se it is laid in their way.

With regard to this act, my lords, it is to be inquired, whether it is
likely to be executed with more diligence than the former, and whether
the same obstacles may not equally obstruct the execution of both.

The great difficulty of the former method, a method certainly in
itself reasonable and efficacious, arose from the necessity of
receiving informations from the meanest and most profligate of the
people, who were often tempted to lay hold of the opportunities which
that law put into their hands, of relieving their wants, or gratifying
their resentment; and very frequently intimidated the innocent by
threats of accusations, which were not easily to be confuted. They
were, therefore, equally dangerous to those that obeyed the act, and
to those that disregarded it; for they sometimes put their threats in
execution, and raised prosecutions against those who had committed no
other crime than that of refusing to bribe them to silence.

An abuse so notorious, my lords, produced a general detestation of all
informers, or, at least, concurred with other causes to produce it;
and that detestation became so prevalent in the minds of the populace,
that at last it became to the highest degree dangerous to attempt the
conviction of those, who, in the most open and contemptuous manner,
every day violated the laws of their country; and in time the
retailers trusting to the protection of the people, laid aside all
cautions, at least in this great city, and prosecuted their former
practice with the utmost security.

This, my lords, was the chief difficulty and inconvenience hitherto
discovered in the law which is now to be repealed. Thus was its
execution obstructed, and the provisions enacted by it made
ineffectual. This defect, therefore, ought to be chiefly regarded in
any new regulations. But what securities, my lords, are provided
against the same evil in the bill before us? Or why should we imagine
that this law will be executed with less opposition than the last?
The informers will undoubtedly be of the same class as before; they
are still to be incited by a reward; and, therefore, it may be
reasonably feared, that they will act upon the same motives, and be
persecuted with the same fury.

To obviate this inconvenience appears to me very easy, by converting
the duty upon licenses to a large duty upon the liquors to be paid by
the distiller; the payment of which will be carefully exacted by
p