always be preferred
to our own, we should only send into other nations that money which
now circulates among ourselves, and impoverish the people without
reforming them.

The regulation provided by the bill before us is, therefore, in my
opinion, the most likely method for recovering the ancient industry
and sobriety of the common people; and, my lords, I shall approve it,
till experience has shown it to be defective. I shall approve it, not
with a view of obtaining or securing the favour of any of those who
may be thought to interest themselves in its success, but because I
find some new law for this purpose indispensably necessary, and
believe that no better can be contrived. We are now, my lords, to
contend with the passions of all the common people. We are
endeavouring to reform a vice almost universal; a vice which, however
destructive, is now no longer reproachful. We have tried the force of
violent methods and found them unsuccessful; we are now, therefore, to
treat the vulgar as children, with a kind of artful indulgence, and to
take from them secretly, and by degrees, what cannot be wholly denied
them, without exasperating them almost to rebellion. This is the first
attempt, and by this, if one third of the consumption be diminished,
we may next year double the duty, and, by a new augmentation of the
price, take away another third, and what will then be drank, will,
perhaps, by the strictest moralists, be allowed to be rather
beneficial than hurtful. By this gradual procedure, we shall give
those, who have accustomed themselves to this liquor, time to reclaim
their appetites, and those that live by distilling, opportunities of
engaging in some other employment; we shall remove the distemper of
the publick, without any painful remedies, and shall reform the people
insensibly, without exasperating or persecuting them.

The bishop of OXFORD spoke to the following purport:--My lords, as I
am not yet convinced of the expedience of the bill now before us, nor
can discover any reason for believing that the advantages will
countervail the mischiefs which it will produce, I think it my duty to
declare, that I shall oppose it, as destructive to virtue, and
contrary to the inviolable rules of religion.

It appears to me, my lords, that the liberty of selling liquors, which
are allowed to be equally injurious to health and virtue, will by this
law become general and boundless; and I can discover no reason for
doubting