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 expected to furnish from a very small tax, a revenue sufficient for the support of armies, or the reestablishment of the Austrian family,[1] and the repressing of the attempts of France.
Surely, my lords, these expectations are not very consistent; nor can it be imagined that they are both formed in the same head, tho 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 tho it is undoubtedly false that this tax will lessen the consumption of spirits, it is certainly true that it will produce a very large revenue—a revenue that will not fail but with the people from whose debaucheries 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;
- ↑ Only a few months before the date of this speech Frederick the Great, by treaty, had finally wrested Silesia from Maria Theresa.
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