346 TAX ON MALT PUBLIC PROSPECT FROM TAXATION. 



alone, during the last twenty years, is computed at 

 400,000,000 ! Four-fifths of all the crime committed 

 in the country are under the influence of liquor. 

 During the past year, 32,636 persons were taken 

 into custody for drunkenness alone, by the Metropo- 

 litan Police, not including assaults or more serious 

 offences, and excluding the suburbs. 5,000,000 

 poor-rates are owing to gin-drinking. Of 14-0 inmates 

 of a London workhouse, 105 were brought directly 

 thither by dram drinking, and the remainder traced 

 their misfortunes to the same ; and of 495 lunatic 

 patients, 257 lost their reason by drunkenness. What 

 a sea of wickedness is the nation now plunged into !" 



I have thus far availed myself of the talents and 

 industry of Mr. Martin, and shall conclude with the 

 following observations. The great majority of the peo- 

 ple, which, in the ultimate, must be dominant, have 

 at length become convinced that our immense debts 

 have not been contracted for real objects, or those of 

 necessity and national utility, and that the profligate 

 and grasping expenditure of former administrations, 

 trenching as it yet does on the rights and comforts, 

 and enhancing the distresses of the people, cannot 

 and will not be much longer endured. Indeed, unless 

 some party in the state, endowed with the virtues of 

 real honesty and patriotism, shall assume courage 

 to go the necessary lengths of reform, and reduce 

 within the bounds of reason and true policy our 

 fiscal enormities, even I, advanced as I am in years, 

 may yet live to witness some sudden and violent 

 change in our political system. 



Having thus cleared the way, I proceed, addressing 



