All laws, especially those which regard complicated and intricate
affairs, have been perfected by degrees; experience has discovered
those deficiencies which sagacity could not foresee, and the progress
of human wisdom has been always slow. To charge any scheme with
imperfection, is only to allege that it is the production of men, of
beings finite in their capacity, and liable to errour; nor do I see
what can be recommended to such beings, more than what the government
is now endeavouring to practise, that nothing should be done
precipitately, and that experience should always be trusted rather
than conjecture.
Lord LONSDALE next spoke to the effect following:--My lords, the
arguments of the noble lord have by no means influenced me to alter my
opinion; nor do I now rise up to pronounce a recantation of any of my
former assertions, but to explain one of them, which the noble lord
has been pleased to controvert.
He observes, in opposition to my argument, that the distillery
contributes to the consumption of the produce of our grounds, and, by
consequence, to the advantage of those who possess them; but I, my
lords, am inclined to believe that it produces a contrary effect, and
that it hinders the consumption, even of that grain which is employed
in it.
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