The Press. — London, England, 1853-09-17 00:00:00

458 importance and value to that great reform which " brings justice home to every nall's " door,"—the County Courts Act. If Lord BROUGHAM had done no more than this, it would have been enough for his fame. He is sensible, however. that much must be done, even to render this measure perfect and thus we find him still aiming at further im provements ere yet he can frel his task is ae• COMpliShed. • In this pail, at least, of his varied career he has lived ilown detraction, and distanced opposition. May he long enjoy the nervous energy which has enabled him to pursue his work of law reform with such signal and satisfactory success. THE HOP HARVEST. Tor produce of hol►s this year will not, it is supposed, be above half an average trop. Wo may expert, therefore, that prices %rill rule high, and that a larger quantity than usual of poisonous drugs will be used in the notion faeture of I►eer. The cultivation of the hop is peculiar. and forms a most beautiful feature in the land scape of the districts where it flourishes. A luxuriant hop garden, with its long alleys of rich verdure, diminishing hi perspective to a point, and its graceful festoons of delieatAy tinted hops, hanging in gay luxuriance from the tall poles in grape-like clusters. presents a charming picture to the eye, and suggests some reflections of a pleasing nature to the ...... The successful growth of the hop requi►es great care and intelligence, and affords far more employment to lal►our than any other kind of cultivation. Continuous labour i s atii►rded by the hop plantation thr o ugh three fourths of the year ; and, when picking coin metwes, every family in the district experiences the benefit of ample work and wages. So far as we have observed. the labourers in hop districts are better paid and more con stantly employed thin► in localities where the culture is unknown. If a foreigner. a week or two hence, were to be taken from one hop garden to another, and were to observe the appearance of happy in dustry which the grounds present. men, WOMPII, and children being all gaily employed in the light labour of stripping the fragrant bunches from the bine—and then were to be told that the culture of this useful and beauti ful plant is checked by arbitrary laws, his confidence in the wisdom of our policy would be rudely shaken ; and were he further to be informed that while confessedly no substance equal to the hop for making beer wholesome..-. for preserving its sound and nutritive quali ties, and for imparting to it an agreeable fla vour—yet that.. by a system of high duties and obnoxious excise rules, it is made so dear that pernicious drugs are taking its place, ho would have some difficulty in believing that such an action could take place in a country which boasted of its free Legislature and the force of public opinion. It is worth notice that the number of acres under hop cultivation at the present time is less than it was thirty years ago, while the Consumption of those divas which are wholly or partially used as a substitute for the hop has enormously increased. In the three years ending 1821 the average number of acres under hop cultivation was 48.002; in the three years ending 1838 it was 55.583 in the three years ending 1851 it had declined to .134Q3. Some years back, as we find by the Lancet, " only 550 lbs. of the " poisonous and intensely bitter drug as: " romica were imported into England. whereas " in 1852 nearly as many tons reached our mar " ket." A correspondent of our medical con temporary asks the cause of this increase. It is to be timid. we apprehend. in the present comparative scarcity of hops, and the enor mously.inereased consumption of pale or bitter ale. NVe do not insinuate that any noxious sub stance is used in this particular kind of beer it may very likely—as is asserted—be brewed from malt and hops alone ; but. if this be so. an enormous quantity of hops must be re quired in its manufacture alone. and other descriptions of beer, less expensive, must suffer front the deficiency. THE PRESS. Nor do we assert that the produce of hops has declined with the diminished acreage. Owing either to favourable seasons or to su perior cultivation, the general growth for some yearn past has been equal to that of any pre vious period. But, from the facts of the enor monaly-increased consumption of nux vomica on the one hand, and of the great sale of bitter ale on the other—to which may be added the present high price of hops—it is evident that the consumption of this valuable article is not nearly so great as it would be were the restric tions on its growth removed or modified, so that it could be brought into the market in greater abundance and at a lower rate. What its substitute is we need scarcely say. Even in a sanitary point of view, the quality of the beer drank by our labouring classes deserves some consideration. The duty is higher now than during the war—the five per cent. added in 1840 having never been repealed. At the moderate yield of ten hundredweight of hops per acre, a garden of four acres would be taxed to the extent of nearly 40/. ; and this taxation falls directly, in the first instance, upon probably a needy grower. The duty is condemned by every rule of that code by which our Government professes to regulate its policy. Its collection is exces sively costly, so that the grower is taxed without corresponding benefit to the Exche quer. The excise rules are vexatious, requir ing the frequent presence of an officer during the prcccss of drying and packing. The duty varies in amount so greatly that no financier can rely on it ; in 1542 it produced only 61,0001., in 1846 it yielded 446,900/. And, lastly, the tax is so high as partly to defeat itself—it being to a great extent prohibitory— thus causing the use of loxious drugs as a substitute. The growers have frequently represented the hnrdship of their ease to successive Go• vernments ; but they arc not a powerful body, and they do not make up by unity and wisdom for what they want in force. Unfortunately, country gentlemen are often unable to per ceive their interests except through the me dium of their prejudices. The growers of East Kent, as their hops bring a much higher price in the market than those of other dis tricts, think they should not be benefited by a reduction of the duty per cwt. to the same extent as the growers o 1 inferior descriptions ; while the Mid Kent. and Sussex growers are inclined to favour an ad valorem duty, as that would relieve them at the expense of their rivals. The Minister who receives deputations from various districts finds it easy to answer one by the arguments of another. Thus it happens that the restrictions placed on the culture of this wholesome and useful plant remain from year to year unrelieved. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, in an swer to a recent deputation, is reported to have expressed himself favourable to an acreage duty. The plan, whatever its recommenda tions, is open to this objection—in bad years the duty could never be collected. The pro duce of the gardens would not pay the tax. As that would be in all seasons the anme. while the produce is so various, hop. growing would partake much more of a specu lative spirit than it does at present. To the suggestion of an v u ? valorem duty no Govern ment would ever listen. _ _ Were the growers to unite in urging that the duty should be reduced from its present rate (nearly 2d. per lb.) to its rate previous to the war of one penny per lb., we believe no Go vernment would be able to resist so reasonable a request. At the same time, by a change in the marhine/7 of collection, it would not be difficult to make the hop-factors (usually men of capital) responsible for the payment of the duty instead of the growers. as at present. We do not pretend to explain the details by which this change could be effected • i is practicable. and would be found much less costly. burdensome, and vexatious than the existing mode of collection. As it is found that the revenue speedily re covers—owing to increased consumption from a reduction of the duty on any article in general use, experience points to this mode of relieving the pressure of taxation as more con venient than a policy of total repeal. The SATURDAY, community are benefited, and the Exchequer only temporarily impaired. With the changes we have indicated it is probable that the cul tivation of the hop would so speedly increase as to return an amount of duty little, if at all, below that which is at present received. It is to be hoped that Mr. GLADSTONE, after adopting so many parts of his predecessor's budget of greater importance, will not long refuse to concede the proposed reduction of the hop duty, merely to show his indepen dence, or to prove that the wishes of his Man chester friends are more powerful with him than reasons of policy and justice. Should he still decline to make beer cheap, he may at least help to render it wholesome. THE AYLESBURY AGRICULTURAL MEETING. THERE has been some wonderment that Mr. DISRAELI did not take advantage of a purely agricultural gathering to issue a political manifesto. We can understand the discomfi ture of the journalists who have exercised their ingenuity, and tested their readers' patience, in attempting to anticipate Mr. DISRAELI'S topics and views. But, as it is not within our recollection that he ever made a political speech on any similar anniversary, we cannot think he is to blame for any disap pointment which may have been experienced. A journal of yesterday endeavours in the worst possible taste and feeling to disparage the modest efforts of agricultural societies to confer some mark of approval on the la bourers who, in their humble walk, have distinguished themselves by the excellence of their conduct and character. Because a reward adequate to their merit cannot be offered to them, the Times thinks they had better go altogether unrewarded. Better nothing than a prize of two pounds. This is the lofty philanthropy of the patriot in •• The Needy Knife-grinder, ' but it is entirely op posed to the humane good feeling which it is the first object of these associations to culti vate. Humble as the rewards may be, we are sure our peasantry prize them, as a testimony to worth, far above their intrinsic value. THE CHOLERA AND THE SANITARY LAWS. Tux cholera is again among us, and again it has found us unprepared. As if to point the moral of its former warnings, it lands at Newcas tle—the very spot where its ravages commenced before—and thence takes one gaunt stride to the nether banks of the Thames, scenting its fresh victims amidst pollution mid filth against which laws have been made in vain. In New.. castle the pestilence descended with uner, big swoop on those parts of the town where the Lodging-houses Act had not been put ht force by the town council, and where, on the testi mony of eyewitnesses, abominations exist such as we do not care even to mention here. So certainly is this fatal disease engen dered in localities where dirt and impurity of every kind are predisposing causes, as almost to preclude the belief in contagion, even had it not been combated by facts. There is in this metropolis a highly intelligent physi cian, who, having had charge of a poor and I populous district during past ravages of the cholera, tested successfully his theory that the intensity of the disease would be found to be in an inverse ratio to the depth of the cess pools. He found the facts bear out this view in a most extraordinary manner, and thus ob tained a proof that this terrible scourge may lc mastered by attention to some of the first law of social police. The cases hitherto, both in Newcastle and in London, have singularly at tested the wisdom of our legislative precau tions, while condemning their neglect. The report of the Registrar-General for London, and the accounts from Newcastle and Gateshead, are by this time familiar to our readers, so that we need not go into the painful and disgusting details of the condition in which the unfortt - nate victims of the disease were when at tacked. The true object is. if possible, to arrest the il, if it be not too late ; and not to leave to thu Laction of (public opinion, spasmodically