Manufacture of Spirituous Liquors. 287 



may indeed be urged that if the use of ardent 

 spirits were totally prohibited, such is the na- 

 tural propensity of man to intoxication, that he 

 would become so by beer or some other fer- 

 mented liquor. Drunkenness, however, so pro- 

 moted, might possibly be unattended with the 

 like evil consequences to the community which 

 attend inebriation by spiritous liquors, as the 

 exhilaration produced by the former is speedily 

 resolved into a senseless stupor, while that of 

 the latter inspires the inebriated with a danger- 

 ous frenzy. 



Greatly as agriculture is promoted by the 

 home distillation of grain, the sacrifice of human 

 happiness, health, and morals, is paying too 

 dearly for the benefit derived to husbandry. 

 The yearly advantages accruing to the revenue 

 from the manufacture of legalized poison, leaves 

 little reason to hope for the adoption of such 

 egulations and restrictions on the sale of spiritu- 

 ous liquors, as would place the inordinate use 

 of them out of the reach of the laboring classes. 

 Intemperate gratification in ardent spirits ought, 

 if possible, to be restrained, instead of the law 

 against drunkenness being allowed to sleep, as 

 drinking to excess is the great bane to all the 

 little comforts of the lower orders ; and though 

 a perfect conviction of the direful effect! too 

 often attendant on inebriety be admitted among 



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