With Regard to their Families, this pernicious Liquor is equally
fatal, whilst the Husband & perhaps his Wife also are drinking & Spending
their money in Geneva Shops, their Children are Starving [..] & Naked at home
without bread or Cloaths, and either become a Burthen to their parishes
or being Suffered to Ramble about the streets, are forced to begg whilst
they are Children, And Learn as they grow upto pilfer and Steal
which your Committee conceive to be one of the Chief Causes of the
Vast Increase of Thieves and pilferers of all Kinds, and may be
the true Reason why the yould for Some Years last past have
been observed Sooner to grow vitious and to throw off all Regard
to Laws both human & Divine.

We would here further Observe, that rather than go
without this destructive Liquor, Custom having made the Habit
so strong upon them, they will even pawn their own & Children's
Cloaths, and Cheat by all the Ways and Means they can Devise to
raise Money on this Occasion, the usuall and almost Certain
Consequence of which is, the Husband is thrown into a Goal, And his
whole Family on the Parish. And this your Committee conceive to be
one of the principle Causes of the great Increase of Beggars &
Parish Poor, Not withstanding the high Wages now given to all
Sorts of Workmen and Servants

And Lastly with Regard to Trade and the publick Wellfareof
the Consequences are visibly Ruinous and destructive, and will be
Every day more and more felt & perceived.

It has been already observed, that the Constant use of Strong
Waters and particularly of Geneva never fails to produce an
invincible Aversion to work and Labour, this by necessary Conse-
-quence Deprives us of great Numbers of usefull hands which
would be otherwise Employed to the advantage of the Publick
And as to those who yet do work sometimes or follow any Employment
the less of their time in frequent tippling, the getting often drunk
in a Morning and the spending of their Money this way, must
very much Straiten them and so farr diminish their Trade
And the profit which Would Accrue from thence to the publick
as well as to themselves.

It appears, as has been already mentioned, that great Numbers
of Weavers, and other persons of Inferior Trades concerned in our
Manufactures, deal in these Liquors; And as they generally employ
many Journeymen , and Artificers under them, this Liquor being
thus allways ready at hand at their Masters houses, they are Easily
tempted to Drink freely of it, Especially as they may drink a
whole Week upon Score and too often without minding how fast the
Score runs upon thence, whereby at the Weeks End they find them-
-selves without any surplus age to Carry home to their Families which
of Course must Starve or be thrown on the Parish.

Your Commee are also of Opinion that the publick Wellfare & Safety of
the Nation will be greatly affected by it Considering the Strong Inili-
-nations in the Soldiery to drink freely and to Excess of this destruc-
-tive Liquor. Let any person pass a Shop where Geneva is sold
it is great Odds but that he will find there one or more Soldiers either
drinking of, or Drunk with these Liquors And it is to be feared
the Constitutions & Strength of many of our Soldiers are already
Greatly Impaired by this pernicious Custom, And how farr
they