What would be the consequence of the duty of three shillings a gallon,
proposed by the noble lord, it is easy to judge. What, my lords, can
be expected from it, but that it will either oblige or encourage the
venders of spirits to procure from other places what they can no
longer buy for reasonable prices at home? and that those drunkards who
cannot or will not suddenly change their customs, will purchase from
abroad the pleasures which we withhold from them, and the wealth of
the nation be daily diminished, but the virtue little increased?
Thus, my lords, shall we at once destroy our own manufacture and
promote that of our neighbours. Thus shall we enrich other governments
by distressing our own, and instead of increasing sobriety, only
encourage a more expensive and pernicious kind of debauchery.
In the bill now under our consideration, a middle way is proposed, by
which reformation may be introduced by those gradations which have
always been found necessary when inveterate vices are to be
encountered. In this bill every necessary consideration appears to
have been regarded, the health of the people will be preserved, and
their virtue recovered, without destroying their trade or starving
their manufacturers.
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