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CHESTERFIELD

PHILIP

DORMER STANHOPE, fourth Earl of Chesterfield, an accomplished courtier, diplomatist, and scholar, was born in London, September 22, 1694. He was the son of the third Earl of Chesterfield, and after studying at Trinity Hall, Cambridge University, made a tour of the Continent in 1714, and, having the ambition to become an orator, entered Parliament the next year as member for Saint Germains. He succeeded to the earldom in 1726 and thenceforward sat in the House of Lords, where he soon became known as an able and eloquent debater. Between 1734 and 1741 he actively opposed the public measures of Sir Robert Walpole's administration, and some of his speeches during this period won the hearty admiration of even his opponents. He was given the post of lord lieutenant of Ireland in 1745, and of secretary of state in 1746, but in 1748, owing to increasing deafness and ill health, resigned his secretaryship, and for the rest of his life manifested very little interest in political affairs. Henceforward he devoted himself to pleasure, the patronage of literature, and the training of his son Philip, with whom he began his famous correspondence in 1737, when the boy was but five years old, which continued until the son's death in 1760. These "Letters Written by the Earl of Chesterfield to His Son," which were published in 1774 by his son's widow, have been greatly admired for their literary style, but they have been criticised for their immorality. After his son's death Chesterfield adopted a distant cousin as his grandson and heir, and for a period of ten years addressed to him a series of letters similar in character to the earlier correspondence. These were printed entire in 1890 as "Chesterfield's Letters to His GodHis letters have always been widely read and upon them rests his literary reputation. He died in London, March 24, 1773. He was a successful diplomat, and his ability as a statesman was shown to great advantage In a firm yet popular administration of affairs during a critical period in Irish history.

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ON LICENSING GIN-SHOPS

[This speech, which was delivered in the House of Lords, February 21, 1743, relates to a bill for granting licenses to gin-shops, by which the ministry hoped to realize a very large annual income.]

T

HE bill now under our consideration appears to me to deserve a much closer regard than seems to have been paid to it in the other House, through which it was hurried with the utmost precipitation, and where it passed almost without the formality of a debate. Nor can I think

that earnestness with which some lords seem inclined to press it forward here consistent with the importance of the consequences which may with great reason be expected from it.

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 exigencies 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 entrusted with the administration of public affairs, to raise taxes by the destruction of the people.

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