ENGLAND. 



545 



13. Food and Drink. The " roast beef of old England " * is indeed a palataole and invig- 

 orating food, and it is a pity that any should want it ; but the laborer who fattens the ox, sel- 

 dom tastes the beef. The poorest of the laborers and manufacturers cannot have in the week 

 as much animal food as the American laborer consumes in a day. In other respects, the kind 

 of food is similar, and the potato is general with both. The price of beef is from 9d. 

 to Is. and 6d. sterling, the pound. Mutton is from Id. to lOt/. Common fowls are from 

 8s. to ] 5s. a pair ; turkeys, 10s. and 9s. each, and geese, 6s. Butter is from Is. to Is. 

 6d. a pound, and eggs are from 20d. to 3s. a dozen. Rabbits are Is. a piece. The common 

 wages of a day laborer are Is. 6d. to 2s. Country wages are by the year : £15 to £20, for 

 men, and for women, from £3 to £9. The wages of manufacturers are much lower. 



The English consume much more animal food than the French, and the number of sheep 

 consumed in London is about three-fourths more than in Paris. The number of rabbits con- 

 sumed is immense ; one person alone, in London, sells 14,000 weekly ; they are sent in from 

 all parts of England. Immense numbers of geese are driven from Lincolnshire. Droves of 2 

 and 3,000 are common, and even 9,000 have been seen in 1 drove. The poor in Eng- 

 land have little beyond the bare necessaries of life, and many are supplied with these by the 

 parishes. In seasons of scarcity, there is, what is never known in the United States, a famine, 

 and riots are the consequence. The lot of the rich is more enviable ; the commerce of Eng- 

 land brings them the productions of every climate, and wealth enables them to rear, even in 

 England, the fruits of the tropics. Turtles are brought from the West Indies, and salmon 

 packed in ice from Ireland and Scotland. The growth of peas and other vegetables is forced 

 in hot-houses, and peas are often sold at a guinea a quart. The best of pine-apples and grapes are 

 produced by careful cultivation. The wines of Portugal are the most used, from the commer- 

 cial relation of the two countries, but all wines are dear. A bottle of the ordinary wine cannot 

 be had for less than a dollar, and the price is often greater. " Superior-London-picked-par- 

 ticular-East-India-Madeira wine " is advertised, and every epithet of it, says Southey, must be 

 paid for. Of course, adulterations must be common, and a brisk business is carried on in 

 making wines of mixtures which are often deleterious. Cider is much used, and in many 

 places it is the common drink. There is a good deal of perry consumed ; but the great na- 

 tional beverage is beer or porter. The quantity made is enormous ; Barclay & Co., alone, 

 successors to Thrale, pay to the excise £400,000 yearly. Besides the public breweries, 

 every good housewife lias the art of making good beer.f The laboring classes dine at 1 o'clock, 

 but the dinner hours of the higher orders are 5, 6, 7, and 8. 



14. Diseases. Consumptions are frequent, and dj'spepsia, with its train of hypochondria, 

 more so. It is the Englishman's malady. The gout is perhaps more common than in any 

 other country. There are few diseases of a malignant type, and a great many people live 

 to the greatest age of man . 



15. Traveling. An Englishman is excusable for complaining of the inconveniences of 

 traveling in other countries, and he siiould be allowed some license to abuse the accommoda- 

 tions for travelers in the United States. In England, the roads are excellent, the coaches 

 easy, the speed great, and the inns of more excellence, than is found in any other country. 

 The houses for these are commodious, the furniture good, the servants quick and attentive, and 

 the host civil and obliging. All this is crowned with the neatness and propriety of arrange- 



* The beef of England has its reputation from compar- 

 ison with that of the continent, which is greatly inferior. 

 It is also better than the average of the beef in the United 

 States ; but the best beef in England is in no respect su- 

 perior, and probably not quite equal, to the best beef of the 

 United States. 



t Till the reign of William and Mary, ale was the com- 

 mon beverage of the laboring class ; but an act for the en- 

 couragement of distillation increased the consumption of 

 ardent spirits so much, that it was necessary to restrain it 

 by another law, and the evil continued till 17.51, before 

 which, says Smollett, '• such a shameful degree of profli- 

 gacy prevailed, that the retailers of this poisonous com- 

 pound (gin) set up painted boards in public, inviting the 

 people to be drunk for the small expense of a pen ny, assuring 

 them, that they might be dead drunk fur two pence, and 

 have straw to lie on till they recovered, for nothing." In 

 1827, the restrictions on the sale of gin were removed, and 



69 



the consumption of it increased, in 2 years, 12,000,000 of 

 gallons. The excessive consumption of this deleterious 

 drug is indeed a curse to England, and the sheriff of Lon- 

 don and Middlesex declared, that he had so long been in 

 the habit of hearing criminals refer all their miseries to 

 this, that he had ceased to ask the cause of their ruin. 

 Were any new and unknown cause to arise and produce 

 the same ruin upon body and soul, that ardent spirit pro- 

 duces in England and the United States, it would break 

 down the pillars of society, and men would flee to the 

 woods and mountains to escape what is more terrible than 

 cholera or plague, inasmuch as the power of these ex- 

 tends to the destruction only of life. 



There are Temperance Societies lately organized in 

 England, which have distributed 100,000 tracts, and the 

 government no longer furnishes the soldier with spirits 

 throughout the provinces, but gives him in place of it a 

 penny a day. 



