Surely, my lords, such conduct gives reason for questioning either
their humanity, or their sincerity; for if they really fear such
dreadful calamities, how can they be at leisure for mirth and gaiety I
How can they sport over the grave of millions, and indulge their vain
ridicule, when the ruin of their country is approaching?
But without inquiry, whether they who oppose the bill will grant their
opposition hypocritical, or their patriotism languid, I shall lay my
opinion of this new regulation before your lordships with equal
freedom, though with less luxuriance of imagination, and less gaiety
of language.
Of this bill, notwithstanding the acuteness with which it has been
examined, and the acrimony with which it has been censured, I am not
afraid to affirm, that it is neither wicked nor absurd, that all its
parts are consistent, and that the effects to be expected from it are
sobriety and health. I cannot find, upon the closest examination,
either that it will defeat its own end, or that the end proposed by it
is different from that which is professed.
The charge of encouraging vice and tolerating drunkenness, with which
the defenders of this bill have been so liberally aspersed, may be, in
my opinion, more justly retorted upon those that oppose it; who,
though they plead for the continuance of a law, rigorous, indeed, and
well intended, own that it has, by the experience of several years,
been found ineffectual.
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