DUTY ON LIQUOR 97 



do is to pour down their throats excessive 

 quantities of liquor, liquor which, taken soberly, 

 is not really absolutely necessary, taken in ex- 

 cess is injurious, and a causer of bad work and 

 much mental and physical suffering. There was 

 a time — and it is not so very long ago — when the 

 British nation was a nation of ale-drinkers ; at 

 every meal people of all, even the most tender, 

 ages drank ale. But they had their excuse ; for 

 drinking water in those days, partly owing, it 

 is true, to the carelessness and untidy habits of 

 the ale-drinkers themselves, was bad and often 

 poisonous. But now the village pump has long 

 been condemned ; farm wells, which had for ages 

 been local soak pits, need no longer be resorted 

 to; there is good and safe water in plenty for 

 every one. If any one drinks strong drink now, 

 it is not on compulsion : it is because he chooses 

 to do so. Strong drink is one of the forms 

 taken by capital; the capital from which it comes, 

 by which it is made, like all other forms of 

 capital, must be destroyed, that this new and 

 greater capital may be produced. This happens ; 

 but the new and greater capital is one of those 

 forms that then reproduce no further, and in 

 this particular case the cul-de-sac is often a very 

 noisome ending. 



Here, then, is a capital that may certainly be 

 placed in the first class. Revenue obtained by 

 duties on liquor, whether wine, spirits, malt 

 liquor, liqueurs, or other stimulating beverages, 

 is a revenue under the first class of capitals. 

 For many years in the United Kingdom this 

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