14 BREWING. [No. 



or a new system must be adopted ; and the nation will 

 not sink into nothingness. The malt now pays a tax 

 of 4s. 6d* a bushel, and the barley costs only 3s. 

 This brings the bushel of malt to Ss. including the 

 maltster's charge for malting. If the tax were taken 

 off the malt, malt would be sold, at the present price 

 of barley, for about 3s. 3d. a bushel ; because a bushel 

 of barley makes more than a bushel of malt, and the 

 tax, besides its amount, causes great expenses of va- 

 rious sorts to the maltster. The hops pay a tax of 

 2cZ.f a pound ; and a bushel of malt requires, in ge- 

 neral, a pound of hops ; if these two taxes were taken 

 off, therefore, the consumption of barley and of hops 

 would be exceedingly increased ; for double the pre- 

 sent quantity would be demanded, and the land is 

 always ready to send it forth. 



22. It appears impossible that the landlords should 

 much longer submit to these intolerable burdens on 

 their estates. In short, they must get off the malt tax, 

 or lose those estates. They must do a great deal 

 more, indeed ; but that they must do at any rate. The 

 paper-money is fast losing its destructive power ; and 

 things are, with regard to the labourers, coming back 

 to what they were forty years ago, and therefore we 

 may prepare for the making of beer in our own houses, 

 and take leave of the poisonous stuff served out to us 

 by common brewers. We may begin immediately ; 

 for, even at present prices, home-brewed beer is the 

 cheapest drink that a family can use, except milk, and 

 milk can be applicable only in certain cases. 



23. The drink which has come to supply the place 

 of beer has, in general, been tea. It is notorious that 

 tea has no useful strength in it; that it contains 

 nothing nutritious ; that it, besides being good for 

 nothing, has badness in it, because it is well known 

 to produce want of sleep in many cases, and in all 

 cases, to shake and weaken the nerves. It is, in fact, 

 a weaker kind of laudanum, which enlivens for the 

 moment and deadens afterwards. At any rate it com- 



* 4s. 6d. English, equal to one dollar. 

 t 2d, English, equal to four cents, nearly. 



