contribute than a reformation of the police, that would abolish those
infamous places of entertainment, which swarm in every corner of the
metropolis, seducing people of all ranks to extravagance, profligacy,
and ruin; and would restrict within due bounds the number of
public-houses, which are augmented to an enormous degree, affording so
many asylums for riot and debauchery, and corrupting the morals of the
common people to such a pitch of licentious indecency, as must be a
reproach to every civilized nation. Let it not be affirmed, to the
disgrace of Great Britain, that such receptacles of vice and impurity
subsist under the connivance of the government, according to the narrow
views and confined speculation of those shallow politicians, who imagine
that the revenue is increased in proportion to the quantity of strong
liquors consumed in such infamous recesses of intemperance. Were this in
reality the case, that administration would deserve to be branded with
eternal infamy, which could sacrifice to such abase consideration the
health, the lives, and the morals of their fellow-creatures: but nothing
can be more fallacious than the supposition, that the revenue of any
government can be increased by the augmented intemperance of the people;
for intemperance is the bane of industry, as well as of population; and
what the government gains in the articles of the duty on malt, and the
excise upon liquors, will always be greatly overbalanced by the loss in
other articles, arising from the diminution of hands, and the neglect of
labour.

REGULATION OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

Exclusive of the bills that were actually prepared, though they did
not pass in the course of the session, the commons deliberated on other
important subjects, which, however, were not finally discussed. In the
beginning of the session, a committee being appointed to resume the
inquiry touching the regulation of weights and measures, a subject we
have mentioned in the history of the preceding session, the box which
contained a troy pound weight, locked up by order of the house, was
again produced by the clerk in whose custody it had been deposited. This
affair being carefully investigated, the committee agreed to fourteen
resolutions. [490] _[See note 3 T, at the end of this Vol.]_ In the
meantime, it was ordered that all the weights referred to in the report,
should be delivered to the clerk of the house, to be locked up and
brought forth occasiona