36 SPIRITS IN U. STATES AND ENGLAND. 



are, in fact, deprived of bread by this satisfactory distribution of 

 the national wealth !" to say nothing of its wretched and destructive 

 effects ; or, to use more apt words, the poverty of less advanced pe- 

 riods of civilization /" 



The beer manufactured in Great Britain and Ireland, according to 

 the returns of 1830, which are the last, was over 9,500,000 barrels ! 

 or 342,000,000 gallons (!) the proportion for Ireland being estimated at 

 one million of barrels, or 36,000,000 of gallons. In view of such facts, 

 another eminent British writer says, Barley ranks, in importance, 

 next to wheat, as affording an innocent and invigorating fermented 

 liquor." 



Besides this there were imported into G. Britain, in 1840, 8,518,489 

 gallons of wine, 6,451,743 of which were retained for home consump- 

 tion. There was also imported during the same year 8,011,017 galls. 

 of ardent spirits. If these amounts be added to the foregoing, viz : 

 9,500,000 barrels, or 342,000,000 gallons of ale, beer and porter made 

 and sold in Great Britain and Ireland, as per returns of 1830, the re- 

 sult is (deducting, say two million gallons of spirits for exportation,) 

 354,462,750 gallons ! of these alcoholic liquors drank there annually ! 

 But this does not include the large quantities of gin, wine and rum, 

 manufactured throughout the kingdom, or the many thousands of pri 

 vate breweries. 



But whatever may be said of the use of malt liquors in such vast 

 quantities, or whatever the motive may have been for remarks like those 

 we have quoted, and others of a similar kind, it cannot be denied that 

 in a country where, as we have shown, land is so scarce and valuable 

 where millions of people are suffering for bread, an immense wrong 

 is done by the continuance of such a state of things. Beer, 

 ale and porter are, intoxicating drinks, the effects of which are 

 scarcely less baneful than those of ardent spirits. Besides, it might 

 be very difficult to discover where the invigorating" qualities of beer 

 are to be found, since it is known that beer does not contain a fourth 

 part of the nutritive matter contained in the barley, itself not so nutri- 

 tive a grain as others. 



The melancholy picture presented by a late Parliamentary Report, 

 from a " Committee on drunkenness," might have been so much more 

 deeply toned by a consideration of the evils arising from the use of 

 malt liquors, that we are not surprised that the inquiry was limited to 

 ardent spirits, in the common acceptation of that term. It has, how- 

 ever, been well suggested by Dr. Bell of Philadelphia, that " they 

 feared either to shock popular prejudices, or to exhibit a state of things 

 which might lead to the diminution of his Majesty's excise." If," 

 continues that writer, the inquiry had been extended in the manner 

 suggested, (by the chairman of that committee) it would have brought 

 to light, or rather put on a more formal record, a series of evils to indi- 



