Great use has been made of the inefficacy of the present law to decry
the proposal made by the noble lord for laying a high duty upon these
pernicious liquors. High duties have already, as we are informed, been
tried without advantage; high duties are at this hour imposed upon
those spirits which are retailed, yet we see them every day sold in
the streets without the payment of the tax required; and, therefore,
it will be folly to make a second essay of means which have been
found, by the experience of many years, unsuccessful.
It has been granted on all sides in this debate, nor was it ever
denied on any other occasion, that the consumption of any commodity is
most easily to be hindered by raising its price, and its price is to
be raised by the imposition of a duty; this, my lords, which is, I
suppose, the opinion of every man, of whatever degree of experience or
understanding, appears likewise to have been thought by the authors of
the present law; and, therefore, they imagined, that they had
effectually provided against the increase of drunkenness, by laying
upon that liquor which should be retailed in small quantities, a duty
which none of the inferiour classes of drunkards would be able to pay.
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