into danger, this motion, which condemns without hearing and decides without examining, I cannot but reject, and hope your lordships will concur with

me*.

This nervous fpeech was occafioned by one of the earl of Abingdon in fupport of the motion, which he grounded on the evidence of common fame. The drift of lord Hardwicke's fpeech is to invalidate that kind of teftimony, and in this he difplays the talents of a sound lawyer and an eloqnent orator; but the private virtues of Sir Robert Walpole were fuch, that few of his enemies wished for a greater punishment on him than the divesting him of power, and accordingly the motion contained no fpecific charge of crimes that called for public justice it tended to fhew that the minister had been inattentive to the complaints of the merchants, averse to the profecution of the war, and unskilful in the conduct of it, and that the councils of the nation had not profpered under his influence, and that these facts were notorious: thefe were furely reafons for his removal, and fuperfeded the neceffity of legal forms, and that kind of evidence which is required to support a bill of attainder or an impeachment, Lord Hardwicke's argument may therefore feem fallacious, but it was admirably calculated to elude the charge; he wilfully mistook the defign of the motion, and fet himfelf to invalidate the kind of evidence on which it was grounded, and to fhew its infufficiency to fupport a legal profecution, and fucceeding therein, his opponents thought their arguments refuted when in truth they

were not.

The fpeech of Lord Chesterfield on a different fubject, and against a measure of a fucceeding, and, as it was pretended, a purer administration, is as follows,

* Gent. Mag. 1741, page 403.

My

< My Lords,

The bill now under our confideration appears to me to deferve a much closer regard than feems to have been paid to it in the other houfe, through which it was hurried with the utmoft precipitation, and where it paffed almoft without the formality of a debate; nor can I think that earneftnefs with which fome lords feem inclined to prefs it forward here, 'confiftent with the importance of the confequences which may be, with great reafon, expected from it.

It has been urged that where fo great a number have formed expectations of a national benefit from any bill, fo much deference at leaft is due to their judgment, as that the bill fhould be confidered in at 'committee. This, my lords, I admit to be, in other cafes, a juft and reafonable demand, and will readily allow that the propofal, not only of a confiderable ' number, but even of any fingle lord, ought to be fully 'examined and regularly debated, according to the ufual forms of this affembly. But in the prefent cafe, my lords, and in all cafes like the prefent, the demand is improper because it is ufelefs, and it is ufelefs because we can do now all that we can do here' after in a committee. For the biil before us is a "money bill, which, according to the prefent opinion. of the clinabs, we have no right to amend, and which therefore we have no need of confidering in a committee, fince the event of our deliberations must be, that we are either to reject or pafs it in its prefent • ftate; for I fuppofe no lord will think this a proper time to enter into a controverfy with the clinabs for 'the revival of thofe privileges to which, I believe, we have a right, and fuch a controverfy, the least attempt to amend a money-bill will certainly produce.

'To

* Commons.

To defire, therefore, my lords, that this bill may ⚫ be confidered in a committee, is only to defire that it may gain one step without oppofition, that it may ' proceed through the forms of the house by stealth, and that the confideration of it may be delayed till 'the exigencies of the government fhall be fo great, 6 as not to allow time for raising the supplies by any ' other method.

By this artifice, grofs as it is, the patrons of this wonderful bill hope to obftruct a plain and open de⚫tection of its tendency. They hope, my lords, that the bill fhall operate in the fame manner with the " liquor which it is intended to bring into more general ufe; and that as thofe that drink spirits are drunk · before they are well aware that they are drinking, the effects of this law fhall 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 tafted, and which, when once it is fwallowed, ‹ will turn our heads.

⚫ But, my lords, I hope we shall be fo 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 fhew ⚫ that it can have no other effect than that of poisoning • the public.

• The law before us, my lords, feems to be the effect of that practice of which it is intended likewise to be the caufe, and to be dictated by the liquor of which it fo effectually promotes the use, for furely it never before was conceived by any man intrusted with the administration of public affairs, to raise taxes by the • destruction of the people.

Nothing, my lords, but the deftruction of all the most laborious and useful part of the nation, can be • expected

expected from the license which is now proposed to be given, not only to drunkenness, but to drunkennefs of the most deteftable and dangerous kind, to the abuse not only of intoxicating but of poifono us ⚫ liquors.

Nothing, my lords, is more abfurd than to affert, that the use of fpirits will be hindered by the bill now before us, or indeed that it will not be in a very

⚫ great degree promoted by it. For what produces all kind of wickednefs but the profpect of impunity on one part, or the folicitation of opportunity on the other? Either of these have too frequently been fuffi'cient to overpower the fenfe of morality, and even • of religion, and what is not to be feared from them • when they fhall unite their force, and operate together, when temptations fhall be increased and terror taken away?

It is allowed by thofe who have hitherto difputed ' on either fide of this question, that the people appear • obftinately enamoured of this new liquor: it is allow

ed, on both parts, that this liquor corrupts the mind ⚫ and enervates the body, and deftroys vigour and virtue, at the fame time that it makes those who drink it too idle and too feeble for work, and while it in. ⚫ poverishes them by the present expence, difables them 'from retrieving its ill confequences by subsequent ⚫ industry.

• It might be imagined, my lords, that those who had thus far agreed, would not easily find any occafion ' of dispute, nor would any man, unacquainted with the motives by which senatorial debates are too often influenced, fufpect, that after the pernicious qualities of this liquor, and the general inclination among the people to the immoderate use of it had been generally admitted, it could be afterwards enquired, whether it ought to be made more common, whether this • univerfal

univerfal thirst for poifon ought to be encouraged by the legiflature, and whether a new ftatute ought to be made to fecure drunkards in the gratification of • their appetites.

To pretend, my lords, that the defign of this billis to prevent or dimish the use of spirits, is to trample ' upon common fenfe, and to violate the rules of de-· cency as well as of reafon. For when did any man • hear that a commodity was prohibited by licenfing its fale, or that to offer and refufe is the fame action.

It is indeed pleaded that it will be made dearer by the tax which is propofed, and that the increase of the price will diminish the numbers of the purchafers, • but it is at the fame time expected, that this tax shall fupply the expence of a 'war on the Continent. It is afferted therefore, that the confumption of fpirits will be hindered, and yet, that it will be fuch as may be • expected to furnish, from a very small tax, a revenue fufficient for the fupport of armies, for the re-establifhment of the Auriftan family, and the repreffion of the attempts of Blefufcu +.

Surely, my lords, thefe expectations are not very 'confiftent, nor can it be imagined that they are both formed in the fame head, though they may be ex

preffed by the fame mouth. It is, however, fome • recommendation of a ftatefman, when, of his affer⚫tions, one can be found reasonable or true, and in this, praife cannot be denied to our present minifters; for though it is undoubtedly falfe that this tax will leffen the confumption of spirits, it is certainly true that it will produce a very large revenue, a revenue that will not fail but with the people from whose • debaucheries it arifes.

• Our

† Auftrian,,

France.