I hope, my lords, that a bill of this portentous kind, a bill big with innumerable mischiefs, and without one beneficial tendency, will be rejected by this house, without the form of commitment; that it will not be the subject of a debate amongst us, whether we shall consent to poison the nation; and that instead of inquiring, whether the measures which are now pursued by the ministry ought to be supported at the expense of virtue, tranquillity, and trade, we should examine, whether they are not such as ought to be opposed for their own sake, even without the consideration of the immense sums which they apparently demand.

I am, indeed, of opinion, that the success of the present schemes will not be of any benefit to the nation, and believe, likewise, that there is very little prospect of success.  I am, at least, convinced, that no advantage can countervail the mischiefs of this detestable bill; which, therefore, I shall steadily oppose, though I have already dwelt upon this subject perhaps too long; yet as I speak only from an unprejudiced regard to the publick, I hope, if any new arguments shall be attempted, that I shall be allowed the liberty of making a reply.

Lord BATHURST replied to the following purport:—­My lords, I doubt not but the noble lord has delivered, on this occasion, his real sentiments, and that, in his opinion, the happiness of our country, the regard which ought always to be paid to the promotion of virtue, require that this bill should be rejected.  I am far from suspecting, that such an appearance of zeal can conceal any private views, or that such pathetick exclamations can proceed but from a mind really affected with honest anxiety.

This anxiety, my lords, I shall endeavour to dissipate before it has been communicated to others; for I think it no less the duty of every man who approves the publick measures, to vindicate them from misrepresentation, than of him to whom they appear pernicious or dangerous, to warn his fellow-subjects of that danger.

I, my lords, am one of those who are convinced that the bill now before us, which has been censured as fundamentally wrong, is in reality fundamentally right; that the end which is proposed by it is just, and the means which are prescribed in it will accomplish the purpose for which they were contrived.

The end of this bill, my lords, is to diminish the consumption of distilled spirits, to restrain the populace of these kingdoms from a liquor which, when used in excess, has a malignity to the last degree dangerous, which at once inebriates and poisons, impairs the force of the understanding, and destroys the vigour of the body; and to attain this, I think it absolutely right to lay a tax upon these liquors.

Of the vice of drunkenness, my lords, no man has a stronger abhorrence than myself; of the pernicious consequences of these liquors, which are now chiefly used by the common people, no man is more fully convinced, and therefore, none can more zealously wish that drunkenness may be suppressed, and distilled spirits withheld from the people.