ILLICIT SALE OP METHYLATED SPIRIT. 
429 
At the Honvich works the fuel was tested against coal under the boiler there. This 
was done on two consecutive days, the fire having on each occasion been raked out the 
night previous. . , H ,, . _, 
The following results were obtained :—Coal got up steam to 10 lb. pressure in _ horns 
25 minutes, and to 25 lb. pressure in 3 hours ; peat fuel got up steam to 10 lb. in 1 hour 
10 minutes, and to 25 in 1 hour 32 minutes; 21 cwt. of coal maintained steam at 30 lb. 
pressure for 9 
| hours 
Hi cw t. of peat fuel maintained steam at the same pressure for 
But in addition to tins a large economy is effected by the use of peat fuel for the 
generation of steam in the saving of boilers and fire-bars from the destruction caused by 
the sulphur in coal, from which peat is free. In Bavaria, peat mel has been used on t e 
railways for several years past, and the economy effected by its use in the wear and tear 
of the engines is stated by the officials in their reports to be very considerable. 
The bogs of Great Britain and Ireland cover an area exceeding five millions of acres, 
the average depth of which may be taken at twenty feet. Nature has thus supplied us 
with the means of adding to our stock of fuel some twenty thousand millions of tons. 
In Ireland, about a million and a half of acres have been thoroughly surveyed. In the 
reports of these surveys it is stated that beneath the peat an excellent soil, well situated 
for drainage, was found fit for arable or pasture land. When it is considered what peat 
is capable of doing, and all the results involved in the question of utilizing peat, it is im¬ 
possible not to feel impressed with the conviction that in what has been accomplished at 
Honvich, the foundation has been laid of an undertaking of great national importance 
and interest. 
ILLICIT SALE OF METHYLATED SPIRIT. 
The following case is reported in the ‘ Preston Herald,’ December 30:— 
At the Preston Police Court on Thursday (before Paul Catterall, Peter Catterall, and 
S. Smith, EsqsA Mr. James Alexander Bell, druggist, etc., formerly of the corner of 
Walker Street Friargate, and now of North Road, and a noted dealer in “ Indian Brandee 
and Indian Whiskee,” was charged with the following“ That you, after the passing 
of a certain Act of Parliament, made and passed in the year of- our Lord 1861, and in¬ 
tituled ‘An Act to amend the laws relating to the Inland Revenue,’ and within six 
calendar months before the exhibiting an information of the charge, to wit, on the ord 
day of August, 1865, to wit, at Friargate, in the borough of Preston you not being a 
distiller or rectifier of spirits, or other person duly authorized or specially licensed by the 
Commissioners of Inland Revenue to mix and make methylated spirit, sold, to wit, to 
William Lane, certain methylated spirits, without having in force a licence in that be¬ 
half granted under the authority of the said Act, contrary to the form of the statute m 
that case made and provided, whereby and by force of the statutes m that case made 
and provided you have for your such offence forfeited £50; and it is further alleged 
that you, after the passing of the said Act, and within six calendar months before the 
day of exhibiting the said information, to wit, on the day and year aforesaid, to wit, at 
Friargate aforesaid, in the borough of Preston, sold certain methylated spirits, to wit, to 
the said William Lane, as and for a beverage, contrary to the form of the statute in that 
case made and provided, whereby, and by force of the statute in that case made and 
provided, you have for your such offence forfeited the further sum oi.£lQ0. 
This charge having been read to the defendant, he said : “ I deny it altogether ; there 
is no truth in it. We have never had methylated spirit in our place for six or seven 
years. I can prove that abundantly.” ., ,, . 
Mr. Watson who conducted the case for the Inland Revenue authorities, said that 
prior to the year 1855 it was not permissible to use anything in the shape of spirits of 
wine without paving heavy duty ; but this was found to bear heavily upon manufac¬ 
turers and it led to the passing of a statute in 1855, which allowed a mixture of spirit 
of wine methylated liquor, to be used in arts and manufactures. The section stating 
this then went on to say that it shall be used “ as such commissioners shall from tune 
to time approve, order, and directand for the satisfaction of such commissioners t e 
persons who used it “shall render such spirit unfit for use as a beverage. I hat was 
