PRIVATE BREWING IN TOWNS. 339 



mercial country, to be within the compass of their 

 means. Why tea should be three times dearer in 

 this than in other trading countries, I see no legiti- 

 mate reason; unless it be such to favour a mono- 

 poly, contemporaneously with which, but not through 

 which, British commerce has flourished. This is a 

 subject, however, on which writers may spare their 

 labour. The people will not leave off tea-drinking. 



Another bootless topic is the declamation against 

 the potatoe-root, beyond question the most valuable 

 of all edible roots, and the only efficient substitute 

 for bread. Men will declaim Preserve me from a 

 potatoe-fed population ! Amen and from a bread 

 and water-fed population likewise. But either bread 

 or potatoes, indifferently, substantiated with a quan- 

 tum sufficit of flesh meat, will amply and sufficiently 

 feed any population. In the mean time, the quali- 

 ties of the potatoe have been greatly overrated by our 

 modern chemical theorists. 



In towns, it cannot be rationally expected that 

 the PRIVATE BREWERY should prevail in an equal 

 degree with the country ; least of all in the metro- 

 polis, including people of every rank. There i^ 

 neither sufficient room, nor leisure, nor necessity, 

 for the practice. There are, furthermore, greater 

 incitements in towns for the purchase of beer, in 

 the density of society, the proximity of numbers of 

 public-houses, and the superior quality of the beer 

 to be obtained. These reasons must always operate 

 against private brewing in the metropolis, and the 

 populous manufacturing districts of the country. 



The periods of war and scarcity, when the price 

 Q 2 



