T. Tuts man ye’re takin’ the very warst look o’ the thing ye can tak’; its weel enough kent there’s mony a ane tak’s a bit suck that disna drive themsel’s to thae extremities ye talk about, our Ministers, and Elders, and Magistrates, and Councillors too; indeed, the maist o’ folk that reckon themsel’s upish can a’ tak’ their moderate dram and no rin to excess. J. Their moderate dram! dinna tell me about moderate drams, I ken baith Ministers, and Elders, and Magistrates too, that hae gaen far aglee wi’ their moderation, but independent o’ a’ that, is’t no a shamfu’ bad example they set before workin’ folk, (for poor folk maun aye be imitating the rich if they can ava) to drink thae drinks 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 food 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, nonsense, 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 case 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 to a pretty degree even noo to support prisons like bastiles, whereas if we wad 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 a 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 o’ gaun wrang.