a total deprivation of any enjoyment which the people have by custom
made familiar and dear to them, sufficiently appears from the event of
the law which is now to be repealed. It is well known, that by that
law the use of spirituous liquors was prohibited to the common people;
that retailers were deterred from vending them by the utmost
encouragement that could be given to informers; and that discoveries
were incited by every art that could be practised, and offenders
punished with the utmost rigour.

Yet what was the effect, my lords, of all this diligence and vigour? A
general panick suppressed, for a few weeks, the practice of selling
the prohibited liquors; but, in a very short time, necessity forced
some, who had nothing to lose, to return to their former trade; these
were suffered sometimes to escape, because nothing was to be gained by
informing against them, and others were encouraged by their example to
imitate them, though with more secrecy and caution; of those, indeed,
many were punished, but many more escaped, and such as were fined
often found the profit greater than the loss.

The prospect of raising money by detecting their practices, incited
many to turn information into a trade; and the facility with which the
crime was to be proved, encouraged some to gratify their malice by
perjury, and others their avarice; so that the multitude of
informations became a publick grievance, and the magistrates
themselves complained that the law was not to be executed.

The perjuries of informers were now so flagrant and common, that the
people thought all informations malicious; or, at least, thinking
themselves oppressed by the law, they looked upon every man that
promoted its execution, as their enemy; and, therefore, now began to
declare war against informers, many of whom they treated with great
cruelty, and some they murdered in the streets.

By their obstinacy they at last wearied the magistrates, and by their
violence they intimidated those who might be inclined to make
discoveries; so that the law, however just might be the intention with
which it was enacted, or however seasonable the methods prescribed by
it, has been now for some years totally disused; nor has any one been
punished for the violation of it, because no man has dared to offer
informations. Even the vigilance of the magistrates has been obliged
to connive at these offences, nor has any man been found willing to
engage in a task, at once