tlie Strengths and Values of Spifitumis Liquors. 209 



the subject ; and, if it be not presumptuous in us to make 

 the assertion, they stand strongly, confirmed by our own 

 experiments with respect to these matters. 



It appears, therefore, at first sight, rather extraordinarv 

 that a work which does so . much honour to the country 

 should not be more generally known and understood than 

 this is; and is, perhaps, only to be attributed to two causes. 



Firstjy, The arrangement of -the tables is confessedly in- 

 convenient : the entering, them with the quantities of spirit 

 and water by weight, (a proportion which is in no case the 

 primary result of an experiment for the examination of a 

 spirituous compound, and can only be deduced from calcu- 

 lation founded on its specific gravity and temperature), reu7 

 ders tlieni ill adapted to general purposes. 



Secondly, They are calculated on the supposition that 

 the recommendation of sir Charles Blagden, to consider 

 alcohol of the specific. gravity of 825 at 6o° as the true and 

 only exciseable matter, .would be adopted by the orovern- 

 inent ; and though .they therefore give the equivalertt quan- 

 tities of spirit of this kind to the respective quantities of 

 the several compounds which are there mentioned, yet 

 they do not give the equivalent quantities of the present 

 proof. 



Though it is with diffidence that the authors of this tract 

 venture to differ from those gentlemen who have already 

 displayed in the above work so intimate an acquaintance 

 with the subject, yet they cannot help saying, that, from 

 the opportunities which they have had of observing the 

 practical course of this business, they have always rather 

 been of opinion that it would be more convenient to fix on 

 some strength which most frequently occurs in commerce 

 as the standard for that of spirituous liquors in general, than 

 one which considerably differs from that of those usually 

 found in the market. It is a new race of men w'ho can 

 alone derive advantage from improvements founded on any 

 eonsiderable innovation in habits or modes of thinking ; an(l 

 they arc therefore always accompanied with practical incon- 

 veniences and errors, which their authors did not consider 

 them as likely to be productive of. The thing in Itself is 

 arbitrary : but so are our weights and measures, and mo- 

 nies of account ; and yet what confusion should we create 

 amongst busy, bustling, ignorant men, if we were to abq- 

 hsli our present system, and introduce new ones ! It ap- 

 pears, therefore, to the writers of this essay, that the most 

 convenient dcfrree of strength which caij be assumed as a 



Vol. XVIITNo. Q', standard 



