One of the most striking results of fiscal
legislation, has been the rapid increase in the
consumption of ardent spirits in this country,
attended by a proportionate decline in the
use of wines, especially of those of a light
and harmless description. In Hollingshed's
Chronicles, we find it stated that, in the reign
of Henry the Sixth, there were at one time in
the river Thames, as many as four hundred
vessels laden with French wines for the use
of Englishmen of all ranks, even to the
peasantry. If we refer to statistical records
of a more recent period, we shall there learn
that the use of wine was far more general in
those days, than at the present moment.
Looking to three distinct periods, namely, the
years 1795, 1803, and 1825, we observe that
the consumption of wines of all sorts in each
of those twelve mouths, amounted as nearly
as possible to eight millions of gallons; yet
the number of persons drinking those wines
varied very greatly. For, in the first-named
period, the entire population of Great Britain
and Ireland was no more than about thirteen
millions: at the second period it amounted
to fifteen millions; in 1825 it had increased
to twenty-one millions. Last year, with a
population of more than twenty-seven millions,
we did not consume more than six millions of
gallons; that is, just three-fourths of the
quantity used by the thirteen millions of 1795!

It is, moreover, stated, that in the reign of
Charles the Second, our ancestors contrived to
drink, annually, forty thousand tuns of French
wine: a quantity very nearly approaching
our total consumption of wines of all sorts,
in the present day. Besides this quality, there
were then consumed upwards of fifty thousand
tuns of other sorts, and that, too, at a time
when our population did not exceed five
millions! But it should be borne in mind,
that at the period last named, the import
duty upon wines of all sorts was not more
than fourpence the gallon; since then, it
has been gradually raised to the enormous
amount of nineteen shillings and eightpence,
though, in more recent times, again reduced
to five shillings and ninepence. This goes far
to account for the altered position of the wine
trade of the country; and, when we bear in
mind, also, that while the more wholesome
liquids have been thus heavily taxed, spirits
have been favoured with comparatively easy
burdens, our surprise will cease. The duty on
English gin is at the rate of one shilling and
threepence-halfpenny the bottle; that on
Scotch whiskey, sevenpence-halfpenny; on
Irish whiskey, only fivepence farthing; while
wine of not more than one-twelfth the strength
of the latter, pays at the rate of elevenpence-
halfpenny the bottle; a duty amounting to
from twenty-two to six hundred and sixty per
cent, on the value of the article.

With these plain facts staling us in the face,
we cannot be surprised at learning that, in
Scotland, the use of spirits averages three
gallons per annum to each inhabitant, and for
the whole of the United Kingdom rather
more than one gallon to each person, while
our consumption of wines does not average
quite one fourth of a gallon.

Contrasting this state of things with that
across the British Channel, we find Paris
alone consuming nearly twenty-six millions of
gallons of wine; and the entire quantity
drank in one year in France, gives quite
nineteen gallons to each individual, or more
than seventy times the consumption of
Englishmen.

It must have been the knowledge of some
of these startling facts, which, in the early
part of this present year, moved the House
of Commons to appoint a committee of inquiry
upon the " wine duties." This committee sat
very perseveringly during several mouths,
examining not less than forty witnesses—nearly
all directly interested in the wine trade—and
eliciting from them some very curious details
connected with the production and sale of
wines and spirits. This evidence is now
before us in the shape of two thick octavo
blue books; and from the six thousand and
odd questions and answers contained in the
twelve hundred and odd pages of these
volumes, we propose placing before the reader
the pith and marrow of the facts elicited
during the investigation.

The main object of the promoter of this
inquiry appears to have been to ascertain,
from persons thoroughly conversant with the
various branches of the manufacture and
trade in wines, if a reduction of our present
import duty to a duty of a shilling a gallon
would so stimulate the consumption of wines
in this country, as eventually to make up a
revenue equal to that at present derived from
the same source; and whether, if this were
possible, the vine-growing countries of
continental Europe were in a position to produce
he large additional quantity of wine thus
required.

Perhaps the most interesting portion of
the evidence is that which relates to the
chartered monopoly of the Oporto dealers,
known as the Alto Douro Company, by means
of which the supply of Port wines to this
market is kept at the lowest possible
amount, and at the highest possible price.
During the seventeenth and the early part of
the eighteenth century, the supply of Portugal
wines ranged from one million to three millions
of gallons yearly. About the middle of the
latter century—that is, just one hundred years
ago,—this monopoly was established, avowedly
for the prevention of adulteration, but really
for the maintenance of monopoly prices. And
so nicely have the shipments of wine to this
country been managed, that we find, during
the whole existence of this Company, the
exports of Port wine to England have,
with the exception of nine years only, been
within two million and odd hundred gallons
per annum.

The whole produce of the Port districts is