These opinions I cannot flatter myself with the hope of reconciling; but must yet observe, that the consumption of these liquors, as of all other commodities, can only be lessened by proper duties, and that every additional imposition has a tendency to lessen them; and since, so far as it extends, it can produce no ill effects, deserves the approbation of those who sincerely desire to suppress this odious vice that has so much prevailed, and been so widely diffused.
It is, indeed, possible, that the duties now proposed may be found not sufficient; but for this defect there is an easy remedy. The duty, if it be found, by the experience of a single year, to be too small, may, in the next, be easily augmented, and swelled, by annual increases, even to the height which is now proposed, if no remedy more easy can be found.
It may be objected, that this fund will be mortgaged for the payment of the sums employed in the service of the war; and that, therefore, the state of the duty cannot afterwards be altered without injustice to the publick creditors, and a manifest violation of the faith of the senate; but, my lords, though in the hurry of providing for a pressing and important war, the commons could not find any other method so easy of raising money, it cannot be doubted but that when they consider the state of the nation at leisure, they will easily redeem this tax, if it shall appear inconvenient, and substitute some other, less injurious to the happiness of the publick.
It was not impossible for them to have done this in the beginning of this session; nor can it be supposed, that men so long versed in publick affairs, could not easily have proposed many other imposts; but it may be imagined, that they chose this out of many, without suspecting that it would be opposed; and believed, that they were at once raising supplies, and protecting the virtue of the people.
Nor, indeed, my lords, does it yet appear that they have been mistaken; for though the arguments of the noble lords who oppose the bill are acute and plausible, yet since they agree that the consumption of these liquors is, at last, to be hindered by raising their price, it is reasonable to conceive, that every augmentation of the price must produce a proportionate diminution of the consumption; and that, therefore, this duty will contribute, in some degree, to the reformation of the people. It seems, at least, in the highest degree probable, that it cannot increase the evil which it is intended to remedy; and that, therefore, we may reasonably concur in it, as it will furnish the government with supplies, without any inconvenience to those that pay them.
The bishop of OXFORD next spoke to this effect:—My lords, this subject has already been so acutely considered, and so copiously discussed, that I rise up in despair of proposing any thing new, of explaining any argument more clearly, or urging it more forcibly, of starting any other subject of consideration, or pointing out any circumstance yet untouched in those that have been proposed.
Yet, my lords, though I cannot hope to add any thing to the knowledge which your lordships have already obtained of the subject in debate, I think it my duty to add one voice to the truth, and to declare, that in the balance of my understanding, the arguments against the bill very much outweigh those that have been offered in its favour.
It is always presumed by those who vindicate it, that every augmentation of the price will necessarily produce a proportionate decrease of the consumption. This, my lords, is the chief, if not the only argument that has been advanced, except that which is drawn from the necessity of raising supplies, and the danger of disgusting the other house. But this argument, my lords, is evidently fallacious; and therefore the bill, if it passes, must pass without a single reason, except immediate convenience.
Let us examine, my lords, this potent argument, which has been successively urged by all who have endeavoured to vindicate the bill, and echoed from one to another with all the confidence of irrefragability; let us consider on what suppositions it is founded, and we shall soon find how easily it will be dissipated.
It is supposed, by this argument, that every drinker of these liquors spends as much as he can possibly procure; and that therefore the least additional price must place part of his pleasure beyond his reach. This, my lords, cannot be generally true; it is perhaps generally, if not universally false. It cannot be doubted, but that many of those who corrupt their minds and bodies with these pernicious draughts, are above the necessity of constraining their appetites to escape so small an expense as that which is now to be imposed upon them; and even of those whose poverty can sink no lower, who are in reality exhausted by every day's debauch, it is at least as likely that they will insist upon more pay for their work, or that they will steal with more rapacity, as that they will suffer themselves to be debarred from the pleasures of drunkenness.