SECT. XXXIV.] RESULTS OF THE INQUIRY. 305 



enter into combinations to enhance the price of labour, 

 " which prevents petitioners bringing goods to market on 

 proper terms." 



N.B. The Commissioners, after having referred to the 

 various laws passed to prevent the retail sale of spirits, 

 prove that these laws have not been carried into execution. 

 They state that the subject is full of difficulty, from the 

 apprehension that any attempt to correct the abuse by 

 means of increased duties would be met by increased il- 

 licit distillation, and thus the revenue be injured, without 

 any corresponding benefit being produced to morality. 

 They finally recommend that the subject may be fully 

 inquired into by competent legal authority, and express 

 their hope, that whatever decision may be come to, no 

 question of merely fiscal policy may be suffered to inter- 

 fere with the paramount object of reforming the moral 

 habits of the country. 



REMARKS. 



All the evidence received in this Inquiry proves 

 that the great consumption of spirits is a conse- 

 quence of the state of exhaustion to which those 

 obliged to labour are reduced; and that indeed spirits 

 have become the strongest nourishment which they 

 can take. Experience has proved this fact in En- 

 gland; wherever food has been improved, and where 

 bread has been substituted for potatoes, the con- 

 sumption of spirituous liquors has diminished in 

 proportion to the population, although the tax upon 

 them has been reduced. 



