In the time of the late ministry it had been observed, that
drunkenness was become a vice almost universal among the common
people; and that as the liquor which they generally drank was such
that they could destroy their reason by a small quantity, and at a
small expense, the consequence of general drunkenness was general
idleness; since no man would work any longer than was necessary to lay
him asleep for the remaining part of the day. They remarked, likewise,
that the liquor which they generally drank was to the last degree
pernicious to health, and destructive of that corporeal vigour by
which the business of life is to be carried on; and a law was
therefore made, by which it was intended that this species of
debauchery, so peculiarly fatal, should be prevented.
Against the end of this law no man has hitherto made the least
objection; no one has dared to signalize himself as an open advocate
for vice, or attempted to prove that drunkenness was not injurious to
society, and contrary to the true ends of human being. The
encouragement of wickedness of this shameful kind, wickedness equally
contemptible and hateful, was reserved for the present ministry, who
are now about to supply those funds which they have exhausted by idle
projects and romantick expeditions, at the expense of health and
virtue; who have discovered a method of recruiting armies by the
destruction of their fellow-subjects; and while they boast themselves
the assertors of liberty, are endeavouring to enslave us by the
introduction of those vices, which in all countries, and in every age,
have made way for despotick power.
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