HC Deb 23 March 1842 vol 61 c1115
Mr. Caleb Powell

begged leave to ask the right hon. Baronet, the First Lord of the Treasury, whether he was in possession of any official information from which he might infer that habits of temperance were or were not progressively extending among the people of Ireland.

Sir R. Peel

said, that he was not in possession of any official information upon the subject, and he begged leave to add that he had not, on any former occasion, expressed an opinion on the matter. He had said, that there had been of late a considerable increase in the spirit duty in Ireland, but he dared say that the spirits were taken with a due regard to temperance.