[The speaker then put the question in form, "Is it your lordships'
pleasure, that the third reading of the bill be put off for five
days?" It was resolved in the negative by 52 to 29.
It was then ordered, that the bill should be read the third time on
the day following, and that the lords should be summoned to attend.
On the next day, the house, according to the order, met, and another
debate ensued, which was begun by lord HERVEY, who spoke in substance
as follows:]
My lords, the tendency of the bill, which we are now to approve or
reject, is so apparently destructive to the ends of government, so
apparently dangerous to publick happiness, and so contrary to the
institutions of the most celebrated lawgivers, and the policy of the
most flourishing nations, that I still continue to think it my duty to
struggle against it.
Almost every legislator of the world, my lords, from whatever original
he derived his authority, has exerted it in the prohibition of such
foods as tended to injure the health, and destroy the vigour of the
people for whom he designed his institutions.
The great instructor of the jews, who delivered his laws by divine
authority, prohibited the use of swine's flesh, for no other cause, so
far as human reason is able to discover, than that it corrupted the
blood, and produced loathsome diseases and maladies which descended to
posterity; and, therefore, in prohibiting, after this example, the use
of liquors which produce the same effects, we shall follow the
authority of the great governour of the universe.
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