It had this
advantage at least, that so far as it was put in execution, it
obstructed drunkenness; nor has the examination of the officers of
excise discovered any imperfection in the law; for it has only failed,
because it was timorously or negligently executed. Why it was not
vigorously and diligently enforced, I have never yet been able to
discover. If the magistrates were threatened by the populace, the
necessity of such laws was more plainly proved; for what justifies the
severity of coercion but the prevalence of the crime? and what may not
be feared from crowds intoxicated with spirits, whose insolence and
fury is already such, that they dare to threaten the government by
which they are debarred from the use of them?
This, my lords, is a reflection that ought not to be passed slightly
over. The nature of our constitution, happy as it is, must be
acknowledged to produce this inconvenience, that it inclines the
common people to turbulence and sedition; the nature of spirituous
liquors is such, that they inflame these dispositions, already too
much predominant; and yet the turbulence of the people is made a
reason for licensing drunkenness, and allowing, without limitation,
the sale of those spirits by which that turbulence must be certainly
increased.
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