will be raised; money! the only end at which
our ministers have aimed for almost half a century; money! by which
only they have preserved the favour of the court, and the obedience of
the senate; money! which has supplied the place of wisdom at one time,
and of courage at another.

To gain money, my lords, they have injured trade by establishing a
lottery; and they are now about to sacrifice the health and virtue of
the people, to the preservation of a trade by which money may be
furnished to the government. This, my lords, is their only design,
however they may act, or whatever they may profess; if they endeavour
to protect either the trade or lives of people, it is only because
they expect a continuance of taxes from them; and when more desperate
measures are necessary for the same purposes, they ruin their trade by
one project, and destroy their lives by another.

Lord LONSDALE next spoke, to this effect:--My lords, it is not without
the utmost grief and indignation, that I find this house considered by
some who have spoken in vindication of this bill, as obliged to comply
with any proposals sent up by the commons for raising money, however
destructive to the publick, or however contrary to the dictates of our
conscience, or convictions of our reason.

What is this, my lords, but once more to vote ourselves useless? What
but to be the first that shall destroy the constitution of the
government, and give up that liberty which our ancestors established?

That this is really the design of any of the noble lords, who have
spoken in vindication of the bill, and have asserted the necessity of
passing it, without any attempts to amend it, I am very far from
affirming; but certainly, my lords, this, and this only, is the
consequence of their positions, with whatever intention they may have
advanced them; for how, my lords, can we call ourselves independent,
if we are to receive the commands of the other house? or with what
propriety can we assume the title of legislators, if we are to pass a
bill like this without examination?

The bill now before us, my lords, is of the utmost importance to the
happiness of that nation whose welfare we have hitherto been imagined
to superintend. In this bill are involved not only the trade and
riches, but the lives and morals of the British people; nor can we
suffer it to pass unexamined, without betraying the nation to
wickedness and destruction.

Should we, on this occasion, suffer