therefore, I
think it may safely be inferred, that they who are solicitous how it
may be enforced, are convinced of its usefulness.

If this, my lords, be the chief objection now remaining, a little
consideration will easily remove it; for it is well known, that the
only obstruction of the former law was the danger of information; but
this law, my lords, is so contrived, that it will promote the
execution of itself; for by setting licenses at so low a price, their
number will be multiplied, and every man who has taken a license will
think himself justified in informing against him that shall retail
spirits without a legal right.

If, therefore, there should be, as a noble lord has very reasonably
supposed, fifty thousand licensed venders of these liquors, there will
likewise be fifty thousand informers against unlawful traders; and as
the liquors may then always be had under sanction of the law, the
populace will not interest themselves in that process which can have
no tendency to obstruct their pleasure.

Thus, my lords, shall we, by agreeing to this bill, make a law that
will be at once useful to the government and beneficial to the people,
which will be at once powerful in its effects and easy in its
execution; and, therefore, instead of attending any more to the wild
and impracticable schemes of heavy taxes, rigorous punishments, sudden
reformations, and violent restraints, I hope we shall unanimously
approve this method, from which so much may be hoped, while nothing is
hazarded.

Lord CARTERET then rose up, and spoke in substance as follows:--My
lords, though the noble lord who has been pleased to incite us to an
unanimous concurrence with himself and his associates of the ministry,
in passing this excellent and wonder-working bill, this bill, which is
to lessen the consumption of spirits, without lessening the quantity
which is distilled, which is to restrain drunkards from drinking, by
setting their favourite liquor always before their eyes, to conquer
habits by continuing them, and correct vice by indulging it, according
to the lowest reckoning, for at least another year; yet, my lords,
such is my obstinacy, or such my ignorance, that I cannot yet comply
with his proposal, nor can prevail with myself either to concur with
measures so apparently opposite to the interest of the publick, or to
hear them vindicated, without declaring how little I approve them.

During the course of this long debate I have e