238 PRIVATE DISTILLATION. 



less number of holy days enjoined by the Church of Rome 

 bring the parties into frequent collision, it is not wonderful 

 that disastrous consequences ensue. Maddened by whisky, 

 the national pugnacity bursts forth, old injuries are remem- 

 bered, the worst passions are called into action, and loss of 

 life is too commonly the result. 



That any competent moral remedy can be employed to 

 check these barbarisms, is hopeless, while the present destruc- 

 tive system of private distillation is encouraged by the landlord 

 and abetted by the revenue. The landlord is the chief delin- 

 quent for owing to abominable jobbing, the monies taken 

 from the public purse, and intended to open a communication 

 between this wild country and the more inhabited districts, 

 have been scandalously malversated, and lavished upon useless 

 works, merely to reward favouritism, or benefit agents and 

 dependents. No serviceable attempts have been made to 

 facilitate the transport of grain from the mountains to those 

 towns from whence it could be sent abroad ; and hence, the 

 only markets which could be legitimately and beneficially re- 

 sorted to by the peasantry, are, from want of means of egress 

 from the highlands, embargoed to these hapless people. Left 

 to their own resources, what can this wretched population do ? 

 At the mercy of hireling drivers and cold-hearted agents, they 

 are required* on a given day to produce the rent honestly 

 if they can but to produce it. To convey their miserable 

 grain crop to a distant market, would greatly abate the 

 amount of the sale, by the expence and difficulty attendant 

 upon the carriage. An easier mode of disposing of it is pre- 

 sented. The still is substituted for the market ; and hence, 

 three parts of the corn grown in these bogs and hills are 

 converted into whisky. 



At first sight, the advantages of private distillation appear 

 immense. The grain will realize nearly three times the price 

 that it would have produced if sold for exportation ; but when 

 the demoralization, and waste, and ulterior risk are consi- 

 dered, the imaginary profits are far overbalanced by the 

 certain or contingent losses which attend it. 



From the moment that the grain is first wetted to the 

 time the spirit has been doubled, the ordinary habits of the 

 peasant are interrupted. Night and day, he must be on the 

 alert and if there were no greater penalty beyond the un- 

 bidden visits of every idle blackguard who drops in to taste 



