ch importance, my
lords, no man ought to content himself with conjecture, where
certainty may, at whatsoever expense of labour, be attained; nor ought
any man to neglect a careful and attentive examination of his notions,
before he offers them in publick consultations; for if they were
erroneous, and no man can he certain that he is in the right, who has
never brought his own opinions to the test of inquiry, he exposes
himself to be detected in ignorance or temerity, and to that contempt
which such detection naturally and justly produces; or if his audience
submit their reason to his authority, and neglect to examine his
assertions, in confidence that he has sufficiently examined them
himself, he may suffer what to an honest mind must be far more painful
than any personal ignominy, he may languish under the consciousness of
having influenced the publick counsels by false declarations, and
having by his negligence betrayed his country to calamities which a
closer attention might have enabled him to have foreseen.

Whether the noble lord, who alleged the certainty of reformation which
this bill will produce, ever examined his own opinion, I know not; but
think it necessary at least to consider it more particularly, to
supply that proof of it which, if it be true, he neglected to produce,
or to show, if it be found false, how little confident assertions are
to be regarded.

Between twice a-day and twice a-week, the noble lord will not deny the
proportion to be as seven to one; and, therefore, to prevent
drunkenness in the degree which he persuades us to expect, the price
of the liquor must be raised in the same proportion; but the duty laid
upon the gallon will not increase the price a fifth part, even though
it should not be eluded by distilling liquors of an extraordinary
strength; one fifth part of the price is, therefore, in his lordship's
estimate, equal to the whole price seven times multiplied. Such are
the arguments which have been produced in favour of this bill; and
such is the diligence with which the publick happiness is promoted by
those who have hopes of being enriched by publick calamities.

As the tax will not make a fifth part of the price, and even that may
be in some measure evaded, the duty paid for licenses scarcely
deserves consideration; for it is not intended to hinder retailers,
but to make them useful in some degree to the ministry, by paying a
yearly tax for the license of poisoning.

It is,