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.
The act which is now to be repealed, was, indeed, of a very different nature, though perhaps not free from very just objections. It had this advantage at least, that so far as it was put in execution, it obstructed drunkenness; nor has the examination of the officers of excise discovered any imperfection in the law; for it has only failed, because it was timorously or negligently executed. Why it was not vigorously and diligently enforced, I have never yet been able to discover. If the magistrates were threatened by the populace, the necessity of such laws was more plainly proved; for what justifies the severity of coercion but the prevalence of the crime? and what may not be feared from crowds intoxicated with spirits, whose insolence and fury is already such, that they dare to threaten the government by which they are debarred from the use of them?
This, my lords, is a reflection that ought not to be passed slightly over. The nature of our constitution, happy as it is, must be acknowledged to produce this inconvenience, that it inclines the common people to turbulence and sedition; the nature of spirituous liquors is such, that they inflame these dispositions, already too much predominant; and yet the turbulence of the people is made a reason for licensing drunkenness, and allowing, without limitation, the sale of those spirits by which that turbulence must be certainly increased.
It may be, perhaps, urged, (for indeed I know not what else can be decently alleged,) that there is a necessity of raising money, that no other method can be invented, and that, therefore, this ought not to be opposed.
I know, my lords, that ministers generally consider, as the test of each man's loyalty, the readiness with which he concurs with them in their schemes for raising money; and that they think all opposition to these schemes, which are calculated for the support of the government, the effect of a criminal disaffection; that they always think it a sufficient vindication of any law, that it will bring in very large sums; and that they think no measures pernicious, nor laws dangerous, by which the revenue is not impaired.
If government was instituted only to raise money, these ministerial schemes of policy would be without exception; nor could it be denied, that the present ministers show themselves, by this expedient, uncommon masters of their profession. But the end of government is only to promote virtue, of which happiness is the consequence; and, therefore, to support government by propagating vice, is to support it by means which destroy the end for which it was originally established, and for which its continuance is to be desired.