The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. Volume 11

To stop the progress of this pestilence, my lords, ought to be the governing passion of our minds; to this point ought all our aims to be directed, and for this end ought all our projects to be calculated.

But how, my lords, is this purpose promoted by a law which gives a license, an unlimited and cheap license, for the sale of that liquor, to which, even those who support the bill impute the present corruption of the people? This surely is no rational scheme of reformation, nor can it be imagined, that a favourite and inveterate vice is to be extirpated by such gentle methods.

Let us consider, my lords, more nearly the effects of this new-invented regulation, and we shall see how we may expect from them the recovery of publick virtue. A law is now to be repealed, by which the use of distilled liquors is prohibited, but which has not been for some time put in execution, or not with vigour sufficient to surmount the difficulties and inconveniencies by which its operation was obstructed. The law is, however, yet in force, and whoever sells spirits must now sell them at the hazard of prosecution and penalties, and with an implicit confidence in the kindness and fidelity of the purchaser.

It cannot be supposed, my lords, but that a law like this must have some effect. It cannot be doubted that some are honest and others timorous; and that among the wretches who are most to be suspected of this kind of debauchery, there are some in whom it is not safe to confide; they, therefore, must sometimes be hindered from destroying their reason by other restraints than want of money; and, when they are trusted with the secret of an illegal trade, must pay a dearer rate for the danger that is incurred.

But when this law is repealed, and every street and alley has a shop licensed to distribute this delicious poison, what can we expect? The most sanguine advocate for the bill cannot surely hope, that any of those who now drink spirits will refrain from them, only because they are sold without danger; and though what cannot be proved, or even hoped, should be admitted, that some must content themselves with a smaller quantity on account of the advanced price, yet while they take all opportunities of debauchery, while they spend, in this destructive liquor, all that either honest labour or daring theft will supply, they must always be examples of intemperance; such examples as, from the experience of late years, we have reason to believe will find many imitators; and therefore will promote at once the consumption of spirits, and the corruption of the people.

There is always to be found in wickedness a detestable ambition of gaining proselytes: every man who has suffered himself to be corrupted, is desirous to hide himself from infamy in crowds as vitious as himself, or desires companions in wickedness from the same natural inclination to society, which prompts almost every man to avoid singularity on other occasions.

Whatever be the reason, it may be every day observed, that the great pleasure of the vitious is to vitiate others; nor is it possible to squander an hour in the assemblies of debauchees of any rank, without observing with what importunity innocence is attacked, and how many arts of sophistry and ridicule are used to weaken the influence of virtue, and suppress the struggles of conscience.

The fatal art by which virtue is most commonly overborne is the frequent repetition of temptations, which, though often rejected, will at some unhappy moment generally prevail, and, therefore, ought to be removed; but which this bill is intended to place always in sight.

To what purpose will it be, my lords, to deprive nine hardened profligates of a tenth part of the liquor which they now drink, which is the utmost that this duty will effect? If they have an opportunity of corrupting one by their solicitation and example, the difference between nine and ten acts of debauchery is of very small importance to mankind, or even to the persons who are thus restrained, since their forbearance of the utmost excesses is only the effect of their poverty, not of their virtue.

How far is such restraint from being equivalent to the corruption of one mind, yet pure and undebauched! to the seduction of one heart from virtue, and a new addition to the interest and prevalence of wickedness! If it be necessary that the supplies should be raised for the government by the use of this pernicious liquor, it is desirable that it should be confined to few, and that it should rather be swallowed in large quantities by hopeless drunkards, than offered everywhere to the taste of innocence and youth, in licensed houses of wickedness.

The consumption will, for a time, be the same in both cases, but with this important difference, that wickedness would only be continued, not promoted; and as the poison would rid the land by degrees of the present race of profligates, it might be hoped, that our posterity would be uninfected.

But under the present scheme of regulations, my lords, vice will be propagated under the countenance of the legislature; and that kind of wickedness by which the nation is so infatuated that it has increased yearly, in opposition to a penal law, will now not only be suffered, but encouraged, and enjoy not impunity only, but protection.

Thus, if we pass the bill, we shall not even be able to boast the petty merit of leaving the nation in its present state; we shall take away the present restraints of vice, without substituting any in their place; we shall, perhaps, deprive a few hardened drunkards of a small part of the liquor which they now swallow, but shall open, according to the expectation of the noble lord, fifty thousand houses of licensed debauchery for the ruin of millions yet untainted.

To leave the nation in its present state, which is allowed on all hands to be a state of corruption, seems to be the utmost ambition of one of the noble lords, who has pleaded with the greatest warmth for this bill; for he concluded, with an air of triumph, by asking, how we can be censured for only suffering the nation to continue in its former state?

We may be, in my opinion, my lords, censured as traitors to our trust, and enemies to our country, if we permit any vice to prevail, when it is in our power to suppress it. We may be cursed, with justice, by posterity, as the abettors of that debauchery by which poverty and disease shall be entailed upon them, contemned in the present as the flatterers of those appetites which we ought to regulate, and insulted by that populace whom we dare not oppose.

Had none of our predecessors endeavoured the reformation of the people, had they contented themselves always to leave the nation as they found it, there had been long ago an end of all the order and security of society; for the natural depravity of human nature has always a tendency from less to greater evil; and the same causes which had made us thus wicked, will, if not obviated, make us worse.

Since the noble lord thinks it not necessary to attempt the reformation of the people, he might have spared the elaborate calculation by which he has proved, that a large sum wilt be gained by the government, though one third part of the consumption be prevented; for it is of very little importance to discuss the consequences of an event which will never happen. He should first have proved, that a third part of the consumption will in reality be prevented, and then he might very properly have consoled the ministry, by showing how much they would gain from the residue.

That this bill, as it now stands, will produce a large revenue to the government, but no reformation in the people, is asserted by those that oppose, and undoubtedly believed by those that defend it; but as this is not the purpose which I am most desirous of promoting, I cannot but think it my duty to agree to the proposal of the noble lord, that by postponing the consideration of the bill, more exact information may be obtained by us, and the commons may be alarmed at the danger into which the nation has been brought by their precipitation.

Lord BATH then rose again, and spoke to the following effect:—My lords, as the noble lord who has just spoken appears to have misapprehended some of my assertions, I think it necessary to rise again, that I may explain with sufficient clearness what, perhaps, I before expressed obscurely, amidst the number of different considerations that crowded my imagination.

With regard to the diminution that might be expected from this law, I did not absolutely assert, at least, I did not intend to assert, that a third part would be taken off; but only advanced that supposition as the basis of a calculation, by which I might prove what many lords appeared to doubt, that the consumption might possibly be diminished, and yet the revenue increased.

Upon this supposition, which must be allowed to be reasonable, both the purposes of the bill will be answered, and the publick supplies will be raised by the suppression of vice.

The diminution of the consumption may be greater or less than I have supposed. If it be greater, the revenue will be, indeed, less augmented; but the purposes which, in the opinion of the noble lords who oppose the bill, are more to be regarded, will be better promoted, and all their arguments against it will be, at least, defeated; nor will the ministry, I hope, regret the failure of a tax which is deficient only by the sobriety of the nation.

If the diminution be less than I have supposed, yet if there be any diminution, it cannot be said that the bill has been wholly without effect, or that the ministry have not proceeded either with more judgment or better fortune than their predecessors, or that they have not, at least, taken advantage of the errours that have been committed. It must be owned, that they have either reformed the nation, or at least pointed out the way by which the reformation that has been so long desired, may be effected.

That this tax will in some degree hinder drunkenness, it is reasonable to expect, because it can only be hindered by taxing the liquors which are used in excess; but there yet remain, concerning the weight of the tax that ought to be laid upon them, doubts which nothing but experience can, I believe, remove.

By experience, my lords, we have been already taught, that taxes may be so heavy as to be without effect; that restraint may be so violent as to produce impatience; and, therefore, it is proper in the next essay to proceed by slow degrees and gentle methods, and produce that effect imperceptibly which we find ourselves unable to accomplish at once.

I cannot therefore think, that the duty of three shillings a gallon can be imposed without defeating our own design, and compelling the people to find out some method of eluding the law like that which was practised after the act, by which in the second year of his present majesty, five shillings were imposed upon every gallon of compound waters; after which it is well known, that the distillers sold a simple spirit under the contemptuous title of senatorial brandy, and the law being universally evaded, was soon after repealed as useless.

Such, my lords, or worse, will be the consequence of the tax which the noble lord has proposed; for if it cannot be evaded, spirits will be brought from nations that have been wiser than to burden their own commodities with such insupportable impost, and the empire will soon be impoverished by the exportation of its money.

Lord HERVEY answered, in substance as follows:—My lords, I am very far from thinking the arguments of the noble lord such as can influence men desirous to promote the real and durable happiness of their country; for he is solicitous only about the prosperity of the British manufactures, and the preservation of the British trade, but has shown very little regard to British virtue.

That part of his argument is, therefore, not necessary to be answered, if the suggestion upon which it is founded were true, since it will be sufficient to compare the advantage of the two schemes. And with regard to his insinuation, that senatorial brandy may be revived by a high duty, I believe, first, that, no such evasion can be contrived, and in the next place am confident, that it may be defeated by burdening the new-invented liquor, whatever it be, if it be equally pernicious, with an equal tax. The path of our duty, my lords, is plain and easy, and only represented difficult by those who are inclined to deviate from it.

Lord BATHURST spoke next, to the effect following:—My lords, whatever measures may be practised by the people for eluding the purposes of the bill now before us, with whatever industry they may invent new kinds of senatorial brandy, or by whatever artifices they may escape the diligence of the officers employed to collect a duty levied upon their vices and their pleasures, there is, at least, no danger that they will purchase from the continent those liquors which we are endeavouring to withhold from them, or that this bill will impoverish our country by promoting a trade contrary to its interest.

What would be the consequence of the duty of three shillings a gallon, proposed by the noble lord, it is easy to judge. What, my lords, can be expected from it, but that it will either oblige or encourage the venders of spirits to procure from other places what they can no longer buy for reasonable prices at home? and that those drunkards who cannot or will not suddenly change their customs, will purchase from abroad the pleasures which we withhold from them, and the wealth of the nation be daily diminished, but the virtue little increased?

Thus, my lords, shall we at once destroy our own manufacture and promote that of our neighbours. Thus shall we enrich other governments by distressing our own, and instead of increasing sobriety, only encourage a more expensive and pernicious kind of debauchery.

In the bill now under our consideration, a middle way is proposed, by which reformation may be introduced by those gradations which have always been found necessary when inveterate vices are to be encountered. In this bill every necessary consideration appears to have been regarded, the health of the people will be preserved, and their virtue recovered, without destroying their trade or starving their manufacturers.

The efficacy of this bill seems, indeed, to be allowed by some of the lords who oppose it, since their chief objection has arisen from their doubts whether it can be executed. If a law be useless in itself, it is of no importance whether it is executed or not; and, therefore, I think it may safely be inferred, that they who are solicitous how it may be enforced, are convinced of its usefulness.

If this, my lords, be the chief objection now remaining, a little consideration will easily remove it; for it is well known, that the only obstruction of the former law was the danger of information; but this law, my lords, is so contrived, that it will promote the execution of itself; for by setting licenses at so low a price, their number will be multiplied, and every man who has taken a license will think himself justified in informing against him that shall retail spirits without a legal right.

If, therefore, there should be, as a noble lord has very reasonably supposed, fifty thousand licensed venders of these liquors, there will likewise be fifty thousand informers against unlawful traders; and as the liquors may then always be had under sanction of the law, the populace will not interest themselves in that process which can have no tendency to obstruct their pleasure.

Thus, my lords, shall we, by agreeing to this bill, make a law that will be at once useful to the government and beneficial to the people, which will be at once powerful in its effects and easy in its execution; and, therefore, instead of attending any more to the wild and impracticable schemes of heavy taxes, rigorous punishments, sudden reformations, and violent restraints, I hope we shall unanimously approve this method, from which so much may be hoped, while nothing is hazarded.

Lord CARTERET then rose up, and spoke in substance as follows:—My lords, though the noble lord who has been pleased to incite us to an unanimous concurrence with himself and his associates of the ministry, in passing this excellent and wonder-working bill, this bill, which is to lessen the consumption of spirits, without lessening the quantity which is distilled, which is to restrain drunkards from drinking, by setting their favourite liquor always before their eyes, to conquer habits by continuing them, and correct vice by indulging it, according to the lowest reckoning, for at least another year; yet, my lords, such is my obstinacy, or such my ignorance, that I cannot yet comply with his proposal, nor can prevail with myself either to concur with measures so apparently opposite to the interest of the publick, or to hear them vindicated, without declaring how little I approve them.

During the course of this long debate I have endeavoured to recapitulate and digest the arguments which have been advanced, and have considered them both separate and conjoined; but find myself at the same distance from conviction as when I entered the house; nor do I imagine, that they can much affect any man who does not voluntarily assist them by strong prejudice.

In vindication of this bill, my lords, we have been told that the present law is ineffectual; that our manufacture is not to be destroyed, or not this year; that the security offered by the present bill has induced great numbers to subscribe 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.

All these arguments, my lords, I shall endeavour to examine, because I am always desirous of gratifying those great men to whom the administration 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 your lordships upon having heard from the new ministry one assertion not to be contradicted.

It is evident, my lords, from daily observation, and demonstrable from the papers upon the table, that every year, since the enaction of the last law, that vice has increased which it was intended to repress, and that no time has been so favourable to the retailers of spirits as that which has passed since they were prohibited.

It may, therefore, be expected, my lords, that 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 effects of the best laws. The magistrates may be vitious, and forbear to enforce that law, by which themselves are condemned; 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 vitious, may be awed by them.

In any of these cases, my lords, the law is not 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 happiness of a people, if no judges of integrity and spirit can be found amongst 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.

I am, therefore, my lords, yet doubtful, whether the inefficacy of the law now subsisting necessarily obliges us to provide another; for those that declared it to be useless, owned at the same time, that no man endeavoured to enforce it; so that, perhaps, its only defect may be, that it will not execute itself.

Nor though I should allow, that the law is at present impeded by difficulties which cannot be 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 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 experience of many years, unsuccessful.