There are many toasts of so patriotic, and others of so
generous and convivial a nature that a man is looked upon as
disaffected, or as devoid of sentiment, who refuses them. Add to this,
that there is a sort of shame, which the young and generous in
particular feel in being outdone, and in not keeping pace with the rest,
on such occasions. Thus toast being urged after toast, and shame acting
upon shame, a variety of causes conspires at the same moment to drive
him on, till the liquor at length overcomes him and he falls eventually
a victim to its power.
It will be manifest from this account that the laws of drinking, by
which the necessity of drinking a certain number of toasts is enjoined,
by which bumpers are attached to certain classes of toasts, by which a
stigma is affixed to a non-compliance with the terms, by which in fact a
regular system of etiquette is established, cannot but lead, except a
man is uncommonly resolute or particularly on his guard, to
intoxication. We see indeed instances of men drinking glass after glass,
because stimulated in this manner, even against their own inclination,
nay even against the determination they had made before they went into
company, till they have made themselves quite drunk.
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