292 QUALITY EFFECTS ON THE LABOURERS. 



mawkish, ill-flavoured balderdash, to use a vulgar 

 phrase, which experience has rendered but too ap- 

 propriate, of the true rot-gut quality. 



In justice to the common brewers, it must be 

 acknowledged that, on the occasion of a fall in the 

 price of malt, they have customarily improved the 

 quality of their beer. The origin of the grievance 

 may doubtless be traced to excessive taxation, which, 

 so materially enhancing the first cost of malt, must 

 also operate considerably in prevention of that part 

 of the labouring classes, disposed to brew their own 

 beer, from so doing ; since the wages of the labourer, 

 the agricultural more especially, are seldom permit- 

 ted to have their spontaneous and independent rise, 

 in proportion with the advance of the first necessa- 

 ries. The natural, indeed unavoidable, consequence 

 is, a resort to the public-house, where habits of 

 society are acquired, seldom to be afterwards eradi- 

 cated ; and enjoyments experienced of a very differ- 

 ent nature and consequence to those which a man 

 finds in a sober and economical home. 



In this introductory part of the subject of private 

 brewing, I feel it necessary to remark on the usual 

 mode of treating it ; and on the, in my estimation, 

 rather too sanguine expectations of its advocates, 

 who appear to entertain hopes of inducing, by their 

 arguments, almost every family, without distinction 

 or exception, to brew their own beer. My aim is, 

 to separate the declamatory and impracticable from 

 the rational and useful ; to address the soundest 

 and best of those instructions, with which long ex- 



