y 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 wh