Lord CARTERET then rose up, and spoke in substance as follows:--My
lords, the warmth with which this debate has been hitherto carried on,
and with which the progress of this bill has been opposed, is, in my
opinion, to be imputed to strong prejudices, formed when the question
was first proposed; by which the noble lords have been incited to warm
declamations and violent invectives; who, having once heated their
minds with suspicions, have not been able to consider the propositions
before them with calmness and impartiality; but have pursued their
first notions, and have employed their eloquence in displaying the
absurdity of positions never advanced, and the mischief of
consequences which will never be produced.
It is first to be considered, my lords, that this bill is intended,
not to promote, but to hinder, the consumption of spirituous liquors;
it is, therefore, by no means necessary to expatiate upon that which
is presupposed in the bill, the pernicious quality of spirits, the
detestable nature of drunkenness, the wickedness or miseries which are
produced by it. Almost all that has been urged by the noble lords who
have spoken with the greatest warmth against the bill, may reasonably
be conceived to have been advanced for it by those who projected it;
of whom it may be justly imagined, that they were fully convinced how
much spirits were abused by the common people, and how much that abuse
contributed to the wickedness which at present prevails amongst us,
since they thought it necessary to prevent them by a new law.
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