The duties which were proposed to be repealed, were those laid by the act 9 Geo. II. which permitted no person to sell spirituous liquors in less quantity than two gallons without a license, for which fifty pounds were to be paid.  Whereas by the new bill a small duty per gallon was laid on at the still-head, and the license was to cost but twenty shillings, which was to be granted only to such as had licenses for selling ale.  On the credit of this act, as soon as it was passed by the commons, the ministry borrowed a large sum at three per cent, but it was understood that the sinking fund was pledged as a collateral security to pay any deficiency.

In about a fortnight this bill passed all the forms in the house of commons, almost without opposition; and with little or no alteration from the scheme brought into the committee on ways and means for raising the supply for the current year, by Mr. SANDYS, then chancellor of the exchequer.

It was immediately carried up to the house of lords, where it was read for the first time on the 17th of February; and ordered a second reading on the twenty-second.  On that day the commissioners of excise, according to an order of the house, brought an account of the sums arising by the last act, and a yearly account for several years past; and attending were interrogated concerning the execution of the last act.

The bishop of ORFORD particularly inquired, whether it had been effectually put in force, and questions of the same kind were asked by lord LONSDALE and others; to which the commissioners answered, that it had been diligently and vigorously executed, so far as they or their officers had power to enforce it; but that the justices had not always been equally zealous in seconding their endeavours; and that it was impossible to discover all the petty dealers by whom it was infringed, spirituous liquors still continuing to be sold in small obscure shops, and at the corners of the streets.

A motion was also made, that three of the physicians of most note for their learning and experience, should be summoned to attend the house, to declare their opinion with regard to the effects of spirituous liquors upon the human body.  But this was rejected by 33 against 17.

The bill was read the second time on the day appointed, when the question being put, whether it should be committed, lord HERVEY rose, and spoke to the following effect:—­

My lords, though I doubt not but the bill now before us will be promoted in this house, by the same influence by which it has been conducted through the other; yet I hope its success will be very different, and that those arts by which its consequences, however formidable, have been hitherto concealed, or by which those whose business it was to have detected and exposed them, have been induced to turn their eyes aside, will not be practised here with the same efficacy, though they should happen to be attempted with the