Page:Dialogue between John and Thomas, on the corn laws, the charter, teetotalism, and the probable remedy for the present disstresses (sic) (1).pdf/5

 that destroy sae muckle o' our grain in times like this, when poor folk's starvin'; every half mutchin ye drink, Thomas, believe me or no as ye like, destroys as muckle gude good as wad mak' a comfortable meal to a gude big family, and I'm creditably informed that there is as much destroyed in one distillery every morning as wad breakfast the hale town o' Paisley.

T. Hoot, nonsence, John ye're surely gaun out o't noo athegither, I never dream't o' ony thing like that, ye wad maist fricht a body frae ever tasting a drap again; if that was the ease ye wad think the hale kintra wad rise up in a mass against it, our legislators wad stop distillation, and our magistrates wad grant nae mae licenses. Hoot toot John, ye're surly far wrang.

J. No, tweel awat Thomas, I'm nane wrang, for if there was nane o' the drunkard's drink drucken, every inhabitant in Scotland micht hae sax pound o' bread every week they hinna, and that's but ae portion o' the evil that springs frae that curse; look to the misery and madness, the woes and wretchedness, that it produces; we're tax'd for a pretty degree even noo to support prisons like bastiles, whereas if we wed a' drap drinking, a three-storey house wad ha'd a' the criminals in a kintra side.

T. Altho' there a wheen fools that mak' themsel's idiots wi' drinkin', we're no a' to be blamed wi't; there's mony decent respectable minister and magistrate baith that tak their dram, and disna fill themsel's fou, and if folk wad only imitate their example there wad be nae great fear of gaun wrang.

J. Ah, Thomas, Thomas, but it is a bad example Scripture aye approves o' them that tak' nae drink, and could gie ye plenty o' instances o't if you and I had time; and to finish the whole story, it declares to you, in Habakuk, in plain terms no to be misunderstood, “Woe to him that giveth his neighbour drink." The beginning