514 Transactions of the 



come to search the records in reference to the amount of alcoholic bev- 

 erages that are consumed in the world to see the summing up. Statis- 

 tics taken from a work published by Samuel Morewood, of London, 

 Surveyor of Excise in eighteen hundred and twenty-four, gives the fol- 

 lowing information (the book is dedicated to Frederick John Eobinson, 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer): In seventeen hundred and eighty-seven, 

 France freighted thirty-two vessels, and imported into England two 

 million four hundred thousand gallons of brandy, and most of this was 

 smuggled. The Dutch distilleries produced annually, in seventeen hun- 

 dred and seventy-four, fourteen million gallons of gin; lour million five 

 hundred and sixty thousand of which were consumed in their own coun- 

 try. In Denmark, in e ghteen hundred, Copenhagen annually produced 

 spirits amounting to two million three hundred and forty-seven thou- 

 sand eight hundred and rift}' gallons. At Hensburg, two hundred stills 

 were employed, and the produce was sent to Iceland and Norway. Eus- 

 sia distilled annually twenty-seven million gallons of brandy. This is a 

 Government monopoly. These are but a few statistics. Startling and 

 enormous as that of Kussia may appear, it may be but small compared 

 to that distilled at present, for these statistics were published forty-eight 

 years ago. I have quoted sufficient to show the quantity of spirits that 

 is distilled in but a few places, ami the necessity for active measures to 

 be taken to stop its use. Here we wine growers and wine makers come 

 in. as temperance men (the real Simon Dure) to the rescue. This can 

 only be done by giving to the world a substitute for the villainous com- 

 pounds that are sold as fine liquors. And California is willing and ready 

 to do so. I have not the slightest doubt that this State is destined to 

 accomplish this ameliorating influence, just as she has accomplished 

 others by the discovery of the precious metals in her soil, both of which 

 will have a deep and widely extended influence among the nations 0*f 

 many climes. 



Come, then, with us, ye Solons of the land, and help us to spread the 

 genial influence of our wholesome wines: 



" The ruby clow that 'stills 

 Upon Val d'Arnois hills, 

 Touching the sense with odor so divine 

 That not the violet, 

 It- lips with morning wet, 

 Utters such sweetness from her little shrine. 

 When I drink of it I rise 

 O'er the hill that makes all poets wise; 

 And in my voice and in my song 

 Grow so sweet and grow so strong, 

 I challenge Phoebus with his Delphic eyes ! 

 Give mo then from a golden measure 

 The ruby that is my treasure, my treasure ! " 



When wo - speak of wine, we mean wine old and insinuating, that 

 gradually finds its way into the stomach, leaving behind as it goes its 

 delicious flavor and rich bouquet. " Good wine needs no bush."' This is 

 an old proverb, and originated in a custom in wine growing countries in 

 Europe of placing a bunch of evergreens over the entrance of the house 

 where wine was sold. A certain bishop, who was fond of good wine, 

 instructed his valet, who traveled through Italy in advance of him, to 

 mark under the bush "Est" ("It is'') if the wine was good, ami "Est, est" 

 when it was very good, and when he found it indifferent he should not 

 write anything. Now I wish every Californian to bear in mind that his 

 wine should come up to the standard of " Est, est, ("It is, it is") good 



