_ 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.]
[THE END]
Samuel Johnson's Writings: Debate On Spirituous Liquors
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