Let us, therefore, calmly consider, my lords, what can in this exigence be done; that the people should be allowed to poison themselves and their posterity without restraint, is certainly not the intent of any good man; and therefore we are now to consider how it may be prevented.  That the people are infected with the vice of drunkenness, that they debauch themselves chiefly with spirituous liquors, and that those liquors are in a high degree pernicious, is confessed both by those who oppose the bill, and those who defend it; but with this advantage on the part of those that defend it, that they only propose a probable method of reforming the abuses which they deplore.  I know that the warm resentment which some lords have on former occasions expressed against the disorders which distilled liquors are supposed to produce, may naturally incline them to wish that they were totally prohibited, and that this liquid fire, as it has been termed, were to be extinguished for ever.

Whether such wishes are not more ardent than rational; whether their zeal against the abuse of things, indifferent in themselves, has not, as has often happened in other cases, hurried them into an indiscreet censure of the lawful use, I shall not now inquire; because it is superfluous to dispute about the propriety of measures, of which the possibility may be justly questioned.

This last act, my lords, was of this kind; the duties established by it were so high that they wholly debarred the lower classes of the, people from the liquor on which they were laid; and, therefore, it was found by a very short experience, that it was impossible to preserve it from violation; that there would be no end of punishing those who offended against it; and that severity produced rather compassion than terrour.  Those who have suffered the penalties were considered as persons under unjust persecution, whom every one was obliged by the ties of humanity to encourage, reward, and protect; and those who informed against them, or encouraged informations, were detested, as the oppressors of the people.  The law had, indeed, this effect, that it debarred, at least for a short time, all those from retailing spirits who lived in reputation; and, therefore, encouraged others to vend them in private places, where they were more likely to be drank to excess.

Having, therefore, made trial of violent and severe methods, and had an opportunity of obtaining a full conviction of their inefficacy, it is surely proper to profit by our experience, by that experience which shows us that the use of distilled liquors, under its present discouragements, has every year increased; and, therefore, proves at once the unprofitableness of the law now in force, and the necessity of some other by which the same purposes may be more certainly promoted.

The reformation of a vice so prevalent must be slow and gradual; for it is not to be hoped, that the whole bulk of the people will at once be divested of their habits; and, therefore, it will be rational to endeavour, not wholly to debar them from any thing in which, however absurdly, they place their happiness, but to make the attainment of it more and more difficult, that they may insensibly remit their ardour, and cease from their pursuit.