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duty on wine has stimulated its consumption to a surprising extent to an extent, indeed, which, when we bear in mind the small proportion which the amount of the reduction ever bore to the whole price, seems perfectly unaccountable. Nay, more than this, it appears from the facts which are now before us, that the taste for wine, when once acquired under the reduced rate of duty, has maintained the consumption almost wholly unaffected when the duty was subsequently raised to its original height unaffected even by a further advance to a still higher rate. -unaffected by the difficulties interposed, and by the increased price occasioned by a war with a country from which a considerable portion of our supply was derived and finally yielded, not to any amount of tax which was laid upon wine, but to the accumulated and increasing pressure on the national resources, occasioned by the general taxation of the country in a war of unexampled magnitude. This is all abundantly evident from the returns with which our author furnishes us, though we admit that they lead him to no such conclusion: he can only regard them " as presenting so many anomalies that throw no real light on the abstract question, and can only be accounted for by regarding them as the eccentricities of consumption excited by the vicissitudes of war." Let us briefly glance at the facts with which our author furnishes us, and their bearing on this question.

It was in the year 1787, when the population and wealth of the country were very much less than they are at present, that Mr. Pitt made his first experiment on the wine duties, by reducing French wines from about 8s. a-gallon to 4s., and Portuguese and other wines from 4s. 6d. to 2s. 7d. Now, what was the effect on the consumption of the country of thus lowering the price of wine by 4s. and 2s. a-gallon? Why, that the consumption almost at once all but doubled. It had been

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6,861,374 gallons in 1794. Then came the second experiment which Mr. Pitt made on the wine-duties. In 1795 he raised French wines to 7s. 4d., and Portuguese and Spanish to 4s. 10d. per gallon, and even these rates he raised in the year following to 10s. 2d. and 6s. 10d. respectively; and what was the result? Why, that so confirmed had the country become within the ten years past in the habit of using wine, that even this rise of price produced little or no diminution in the consumption: it fell off, according to our author, but seventeen one-fifth per cent. We then come to the third experimental period, that between 1801 and 1805, during which time the duty was raised, year after year, until in the last year it amounted to 13s. 8d. on French wines, and 9s. 1d. on other wines. But not even these rates could overcome the now confirmed taste of the country in the words of our author, "strange to say, the consumption proved to be sufficiently elastic to expand, notwithstanding this additional tension." The duties on wine were thenceforth maintained at the scale of 1805, but it was not until 1812 that the consumption began to sink — not, however, under the influence of the high duties, as our author conceives. It is preposterous to suppose that such could be the case after that it had withstood this influence so long, and borne every successive rise almost unaffected. No; the consumption of wine then sank, not under the weight of its own duty, but under the tremendous and increasing pressure of the general taxation of the country, occasioned by the wars in which it was then engaged. Once again, in twenty years afterwards, we have a reduction in the duty, and accompanied with precisely the same results as in the previous instance of 1787-a reduction followed by a great increase of consumption. Mr. Huskisson lowered the rates in 1825 from 13s. 8d. on French wines to 7s. 2d.; and from 9s. 1d. on Portuguese and Spanish wines to 4s. 10d.; and the uniform result forthwith ensued: we find that an increase in the consumption, to the extent of fifty per cent., took place immediately on the reduction of the duty. The average consumption of wine in the five years before the duties were lowered, amounted to 4,751,106 galls.

and, in the five years afterwards, to 6,741,855.

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Shall we, then, with all these facts before us, demonstrating as they do the capability of the country to increase its consumption of wine-shall we be asked to acquiesce, without a trial, in the conclusion that wine could not be introduced into general use amongst our people? We doubt not that there are many who have long indulged in the strong stimulants of alcoholic spirits, or who have besotted themselves habitually with heavy malt liquors, and that by such men the best wine that could be offered them would be rejected as a mawkish dose. Our punch-drinkers despise claret. We all know that men who have long indulged in the use of strong stimulants find much difficulty in abandoning them. It is just as though you would propose to a coarse and hardened sensualist to give up the indulgence of his brutal appetites, and to seek enjoyment in the fine arts or in any other refined and cultivated pursuit. But it is not for such men that we are to legislate, but for those who are yet undepraved for the races now growing up. generations yet unborn; and we dare not so vilify our race as to say, that such of them as are undepraved by habit are yet so depraved by constitution, that it must continue besotted to all time; and that even when a grateful, nutritive and invigorating stimulant is offered to it, it will reject it, and take, in preference, to such as is destructive, brutalising, and debasing. We every day establish Athenæums, Mechanics' Institutes, Parks, Galleries of Paintings, Galleries of Sculpture, and Museums, for the amusement of the people. What do most of them yet know about painting or sculpture? but we acknowledge it to be our business to develop the taste, by presenting them with the objects of it. And did any one ever hear it put forward as an argument against such attempts to improve the taste and to refine the enjoyments of the people, that they would much rather have their good old English pastimes of prize-fighting or bull-baiting than all the galleries of paintings in the world? Is there in the nature of things any greater reason why the tastes of the palate should not change than tastes in other matters of enjoyment; and are not these changing every day.

Shakspeare supplanted the noble national sport of bear-baiting. Our author says that the English at all times have had a taste for strong wines, and he doubts that a demand could now be stimulated for a new class of light and pure wines. Why this should be so he does not pretend to tell us ; he admits that it cannot be owing to the climate, "for the light wines of France find their most valuable markets in the still colder latitudes of Germany and Northern Europe;" he half hints that probably our cookery may require a more stimulant digestive than the cuisine of our continental neighbours, but on this he does not venture to determine; in fact, he does not pretend to account for it in any way, but he simply says, that it is uncontested, that "from a very early period the people of these countries have rejected light wines, and drank only those which, along with high flavour, combined a large proportion of body and spirit." And in further proof of the national taste for strong liquors, he constantly refers to the instance of French brandy, which was not excluded from consumption by a duty of 22s. 10d., and which doubled its consumption, when reduced in 1846 to 15s. a gallon. But this instance of the brandy proves nothing to the purpose; when the price allowed the genuine article to be imported, a less amount of spurious spirits was sold; and again, those who were in the habit of drinking other spirits gave up their gin, or whiskey, or rum, or British brandy, for the pure and genuine French. We have already seen that reductions in the price of wine were followed by increased consumption; moreover, the price of brandy has always brought it much more within the means of the bulk of the community than has ever been the case with wine. A tumbler of brandy punch could always be had at a price for which the quantity of wine that could be got would be quite insignifi

cant.

Neither can we concur with our author as to this fixedness of the national taste in the matter of wine; we read the highest authority on the subject very differently; we refer to Mr. Henderson's work on "Ancient and Modern Wines." He says, "From the preceding details it is manifest that the taste of the English in wine has

varied considerably during the two last centuries. For five or six hundred years the light growths of France and of the banks of the Rhine were imported in larger quantities, while the rich, sweet wines of the Mediterranean and the islands of the Archipelago were held in the highest estimation. Then came the dry wines of Spain, which, for a time, were preferred to all others on account of their strength and durability. At the close of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries, the red growths of the Bordelais were in most urgent demand; but the wars in which the country was then involved put a stop to their importation, and led to the substitution of the rough vintages of Portugal. From the long continued use of these strong, dry wines, which are made doubly strong for the English market, the relish for sweet wines, which was once so prevalent, has gradually declined, and several kinds, such as canary, mountain, &c., which, as several of my readers may be old enough to remember, were drunk very generally by way of morning, but are now scarcely ever met with. Since the peace of 1814, the renewal of our intercourse with the Continent has tended to revive the taste for light wines, and to lessen materially the consumption of the growth of Portugal and Spain." Why then, we ask, should not this "taste for light wines" continue to extend itself, if it were but properly developed? Why should not "the light growths of France and of the banks of the Rhine be imported in largest quantity" once again to our country? Our author himself tells us, that "it is a matter of notoriety that the large consumption of tea and coffee by the middle and lower orders in England has very materially interfered with the use of intoxicating drinks in this country." Is it not too much to

ask us to believe that pure light wine would not be as likely to be substituted for intoxicating drink as tea or coffee, being, as we are convinced it is, a much more wholesome stimulant?

But the argument of our author about the disinclination of our people for light wines serves another purpose. While he admits the vast supply of this description of wine, he says, we would not receive it, and the better classes of wine he conceives to be too limited in supply to be within our reach. The length to which this article has run precludes the possibility of our following our author into this, which is the most interesting part of his work, in which he examines the present sources of supply of wine; we feel entirely convinced, however, that with the market of England open to the Continent, and in the present progressive state of agricultural and scientific knowledge, we could not fail to be, after a little time, abundantly supplied with sound and pure wine: A hundred years ago the district of the Alto Douro, which now supplies Port Wine to the world, was desert and uncultivated. Neither can we now enter into an examination of the effect of the change which we advocate on the public revenue; but this is of less importance as we have avowed that, if the exigencies of war would cease, we risk the loss of revenue to effect an object which we believe to be so desirable, and would supply the deficiency by an increase in the direct taxation. Indeed this, with many other evils connected with our finance, would be dispelled at once if the system of direct taxation, which we recently advocated,* were introduced. At present we can say no more, but again commend Sir James Emerson Tennent's work to all who desire information on the subject of which it treats.

"The War Budget." May, 1855.

THE BATH OF THE STREAMS.

BY DENIS FLORENCE M'CARTHY.

I.

Down unto the ocean,
Trembling with emotion,
Panting at the notion,
See the rivers run;
In the golden weather,
Tripping o'er the heather,
Laughing all together,
Madcaps every one.

II.

Like a troop of girls
In their loosen'd curls,
See the concourse whirls

Onward in their glee ;
List their tuneful tattle,
Hear their pretty prattle,
How they'll love to battle
With the assailing sea.

III.

See the winds pursue them,
See the willows woo them,
See the lakelets view them
Wistfully afar;

With a wistful wonder,
Down the green slopes under,
Wishing too to thunder

O'er their prison bar.

IV.

Wishing too to wander
By the sea-waves yonder,
There awhile to squander

All their silvery stores;
There awhile forgetting
All their vain regretting,
When their foam went fretting
Round the rippling shores.

V.

Round the rocky region,

Whence their prison'd legion,
Oft and oft besieging,

Vainly sought to break

Vainly sought to throw them

O'er the vales below them,

Through the clefts that show them

Paths they dare not take.

VI.

But the swift streams speed them,
In the might of freedom,
Down the paths that lead them
Joyously along;

Blinding green recesses
With their floating tresses,

Cheering wildernesses

With their murmuring song.

VII.

Now the streams are gliding
With a sweet abiding-
Now the streams are hiding

'Mid the whispering reeds—
Now the streams outglancing
With a shy advancing,
Naiad-like go dancing

Down the golden meads

VIII.

Down the golden meadows,
Chasing their own shadows-
Down the golden meadows,
Playing as they run;
Playing with the sedges,
By the water's edges;
Leaping o'er the ledges,

Glistening in the sun.

IX.

Streams and streamlets blending,

Each on each attending,

All together wending,

Seek the silver sands;

Like to sisters holding
With a fond enfolding-
Like to sisters holding
One anothers' bands.

X.

Now with foreheads blushing
With a rapturous flushing-
Now the streams are rushing

In among the waves;

Now in shy confusion,
With a pale suffusion,
Seek the wild seclusion
Of sequestered caves.

XI.

All the summer hours
Hiding in the bowers,
Scattering silver showers

Out upon the strand;
O'er the pebbles crashing,
Through the ripples splashing,
Liquid pearl-wreaths dashing

From each others' hand.

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