ing the period of which we have been speaking, from a halfpenny to threehalfpence per gallon.

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During this period, however that is, previous to the revolution of 1688, the price of wine, in England, consisted, as we have said, of its cost price abroad, and of the freight and other charges consequent on its importation. It was very slightly increased by custom-house duties and other fiscal burthens. It was the dif ficulties of transit and the restricted commercial intercourse at that period which constituted the chief element in its cost. The duties on the importation of wine, at that time, as our readders are aware, went by the name of "tonnage." This tonnage was a charge which varied in amount, but never was very considerable, on each tun of wine imported into the country; the tun being a measure which contained about 250 gallons. It was a subsidy which was granted by Parliament, at first but temporarily and for a prescribed period, but subsequently it came to be made for the life of the monarch. And so regularly and uniformly was this grant thus made, that after a time it came to be regarded as a part of the royal prerogative, and was levied as such, in many instances, even without the assent of Parliament. This duty of tonnage was, however, as we have said, never considerable. Early in the fourteenth century it amounted to two shillings a tun; in the middle of the seventeenth century a duty of forty shillings a tun was imposed; and the very first act of the parliament after the Restoration in this same century, was the imposition of a duty of from £4 10s. to £6 on every tun of French wine imported into the country the preamble of the act reciting, that the purpose of the grant was for the guarding and defending of the seas against all sons intending the disturbance of trade and the invasion of the realm. The position, then, occupied by wine at this period of our history appears to have been somewhat similar to that which it now holds; it was a luxury available only to the upper classes and the wealthy, but wholly excluded from the consumption of the middle classes and the poor. It was even included in the sumptuary laws of the time; for, by a statute of the year 1552, it was forbidden to any man but such as

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could spend a hundred marks of yearly rent, or be the sons of nobles of the realm, to have in their houses any vessel of wine exceeding ten gallons, on pain of forfeiting ten pounds. The absurdity, to be sure, of these sumptuary laws has been long since felt, and they have long been exploded from our statute book; we cannot but suspect, however, that somewhat of their spirit still lingers amongst us, and even upon this very question of wine, half unconsciously influences many of us. We cannot but believe that there are not a few who feel that wine is a luxury with which the working man has no business: beer and ale are good enough for him; wine should be reserved for the more favoured classes-for that section of society which, in this world, is born to be served. That a dusty labourer or exhausted cotton - spinner should sit down to his bottle of wine, would to these people be simply ridiculous, were it not accompanied by an uneasy feeling of presumption, of sense of invasion of the privileges of their set which torments them. To your genuine exclusive half the enjoyment of any indulgence consists in its very exclusiveness; his wine would lose half its relish if it were a luxury which everyone could participate in. The prevalence of foreign travel, and the opportunity of observing the general use of wine amongst the peasantry of other countries, has, no doubt, gone far to do away with the prejudice against its general use; still, however, wine ranks with us now at the present day fully as much as ever it did as a luxury available only to the few, and that the very class which probably could most readily dispense with it.

The high prices which now cause wine to rank in the class of luxuries is not occasioned, as in former times, by the unavoidable hindrances to commercial intercourse which were necessarily incident to the period, but by our fiscal regulations. From the time of the Revolution we have vigorously set about excluding the use of wine from the country. The war with France, which broke out in the year 1689, was inaugurated by the imposition of a heavy discriminating duty on the wines of that country-on those very wines which were then chiefly in use, and universally preferred amongst us. Such was one of the first acts of the reign of King William, of blessed memory-he

whose health we now toast in claret, when we can get it, for our deliverance from brass money and wooden shoes, and never think of the grudge we should bear him for having been the first to deprive us of the light and joyous wines of that country, and to drive us into the consumption of the strong and rough wines of Portugal. There were, however, it must be acknowledged, perverse and erroneous commercial notions prevalent at that period; and these concurred with the mistaken views of foreign policy, and confirmed and perpetuated the exclusion of French wines. It was then held to be the great object of commercial policy to have the balance of trade in favour of the country-in other words, to take care that we exported more than we imported; for it was argued, that if we always exported a greater amount of goods than we imported, the balance should be paid in the precious metals, and thus we would have a constant stream of gold and silver flowing into and enriching the country. We need hardly say that this notion of the desirableness of maintaining a favourable balance of trade is one which still prevails very generally amongst us; it is constantly to be traced in the various publications of the day. As it has no immediate concern with our subject, it would be out of place to advert to it now, further than to observe that, as when the balance of trade is favourable, or in other words, when we export more goods than we import, we get the balance in gold and silver, whether or not such a state of things is desirable depends altogether upon this-whether we are more in want of the gold and silver, or of the tea, sugar, wine, and other products which we might have imported in exchange for our exports. If we be so, a favourable balance of trade is desirable; but if we be not, it is very much the reverse.

It so happened, however, that one of the most glaring illustrations of this commercial fallacy occurred just at the time of which we have been speaking, and in immediate connexion with our subject; we allude to the treaty with Portugal in the year 1703, known as the Methuen Treaty, because it was negotiated by a gentleman of that name. By this treaty it was arranged that the Portuguese should always admit the woollen fabrics of England upon the terms which had

been established previously to the prohibition which then existed; and England, upon the other hand, engaged that she would at all times admit the wines of Portugal at two-thirds of the duty which should be charged on the French wines. This treaty was then looked upon as a masterpiece of diplomacy-as the ne plus ultra of political sagacity. The statesmen of England congratulated themselves, and the nation applauded the statesmen for having thus hoodwinked and outwitted the unhappy Portuguese. The profound craft of the negotiation was believed to consist in this: Portugal was then in the habit of receiving a large amount of the precious metals annually from the Brazils. It was believed that she would require a greater amount of our woollens than we could possibly consume of her wines . that thus the value of our woollens exported would necessarily very much exceed that of the wine imported, and that the difference should be paid in gold and silver, which her connexion with the Brazils supplied her with so abundantly. The thing was a sheer absurdity; it was ridiculous on many grounds, and for this one, amongst others, that all experience had shown the impossibility of our accumulating an indefinite quantity of the precious metals. The laws against their exportation had at all times proved inoperative articles which possess so much value in so small a bulk can always be smuggled out of the country. And even if it had been practicable to cause the precious metals thus to flow into the country in a perpetual stream, until they had filled the land to overflowing, the effects would be most disastrous. There would be a constant depreciation in the value of the precious metals as their quantity continued to increase; the great medium of exchange would thus be constantly falling in value, working thereby perpetual ruin to the creditor portion of society, whose contracts had been entered into when the circulating medium was less depreciated, and destroying all mercantile enterprise by making it impossible to enter with confidence into any contract the fulfilment of which was postponed to a distant period. Upon all present transactions of buying and selling it would have occasioned inconvenience it would have had the effect of obliging men to employ fifty or a

hundred sovereigns to buy what otherwise could have been got for-one imposing this inconvenience and risk upon the public, without doing an atom of service to any human being. Such was the most important treaty connected with our subject. Now that attention is so much turned at the present day to diplomacy, it may not be amiss thus shortly to glance at the absurdities of this specimen of the diplomatic art, which, at the commencement of the last century and long afterwards, was extolled as the very masterpiece of the craft. a piece of diplomacy which pledged ourselves to persist in an attitude of permanent hostility to our most powerful neighbour; permanently to diminish the consumption of wines which we took delight in; permanently to take to the wines of Portugal, for which we had then no relish, nor ever would have had but for the improvements which were subsequently made in them; and all this in the expectation of hurting the trade of France, and to realise for ourselves such commercial results as we have called attention to.

From the date of this Methuen treaty that is, from 1703, the duty on the tun of wine was continually inereased by successive acts of Parliament, until it amounted in the year 1786 to 8s. 9d. per gallon on French wines. Mr. Pitt then reduced the duty on French wines to so low a figure as 4s. 6d. per gallon, and conformably with the requirements of the Methuen treaty, he made of course a reduction of one-third on the wines of Portugal, bringing them down so low as 3s. per gallon. In ten years more, however, the duties were again raised, and that to a greater height than they had ever previously been; that on French wines being 10s. 2d., and on Portuguese and Spanish wines, 6s. 10d. In another decade the duty on French wines had still further risen to 13s. 8d., and that on the wines of Portugal and Spain, to 9s. 1d. In the year 1825, they were lowered; but it was not until the year 1831 that the principle of the Methuen treaty was finally abandoned, and the duties on French and other European wines were equalised, and charged with the uniform rate of 5s. 6d. per gallon. In 1840 they were all raised to 5s. 9d., at which rate they still remain.

Thus has wine been at all times in these countries looked upon not as a comfort, still less as a necessary of life,

but as a luxury; and from the time of the Revolution to the present, it has been looked upon as a luxury which was peculiarly well adapted for purposes of taxation. It has never been considered by the Minister in any point of view but a financial one; the only question he has ever proposed to himself is how the greatest amount of revenue could be raised from it. Even when the duties were reduced the principle was not departed from; the selfsame motives influenced Mr. Pitt in his reductions of 1787, and Lord Ripon in his reductions of 1825, as had actuated all their predecessors. The problem they sought to solve was how the largest amount of return to the Exchequer might be obtained whether by high rates with a reduced consumption, or by low rates and increased consumption. Nor can we say that even to the present moment any other views have been brought before the public; for, although we have recently had a few abortive attempts in Parliament to effect a considerable change in the duty on wine, and to reduce it so low as to one shilling a gallon, yet the advocates of this measure labour strenuously to show that the increased consumption would, after a little while, more than compensate the revenue for the reduc tion in the rate, and they impliedly, at least, admit that if it were otherwise the measure would not be desirable.

The agitation of this question of a one shilling duty, or we should rather say the mooting of the question - for with our Irish notions of an "agitation" it would be a degradation of the term to apply it to the little that has been said or done on this matter- has called forth the publication which is now before us. This volume of Sir James Emerson Tennent's contains within a very small bulk a great quantity of most valuable information on the subject of which it treats; it will always be a valuable handbook for those who seek for statistical information on matters connected with the supply of wines; with the duties to which they have been subjected; and the effect of these duties on their consumption. Differing, as it will appear that we do, from the policy which our author recommends, it is not because we dissent from many of the conclusions at which he has arrived, but because we would disregard them; because, if we were not involved in a war which makes all such attempts

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impracticable, if peace were once restored, we would risk a diminution of révenue, or deliberately incur a loss, and seek to compensate for it by the necessary increase in our direct taxation rather than forego the advantages which we believe would flow from a cheap and liberal supply of wholesome wines in the country;—because, to use the language of Mr. Gladstone, when Chancellor of the Exchequer, "We know no article burdened with a fiscal chain, under our financial system, with respect to which any stronger reasons for a change could be given." But it is perfectly consistent with our own views that we should feel this publication to be a most valuable one. do not presume to question the accuracy of our author's statistics, though we would, in a few instances, venture to qualify the conclusions at which he arrives. He has obviously devoted great labour and judgment to their collection and compilation. The pains which he has taken in procuring his materials, and the ability which he has shown in their arrangement, and in his reasoning upon them, is most creditable. If from our limited knowledge of the subject we had previously felt a different impression on some statistical points, we are satisfied that our author is right, and that we were in the wrong. The slovenly and unconscientious manner in which statistical inquiries have too frequently been conducted has brought all such reasonings into reproach; no man could put any confidence in inquiries which he finds resorted to to establish directly opposite conclusions.

Such imperfection, no doubt, occasionally arises from the nature of the subject, from the difficulty of getting together a sufficiently extensive collection of well-ascertained facts in connexion with it; but it not unfrequently arises from the want of care and judgment on the part of the inquirer too often from his want of honesty. Men jump at conclusions on most insufficient evidence, guided by their prejudices, or their whims, or by anything but the honest exercise of their judgment; they then impress a number of specially selected facts, chosen for their argument, to support their foregone conclusion, and this they put before the world as statistical inquiry. Such has not been the course taken by our author; he tells us that his feeling and his prejudices were all

in favour of the measure which he considers that he is on inquiry constrained to condemn; his book itself refutes, in every line of it, the supposition of want of care or of judgment in its composition. We cannot, however, but fear that all this labour and ability may fail to be generally appreciated; valuable as are the materials which are here collected, yet, for the main object of the work, for the practical conclusion at which our author arrives, and for the establishing of which all this labour and research has been undergone, the book is unnecessary. Our author's conclusions lead him to pronounce against the one shilling duty; but who is agitating for it?-whom has he got to convince?-who are concerning themselves about the matter? A Committee of the Commons which could not agree to a Report; a motion by Mr. Oliveira, which was withdrawn; and a speech by the same gentleman to a motion which he did not make, with some publications emanating from the wine trade, are the only evidences of any interest being felt in the matter; so little do the people understand or concern themselves about what is for their utmost

benefit. An author who regarded merely the success which is evidenced by an extensive circulation would hardly be guilty of the want of tact of pub. lishing conclusions from which no one dissented. Sir Emerson Tennent must, we fear, rest satisfied with the reputation which he will obtain with the few who are competent to appreciate the value of the information in which his publication abounds, irrespective of the object to which it is immediately directed.

We have already intimated pretty distinctly our own views as to the policy of a great reduction on the duty of wine. If we were not engaged in a war which, by its stern and all-absorbing necessities, precludes the possibility of running any risk of deranging the public finance, we would unhesitatingly and earnestly advocate the experiment of a one-shilling duty, and supply the deficiency of the revenue, whatever it might be, and whether it should be temporary or permanent, by an increase in the direct taxation of the country. If there would be the slightest chance of substituting a cheering, grateful and exhilarating beverage, which would refresh the frame and invigorate the in

tellect, for the maddening influence of alcoholic spirits, or the sottish, brutalising effects of ale and porter, we know no sacrifice of the revenue, or, to speak more accurately, no readjustment of the revenue, which should not be made in order to effect it. We have already quoted the testimony of Liebeg, the most profound and philosophical chemist in Europe, in favour of wine one, too, who has applied himself peculiarly to the study of the human diet. Our quotation might have been prolonged, for again he says:-"In no part of Germany do the apothe caries' establishments bring so low a price as in the rich cities of the Rhine, for wine is the universal medicine for the healthy as well as for the sick; it is considered as milk to the aged." Is it not notorious on the other hand, that the use of ardent spirits and of malt liquors is a most fertile source of disease in these countries? The very worst patients who enter the London hospitals are the brewers' men: bruise or a scratch, which with others would be insignificant, with them will mortify and fester. On the Continent of Europe, the vice of intoxication is unknown. Does it not run riot and revel in every corner of our land? does it not lead to the commission of the most heinous crimes; and can we venture to limit its ruinous effects to those instances in which it is the immediate incentive to crime? - does not the constant muddling with porter and ale, and other strong drinks in which the mass of Englishmen indulge

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we speak not alone of the working classes, but of the class or two above them as well beget a brutishness of nature which is destructive of all refinement and delicacy of feeling, and is revolting and degrading?

But it will be said, would these classes of whom we speak-would our people generally drink wine, if they could get it? This is obviously a main point for consideration; for if they would not, the alteration of the duty would be a wanton and injurious disturbance of the existing state of things-it would confer a very trifling benefit on those who now drink wine, and be of no service whatsoever to any other section of society, though occasioning a heavy loss to the public revenue. Now, upon this subject, which is necessarily one of speculation, there is much difference of opinion. When Mr. Gladstone

was Chancellor of the Exchequer, he thought that the experiment would be successful. He was not," he said, "one of those who thought it impossible or visionary to expect a great extension of taste for, and consump tion of, wine among the people of England. On the contrary, it ap peared to him that the present state of the taste of the people, in regard to wine, was the natural result of our fiscal system in that respect." Something approaching to an experiment has been made by a few retail winedealers in London. Their experiment necessarily wanted the all-essential element of cheapness so that it is hardly deserving of the name of an experiment at all; but selling wine in small quantities over the counter, the result showed, that Mr. Baker, of Holborn, sold in this way more than a pipe and a-half a-week; Mr. Pool, of London Bridge, sold a pipe in three weeks; Mr. Short, of the Strand, sold a hundred and sixty pipes a-year. This last-named gentleman says, that "bricklayers, labourers, coal-heavers, journeymen-carpenters, and men of all grades, come in and take their glass of wine we have a thousand people a-day, and not a drunken man." He charges 4d. for a glass of port, 7d. for Champagne, and 6d. for a gill of claret. Now this is the experience of men who have tested the matter, as far as the present condi tions of the case would admit of; and it is idle for our author, against these authorities (whom, by the way, he but obscurely refers to, without giving either their names or the particulars of their evidence), to set up the mere opinion of another wine-merchant, Mr. Bushell, that the working man would prefer beer to low wines; or even that of Mr. Maxwell, another merchant, who says that his men will steal his beer rather than steal the finest wine in his cellar; or the dictum of the Em peror of the French, that "the Englishmen would prefer their own good beer to the wines of France or Germany."

As we have said, the experiment never has been made to try whether our people generally would drink wine if they could get it at a moderate rate. But the experiment has been made with reference to the wealthier classes of society, and it has been uni. formly found, that a reduction in the