which must be suspected of
inefficacy? In the diseases of the state, as in those of the body, the
force of the remedy ought to be proportioned to the strength and
danger of the disease; and surely no political malady can be more
formidable than the prevalence of wickedness, nor can any time require
more firmness, vigilance, and activity, in the legislative power.

That the law, therefore, may be without effect, is, in the present
state of corruption, if it has been truly represented, a sufficient
reason for rejecting it, without allowing it to be committed; because
there is now no time for indulgence, or for delays; a nation
universally corrupt, must be speedily reformed, or speedily ruined.
Those habits which have been confessed to be already too powerful for
the laws now in being, may in a short time be absolutely irresistible;
and that licentiousness which intimidates the officers of justice, may
in another year insult the legislature.

But, my lords, I am yet willing to hope that the noble duke's account
of the wickedness of the people, was rather a rhetorical exaggeration,
uttered in the ardour of dispute, than a strict assertion of facts;
and am of opinion that, though vice has, indeed, of late spread its
contagion with great rapidity, there are yet great numbers uninfected,
and cannot believe that our condition is such as that nothing can make
it more miserable.

In many parts of the country, my lords, these liquors have not yet
been much used, nor is it likely that those who have never sold them,
when the law allowed them, will begin an unnecessary trade, when it
will expose them to penalties. But a new law in favour of spirits will
produce a general inclination, and a kind of emulation will incite
every one to take a license for the retail of this new liquor; and so
every part of the kingdom will be equally debauched, and no place will
be without a vender of statutable poison. The luxury of the vulgar,
for luxury, in my opinion, it may very properly be called, will still
increase, and vices and diseases will increase with it.

There is at least one part of the nation yet untainted, a part which
deserves the utmost care of the legislature, and which must be
endangered by a law like this before us. The children, my lords, to
whom the affairs of the present generation must be transferred, and by
whom the nation must be continued, are surely no ignoble part of the
publick. They are yet innocent, and it is our