F 255-9] 
of earning mere at their refpective trades, than 
barely fufficient to buy the daily portion of fpirits. 
This being the fum total of their wifhes, or, in their 
own language, “ their meat, drink, and clothes,” 
which indeed is almoft literally true, as they ufe 
very little of either befides. 
This pernicious habit is highly injurious to pub- 
lick as well as private property, and confequently 
to national profperity. Among mechanics and 
tradefmen, it produces debts, difgrace, and bank~- 
ruptcy. Among farmers, bad tillage, fcanty crops, 
and univerfal bad management, fuch as fields and 
gardens over-run with weeds, broken fences, and 
half-ciad dirty children, without manners or edu- 
cation. 
Among fervants and domefticks; idlenefs, ex- 
travagance, lofs of character, and beggary. 
In the year 1751, when the abufe of fpirits had 
rifen to an alarming height, the number of dram- 
drinkers in the kingdom of Great-Britain, accord- 
ing toa very able calculator, amounted on a mo- 
derate computation to 400,000, and he conceived it 
probable that they might confiderably exceed that 
number !* 
On balancing the account between the profits 
arifing to government, and the damage acrueing to 
the nation at large, he endeavours to prove that a 
* Inquiry into the Effects of the Abufe of low-priced Spirits. 
lofs, 
