousness of the
corruption which they are endeavouring to extirpate: nor do I think so
meanly of government, as to believe it unable to repress drunkenness
or luxury, or in danger of being subverted in a contest about spirits
or tobacco.
Tobacco, indeed, has not properly been produced as an instance; for I
never heard, that however it may be disapproved by particular men, of
whatever rank or abilities, it was prohibited by law; nor should I
think any such prohibition necessary or reasonable; for tobacco, my
lords, is not poison, like distilled spirits, nor is the use of it so
much injurious to health, as offensive to delicacy.
The poisonous and destructive quality of these liquors is confessed by
the noble lord, a confession with which I find it very difficult to
reconcile his solicitude for the distillery; for when it is once
granted, that spirits corrupt the mind, weaken the limbs, impair
virtue, and shorten life, any arguments in favour of those who
manufacture them come too late, since no advantage can be equivalent
to the loss of honesty and life. When the noble lord has urged that
the distillery employs great numbers of hands, and, therefore, ought
to be encouraged, may it not, upon his own concession, be replied,
that those numbers are employed in murder, and that their trade ought,
like that of other murderers, to be stopped? When he urges that much
of our grain is consumed in the still, may we not answer, and answer
irresistibly, that it is consumed by being turned into poison, instead
of bread? And can a stronger argument be imagined for the suppression
of this detestable business, than that it employs multitudes, and that
it is gainful and extensive?
Nor can I discover, my lords, how the care of preserving the
distillery is consistent with the ends which the preamble in this bill
declares to be proposed, or which the advocates for it appear to
desire. If the consumption of distilled spirits is to be hindered, how
is the distillery to remain uninjured? If the trade of distilling is
not to be impaired, what shall hinder the consumption of spirits? So
far as this bill operates, the distillers must be impoverished by it;
and if they may properly and justly suffer a small diminution of their
profit for a small advantage to the publick, why will not a greater
benefit be equivalent to a greater diminution?
Nothing, my lords, is more apparent, than that the real design of this
bill, however its defenders may endeavour to conceal it in the mist of
sophistry, is to lay only such a tax as may increase the revenue; and
that they have no desire of suppressing that vice which may be made
useful to their private purpose, nor feel any regret to fill the
exchequer by the slaughter of the people.
Lord AYLESFORD then rose up, and spoke to the following purpose:--My
lords, the noble lord who spoke last in defence of this new scheme,
appears to have imbibed very strong prejudices in favour of the
distillery, from which he finds it practicable to draw large sums for
the support of the measures which have been already formed, and which
he, therefore, considers as the most important and beneficial trade of
the British nation.
It is not improbable, my lords, that in a short time all the
provisions which have been made by the wisdom of our ancestors for the
support of the woollen manufacture, will be transferred for the
encouragement of the distillery, which appears to be at present the
reigning favourite; for it is evident, that both manufactures cannot
subsist together, and that either must be continued by the ruin of the
other.
Of these rivals, which is doomed to fall we may conjecture from the
encomium just now bestowed upon the prudence of the commons, by whom
the darling distillery has been so tenderly treated; yet that the
trade, in which the bounty of nature has enabled us to excel all other
nations of the world, may not be suffered to perish in silence, I will
take this opportunity to declare, that this boasted prudence can, in
my opinion, produce no other effects than poverty and ruin, private
calamities, and general wickedness; that by encouraging drunkenness at
the expense of trade, it will stop all the currents by which the gold
of foreign nations has flowed upon us, and expose us to conquest and
to slavery.
[Thus ended this memorable debate. The question being put, was
determined in favour of the bill by 57 against 38.]