In deducing this result, the author of this
little blue book has skilfully grouped together
some interesting facts bearing on the
consumption of beverages in this and other
countries. It is shown that the population
of Great Britain and France consume almost
precisely the same aggregate quantity of
wines, spirits, and beer—namely, twenty-two
gallons for the latter and twenty-two gallons
and a-half for the former per annum per person.
These quantities, however, are made up of
widely-disproportionate elements. The particular
consuming powers of each population
amount, for every Frenchman, to nineteen gallons
of wine, two gallons and a-half of beer, and
half a gallon of spirits; for every Englishman,
Scotchman, and Irishman, a quarter of a
gallon of wine, twenty-one gallons and a
quarter of beer, and one gallon of spirits.
In this country, then, it is evident that beer
takes the place which wine holds in France.
Yet it must not be lost sight of, that, whilst
we are so anxious to procure the cheap
light wines of France, they, in their turn
are becoming more attached to malt liquor.
Large breweries are fast multiplying in Paris
and other principal cities, and the imports of
beer from Great Britain are greatly on the
increase. Something of this may no doubt
be caused by the prevalence of the vine
disease in the wine districts of France, and the
consequent small vintages.

Comparing our consumption of other
beverages, such as tea and coffee, it will be
seen that whilst the population of this
country consume at the rate of three pounds
and a-half of the foregoing articles, in France
the consumption of the same amounts to but
one pound and three-quarters per head. It is
at the same time gratifying to find that whilst
the average consumption in this country of
tea and coffee since eighteen hundred and
thirty-five has increased by nearly fifty per
cent, the aggregate of spirits, wine, and beer
has fallen from twenty-five and a-half to
twenty-two and a-half gallons for each individual.
During the period of the Great
Exhibition in eighteen hundred and fifty-one,
it was expected, and with some reason, that
the demand for spirituous and fermented
drinks would prove greatly in excess of
former seasons. The actual result was precisely
the reverse of this—the consumption
for the first eight months of eighteen hundred
and fifty-one having been considerably
below that of previous years.

Returning to the subject of wine, it is
apparent that the taste for this article varies
very considerably in different countries. In
France, the consumption of Paris and other
large towns is given as about twenty-seven
gallons each person, and in the country districts
sixteen gallons. In other countries
that are non-producers of wine, the use of it
is not much greater, and often still more
limited, than in England. Whilst we consume
at the rate of one quart each per on
annually, with a high duty, Belgium, with a
nominal duty of one penny a gallon, uses but
three bottles per head. In Holland, wine is
free of all duty in the cask, and pays but two-
pence the gallon in bottle; yet there, so near
to the finest wine countries, the individual
consumption is but one pint. In Norway, we
find a similar low demand, with a duty of
sixteen-pence a gallon. In Sweden, the duty
is a little higher, and the consumption one-
twelfth of a gallon per head. Denmark, with
the low duty of seven-pence halfpenny the
gallon, takes about the same quantity as ourselves.
Russia, with less than half our duty,
consumes half-a-pint; whilst in the United
States, where the duty is equal to eighteen-
pence a gallon, the individual consumption is
under a quart.

There is a singular fact connected with the
consumption of wine in France. In Paris,
the various duties and licenses levied on wines
bring up the amount levied to about the same
as our present import duty; yet we find the
individual consumption in that city amounts
to twenty-seven gallons yearly, giving a higher
average than that for the rest of the country.
But this proves nothing more beyond the
fact that there is more money afloat in the
capital of every nation than in its provinces;
and that much of it will be spent in social
enjoyment, whatever the cost.

France produced on an average, before the
ravages of the vine disease, upwards of nine
hundred millions of gallons of wine, worth,
on an average, sixpence-halfpenny a gallon,—
about equal to our common beers. But this
produce varies greatly in quality. About
one-sixth of the whole may be called good;
another sixth may be considered as middling;
a third of the vintage will be inferior; whilst
the remaining third embraces all kinds of
low, poor wines, between bad and detestable.

Of her wines, France regularly exports
thirty-two millions of gallons; whilst about
two hundred millions of gallons are employed
in the distillation of brandy, to the extent of
twenty-five millions of gallons. Of this quantity,
ten millions of gallons are exported,
leaving fifteen millions for use, of which a
large quantity is employed in fortifying
wines for shipment abroad,—leaving less than
half a gallon for individual consumption. In
this country, brandy forms but a trifling
item amongst the spirits consumed, barely a
fifteenth. Omitting that article, and taking
only colonial and British spirits, it has been
shown that the relative individual use of
these in the three kingdoms ranges from
half a gallon in England, to more than three-
quarters of a gallon in Ireland, and above
two gallons and a half in Scotland; and supposing
the use of spirits to be confined to
adult males, the figures would stand thus:—
England, two gallons; Ireland, three gallons
and a half; Scotland, eleven gallons.

If the question of reducing the duty on