In this distress, my lords, they can only do what indeed they now seem
to design; they can only repeal this act by charging the debt, which
it has enabled them to contract, upon the sinking fund, upon that
sacred deposit which was for a time supposed unalienable, and from
which arose all the hopes that were sometimes formed by the nation, of
being delivered from that load of imposts, which it cannot much longer
support. They can only give security for this new debt, by disabling
us for ever from paying the former.
The bill now before us, my lords, will, therefore, be equally
pernicious in its immediate and remoter consequences; it will first
corrupt the people, and destroy our trade, and afterwards intercept
that fund which is appropriated to the most useful and desirable of
all political purposes, the gradual alleviation of the publick debt.
I hope, my lords, that a bill of this portentous kind, a bill big with
innumerable mischiefs, and without one beneficial tendency, will be
rejected by this house, without the form of commitment; that it will
not be the subject of a debate amongst us, whether we shall consent to
poison the nation; and that instead of inquiring, whether the measures
which are now pursued by the ministry ought to be supported at the
expense of virtue, tranquillity, and trade, we should examine, whether
they are not such as ought to be opposed for their own sake, even
without the consideration of the immense sums which they apparently
demand.
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