, as of all other human attempts, is the
attainment of happiness.

If any trade that conduces not to the happiness of the community by
increasing either the number or the virtue of the people, be
industriously cultivated, the legislature ought to suppress it; if any
manufacture that administers temptations to wickedness be flourishing
and extensive, it has already been too long indulged; and the
government can atone for its remissness only by rigorous inhibition,
severe prosecutions, and vigilant inquiries.

That the trade of distilling, my lords, had advanced so fast among us,
that our manufacturers of poison are arrived at the utmost degree of
skill in their profession, and that the draughts which they prepare
are greedily swallowed by those who rarely look beyond the present
moment, or inquire what price must be paid for the present
gratification; that the people have been so long accustomed to daily
stupefaction, that they are become mutinous, if they are restrained
from it; and that the law which was intended to suppress their luxury
cannot, without tumults and bloodshed, be put in execution, are, in my
opinion, very affecting considerations, but they can surely be of no
use for the defence of this bill.

The more extensive the trade of distilling, the more must swallow the
poison which it affords; the more palatable the liquor is made, the
more dangerous is the temptation; and the more corrupt the people are
become, the more urgent is the necessity of extirpating those that
have corrupted them.

I am not, my lords, less convinced of the importance of trade, than
those lords who have spoken in the most pathetick language for the
continuance of the manufacture; but my regard for trade naturally
determines me to vote against a bill by which idleness, the pest of
commerce, must be encouraged, and those hands, by which our trade is
to be carried on, must be first enfeebled, and soon afterwards
destroyed.

Nor is this kind of debauchery, my lords, less destructive to the
interest of those whose riches consist in lands, than of those who are
engaged in commerce; for it undoubtedly hinders the consumption of
almost every thing that land can produce; of that corn which should be
made into bread, and brewed into more wholesome drink; of that flesh
which is fed for the market, and even of that wool which should be
worked into cloth. It has been often mentioned ludicrously, but with
too much truth, that strong liquors