riches of every
nation; and that, though they generally move only by superiour
direction, they are the immediate support of the community; and that
without their concurrence, policy would project in vain, wisdom would
end in idle speculation, and the determinations of this assembly would
be empty sounds.

It is, therefore, my lords, of the utmost importance, that all
practices should be suppressed by which the lower orders of the people
are enfeebled and enervated; for if they should be no longer able to
bear fatigues or hardships, if any epidemical weakness of body should
be diffused among them, our power must be at an end, our mines would
be an useless treasure, and would no longer afford us either the
weapons of war, or the ornaments of domestick elegance; we should no
longer give law to mankind by our naval power, nor send out armies to
fight for the liberty of distant nations; we should no longer supply
the markets of the continent with our commodities, or share in all the
advantages which nature has bestowed upon distant countries, for all
these, my lords, are the effects of indigent industry, and mechanick
labour.

All these blessings or conveniencies are procured by that strength of
body, which nature has bestowed upon the natives of this country, who
have hitherto been remarkably robust and hardy, able to support long
fatigues, and to contend with the inclemency of rigorous climates, the
violence of storms, and the turbulence of waves, and who have,
therefore, extended their conquests with uncommon success, and been
equally adapted to the toils of trade and of war, and have excelled
those who endeavoured to rival them either in the praise of
workmanship or of valour.

But, my lords, if the use of spirituous liquors be encouraged, their
diligence, which can only be supported by health, will quickly
languish; every day will diminish the numbers of the manufacturers,
and, by consequence, augment the price of labour; those who continue
to follow their employments, will be partly enervated by corruption,
and partly made wanton by the plenty which the advancement of their
wages will afford them, and partly by the knowledge that no degree of
negligence will deprive them of that employment in which there will be
none to succeed them. All our commodities, therefore, will be wrought
with less care and at a higher price, and therefore, will be rejected
at foreign markets in favour of those which other nations will exh