idemical fury of debauchery, and an unbounded exemption from
restraint.

How little any encouragement is wanting to promote the consumption of
those execrable liquors, how much it concerns every man who has been
informed of their quality, and who has seen their consequences, to
oppose the use of them with his utmost influence, appears from the
enormous quantity which the stills of this nation annually produce.

The number of gallons which appears from the accounts on the table to
have been consumed last year, is seven millions; 'a quantity
sufficient to-destroy the health, interrupt the labour, and deprave
the morals of a very great part of the nation; a quantity which, if it
be suffered to continue undiminished, will, even without any legal
encouragement of its use, in a short time destroy the happiness of the
publick; and by impairing the strength, and lessening the number of
manufacturers and labourers, introduce poverty and famine.

Instead, therefore, of promoting a practice so evidently detrimental
to society, let us oppose it with the most vigorous efforts; let us
begin our opposition by rejecting this bill, and then consider whether
the execution of the former law shall be--enforced, or whether another
more efficacious can be formed.

Lord CHOLMONDELEY then spoke to the following effect:--My lords,
though it is undoubtedly the right of every person in this assembly to
utter his sentiments with freedom, yet surely decency ought to
restrain us from virulent, and justice from undeserved reproaches; we
ought not to censure any conduct with more severity than it deserves,
nor condemn any man for practices of which he is innocent.

This rule, which will not, I suppose, be controverted, has not, in my
opinion, been very carefully observed in this debate; for surely
nothing is more unjust than to assert or insinuate that the government
has looked idly upon the advances of debauchery, or has suffered
drunkenness to prevail without opposition.

Of the care with which this licentiousness has been opposed, no other
proof can be required, than the laws which have, in the present reign,
been made against it. Soon after the succession of his majesty, the
use of compound spirits was prohibited; but this law being eluded by
substituting liquors, so drawn as not to be included in the statutes,
it was soon after repealed; and the people were, for a time, indeed,
suffered to drink distilled liquors without restraint, because