ore zealously wish that
drunkenness may be suppressed, and distilled spirits withheld from the
people.

The disorders mentioned by the noble lord, are undoubtedly the
consequences of the present use of these liquors, but these are not
its worst effects. The offenders against the law, may by the law be
sometimes reclaimed, and at other times cutoff; nor can these
practices, however injurious to particular persons, in any great
degree impair the general happiness. The worst effects, therefore, of
the use of spirits, are that idleness and extravagance which it has
introduced among the common people, by which our commerce must be
obstructed, and our present riches and plenty every day diminished.

This pernicious practice, my lords, is disseminated farther than could
be reasonably believed by those whose interest has not incited, or
curiosity induced them to inquire into the practice of the different
classes of men. It is well known, that the farmers have been hitherto
distinguished by the virtues of frugality, temperance, and industry;
that they laboured hard, and spent little; and were, therefore, justly
considered as an innocent and useful part of the community, whose
employment and parsimony preserved them in a great measure from the
general infection of vice which spread its influence among the traders
and men of estates.

But even this abstemious class of men, my lords, have of late relaxed
their frugality, and suffered themselves to be tempted by this
infatuating liquor; nor is any thing now more common than to find it
in those houses in which ale, a few years ago, was the highest pitch
of luxury to which they aspired, and to see those hours wasted in
intoxicating entertainments, which were formerly dedicated wholly to
the care of their farms, and the improvement of their fortunes.

Thus, my lords, it appears, that the corruption is become universal,
and, therefore, that some remedy ought to be attempted; nor can I
conceive any measures more consistent with justice, or more likely to
produce the end intended by them, than those which are now offered to
your consideration, by which the liquor will be made dearer, too dear
to be lavishly drank by those who are in most danger of using it to
excess; and the number of those who retail it will be diminished by
the necessity of taking a license, and of renewing them every year at
the same expense.

The inefficacy, my lords, of violent methods, and the impossibility of