Sentence:  My Lords, that I am yet to be told that it behoves a Minister of this free country to set bounds to the philanthropy, to cramp the charity, to fetter the public spirit, to contract the enterprise, to <WSD>damp</WSD> the independent self-reliance of its people. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  To put out, as fire; to depress or deject; to deaden; to cloud; to check or restrain, as action or vigor; to make dull; to weaken; to discourage.