This Act remained nominally in operation for seven years, the first result being an apparent falling off in the consumption of spirits to the extent of nearly 2,000,000 gallons; for whilst, as already stated, the quantity on which duty was paid in the year 1736 was 6,116,473 gallons, that in 1737 was 4,250,399 gallons. The consumption, however, soon rose again; and when, in the year 1743, the “Gin Act” was repealed, it had risen to 8,203,430 gallons. In the meantime the remedy had proved worse than the disease. Gin riots; false information given by men who made it their profession; violence towards, and even the murder of, such informers; the illicit distillation and sale of spirits under various names all over the country;—these were the fruits of this extreme legislation, and long before the Act was repealed it had ceased to be operative. When its repeal (which was opposed by the bishops) was being discussed in the House of peers, one noble lord stated that for several years the Act had been a dead letter, and that the pathways of London were obstructed by men who were openly selling spirits to the populace, and by those who had drunk them until they were unable to move. But there is an important circumstance in connection with this experiment which is well worthy of being noticed. Whilst the sudden and extreme measure had no permanent effect upon the moral disease which it was intended to cure, but called into action evils which had not previously existed, yet impediments of a less violent and conspicuous character, which were unintentionally thrown in the way of excessive drinking at a subsequent period, seem to have proved more efficacious. For we find that when the duty was afterwards raised from 3d. to 1s. per gallon, the consumption steadily diminished, until, in 1758, it had fallen to 1,849,370 gallons, and it continued to stand at 2,000,000 gallons from 1762 to 1780, after the duty had been still further raised to 2s. 6d. per gallon.[283]