That it can encourage drunkenness, or
increase the consumption of distilled liquors, is surely impossible;
for they are now drunk without restraint; and therefore no restraint
will be taken away: and since their price must be increased by a
double duty, it may reasonably be conceived, that those who now spend
all that they can gain by their labour in drunkenness, must be content
with less than before, because they will have no more to spend; and
what has hitherto enabled them to riot in debauchery will no longer be
sufficient for the same purposes; the same excess will require more
money, and more money cannot be had.
I do not affirm, my lords, that the success of this bill is
demonstrably certain; nor can I deny that many arguments have been
alleged against it which cannot easily be confuted; all that I can
venture to assert is, that in my opinion, the reasons _for_ the bill
preponderate, not that those _against_ it, are without weight.
Of this, at least, we are certain, that the bill can produce no ill
consequences; and that if the experience of the ensuing year shall
show it to be ineffectual, it may be amended in the next session by
new provisions, which we shall be then more able to adjust for the
benefit of the publick.
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