pruned away by imperceptible diminution.

Whether the provisions now offered in the bill might not admit of
improvements; whether some other more efficacious expedients might not
be discovered; and whether the duties might not be raised yet higher,
with more advantage to the publick, may undoubtedly admit of long
disputes and deep inquiries; but for these inquiries and disputes, my
lords, there is at present no time: the affairs of the continent
require our immediate interposition, the general oppressors of the
western world are now endeavouring to extend their dominions, and
exalt their power beyond the possibility of future opposition; and our
allies, who were straggling against them, can no longer continue their
efforts without assistance.

At a time like this, my lords, it is not proper to delay the supplies
by needless controversies; or, indeed, by any disputes which may,
without great inconvenience, be delayed to a time of tranquillity, a
time when all our inquiries may be prosecuted at leisure, when every
argument may be considered in its full extent, and when the
improvement of our laws ought, indeed, to be our principal care. At
present it appears to me, that every method of raising money, without
manifest injury to the morals of the people, deserves our approbation;
and, therefore, that we ought to pass this bill, though it should not
much hinder the consumption of spirituous liquors, if it shall barely
appear that it will not increase it.

It is at least proper, that, at this pressing exigence, those that
oppose the bills by which supplies are to be raised, should, by
offering other expedients, show that their opposition proceeds not
from any private malevolence to the ministry, or any prepossession
against the publick measures, but from a steady adherence to just
principles, and an impartial regard for the publick good; for it may
be suspected, that he who only busies himself in pulling down, without
any attempts to repair the breaches that he has made, with more fit or
durable materials, has no real design of strengthening the
fortification.

It has been proposed, indeed, by one of the noble lords, that a tax of
three shillings a gallon should be laid upon all distilled spirits,
and collected by the laws of excise at the still-head, which would
doubtless secure a great part of the people from the temptations to
which they are at present exposed, but would at the same time produce
another effect not equ