This, my lords, is the present state of the nation; a state
sufficiently deplorable, and which all the laws of humanity and
justice command us to alter. This is the universal declaration. We all
agree, that the people grow every day more corrupt, and that this
corruption ought to be stopped; but by what means is yet undecided.
Violent methods and extremity of rigour have been already tried, and
totally defeated; it is, therefore, proposed to try more easy and
gentle regulations, that shall produce, by slow degrees, the
reformation which cannot be effected by open force; these new
regulations appear to many lords not sufficiently coercive, and are
imagined still less likely to reform a vice so inveterate, and so
firmly established.
These opinions I cannot flatter myself with the hope of reconciling;
but must yet observe, that the consumption of these liquors, as of all
other commodities, can only be lessened by proper duties, and that
every additional imposition has a tendency to lessen them; and since,
so far as it extends, it can produce no ill effects, deserves the
approbation of those who sincerely desire to suppress this odious vice
that has so much prevailed, and been so widely diffused.
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