1 8 . Agricultural Intelligence — Scotland. 461. 



It is to be hoped, that Government will adopt early and effedual 

 meafures this feafon, to -ward off the prefTure to be dreaded by the 

 fcarcity to be cxpefked from the failure of the prefent crop. Im- 

 portation is expenfive, owing to the fucceflivc and accumulated 

 profits always derived from grain, by every hand through which it 

 muft pafs, before it can reach the confumer- Importation may 

 eventually prove extremely precarious and uncertain, by the failure 

 of crops in other countries, of which our experience, laft feafon, 

 is an irrefragable proof. Why not do the bell we can at home, and 

 hufband the grain we have, with the molt prudent economy ? 



Government did, laft feafon, adopt the expedient, which they had 

 formerly fallen upon in fimilar cafes, and which they may probably 

 think upon again in the prefent fituation of the country, to prohibit 

 ths di/lillation of grain into fpirits. This expedient is well meant ; 

 but it is only doing things by halves, or rather doing nothing at 

 all, when you take the lofs of revenue into the account. 



So long as there is an unbounded licenfe to malt, all the reftric- 

 tions to diftil, are nugatory and ineffeclual. Lait feafon, almoft the 

 whole of our home-grown batley, and a great deal of our imported 

 barley, was converted into malt, and every perfon in this part of 

 the kingdom, even every fchool-boy, knows that four fifths of this 

 malt was made into wbiiky, in fpite of all reftridlions to the con- 

 trary, and in abfolute defiance of law. Government did not, per- 

 haps, forefee this malverfation, occafioned by a coUufion between 

 the maltfters and the fmugglers ; and, therefore, they ftand excufed" 

 by every vvell-difpofed man. Thofe at the helm of affairs, to 

 whom we look up v/ith anxiety for relief, no doubt expefted that 

 malting might go on, and, at the fame time, that it was poflible 

 to fupprefs diftillation. But every time they have calculated on 

 this poffibility, it has failed ; and if they fliould try the fame expe- 

 dient fifty times, it will fail as often. 



It is fo eafy to elude the law in this refpeft, that no human pru- 

 dence, no human fanftions, can guard againft the trefpafs. Allow 

 me to malt to any extent I pleafe, and to difpofe pf that malt to 

 whom I pleafe ; having fufi'icient capital, I engage fifty, or as many 

 hundreds of pennylefs beggars, who underftand diftillation ; I pro- 

 vide them with money, to purchafe apparatus on a fmall fcale ; I 

 fell them malt ; they retire mto woods and dens, and the crevices 

 of rocks ; into iflands, and ftqucftered glens and mountains. If 

 they are feized by the officers of excife, and fucd b'ifore the Juftice, 

 they have nothing to lofe ; if they efcape, which is often the cafe, 

 1 receive their fpirits in exchange for my malt, and by this gainful 

 nefarious traffic, I make cent, per cent, of my money, as 1 pay' 

 no duty but that for malting, and a trifle to thefe lawiefs hireling.-. 



P p 2 Thi3 



