Sei'TEMber 9, 1909] 



NATURE' 



309 



k-ish whiskey was to be made from a mixture of 75 

 per cent, of barley malt, with 25 per cent, of barley, 

 wheat, oats or rye, or any of them ; whereas Scotch 

 whiskey was to be made wholly from barley malt. He 

 specifically excluded maize, which is frequently used in 

 connection with the patent still, as a cereal from which 

 whiskey may be made. Accordingly he convicted the 

 defendants as having sold articles to the prejudice of 

 the purchaser. 



Attempts were made to upset the convictions by 

 appeals to quarter sessions, but the trials proved abor- 

 tive. Whiskey manufacturers toolc a very serious 

 view of the position in which they were thus placed, 

 and eventually they induced the authorities to issue a 

 Royal Commission to determine whether, in the 

 general interest of the consumer, or in the interest 

 of the public health, or otherwise, it is desirable (a) 

 to place restrictions upon the materials or the pro- 

 cesses which may be used in the manufacture or pre- 

 paration in the United Kingdom of Scotch whiskey, 

 Irish whiskey, or any spirit to which the term whiskey 

 may be applied as a trade description ; (b) to require 

 declarations to be made as to the materials, processes 

 of manufacture or preparation, or age of any such 

 spirit ; (c) to require a minimum period during which 

 any such spirit should be matured in bond; (d) to 

 extend any requirements of the kind mentioned in 

 (b) and (c) to any such spirit imported into the United 

 Kingdom ; and, lastly, to make the like inquiry as 

 regards other kinds of potable spirits which are manu- 

 factured in or imported into the United Kingdom. 



It should be stated that the terms of the reference 

 relating to public health arose from the character of 

 the evidence needed to establish the count of " pre- 

 judice to the consumer," without which it would have 

 been impossible to have obtained a conviction under 

 Section 6 of the Food and Drugs Acts. 



The real nature of the issues to be determined was 

 at once seen from the character of the criticisms which 

 were passed, mainly by Irish distillers or their repre- 

 sentatives, on the constitution of the Commission. As 

 a fact, the personnel of the Commission was very 

 carefully chosen, and every legitimate interest was 

 adequately represented. The printed evidence proves 

 how competent the members were to inquire into the 

 somewhat complicated questions which were raised, 

 and how carefully and how impartially they sifted and 

 weighed the statements of avowedly interested wit- 

 nesses. It was, of course, to be expected that their 

 findings would not give universal satisfaction, but 

 every fair-minded critic will admit that they have 

 been arrived at in good faith, and are abundantly 

 justified by the weight of the evidence. 



As regards the materials to be used in the manu- 

 facture of whiskey, the commissioners find no ground 

 for any interference with existing practice. The con- 

 tention that Irish or Scotch whiskey should alone be 

 produced from cereals actually grown in those respec- 

 tive countries, or even from cereals capable of being 

 grown there, found no favour in their eyes. Of course, 

 the contention was really aimed at the exclusion of 

 maize, which is largely used in the manufacture of 

 patent-still spirit. The commissioners see no valid 

 reason for excluding maize. There is no evidence to 

 show that it is not a perfectly wholesome material, 

 or that the spirit derived from it is not as wholesome 

 as that derived from any other cereal. 



Nor as regards processes of manufacture, that is, 

 modes of distillation does ;'ny sufficient ground exist, 

 in the opinion of I'le commissioners, for any inter- 

 ference with est 'b'ished o-ooodure. To have sup- 

 ported Mr. Fordham's flnr'mg would have effected 

 nothing short of a rf^volu'lon in the manufacture of 

 -whiskey, inasmuch as near'v two-thirds of the potable 

 NO. 2080, VOL. 81] 



spirits produced at the present time in Scotland and 

 Ireland are distilled in patent stills. Moreover, spirit 

 produced in the patent still has long been employed 

 for blending with or diluting whiskeys distilled in 

 other forms of still, and most of the whiskey now- 

 sold in the United Kingdom contains more or less 

 spirit which has been obtained by the patent still. 

 Lastly, no evidence was tendered to show that the 

 form of still had any necessary relation to the whole- 

 someness of the spirit produced. 



Suggestions were made to tire Commission either to 

 " standardise " the mash or to " standardise " the 

 blend with a view of ensuring that at least a certain 

 minimum proportion of pot-still whiskey should ulti- 

 mately find its way into the whiskey as sold, but here 

 again the commissioners saw no reason to interfere 

 with the discretion of the blender. In their opinion 

 " the proportion of the different whiskeys to be 

 employed in these blends is controlled by an influence 

 stronger than that of the law. The taste of the con- 

 sumer creates the demand which ultimately controls 

 the trade. The public purchases the whiskey that 

 meets its taste, and the blender must satisfy that taste 

 or lose his trade. It is not for the State to say what 

 that taste ought to be." 



The general conclusion which the commissioners 

 came to was that " ' whiskey ' is a spirit obtained by 

 distillation from a mash of cereal grains saccharified 

 by the diastase of malt ; that ' Scotch whiskey ' is 

 whiskey, as above defined, distilled in Scotland ; and 

 that ' Irish whiskey ' is whiskey, as above defined, 

 distilled in Ireland." It is difficult to see how the 

 commissioners could have escaped reaching this 

 luminous and oracular conclusion. At the same time, 

 to the scoffer the whole business is eminently sugges- 

 tive of one of Molifere's comedies. Monsieur Jourdain 

 would have been profoundly impressed by the strict 

 logic and admirable lucidity of such a finding. 



After this the question of brandy, as may be antici- 

 pated, presented little or no difficulty. The commis- 

 sioners define brandy as a potable spirit manufactured 

 from fermented grape-juice, and from no other 

 materials, and that the determination of the applica- 

 tion of the term in this country cannot be con- 

 trolled by the nature of the apparatus or process used 

 in the distillation of the spirit. They are further of 

 opinion that the compounded spirit long recognised by 

 the name of British brandy is entitled still to be so 

 named and sold as " British brandy." 



The limitations of space preclude any attempts to 

 deal with the other and less important matters dealt 

 with in this report, but the general tenor of the con- 

 clusions in respect to these is on a par with the 

 laissez-aller tone which pervades the whole. 



As might have been expected, the report has not 

 been received with a unanimous chorus of approval, 

 and the Irish distillers, in particular, have not been 

 slow to express their dissatisfaction. But it is to be 

 hoped that on reflection even they will be led to the 

 conviction that the conclusions to which the commis- 

 sioners have been led represent the common-sense of 

 the question. The conflict of the stills is one more 

 illustration of the inevitable result of what is called 

 the " march of improvement " in which a time- 

 honoured process has eventually to succumb, by the 

 mere force of circumstances, to the economic pressure 

 of a mode of manufacture based upon more rational 

 principles. The commissioners have evidently been 

 fully alive to this aspect of the problem which has 

 been presented to them. At all events, they have 

 shown themselves as not unmindful of the advice of 

 the old merchant, who, being consulted by Colbert 

 about what he should do in favour of trade, said, 

 " Laissez nous jaire." T. 



