268 THE MALT TAX 



standing several more recent Acts, adulteration is as rampant 

 to-day as it was when this report was drawn up. 



It is true that a later Select Committee of both Houses 

 reported in 1874 that the Adulteration Act of 1872 had done 

 much good, but they also said that the Acts of 1860 and 1872 

 should be consolidated and amended. The last paragraph 

 of this 1874 report runs : 



" In conclusion, your Committee believe it will afford some 

 consolation to the public to know that in the matter of adultera- 

 tion they are cheated rather than poisoned . . . and that 

 if deleterious substances are occasionally employed for the 

 purposes of adulteration they are used in such minute quantities 

 as to be comparatively harmless. Your Committee believe that 

 it is the intention of Parliament that consumers should be pro- 

 tected from frauds, and that they should be enabled to procure 

 the articles they ask for and require. . . ." 



An attempt was made in the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 

 1875, to give effect to this paragraph by the words of Sec. 6 : 

 " No person shall sell to the prejudice of the purchaser any 

 article of food* or any drug which is not of the nature, 

 substance and quality of the article demanded by such 

 purchaser. . . ." 



In 1855 Lord Tennyson wrote in " Maud " 



"But these are the days of advance, the works of the men of 



mind, 

 When who but a fool would have faith in a tradesman's 



ware or his word ? 



Is it peace or war ? Civil war, as I think, and that of a kind 

 The viler, as underhand, not openly bearing the sword. 



" And the vitriol madness flushes up in the ruffian's head, 



And the filthy by -lane rings to the yell of the trampled wife, 

 And chalk and alum and plaster are sold to the poor for bread, 

 And the spirit of murder works in the very means of life. 



"And sleep must lie down arm'd, for the villainous centre-bits 

 Grind on the wakeful ear in the hush of the moonless nights, 

 While another is cheating the sick of a few last gasps, as he sits 

 To pestle a poison' d poison behind his crimson lights." 



In introducing the Inland Revenue Bill in 1880 Mr. Glad- 

 stone dilated at length on the pitiable condition to which 



deception of any substance or substances the presence of which is 

 not acknowledged in the name under which the article is sold." 

 * The word " food " in this Act included " drink." 



