for its own sake, or justifiable by any other plea than that
of necessity. If it were possible at once to extinguish the thirst of
spirits, no man who had any regard for virtue, or for happiness, would
propose to augment the revenue by a tax upon them.

But, my lords, rigour has been already tried, and found to be vain; it
has been found equally fruitless to forbid the people to use spirits,
as to forbid a man in a dropsy to drink. The force of appetite long
indulged, and by indulgence made superiour to the control of reason,
is not to be overcome at once; it cannot be subdued by a single
effort, but may be weakened; new habits of a more innocent kind may in
time be superinduced, and one desire may counterbalance another.

We must endeavour, my lords, by just degrees, to withdraw their
affections from this pernicious enjoyment, by making the attainment of
it every year somewhat more difficult: but we must not quicken their
wishes, and exasperate their resentment, by depriving them at once of
their whole felicity. By this method, my lords, I doubt not but we
shall obtain what we have hitherto endeavoured with so little success;
and I believe that though, in open defiance of a severe law, spirits
are now sold in every street of this city, a gentle restraint will, in
a short time, divert the minds of the people to other entertainments,
and the vice of drinking spirits will be forgotten among us.

Lord HERVEY then rose up again, and spoke to the effect following:--My
lords, though I have always considered this bill as at once wicked and
absurd, I imagined till now that the projectors of it would have been
able to have argued, at least, speciously, though not solidly, in
defence of it; nor did I imagine it to have been wholly indefensible,
till I discovered how little the extensive knowledge, the long
experience, and the penetrating foresight of the noble lord who spoke
last, enabled him to produce in vindication of it.

His lordship's argument is reducible to this single assertion, that
the drinking distilled liquors cannot be prevented; and from thence he
drew this inference, that since it is a point of wisdom to turn
misfortunes to advantage, we ought to contrive methods by which the
debauchery of the people may enrich the government.

Though we should suppose the assertion true in any sense below that of
absolute physical impossibility, the inference is by no means just;
since it is the duty of governours to struggl