es.

Our ministers will, therefore, have the same honour with their
predecessors, of having given rise to a new fund, not indeed for the
payment of our debts, but for much more valuable purposes, for the
exaltation of our hearts under oppression, for the elevation of our
spirits amidst miscarriages and disappointments, and for the cheerful
support of those debts which we have lost hopes of paying. They are
resolved, my lords, that the nation, which nothing can make wise,
shall, while they are at its head, at least be merry; and since
publick happiness is the end of government, they seem to imagine that
they shall deserve applause by an expedient, which will enable every
man to lay his cares asleep, to drown sorrow, and lose in the delights
of drunkenness both the publick miseries and his own.

Surely, my lords, men of this unbounded benevolence, and this exalted
genius, deserve such honours as were never paid before; they deserve
to bestride a butt upon every signpost in the metropolis, or to have
their countenances exhibited as tokens where this liquor is to be
sold by the license which they have procured. They must be at least
remembered to future ages, as the happy politicians who, after all
expedients for raising taxes had been employed, discovered a new
method of draining the last relicks of the publick wealth, and added a
new revenue to the government; nor will those, who shall hereafter
enumerate the several funds now established among us, forget, among
the benefactors to their country, the illustrious authors of the
_drinking fund_.

May I be allowed, my lords, to congratulate my countrymen and
fellow-subjects upon the happy times which are now approaching, in
which no man will be disqualified for the privilege of being drunk,
when all discontent and disloyalty shall be forgotten, and the people,
though now considered by the ministry as their enemies, shall
acknowledge the lenity of that government, under which all restraints
are taken away.

But to a bill for such desirable purposes, it would be proper, my
lords, to prefix a preamble, in which the kindness of our intentions
should be more fully explained, that the nation may not mistake our
indulgence for cruelty, nor consider their benefactors as their
persecutors. If, therefore, this bill be considered and amended, (for
why else should it be considered?) in a committee, I shall humbly
propose, that it shall be introduced in this manner: "Whereas the
des