The innkeeper may now either accept or refuse the limited price, as it shall appear to him most consistent with his interest; nor will there be, for the future, any room for murmuring at unreasonable demands, since he may oblige that soldier whom he cannot satisfy, to please himself better at his own expense.

The choice of the liquor is, likewise, wholly referred to the innkeeper; for the words in the clause requiring that he shall furnish three quarts of small beer or cider, he complies, indisputably, with the law by supplying either; and, therefore, the value of cider in any particular county is not of much importance in the question before us; if cider be more valuable than small beer, it may be withheld; if it be cheaper, it may be substituted in its place; so that the innkeeper has nothing to consult but his own interest.

That this is the meaning of the clause, is, I suppose, obvious to every man that hears it read; and, therefore, I see no reason for any alterations, because I know not any effect which they can possibly have, except that of obscuring the sense which is now too clear to be mistaken.

Sir John BARNARD spoke next, to the effect following:—­Sir, though it should be granted, that the clause before us is intelligible to every member of this assembly, it will not certainly follow, that there is no necessity of farther elucidations; for a law very easily understood by those who make it, may be obscure to others who are less acquainted with our general intention, less skilled in the niceties of language, or less accustomed to the style of laws.

It is to be considered, that this law will chiefly affect a class of men very little instructed in literature, and very unable to draw inferences; men to whom we often find it necessary, in common cases, to use long explanations, and familiar illustrations, and of whom it maybe not unreasonably suspected, that the same want of education, which makes them ignorant, may make them petulant, and at once incline them to wrangle, and deprive them of the means of deciding their controversies.

That both innholders and soldiers are, for the greatest part, of this rank and temper, I suppose, sir, every gentleman knows, from daily observation; and, therefore, it will, I hope, be thought necessary to descend to their understandings, and to give them laws in terms of which they will know the meaning; we shall, otherwise, more consult the interest of the lawyers than the innholders, and only, by one alteration, produce a necessity of another.

I am therefore desirous, sir, that all the difficulties which have been mentioned by every gentleman on this occasion, should be removed by clear, familiar, and determinate expressions; for what they have found difficult, may easily be, to an innholder or soldier, absolutely inexplicable.