_ HOUSE OF LORDS, FEBRUARY 21, 1742-3.
The bill for altering the duties on spirituous liquors, and permitting them again to be sold with less restraint, which was sent up by the commons to the house of lords, produced there very long and serious deliberations, to which the lords had every day each a particular summons, as in cases of the highest concern.
The bill was entitled, An act for repealing certain duties on spirituous liquors, and on licenses for retailing the same, and for laying other duties on spirituous liquors, and on licenses for retailing the said liquors.
The duties which were proposed to be repealed, were those laid by the act 9 Geo. II. which permitted no person to sell spirituous liquors in less quantity than two gallons without a license, for which fifty pounds were to be paid. Whereas by the new bill a small duty per gallon was laid on at the still-head, and the license was to cost but twenty shillings, which was to be granted only to such as had licenses for selling ale. On the credit of this act, as soon as it was passed by the commons, the ministry borrowed a large sum at three per cent, but it was understood that the sinking fund was pledged as a collateral security to pay any deficiency.
In about a fortnight this bill passed all the forms in the house of commons, almost without opposition; and with little or no alteration from the scheme brought into the committee on ways and means for raising the supply for the current year, by Mr. SANDYS, then chancellor of the exchequer.
It was immediately carried up to the house of lords, where it was read for the first time on the 17th of February; and ordered a second reading on the twenty-second. On that day the commissioners of excise, according to an order of the house, brought an account of the sums arising by the last act, and a yearly account for several years past; and attending were interrogated concerning the execution of the last act.
The bishop of ORFORD particularly inquired, whether it had been effectually put in force, and questions of the same kind were asked by lord LONSDALE and others; to which the commissioners answered, that it had been diligently and vigorously executed, so far as they or their officers had power to enforce it; but that the justices had not always been equally zealous in seconding their endeavours; and that it was impossible to discover all the petty dealers by whom it was infringed, spirituous liquors still continuing to be sold in small obscure shops, and at the corners of the streets.
A motion was also made, that three of the physicians of most note for their learning and experience, should be summoned to attend the house, to declare their opinion with regard to the effects of spirituous liquors upon the human body. But this was rejected by 33 against 17.
The bill was read the second time on the day appointed, when the question being put, whether it should be committed, lord HERVEY rose, and spoke to the following effect:--
My lords, though I doubt not but the bill now before us will be promoted in this house, by the same influence by which it has been conducted through the other; yet I hope its success will be very different, and that those arts by which its consequences, however formidable, have been hitherto concealed, or by which those whose business it was to have detected and exposed them, have been induced to turn their eyes aside, will not be practised here with the same efficacy, though they should happen to be attempted with the same confidence. I hope that zeal for the promotion of virtue, and that regard to publick happiness, which has on all occasions distinguished this illustrious assembly, will operate now with uncommon energy, and prevent the approbation of a bill, by which vice is to be made legal, by which the fences of subordination are to be thrown down, and all the order of society, and decency of regular establishments be obliterated by universal licentiousness, and lost in the wild confusions of debauchery; of debauchery encouraged by law, and promoted for the support of measures expensive, ridiculous, and unnecessary.
A law of so pernicious a tendency shall, at least, not pass through this house without opposition; nor shall drunkenness be established among us without the endeavour of one voice, at least, to withhold its progress; for I now declare that I oppose the commitment of this bill, and that I am determined to continue my opposition to it in all the steps by which the forms of our house make it necessary that it should pass before it can become a law.
Nor do I speak, my lords, on this occasion, with that distrust and mental hesitation which are both natural and decent, when questions are dubious, when probability seems to be almost equally divided, when truth appears to hover between two parties, and by turns to favour every speaker; when specious arguments are urged on both sides, and the number of circumstances to be collected, and of relations to be adjusted, is so great, that an exact and indubitable decision is scarcely to be attained by human reason. I do not, my lords, now speak with the diffidence of inquiry, or the uncertainty of conjecture, nor imagine that I am now examining a political expedient, of which the success can only be perfectly known by experience, and of which, therefore, no man can absolutely determine, whether it will be useful or pernicious, or a metaphysical difficulty, which may be discussed for ever without being decided.
In considering this bill, my lords, I proceed upon stated and invariable principles. I have no facts to examine but such as, to the last degree, are notorious, such as have been experienced every hour, since the existence of society; and shall appeal, not to transitory opinions, or casual assertions, but to the laws of all civilized nations, and to the determinations of every man whose wisdom or virtue have given him a claim to regard.
All the decrees of all the legislators of the earth, or the declarations of wise men, all the observations which nature furnishes, and all the examples which history affords, concur in condemning this bill before us, as a bill injurious to society, destructive of private virtue, and, by consequence, of publick happiness, detrimental to the human species, and, therefore, such as ought to be rejected in that assembly to which the care of the nation is committed; that assembly which ought to meet only for the benefit of mankind, and of which the resolutions ought to have no other end, than the suppression of those vices by which the happiness of life is obstructed or impaired.
The bill now before you, my lords, is fundamentally wrong, as it is formed upon a hateful project of increasing the consumption of spirituous liquors, and, consequently, of promoting drunkenness among a people reproached already for it throughout the whole world. It contains such a concatenation of enormities, teems with so vast a number of mischiefs, and therefore produces, in those minds that attend to its nature, and pursue its consequences, such endless variety of arguments against it, that the memory is perplexed, the imagination crowded, and utterance overburdened. Before any one of its pernicious effects is fully dilated a thousand others appear; the hydra still shoots out new heads, and every head vomits out new poison to infect society, and lay the nation desolate.
I am, therefore, at a loss, my lords, not how to raise arguments against this bill, which cannot be read or mentioned without, furnishing them by thousands; but how to methodise those that occur to me, and under what heads to range my thoughts, that I may pursue my design without confusion, that I may understand myself, and be understood by your lordships.
A multitude of considerations are obvious, all of importance sufficient to claim attention, and to outweigh the advantages proposed by this hateful bill, but which cannot all be mentioned, or at least not with that exactness which they deserve; I shall, therefore, confine myself at present to three considerations, and shall entreat the attention of your lordships, while I examine the bill now before us, with regard to its influence on the health and morals of the people, the arguments by which it has been hitherto supported, and the effects which it will have on the sinking fund.
The first head, my lords, is so copious, that I find myself very little relieved by the division which I have made. The moral arguments, though separated from those which are either political or temporary, are sufficient to overpower the strongest reason, and overflow the most extensive comprehension.
It is not necessary, I suppose, to show that health of body is a blessing, that the duties of life in which the greatest part of the world is employed, require vigour and activity, and that to want strength of limbs, and to want the necessary supports of nature, are to the lower classes of mankind the same. I need not observe to your lordships, whose legislative character obliges you to consider the general concatenation of society, that all the advantages which high stations or large possessions can confer, are derived from the labours of the poor; that to the plough and the anvil, the loom and the quarry, pride is indebted for its magnificence, luxury for its dainties, and delicacy for its ease. A very little consideration will be sufficient to show, that the lowest orders of mankind supply commerce with manufacturers, navigation with mariners, and war with soldiers; that they constitute the strength and riches of every nation; and that, though they generally move only by superiour direction, they are the immediate support of the community; and that without their concurrence, policy would project in vain, wisdom would end in idle speculation, and the determinations of this assembly would be empty sounds.
It is, therefore, my lords, of the utmost importance, that all practices should be suppressed by which the lower orders of the people are enfeebled and enervated; for if they should be no longer able to bear fatigues or hardships, if any epidemical weakness of body should be diffused among them, our power must be at an end, our mines would be an useless treasure, and would no longer afford us either the weapons of war, or the ornaments of domestick elegance; we should no longer give law to mankind by our naval power, nor send out armies to fight for the liberty of distant nations; we should no longer supply the markets of the continent with our commodities, or share in all the advantages which nature has bestowed upon distant countries, for all these, my lords, are the effects of indigent industry, and mechanick labour.
All these blessings or conveniencies are procured by that strength of body, which nature has bestowed upon the natives of this country, who have hitherto been remarkably robust and hardy, able to support long fatigues, and to contend with the inclemency of rigorous climates, the violence of storms, and the turbulence of waves, and who have, therefore, extended their conquests with uncommon success, and been equally adapted to the toils of trade and of war, and have excelled those who endeavoured to rival them either in the praise of workmanship or of valour.
But, my lords, if the use of spirituous liquors be encouraged, their diligence, which can only be supported by health, will quickly languish; every day will diminish the numbers of the manufacturers, and, by consequence, augment the price of labour; those who continue to follow their employments, will be partly enervated by corruption, and partly made wanton by the plenty which the advancement of their wages will afford them, and partly by the knowledge that no degree of negligence will deprive them of that employment in which there will be none to succeed them. All our commodities, therefore, will be wrought with less care and at a higher price, and therefore, will be rejected at foreign markets in favour of those which other nations will exhibit of more value, and yet at a lower rate.
No sooner, my lords, will this bill make drunkenness unexpensive and commodious, no sooner will shops be opened in every corner of the streets, in every petty village, and in every obscure cellar for the retail of these liquors, than the workrooms will be forsaken, when the artificer has, by the labour of a small part of the day, procured what will be sufficient to intoxicate him for the remaining hours; for he will hold it ridiculous to waste any part of his life in superfluous diligence, and will readily assign to merriment and frolicks that time which he now spends in useful occupations.
But such is the quality of these liquors, that he will not long be able to divide his life between labour and debauchery, he will soon find himself disabled by his excesses from the prosecution of his work, and those shops which were before abandoned for the sake of pleasure, will soon be made desolate by sickness; those who were before idle, will become diseased, and either perish by untimely deaths, or languish in misery and want, an useless burden to the publick.
Nor, my lords, will the nation only suffer by the deduction of such numbers from useful employments, but by the addition of great multitudes to those who must be supported by the charity of the publick. The manufacturer, who by the use of spirituous liquors weakens his limbs or destroys his health, at once, takes from the community to which he belongs, a member by which the common stock was increased, and by leaving a helpless family behind him, increases the burden which the common stock must necessarily support. And the trader or husbandman is obliged to pay more towards the maintenance of the poor, by the same accident which diminishes his trade or his harvest, which takes away part of the assistance which he received, and raises the price of the rest.
That these liquors, my lords, liquors of which the strength is heightened by distillation, have a natural tendency to inflame the blood, to consume the vital juices, destroy the force of the vessels, contract the nerves, and weaken the sinews, that they not only disorder the mind for a time, but by a frequent use precipitate old age, exasperate diseases, and multiply and increase all the infirmities to which the body of man is liable, is generally known to all whose regard to their own health, or study to preserve that of others, has at any time engaged them in such inquiries, and would have been more clearly explained to your lordships, had the learned physicians been suffered to have given their opinions on this subject, as was yesterday proposed.
Why that proposal was rejected, my lords; for what reason, in the discussion of so important a question, any kind of evidence was refused, posterity will find it difficult to explain, without imputing to your lordships such motives as, I hope, will never operate in this assembly. It will be, perhaps, thought that the danger was generally known, though not acknowledged; and that those who resolved to pass the bill, had no other care than to obstruct such information as might prove to mankind, that they were incited by other designs than that of promoting the publick good.
It is not, however, necessary that any very curious inquiries should be made for the discovery of that which, indeed, cannot be concealed, and which every man has an opportunity of remarking that passes through the streets.
So publick, so enormous, and so pernicious has been this dreadful method of debauchery, that it has excited and baffled the diligence of the magistrates, who have endeavoured to stop its progress or hinder its effects. They found their efforts ineffectual, and their diligence not only not useful to the publick, but dangerous to themselves. They quickly experienced, my lords, the folly of those laws which punish crimes instead of preventing them; they found that legal authority had little influence, when opposed to the madness of multitudes intoxicated with spirits, and that the voice of justice was but very little heard amidst the clamours of riot and drunkenness.
We live, my lords, in a nation where the effects of strong liquors have been for a long time too well known; we know that they produce, in almost every one, a high opinion of his own merit; that they blow the latent sparks of pride into flame, and, therefore, destroy all voluntary submission; they put an end to subordination, and raise every man to an equality with his master, or his governour. They repress all that awe by which men are restrained within the limits of their proper spheres, and incite every man to press upon him that stands before him, that stands in the place of which that sudden elevation of heart, which drunkenness bestows, makes him think himself more worthy.
Pride, my lords, is the parent, and intrepidity the fosterer of resentment; for this reason, men are almost always inclined, in their debauches, to quarrels and to bloodshed; they think more highly of their own merit, and, therefore, more readily conclude themselves injured; they are wholly divested of fear, insensible of present danger, superiour to all authority, and, therefore, thoughtless of future punishment; and what then can hinder them from expressing their resentment with the most offensive freedom, or pursuing their revenge with the most daring violence.
Thus, my lords, are forgotten disputes often revived, and after having been long reconciled, are at last terminated by blows; thus are lives destroyed upon the most trifling occasions, upon provocations often imaginary, upon chimerical points of honour, where he who gave the offence, perhaps without design, supports it only because he has given it; and he who resents it, pursues his resentment only because he will not acknowledge his mistake.
Thus are lives lost, my lords, at a time when those who set them to hazard, are without consciousness of their value, without sense of the laws which they violate, and without regard to any motives but the immediate influence of rage and malice.
When we consider, my lords, these effects of drunkenness, it can be no subject of wonder, that the magistrate finds himself overborne by a multitude united against him, and united by general debauchery. Government, my lords, subsists upon reverence, and what reverence can be paid to the laws, by a crowd, of which every man is exalted by the enchantment of those intoxicating spirits, to the independence of a monarch, the wisdom of a legislator, and the intrepidity of a hero? when every man thinks those laws oppressive that oppose the execution of his present intentions, and considers every magistrate as his persecutor and enemy?
Laws, my lords, suppose reason; for who ever attempted to restrain beasts but by force; and, therefore, those that propose the promotion of publick happiness, which can be produced only by an exact conformity to good laws, ought to endeavour to preserve what may properly be called the publick reason; they ought to prevent a general depravation of the faculties of those whose benefit is intended, and whose obedience is required; they ought to take care that the laws may be known, for how else can they be observed? and how can they be known, or at least, how can they be remembered in the heats of drunkenness?
That the laws are universally neglected and defied among the lower class of mankind, among those whose want of the lights of knowledge and instruction, makes positive and compulsory directions more necessary for the regulation of their conduct, is apparent from the representation of the magistrates, in which the general disorders of this great city, the open wickedness, the daring insolence, and unbounded licentiousness of the common people, is very justly described.
Their wickedness and insolence, my lords, is, indeed, such, that order is almost at an end, rank no longer confers respect, nor does dignity afford security. The same confidence produces insults and robberies, and that insensibility with which debauchery arms the mind equally against fear and pity, frequently aggravates the guilt of robbery with greater crimes; those who are so unhappy as to fall into the hands of thieves, heated by spirits into madmen, seldom escape without suffering greater cruelties than the loss of money.
That the use of these poisonous draughts quickly debilitates the limbs, and destroys the strength of the body; however this quality may impair our manufactures, weaken our armies, and diminish our commerce; however it may reduce our fleets to an empty show, and enable our enemies to triumph in the field, or our rivals to supplant us in the market, can scarcely, my lords, come under consideration, when we reflect how debauchery operates upon the morals.
It is happy, my lords, that those who are inclined to mischief, are disabled in a short time from executing their intentions, by the same causes which excite them; that they are obliged to stop in the career of their crimes, that they are preserved from the hand of the executioner by the liquor which exposes them to it, and that palsies either disable them from pursuing their villanies, or fevers put an end to their lives.
It is happy, my lords, that what is thus violent, cannot be lasting; that those lives which are employed in mischief, are generally short; and that since it is the quality of this malignant liquor to corrupt the mind, it likewise destroys the body.
But this effect, my lords, is not constant or regular; men sometimes continue for many years, to supply the, expenses of drunkenness by rapine, and to exasperate the fury of rapine by drunkenness. And, therefore, though there could be any one so regardless of the happiness of mankind, as to look without concern upon them who hurry themselves to the grave with poison, he may yet be incited by his own interest to prevent the progress of this practice, a practice which tends to the subversion of all order, and the destruction of all happiness.
It is well known, my lords, that publick happiness must be on a stated proportion to publick virtue; that mutual trust is the cement of society, and that no man can be trusted but as he is reputed honest. To promote trust, my lords, is the apparent tendency of all laws. When the ties of morality are enforced by penal sanctions, men are more afraid to violate them, and, therefore, are trusted with less danger; but when they no longer fear the law, they are to be restrained only by their consciences; and if neither law nor conscience has any influence upon their conduct, they are only a herd of wild beasts, let loose to prey upon each other, and every man will inflict or suffer pain, as he meets with one stronger or weaker than himself. Thus, my lords, will all authority cease, property will become dangerous to him that possesses it, and confusion will overspread the whole community; nor can it be easily conceived, by the most extensive comprehension how far the mischiefs may spread, or where the chain of destructive consequences will end.
If we consider our fleet or our army, my lords, it is apparent, that neither obedience nor fidelity can be expected from men upon whom all the ties of morality, and all the sanctions of law have lost their influence; they will mutiny without fear, and desert without scruple, and like wild beasts, will, upon the least provocation, turn upon those by whom they ought to be governed.
But drunkenness, my lords, not only corrupts men, by taking away the sense of those restraints by which they are generally kept in awe, and withheld from the perpetration of villanies, but by superadding the temptations of poverty, temptations not easily to be resisted, even by those whose eyes are open to the consequences of their actions, and which, therefore, will certainly prevail over those whose apprehensions are laid asleep, and who never extend their views beyond the gratification of the present moment.
Drunkenness, my lords, is the parent of idleness; for no man can apply himself to the business of his trade, either while he is drinking, or when he is drunk. Part of his time is spent in jollity, and part in imbecility; when he is amidst his companions he is too gay to think of the consequences of neglecting his employment; and when he has overburdened himself with liquor, he is too feeble and too stupid to follow it.
Poverty, my lords, is the offspring of idleness, as idleness of drunkenness; the drunkard's work is little and his expenses are great; and, therefore, he must soon see his family distressed, and his substance reduced to nothing: and surely, my lords, it needs not much sagacity to discover what will be the consequence of poverty produced by vice.
It is not to be expected, my lords, that a man thus corrupted will be warned by the approach of misery, that he will recollect his understanding, and awaken his attention; that he will apply himself to his business with new diligence, endeavour to recover, by an increase of application, what he has lost by inattention, and make the remembrance of his former vices, and the difficulties and diseases which they brought upon him, an incitement to his industry, a confirmation of his resolution, and a support to his virtue.
That this is, indeed, possible, I do not intend to deny; but the bare possibility of an event so desirable, is the utmost that can be admitted; for it can scarcely be expected, that any man should be able to break through all the obstacles that will obstruct his return to honesty and wisdom; his companions will endeavour to continue the infatuating amusements which have so long deluded him; his appetite will assist their solicitations; the desire of present ease by which all mankind are sometimes led aside from virtue, will operate with unusual strength; since, to retrieve his misconduct, he must not only deny himself the pleasure which he has so long indulged, but must bear the full view of his distress from which he will naturally turn aside his eyes. The general difficulty of reformation will incline him to seek for ease by any other means, and to delay that amendment which he knows to be necessary, from hour to hour, and from day to day, till his resolutions are too much weakened to prove of any effect, and his habits confirmed beyond opposition.
At length, necessity, immediate necessity, presses upon him; his family is made clamorous by want, and his calls of nature and of luxury are equally importunate; he has now lost his credit in the world, and none will employ him, because none will trust him, or employment cannot immediately be, perhaps, obtained; because his place has for a long time been supplied by others. And, even if he could obtain a readmission to his former business, his wants are now too great and too pressing to be supplied by the slow methods of regular industry; he must repair his losses by more efficacious expedients, and must find some methods of acquisition, by which the importunity of his creditors may be satisfied.
Industry is now, by long habits of idleness, become almost impracticable; his attention having been long amused by pleasing objects, and dissipated by jollity and merriment, is not readily recalled to a task which is unpleasing, because it is enjoined; and his limbs, enervated by hot and strong liquors, liquors of the most pernicious kind, cannot support the fatigues necessary in the practice of his trade; what was once wholesome exercise is now insupportable fatigue; and he has not now time to habituate himself, by degrees, to that application which he has intermitted, that labour which he has disused, or those arts which he has forgotten.
In this state, my lords, he easily persuades himself that his condition is desperate, that no legal methods will relieve him; and that, therefore, he has nothing to hope but from the efforts of despair. These thoughts are quickly confirmed by his companions, whom the same misconduct has reduced to the same distress, and who have already tried the pleasures of being supported by the labour of others. They do not fail to explain to him the possibility of sudden affluence, and, at worst, to celebrate the satisfaction of short-lived merriment. He, therefore, engages with them in their nocturnal expeditions, an association of wickedness is formed, and that man, who before he tasted this infatuating liquor, contributed every day, by honest labour, to the happiness or convenience of life, who supported his family in decent plenty, and was himself at ease, becomes at once miserable and wicked; is detested as a nuisance by the community, and hunted by the officers of justice; nor has mankind any thing now to wish or hope with regard to him, but that by his speedy destruction, the security of the roads may be restored, and the tranquillity of the night be set free from the alarms of robbery and murder.
These, my lords, are the consequences which necessarily ensue from the use of those pernicious, those infatuating spirits, which have justly alarmed every man whom pleasure or sloth has not wholly engrossed, and who has ever looked upon the various scenes of life with that attention which their importance demands.
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. _