4 



sumed in the support of any other species of 

 industry, would afford the same, or nearly the 

 same revenue, levied on the produce of that 

 industry, whatever it might be. 



The objection to distillation, on the score 

 of its moral effects, has, I confess, always appear- 

 ed to me by far the strongest counterpoise to 

 the great benefits which it yields. When I 

 consider the excessive indulgence in ardent 

 spirits, which always attends their abundance ; 

 the destruction which it occasions to the health, 

 morals, economy, and industry, of the people ; 

 the ruin of natural affection, and the general 

 depravity and misery which it brings on the 

 lower orders, and their families ; I am some- 

 times staggered in my prepossession of leaving 

 all industry free, and inclined to prohibit a 

 manufacture of poison, as I would any other 

 public nuisance. I have need to recollect the 

 other great benefits arising from the practice ; 

 the general encouragement which it gives to 

 agriculture, and the resources which it yields 

 in occasional scarcity, before I can reconcile 

 myself to its public toleration. In considering- 

 this objection, it is somewhat amusing to re- 

 flect on the different impression of arguments 

 on different minds. This, which I look upon 

 as so weighty, and indeed the only one of the 



