without those particular
objections which such examinations necessarily produce, we shall
discover a contempt of the wisdom or virtue of the other house, which
may incline them in their turn to obstruct the measures of the
government, or at least to neglect that evil, however great, for the
redress of which they have no reason to expect our concurrence.

Those whose particular province it is to inspect the lives of the
people, to recal them from vice, and strengthen them in virtue, should
certainly reflect on this occasion, that the safest method ought to be
chosen; and, therefore, that this bill ought to be promoted; because,
not to affirm too much, it is possible that it may produce some degree
of reformation; and the worst that can be feared is, that, like the
present law, it will be ineffectual; for the corruption and
licentiousness of the people are already such, that nothing can
increase them.

The bishop of SARUM then spoke to the following purpose:--My lords, I
am so far from being convinced by the arguments of the noble duke,
that the bill now before us ought to be committed without farther
opposition, that, in my opinion, nothing can be more unworthy of the
honour of this house, or more unsuitable to the character which those
who sit on this bench ought to desire, than to agree to any vote which
may have the most distant appearance of approbation.

That a bill drawn up for the reformation of manners, for the restraint
of a predominant and destructive vice, for the promotion of virtue,
and the enforcement of religion, ought, at least, to be calmly and
particularly considered; that the laudable endeavours of the commons
ought not to be discouraged by a precipitate and contemptuous
rejection of the measures which they have formed for the attainment of
a purpose so important, is, indeed, a specious and plausible method of
persuasion; but, my lords, it can affect only those who come to
deliberate upon this bill without having read it.

A very slight and cursory perusal of the bill, my lords, will
dissipate all the mists which eloquence can raise; it will show that
the law now proposed can neither be useful nor ineffectual, but that
it must operate very powerfully, though in a manner by no means
agreeable to its title.

To prevent the excessive use of any thing, by allowing it to be sold
without restraint, is an expedient which the wisdom of no former age
ever discovered; it is, indeed, a fallacy too gross to