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LORD CHESTERFIELD.

PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE, fourth Earl of Chesterfield, was born in 1694. He was equally distinguished for his love of polite literature, the grace of his manners. the pungency of his wit, and the elegance of his literary productions. In later times he has been most known by his Letters to his Son. These, though admirable models of the epistolary style, are disfigured by a profligacy of sentiment which has east a just odium on his character; while the stress they lay upon mere accomplishments has created a very natural suspicion, among those who have seen him only in that correspondence, as to the strength and soundness of his judgment. He was unquestionably, however, a man of great acuteness and force of intellect. As an orator, Horace Walpole gave him the preference over all the speakers of his day. This may have arisen, in part, from the peculiar dexterity with which he could play with a subject that he did not choose to discuss-a kind of talent which Walpole would be very apt to appreciate. It often happens that weak and foolish measures can be exposed more effectually by wit than by reasoning. In this kind of attack Lord Chesterfield had uncommon power. His fancy supplied him with a wide range of materials, which he brought forward with great ingenuity, presenting a succession of unexpected combinations, that flashed upon the mind with all the liveliness and force of the keenest wit or the most poignant satire. The speech which follows is a specimen of his talent for this kind of speaking. "It will be read with avidity by those who relish the sprightly sallies of genius, or who are emulous of a style of eloquence which, though it may not always convince, will never fail to delight."

The speech relates to a bill for granting licenses to gin-shops, by which the min istry hoped to realize a very large annual income. This income they proposed to employ in carrying on the German war of George II., which arose out of his exclu sive care for his Electorate of Hanover, and was generally odious throughout Great Britain. Lord Chesterfield made two speeches on this subject, which are here given together, with the omission of a few unimportant paragraphs. It has been hastily inferred, from a conversation reported by Boswell, that these speeches, as here given, were written by Johnson. Subsequent inquiry, however, seems to prove that this was not the fact; but, on the contrary, that Lord Chesterfield prepared them for publication himself.

Lord Chesterfield filled many offices of the highest importance under the reign of George II. In 1728 he was appointed embassador to Holland; and, by his adroit ness and diplomatic skill, succeeded in delivering Hanover from the calamities of war which hung over it. As a reward for his services, he was made Knight of the Garter and Lord Steward of the Royal Household. At a later period he was ap pointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. This difficult office he discharged with great dexterity and self-command, holding in check the various factions of that country with consummate skill. On his return to England in 1746, he was called to the office of Secretary of State; but, having become wearied of public employments, he soon resigned, and devoted the remainder of his life to the pursuits of literature and the society of his friends. He now carried on the publication of a series of papers in imitation of the Spectator, entitled the World, in which some of the best specimens may be found of his light, animated, and easy style of writing. Toward the close of his life he became deaf, and suffered from numerous bodily infirmities, which filled his latter days with gloom and despondency. He bore the most emphatic testimony to the folly and disappointment of the course he had led, and died in 1773, at the age of seventy-nine.

SPEECH

OF LORD CHESTERFIELD ON THE GIN ACT, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF LORD3, 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 tc 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.

Nothing, my Lords, but the destruction of all the most laborious and useful part of the nation can be expected from the license which is now proposed to be given, not only to drunkenness, but to drunkenness of the most detestable and dangerous kind; to the abuse not only of intoxteating, 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

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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 indus try.

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, sus. pect 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 in quired whether it ought to be made more com. mon; whether this universal thirst for poison ought to be encouraged by the Legislature, and whether a new statute ought to be made, to secure 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 number of the purchasers; but it is at the same time expected that this tax shall supply the expense of a war on the Continent. It is asserted, therefore, that the consumption of spirits will be hindered; and yet that it will be such as may be ex pected to furnish, from a very small tax, a rev 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 consistent; 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 t will produce a very large revenue-a revenue that will not fail but with the people from whose Jebaucheries 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 public 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.

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 Church of Rome? Was it not the chief cause of the Reformation? And will you follow a precedent which brought reproach and ruin upon those that introduced it? This is the very case now before

us.

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 a 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, ir which no man will be disqualified from the priv ilege of being drunk; when all discontent and isloyalty shall be forgotten, and the people, though now considered by the ministry as ene. mies, 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. ed (for why else should it be considered?) in a committee, I shall humbly propose that it shall be introduced in this manner: "Whereas, the designs of the present ministry, whatever they are, can not be executed without a great number of mercenaries, which mercenaries can not be hired without money; and whereas the present disposition of this nation to drunkenness in

You are going to lay a tax, and consequently to indulge a sort of drunkenness, which almost necessarily produces a breach of every one of the ten 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.

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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 it 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 expertations of the efficacy of tha

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.

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It is evident, my Lords, from daily bser a tion, and demonstrable from the papers .pon ne 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. 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 ineffect ual, 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 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 vi cious, may be awed by them.

In any of these cases, my Lords, the law is no 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 wheth not 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.

Nor, though I should allow that the law is a.

All these arguments, my Lords, I shall endeavor to examine, because I am always desir-present impeded by difficulties which can not be us 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 nitation 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 inquary 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 re quired, and therefore it will be folly to make

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 derstanding, appears likewise to have been "Lought of by the authors of the present law; and therefore they imagined that they had effectnally 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 dis tilling, 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 liq. uors?

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 anhappily 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 1. collect it.

Here, my Lords, was the difficulty: those who inade 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. 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 omission of what we now propose-the collecting the duty from the still-head.

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-citizens, 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 prepare 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 peo ple are tempted to their own destruction, let us at length, my Lords, secure them from these fatal draughts, by bursting the vials that con tain 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 bill may not be found sufficiently coercive, but 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

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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 he expect ed from it, it is to be considered that this dimi

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