But, my lords, it is the business of governours not so much to drain
the purses, as to regulate the morals of the people; not only to raise
taxes, but to levy them in such a manner as may be least burdensome,
and to apply them to purposes which may be most useful; not to raise
money by corrupting the nation, that it may be spent in enslaving it.
It has been mentioned by a very celebrated writer, as a rational
practice in the exercise of government, to tax such commodities as
were abused to the increase of vice, that vice may be discouraged by
being made more expensive; and therefore the community in time be set
free from it: but the tax which is now proposed, my lords, is of a
different kind; it is a tax laid upon vice, indeed, but it is to arise
from the licenses granted to wickedness, and its consequences must be
the increase of debauchery, not the restraint. It is a tax which will
be readily paid, because it will be little felt; and because it will
be little felt, it is hoped that multitudes will subject themselves to
it.
The act which is now to be repealed, was, indeed, of a very different
nature, though perhaps not free from very just objections.
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