SPEECH OF LORD CHESTERFIELD ON THE GIN ACT, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF LORD 3, FEBRUARY 21, 1743. THE bill now under our consideration appears | not be in a very great degree promoted by it. to me to deserve a much closer regard than For what produces all kind of wickedness but seems to have been paid to it in the other House, the prospect of impunity on one part, or the sothrough which it was hurried with the utmost licitation of opportunity on the other? Either precipitation, and where it passed almost with- of these have too frequently been sufficient to out the formality of a debate. Nor can I think overpower the sense of morality, and even of that earnestness with which some lords seem in- religion; and what is not to be feared from them, clined to press it forward here, consistent with when they shall unite their force, and operate the importance of the consequences which may together, when temptations shall be increased, with great reason be expected from it. and terror taken away? To desire, my Lords, that this bill may be considered in a committee, is only to desire that it may gain one step without opposition; that it may proceed through the forms of the House by stealth, and that the consideration of it may be delayed, till the exigences of the government shall be so great as not to allow time for raising the supplies by any other method. By this artifice, gross as it is, the patrons of this wonderful bill hope to obstruct a plain and open detection of its tendency. They hope, my Lords, that the bill shall operate in the same manner with the liquor which it is intended to bring into more general use; and that, as those who drink spirits are drunk before they are well aware that they are drinking, the effects of this law shall be perceived before we know that we have made it. Their intent is, to give us a dram of policy, which is to be swallowed before it is tasted, and which, when once it is swallowed, will turn our heads. But, my Lords, I hope we shall be so cautious as to examine the draught which these state empirics have thought proper to offer us; and I am confident that a very little examination will convince us of the pernicious qualities of their new preparation, and show that it can have no other effect than that of poisoning the public. The law before us, my Lords, seems to be the effect of that practice of which it is intended likewise to be the cause, and to be dictated by the liquor of which it so effectually promotes the use; for surely it never before was conceived, by any man intrusted with the administration of public affairs, to raise taxes by the destruction of the people. It is allowed, by those who have hitherto disputed on either side of this question, that the people appear obstinately enamored of this new liquor. It is allowed on both parts that this liquor corrupts the mind and enervates the body, and destroys vigor and virtue, at the same time that it makes those who drink it too idle and feeble for work; and, while it impoverishes them by the present expense, disables them from retrieving its ill consequences by subsequent industry. It might be imagined, my Lords, that those who had thus far agreed would not easily find any occasions of dispute. Nor would any man, unacquainted with the motives by which parliamentary debates are too often influenced, suspect that after the pernicious qualities of this liquor, and the general inclination among the people to the immoderate use of it, had been thus fully admitted, it could be afterward inquired whether it ought to be made more common; whether this universal thirst for poison ought to be encouraged by the Legislature, and whether a new statute ought to be made, to se cure drunkards in the gratification of their appetites. To pretend, my Lords, that the design of this bill is to prevent or diminish the use of spirits, is to trample upon common sense, and to violate the rules of decency as well as of reason. For when did any man hear that a commodity was prohibited by licensing its sale, or that to offer and refuse is the same action ? It is indeed pleaded that it will be made dearer by the tax which is proposed, and that the increase of the price will diminish the numNothing, my Lords, but the destruction of all ber of the purchasers; but it is at the same time the most laborious and useful part of the nation expected that this tax shall supply the expense can be expected from the license which is now of a war on the Continent. It is asserted, thereproposed to be given, not only to drunkenness, fore, that the consumption of spirits will be hinbut to drunkenness of the most detestable and dered; and yet that it will be such as may be exdangerous kind; to the abuse not only of intox-pected to furnish, from a very small tax, a revicating, but of poisonous liquors. Nothing, my Lords, is more absurd than to assert that the use of spirits will be hindered by the bill now before us, or indeed that it will enue sufficient for the support of armies, for the re-establishment of the Austrian family, and the repressing of the attempts of France. Surely, my Lords, these expectations are no very cousistent; nor can it be imagined that they are both formed in the same head, though they may be expressed by the same mouth. It is, however, some recommendation of a statesman, when, of his assertions, one can be found reasonable or true; and in this, praise can not be denied to our present ministers. For though it is undoubtedly false that this tax will lessen the consumption of spirits, it is certainly true that 1 will produce a very large revenue-a revenue that will not fail but with the people from whose debaucheries it arises. Our ministers will therefore have the same honor with their predecessors, of having given rise to a new fund; not indeed for the payment of our debts, but for much more valuable purposes; for the cheering of our hearts under oppression, and for the ready support of those debts which we have lost all hopes of paying. They are resolved, my Lords, that the nation which no endeavors can make wise, shall, while they are at its head, at least be very merry; and, since publie happiness is the end of government, they seem to imagine that they shall deserve applause by an expedient which will enable every man to lay his cares asleep, to drown sorrow, and lose in the delights of drunkenness both the public miseries and his own. can purchase nothing else; and then the best thing he can do is to drink on till he dies. : Surely, my Lords, men of such unbounded benevolence as our present ministers deserve such honors as were never paid before they deserve to bestride a butt upon every sign-post in the city, or to have their figures exhibited as tokens where this liquor is to be sold by the license which they have procured. They must be at least remembered to future ages as the "happy politicians" who, after all expedients for raising taxes had been employed, discovered a new method of draining the last relics of the public wealth, and added a new revenue to the government. Nor will those who shall hereafter enumerate the several funds now established among us, forget, among the benefactors to their country, the illustrious authors of the Drinking Fund. May I be allowed, my Lords, to congratulate my countrymen and fellow-subjects upon the happy times which are now approaching, in which no man will be disqualified from the privilege of being drunk; when all discontent and isloyalty shall be forgotten, and the people, though now considered by the ministry as enemies, shall acknowledge the leniency of that government under which all restraints are taken away? But, to a bill for such desirable purposes, it would be proper, my Lords, to prefix a preamble, in which the kindness of our intentions should be more fully explained, that the nation may not mistake our indulgence for cruelty, nor consider their benefactors as their persecutors. If, therefore, this bill be considered and amend Luxury, my Lords, is to be taxed, but vice prohibited, let the difficulties in executing the law be what they will. Would you lay a tax on the breach of the ten commandments? Would not such a tax be wicked and scandalous; because it would imply an indulgence to all those who could pay the tax? Is not this a reproach most justly thrown by Protestants upon the Churched (for why else should it be considered?) in a of Rome? Was it not the chief cause of the Ref- committee, I shall humbly propose that it shall ormation? And will you follow a precedent be introduced in this manner: "Whereas, the which brought reproach and ruin upon those that designs of the present ministry, whatever they introduced it? This is the very case now before are, can not be executed without a great numus. You are going to lay a tax, and consequent- ber of mercenaries, which mercenaries can not ly to indulge a sort of drunkenness, which almost be hired without money; and whereas the presnecessarily produces a breach of every one of the ent disposition of this nation to drunkenness inten commandments? Can you expect the rev-clines us to believe that they will pay more erend bench will approve of this? I am convinced they will not; and therefore I wish I had seen it full upon this occasion. I am sure I have seen it much fuller upon other occasions, in which religion had no such deep concern. cheerfully for the undisturbed enjoyment of distilled liquors than for any other concession that can be made by the government; be it enacted, by the King's most excellent Majesty, that no man shall hereafter be denied the right of being drunk on the following conditions." We have already, my Lords, several sorts of funds in this nation, so many that a man must This, my Lords, to trifle no longer, is the have a good deal of learning to be master of them. proper preamble to this bill, which contains only Thanks to his Majesty, we have now among us the conditions on which the people of this kingthe most learned man of the nation in this way. dom are to be allowed henceforward to riot in I wish he would rise up and tell us what name debauchery, in debauchery licensed by law and we are to give this new fund. We have already countenanced by the magistrates. For there is the Civil List Fund, the Sinking Fund, the Aggre- no doubt but those on whom the inventors of gate Fund, the South Sea Fund, and God knows this tax shall confer authority, will be directed how many others. What name we are to give to assist their masters in their design to encourthis new fund I know not, unless we are to call age the consumption of that liquor from which at the Drinking Fund. It may perhaps enable such large revenues are expected, and to multithe people of a certain foreign territory [Hano-ply without end those licenses which are to pay ver] to drink claret, but it will disable the peo- a yearly tribute to the Crown. ple of this kingdom from drinking any thing else but gin; for when a man has, by gin drinking, rendered himself unfit for labor or business, he By this unbounded license, my Lords, that price will be lessened, from the increase of which the expectations of the efficacy of this It is evident, my Lords, from daily observa. tion, and demonstrable from the papers upon the table, that every year, since the enacting of the last law, that vice has increased which it was intended to repress, and that no time has been so favorable to the retailers of spirits as that which has passed since they were prohibite J. law are pretended; for the number of retailers | your Lordships upon having heard from the new will lessen the value, as in all other cases, and ministry one assertion not to be contradicted. lessen it more than this tax will increase it. Besides, it is to be considered, that at present the retailer expects to be paid for the danger which he incurs by an unlawful trade, and will not trust his reputation or his purse to the merey of his customer without a profit proportioned to the hazard; but, when once the restraint shall be taken away, he will sell for common gain, and it can hardly be imagined that, at present, he subjects himself to informations and penalties for less than sixpence a gallon. The specious pretense on which this bill is founded, and, indeed, the only pretense that deserves to be termed specious, is the propriety of taxing vice; but this maxim of government has, on this occasion, been either mistaken or perverted. Vice, my Lords, is not properly to be taxed, but suppressed; and heavy taxes are sometimes the only means by which that suppression can be attained. Luxury, my Lords, or the excess of that which is pernicious only by its excess, may very properly be taxed, that such excess, though not strictly unlawful, may be made more difficult. But the use of those things which are simply hurtful, hurtful in their own nature, and in every degree, is to be prohibited. None, my Lords, ever heard, in any nation, of a tax upon theft or adultery, because a tax implies a license granted for the use of that which is taxed to all who shall be willing to pay it. It may therefore be expected, my Lords, ha having agreed with the ministers in their fundamental proposition, I shall concur with them in the consequence which they draw from it; and having allowed that the present law is ineffectual, should admit that another is necessary. But, my Lords, in order to discover whether this consequence be necessary, it must first be inquired why the present law is of no force. For, my Lords, it will be found, upon reflection, that there are certain degrees of corruption that may hinder the effect of the best laws. The magistrates may be vicious, and forbear to enforce that law by which themselves are con demned; they may be indolent, and inclined rather to connive at wickedness, by which they are not injured themselves, than to repress it by a laborious exertion of their authority; or they may be timorous, and, instead of awing the vi cious, may be awed by them. In any of these cases, my Lords, the law is n>. to be condemned for its inefficacy, since it only fails by the defect of those who are to direct its operations. The best and most important laws will contribute very little to the security or hap During the course of this long debate, I have endeavored to recapitulate and digest the argu-piness of a people, if no judges of integrity and ments which have been advanced, and have considered them both separately and conjointly; but find myself at the same distance from conviction as when I first entered the House. spirit can be found among them. Even the most beneficial and useful bill that ministers can possibly imagine, a bill for laying on our estates a tax of the fifth part of their yearly value, would be wholly without effect if collectors could not be obtained. In vindication of this bill, my Lords, we have been told that the present law is ineffectual; nat our manufacture is not to be destroyed, or I am therefore, my Lords, yet doubtful whethnot this year; that the security offered by the er the inefficacy of the law now subsisting necpresent bill has induced great numbers to sub-essarily obliges us to provide another; for those scribe to the new fund; that it has been approved by the Commons; and that, if it be found ineffectual, it may be amended another session. that declared it to be useless, owned, at the same time, that no man endeavored to enforce it, so that perhaps its only defect may be that it will not execute itself. All these arguments, my Lords, I shall en- Nor, though I should allow that the law is a. deavor to examine, because I am always desir-present impeded by difficulties which can not be ous of gratifying those great men to whom the dministration of affairs is intrusted, and have always very cautiously avoided the odium of disaffection, which they will undoubtedly throw, in imitation of their predecessors, upon all those whose wayward consciences shall oblige them to hinder the execution of their schemes. With a very strong desire, therefore, though with no great hopes, of finding them in the right, I venture to begin my inquiry, and engage in the examination of their first assertion, that the present law against the abuse of strong liquors is without effect. I hope, my Lords, it portends well to my inquiry that the first position which I have to examine is true; nor can I forbear to congratulate broken through, but by men of more spirit and dignity than the ministers may be inclined to trust with commissions of the peace, yet it can only be collected that another law is necessary, not that the law now proposed will be of any advantage. Great use has been made of the inefficacy of the present law to decry the proposal made by the noble Lord [a member of the Opposition] for laying a high duty upon these pernicious liquors. High duties have already, as we are informed, been tried without advantage. High duties are at this hour imposed upon those spirits which are retailed, yet we see them every day sold in the streets without the payment of the tax required, and therefore it will be folly to make a second essay of means, which have been found, by the essay of many years, unsuccessful. It has been granted on all sides in this debate, nor was it ever denied on any other occasion, that the consumption of any commodity is most easily hindered by raising its price, and its price s to be raised by the imposition of a duty. This, my Lords, which is, I suppose, the opinion of every man, of whatever degree of experience or understanding, appears likewise to have been thought of by the authors of the present law; and therefore they imagined that they had effectually provided against the increase of drunkenness, by laying upon that liquor which should be retailed in small quantities, a duty which none of the inferior classes of drunkards would be able to pay. destroy, or very much impair, the trade of distilling, is certainly supposed by those who defend it, for they proposed it only for that end: and what better method can they propose, when they are called to deliberate upon a bill for the prevention of the excessive use of distilled liquors? The noble Lord has been pleased kindly to inform us that the trade of distilling is very extensive; that it employs great numbers; and that they have arrived at an exquisite skill, and therefore-note well the consequence-the trade of distilling is not to be discouraged. Once more, my Lords, allow me to wonder at the different conceptions of different understandings. It appears to me that since the spirits which the distillers produce are allowed to enThus, my Lords, they conceived that they had feeble the limbs and vitiate the blood, to pervert reformed the common people without infringing the heart and obscure the intellects, that the the pleasures of others; and applauded the hap-number of distillers should be no argument in py contrivance by which spirits were to be made dear only to the poor, while every man who could afford to purchase two gallons was at liberty to riot at his ease, and, over a full flowing bumper, look down with contempt upon his former companions, now ruthlessly condemned to disconsolate sobriety. But, my Lords, this intention was frustrated, and the project, ingenious as it was, fell to the ground; for, though they had laid a tax, they unhappily forgot this tax would make no addition to the price unless it was paid, and that it would not be paid unless some were empowered to collect it. Here, my Lords, was the difficulty: those who made the law were inclined to lay a tax from which themselves should be exempt, and therefore would not charge the liquor as it issued from the still; and when once it was dispersed in the hands of petty dealers, it was no longer to be found without the assistance of informers, and informers could not carry on the business of prosecution without the consent of the people. their favor; for I never heard that a law against theft was repealed or delayed because thieves were numerous. It appears to me, my Lords, that if so formidable a body are confederated against the virtue or the lives of their fellow-cit. izens, it is time to put an end to the havoc, and to interpose, while it is yet in our power to stop the destruction. So little, my lords, am I affected with the merit of the wonderful skill which the distillers are said to have attained, that it is, in my opin ion, no faculty of great use to mankind to pre. pare palatable poison; nor shall I ever contribute my interest for the reprieve of a murderer, because he has, by long practice, obtained great dexterity in his trade. If their liquors are so delicious that the people are tempted to their own destruction, let us at length, my Lords, secure them from these fatal draughts, by bursting the vials that contain them. Let us crush at once these artists in slaughter, who have reconciled their countrymen to sickness and to ruin, and spread over the pitfalls of debauchery such baits as can not be resisted. The noble Lord has, indeed, admitted that this It is not necessary to dwell any longer upon the law, the repeal of which is proposed, since it appears already that it failed only from a partiality not easily defended, and from the omis-bill may not be found sufficiently coercive, but sion of what we now propose—the collecting the duty from the still-head. gives us hopes that it may be improved and enforced another year, and persuades us to endeavor a reformation of drunkenness by degrees, and, above all, to beware at present of hurting the manufacture. If this method be followed, there will be no longer any need of informations or of any rigorous or new measures; the same officers that collect a smaller duty may levy a greater; nor I am very far, my Lords, from thinking that can they be easily deceived with regard to the there are, this year, any peculiar reasons for tolquantities that are made; the deceits, at least, erating murder; nor can I conceive why the that can be used, are in use already; they are manufacture should be held sacred now, if it be frequently detected and suppressed; nor will a to be destroyed hereafter. We are, indeed, delarger duty enable the distillers to elude the vig-sired to try how far this law will operate, that Lance of the officers with more success. Against this proposal, therefore, the inefficacy of the present law can be no objection. But it is urged that such duties would destroy the trade of distilling; and a noble Lord has been pleased to express great tenderness for a manufacture so beneficial and extensive. That a large duty, levied at the still, would we may be more able to proceed with due regard to this valuable manufacture. With regard to the operation of the law, it appears to me that it will only enrich the government without reforming the people; and I believe there are not many of a different opinion. If any diminution of the sale of spirits le expect. ed from it, it is to be considered that this dim D nution will, or will not, be such as is desired for the reformation of the people. If it be sufficient, the manufacture is at an end, and all the reasons against a higher duty are of equal force against .his; but if it is not sufficient, we have, at least, omitted part of our duty, and have neglected the health and virtue of the people. this fund is mortgaged to the public creditors, they can prevail upon the Commons to change the security. They may continue the bill in force for the reasons, whatever they are, for which they have passed it; and the good intentions of our ministers, however sincere, may be defeated, and drunkenness, legal drunkenness, estab lished in the nation. I can not, my Lords, yet discover why a reprieve is desired for this manufacture-why the This, my Lords, is very reasonable, and theropresent year is not equally propitious to the ref-fore we ought to exert ourselves for the safety of ormation of mankind as any will be that may suc- the nation while the power is yet in our own ceed it. It is true we are at war with two na- hands, and, without regard to the opinion or protions, and perhaps with more; but war may be ceedings of the other House, show that we are better prosecuted without money than without yet the chief guardians of the people. men. And we but little consult the military glory of our country if we raise supplies for paying our armies by the destruction of those armies that we are contriving to pay. We have heard the necessity of reforming the nation by degrees urged as an argument for imposing first a lighter duty, and afterward a heavier. This complaisance for wickedness, my Lords, is not so defensibie as that it should be battered by arguments in form, and therefore I shall only relate a reply made by Webb, the noted walker, upon a parallel occasion. This man, who must be remembered by many of your Lordships, was remarkable for vigor, both of mind and body, and lived wholly upon water for his drink, and chiefly upon vegetables for his other sustenance. He was one day recommending his regimen to one of his friends who loved wine, and who perhaps might somewhat contribute to the prosperity of this spirituous manufacture, and urged him, with great earnestness, to quit a course of luxury by which his health and his intellects would equally be destroyed. The gentleman appeared convinced, and told him "that he would conform to his counsel, and thought he could not change his course of life at once, but would leave off strong liquors by degrees." By degrees!" says the other, with indignation. "If you should unhappily fall into the fire, would you caution your servants not to pull you out but by degrees ?" This answer, my Lords, is applicable to the present case. The nation is sunk into the lowest state of corruption; the people are not only vicious, but insolent beyond example. They not only break the laws, but defy them; and yet some of your Lordships are for reforming them by degrees! I am not so easily persuaded, my Lords, that our ministers really intend to supply the defects that may hereafter be discovered in this bill. It will doubtless produce money, perhaps much more than they appear to expect from it. I doubt not but the licensed retailers will be more than fifty thousand, and the quantity retailed must increase with the number of retailers. As the bill will, therefore, answer all the ends intended by it, I do not expect to see it altered; for I have never observed ministers desirous of amending their own errors, unless they are such as have caused a deficiency in the revenue. Besides my Lords, it is not certain that, when The ready compliance of the Commons with the measures proposed in this bill has been mentioned here, with a view, I suppose, of influencing us, but surely by those who had forgotten our independence, or resigned their own. It is not only the right, but the duty of either House, to deliberate, without regard to the determinations of the other; for how should the nation receive any benefit from the distinct powers that compose the Legislature, unless the determinations are without influence upon each other? If either the example or authority of the Commons can divert us from following our own convictions, we are no longer part of the Legislature; we have given up our honors and our privileges, and what then is our concurrence but slavery, or our suffrage but an echo? The only argument, therefore, that now re mains, is the expediency of gratifying those, by whose ready subscription the exigencies our new statesmen have brought upon us have been sup ported, and of continuing the security by which they have been encouraged to such liberal con.. tributions. Public credit, my Lords, is indeed of very great importance; but public credit can never be long supported without public virtue; nor in deed, if the government could mortgage the morals and health of the people, would it be just and rational to confirm the bargain. If the ministry can raise money only by the destruction of their fellow-subjects, they ought to abandon those schemes for which the money is necessary; for what calamity can be equal to unbounded wickedness? But, my Lords, there is no necessity for a choice which may cost our ministers so much regret; for the same subscriptions may be procured by an offer of the same advantages to a fund of any other kind, and the sinking fund will easily supply any deficiency that might be suspected in another scheme. To confess the truth, I should feel very little pain from an account that the nation was for some time determined to be less liberal of their contributions; and that money was withheld till it was known in what expeditions it was to be employed, to what princes subsidies were to be paid, and what advantages were to be purchased by it for our country. I should rejoice, my Lords, to hear that the lottery by which the deficiencios of this duty are to be supplied was not filled |