Gin Act

In 1688, gin had became really popular drink in England.   Some people were against the excessive selling of gin, but others liked gin. So the English government decided to open the distilling trade to all English people who paid taxes and over the next sixty years the government regulated the sale of gin with irregular taxation policy. Finally they come up with the Gin Act of 1751, which seemed to work for the people who didn\'t like the production of gin.

For many people, gin just made life worse in London and they thought that beer was better. These people thought the gin leaves a lot of people intoxicated on the streets and, as shown in the picture in document eleven, people dead and people becoming animals.   Of course this is an exaggeration, but they believed that gin will ruin people\'s lives.   Instead of ruining live, beer seemed to make the world calmer.   People get along and have some beer for fun.   In the picture in document twelve, it shows people working together and being nice to each other.   William Hogarth (the guy who drew the pictures) obviously did not like gin and believed it should not be sold.   When people are intoxicated, they can\'t work, they can\'t help anyone, they can\'t do anything. They just lay on the floor or fight with someone.   This does not help anyone, like document three said that once you step into a gin shop it is full or poor ragged people, cursing and quarreling each other. If you are drunk you cannot make right decisions all the time and some of these people who are drunk are His Majesty\'s subjects, who help him make decisions about the government.   The petition to Parliament shown in documents seven shows that there is to many people who can ruin the government if they drink.   Lord Lonsdale believes drinking poisons the body, which fills the street with madness.   This would not help the king at all if he was trying to keep people from committing crime.   Drinking gin to a lot of people is wrong, but others have...