ty, I believe, first, that, no such evasion can be contrived,
and in the next place am confident, that it may be defeated by
burdening the new-invented liquor, whatever it be, if it be equally
pernicious, with an equal tax. The path of our duty, my lords, is
plain and easy, and only represented difficult by those who are
inclined to deviate from it.

Lord BATHURST spoke next, to the effect following:--My lords, whatever
measures may be practised by the people for eluding the purposes of
the bill now before us, with whatever industry they may invent new
kinds of senatorial brandy, or by whatever artifices they may escape
the diligence of the officers employed to collect a duty levied upon
their vices and their pleasures, there is, at least, no danger that
they will purchase from the continent those liquors which we are
endeavouring to withhold from them, or that this bill will impoverish
our country by promoting a trade contrary to its interest.

What would be the consequence of the duty of three shillings a gallon,
proposed by the noble lord, it is easy to judge. What, my lords, can
be expected from it, but that it will either oblige or encourage the
venders of spirits to procure from other places what they can no
longer buy for reasonable prices at home? and that those drunkards who
cannot or will not suddenly change their customs, will purchase from
abroad the pleasures which we withhold from them, and the wealth of
the nation be daily diminished, but the virtue little increased?

Thus, my lords, shall we at once destroy our own manufacture and
promote that of our neighbours. Thus shall we enrich other governments
by distressing our own, and instead of increasing sobriety, only
encourage a more expensive and pernicious kind of debauchery.

In the bill now under our consideration, a middle way is proposed, by
which reformation may be introduced by those gradations which have
always been found necessary when inveterate vices are to be
encountered. In this bill every necessary consideration appears to
have been regarded, the health of the people will be preserved, and
their virtue recovered, without destroying their trade or starving
their manufacturers.

The efficacy of this bill seems, indeed, to be allowed by some of the
lords who oppose it, since their chief objection has arisen from their
doubts whether it can be executed. If a law be useless in itself, it
is of no importance whether it is executed or not; and,