merriment.  He, therefore, engages with them in their nocturnal expeditions, an association of wickedness is formed, and that man, who before he tasted this infatuating liquor, contributed every day, by honest labour, to the happiness or convenience of life, who supported his family in decent plenty, and was himself at ease, becomes at once miserable and wicked; is detested as a nuisance by the community, and hunted by the officers of justice; nor has mankind any thing now to wish or hope with regard to him, but that by his speedy destruction, the security of the roads may be restored, and the tranquillity of the night be set free from the alarms of robbery and murder.

These, my lords, are the consequences which necessarily ensue from the use of those pernicious, those infatuating spirits, which have justly alarmed every man whom pleasure or sloth has not wholly engrossed, and who has ever looked upon the various scenes of life with that attention which their importance demands.

Among these, my lords, the clergy have distinguished themselves by a zealous opposition to this growing evil, and have warned their hearers with the warmest concern against the misery and wickedness which must always be the attendants or the followers of drunkenness.  One among them [Footnote:  Bishop of SARUM.], whose merit has raised him to a seat in this august, assembly, and whose instructions are enforced by the sanctity of his life, has, in a very cogent and pathetical manner, displayed the enormity of this detestable sin, the universality of its prevalence, and the malignity of its effects; and in his discourse on the infirmary of this city, has observed with too much justness, that the lowest of the people are infected with this vice, and that even necessity is become luxurious.

Many other authorities [Footnote:  He read the preamble to a former bill, the opinion of the college of physicians.] might be produced, and some others I have now in my hand; but the recital of them would waste the day to no purpose:  for surely it is not necessary to show, by a long deduction of authorities, the guilt of drunkenness, or to prove that it weakens the body, or that it depraves the mind, that it makes mankind too feeble for labour, too indolent for application, too stupid for ingenuity, and too daring for the peace of society.

This, surely, my lords, is, therefore, a vice which ought, with the utmost care, to be discouraged by those whose birth or station has conferred upon them the province of watching over the publick happiness; and which, surely, no prospect of present advantage, no arguments of political convenience, will prevail upon this house to promote.

That the natural and evident tendency of this bill is the propagation of drunkenness, cannot be denied, when it is considered that it will increase the temptations to it by making that liquor, which is the favourite of the common people, more common, by multiplying the places at which it is sold, so that none can want an opportunity of yielding to any sudden impulse of his appetite, which will solicit him more powerfully and more incessantly as they are more frequently and more easily gratified.