Surely, my lords, it is not expected, that any arguments should be admitted in this house without examination; and yet it might be justly imagined, that this assertion could only be offered in full confidence of an implicit reception, and this tenet be proposed only to those who had resigned their understandings to the dictates of the ministry; for it is implied in this position, that the plenty of a commodity diminishes the demand for it; and that the more freely it is sold, the less it will be bought.  It implies, that men will lay voluntary restraints upon themselves, in proportion as they are indulged by their governours; and that all prohibitory laws tend to the promotion of the practices which they condemn; it implies, that a stop can only be put to fornication by increasing the number of prostitutes, and that theft is only to be restrained by leaving your doors open.

I am, for my part, convinced, that drunkards, as well as thieves, are made by opportunity; and that no man will deny himself what he desires, merely because it is allowed him by the laws of his country.

This, my lords, is so evident, that I shall no longer dwell upon the assertion, that the unbounded liberty of retailing spirits will make spirits less used in the nation; but shall examine the second argument, and consider how far it is possible or proper to raise supplies by a tax upon drunkenness.

That large sums will be raised by the bill to which the consent of your lordships is now required, I can readily admit, because the consumption of spirits will certainly be greater, and the licenses taken for retailing them so numerous, that a much lower duty than is proposed will amount yearly to a very large sum; for if the felicity of drunkenness can be more cheaply obtained by buying spirits than ale, when both are to be found at the same place, it is easy to see which will be preferred; this argument, therefore, is irrefragable, and may be urged in favour of the bill without danger of confutation.

But, my lords, it is the business of governours not so much to drain the purses, as to regulate the morals of the people; not only to raise taxes, but to levy them in such a manner as may be least burdensome, and to apply them to purposes which may be most useful; not to raise money by corrupting the nation, that it may be spent in enslaving it.

It has been mentioned by a very celebrated writer, as a rational practice in the exercise of government, to tax such commodities as were abused to the increase of vice, that vice may be discouraged by being made more expensive; and therefore the community in time be set free from it:  but the tax which is now proposed, my lords, is of a different kind; it is a tax laid upon vice, indeed, but it is to arise from the licenses granted to wickedness, and its consequences must be the increase of debauchery, not the restraint.  It is a tax which will be readily paid, because it will be little felt; and because it will be little felt, it is hoped that multitudes will subject themselves to it.