The National Register. — London, England, 1818-02-02 00:00:00

,e) i i li TO liationat No. 521.—V0i.. XI POLITICAL DISQUISITION. ON THE PERNICIOUS PRACTICES OF THE CONT. MON BREWERS. WITH HINTS TO THE LEGIS LATURE FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF THESE ABUSES. WE made, in our last number, some allusion to a Meeting which has since been held in the Metropolis, 4 " . to consoler the best means of counteracting the. Monopoly of the Brewers," at the seine time, recom mending the subject as one deserving the immediate conside.•ation of Parliament. The cowhi•attiou which formed the subject matter of discussion at the above Meeting, however important in itself; and however contrary to Law, if the fact can be established. against them, is certainly of miner importance to the cs it which has been so justly complained of in regard to their practice of sophisticating the common beverage, so as to render it prejudicial to the health of its consumers. It hiss beets asserted, anti probably with some truth, that the alarming number of apoplexies, paralytic affec tions, sudden deaths, and maniacal disorders, which have prevailed of late years, are to be attributed to the deleterioim articles now introduced into the manu facture of the common necessaries of life. There ap pears, italeed, ton much reason to apprehend that the evil proceeds from this cause,—indeed we do not think it can be traced to any other source, upon rational or p:tilosophical pritriples. Bakers have been frequently detected, and out slightly punished, fin• an offence which Nke.ald have induced our ancestors to have visited them w›.ll the heaviest itlnietions. There car., indeed, be little r!..:bt that the iniquitoua practice, by no 111C..11S uncom . :eon in our day, of mixing calcareous matter, pulver. 'sea stone, &c, in the flour constituting the staff of life, would have excited our forefathers to enact laws of the re.. , ct rigorous kind, to meet so enormous, so diabolical a crime. Nor would the Brewer who should have been Detected in the admixture of Grains of Paradise, lux k ondea, Extract of Nicotiana, or any of the numerous drugs and poisons with whi , ll the trade are so well ac (painted, in their br:wage, have escaped a punish ment equally.. severe ; to t.ay nothing of their being fur ever after held up to tl:e scorn and detestation o man- Lind. The story of Old Booty, the brewer of War who was hunted by the Devil into the crater of a horning mountain fur sins of this kind, by him com mitted, is too well known to need repeating ;—it, how ever, serves to skew the abhorrence with which our forefathers viewed transgressors of this sett. But these offences, at which our common nature shudders, were in former times of very trifling import, compared with the wholesale iniquitous practices which are going on in the present day ; the trade of a Brew er's Druggist is now openly carried on under the very nose of Magistracy, by persons who do not hesitate to avow that they have made their fortunes r.t the business. Surely the lei;islature would do well to take into their serious consideration a subject so pregnant with. evil to the great mass cf the population of this country, whose gaily support is in a great measure derived from the common beverage PouTra; which in former times pos sessed sufficient strength and body to afford the nou rishment of both meat and drink to the hard-working and labouring classes. This is not merely a subject which as a Reverend Gentleman has said, " concerns only Ale-drinkers ;"—it is one of natioanl importance in various points of view. If these practices are not suppressed, diseases will multiply, and become more ill-mid:title in their attacks ; tile physical streni;th of the pe.)ple ‘rilt be diminished; ;roil the number of poor will be inct eased, front inability to obtain their sup port, by reason of the pukka, pandyzetl, ,tld I.4tnzrally pArbid state to which they will th.reklueeti Lv tiro dele terious mixtures w . lti;:!, imbibe. It the petty erinY:s C O/ ti itittr+ Our ttina, OonOitution anti iLat)A. MONDAY FEBRUARY 2, 1818. of shop-lifting, or merely picking a pocket in the street, is to be visited with transportation, flogging, or severe imprixnment, those persons whose practices tend to sap the vigour of the human race, the *cry foundation of society, in their daily attacks upon mankind's best blessing—HEALTH. •• The salt of life, which does to all a relish give," ought surely to be arraigned before the bar of public justice, and visited with the most exemplary punish ment. The law, in its present form, is, perhaps, sufficient to put a stop to this alarming evil—but it is to be la mented that many good and wholesome enactments of the legislature are ibund to be a mere dead-letter; such is the remissness of Magistrates and others in regard to their apylication and inforcement. The exalted station which some of these delinquents hold in society, from their great wealth, it is also to be feared, operates tno powerfully in sheltering them from the heavy visita tions to which, there is little doubt, their acts have often subjected them. The laws bearing upon this subject, we do not hesitate to say, ought to be put in force to the most rigorous and see ore extent ; and it is imperative on every Magistrate and Excise Officer to attend to this important part of their duty. Parliament will, ss c have no doubt, furnish them and the public with stronger powers to bring to condign punishment such mischievoas offieiders, should the present. laws not be f o und sufficient for the purpose. It is of tar less consequence, that one half of the common Brewers should he deprived of their trade, by an expsition of their vile practices, and mulcted in their pockets b,• the penal inflictions of the law, than that the most useful part of the King's subjects should be deprived of their health, driven to Hospitals and Workhouses, and de prived of the means of an existence by the slow-work ieg and insidious practices of a set of bloated and over grown Monopolists and poisoners ef mankind. The practices of Common Brewer.: are too notorious to require dwelling upon—the oecasionul detections which hate! taken pleee among them arc sufficient to convlnce the most hesitating, the most unbelieving, were there not a;so :be opportunity of comparing the wY.- 1 1 they are in the habit of vending, with that which many persons brew for the use of their own families.—Such a comperison cannot tail to bring the strongest conviction to the mind, that it is not the ex tract of malt and hops, which can produce the flavour (to say nothing of the colour) of the Beer manuffictured by the public Brewers.—The thriller having in its com position nothing more than the simple clement charged with the vinous extract of Saceli'rine grain, ana the till towering vine " That wave, head on Canal/nes fertile plains" will be found grateful to the smell and palate, frit.ndly to the stomach and possessing the flavour of both th e vegetable essences used in its composition ; while the other charged with " Fell Imlicus, flux Vom:ea, and all " The hateful tribe of lroporific drugs " That dull the senses and un-nerve the man," will not be found to possess cither the flavour of Malt or flops, but a certain gusto of sweet, sour, or bitter, arrising from the predominancy of some certain secret article used in prepairing it, and having withal a most stupifying, intoxicating and lethargic ell'ect With some persons, the drinking of a single pint of Brewer's beer, will produce a greater degree of head ache, nausea, ard other unpleasant symptoms, than would be occasioned by five times the quantity of home brewed Beer, of %Vine, or an eltinl quantity of Spritu- Liqu. r.--" Beer well prepared, (is has bt-vii ob s,oved by one i%ho has written on the subject) should " be and char ; possess a due quantity of spirit, 4 . eacite no disagreeable sweet taste, and contain uo dis " agreeal;l, distinguished from other vinous 1; 1 0m4 by the Inn( grk:ater ovantity of wocilag(!:loos 1'H1l:k: Jr " matter which it has received by extraction from the " malted grain, but which also renders it more nourish " ing.'—We need scarcely observe how widely different is this description of genuine malt liquor, from tie arti. ele which we in general obtain from the public-house, and which at different times is found to possass alt manner of flavours, all manner of consistencies. The result of the meeting before adverted to, will, there is no doubt, be a petition to Parliament on the subject, and we trust that tLa legislato:c in the enactment of any measure which may he fund necessary to meet the evil complained of by the nicetin,7, will not lose sight of a matter of surh vast importance to society at large, as the one en which from its peculiarly interesting nature, we huvc been led to inlu!ge in the foregoing remarks. FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. FICANuE. PAR 23, JAN. 23.—Nis Scheffer has brew sentenced by the. Correctional Poher, for his work, entitled "rice State of Liberty is France." to three months' imprisonment, a line of 200 francs, a y, .tr of •airveillance under the I ['mice, and 1,0;),) trance' !tail fur hi. good conduct. The wink to ire slip. pre‘sed. 'lie printer, Gille, u,tt Ms% ing been. proved to have exam ned the work, was acquitted. % great number of young men of the departtitent of the Landes presvnled themselves to their respective Mayors to be married, as soon as they heard of the recruiting law. The flavors, astonished at the sudden attluetiev of marrying' mein, coniil!eil the Piercer, who reminded them, that there es.isted no exemption but in the case whet e llMlriages had n•tent con tracted *hi the ten days that followed the presentatiou of the project, and that tile Mayo's ought to wain fainitirs that every precipitate step would deceive the hopes of the future husbands. T'‘e Paris jotirnals of the 26th instant, anaonnee the final ut the w the l'ress. This measure had passed the tower Chamber with some amendments f...vciirable to the catt,e of freedom, after a sharp stritet4le, and ity a smail ow. jui ity. In the IJ:els, a series of contests arose on st.‘ , eral articles and prceisillll3 of the lase, and on amendments or ino difirafitias isirb were suetzes.ed ing :he prou.ress of the tlisetissions; but this pi elin.inarr trimble proved oltogto her fi ; inasmuch a whet, the 1i,,al tlel i n i and the (pest wis pt:t Thlst the taw (as a whole)shonld be adopted, or, us v c say in Pug' Intl, a that its bill do pass," it was decided it, the negative by 102 votes to tit). The religions ceremonies that tr,ok place at St. Denis, on the .2 i st, in memory of Louis XVI. are described at sonic length, in all the French paper. The Bishop of Soissons Milt:hued, assisted by the Chapter of St. Denis. Another Bishop rcad the testament of the King. Madame, the daughter of the unfbrtunate Monarch, at tended, and attracted particultir attention by her rel. gious davoutness and her tears. In reading the testa meat, the voice et' the Bishop was sometimes stifled by his sorrow. The King, accompaaied by the Duchess of lkrry, anti proceeded by the Ministers, assisted at the mass of rorieut which was celebrated in the Royal Chapel. The retbrined church of Paris celebrated in the two churches the expiatory service of the illst inst. GIBRALTAR, ,lax. 3 .—.ln ofilcial despatch has been received front Oran, dated the ‘..q.;th of' last month, by which it appears that the phlg-tte continues to desolate Bona anti Constantine, and that it still rages at Algiers, where the number of deaths amounts to ::;0 a day. Wo are particularly sorry to add, that this dreadful disease has spread to the towns of Blida, Media, and Mina, all of them situated to the westward of Ahoors, torl the last within .25 leagues only of Oran, no fewer than 10 individuals being daily carried off in each of Close places. In consequence of this unpleasant intelligence tncasures of precaution will be enfinTed increLsed rigour in this port. l'he expedition to the Arctic regions is to he com pletely ready by the Ist of March. The of/leers and men are to be allowed double pay in the execution of this service, with every requisite tier encounterino." the climate of those inhospitable regions. Lieut. Franklin, and Lieut. Beech', son of Sir vv. Beechy, are among phi::itiidithu.execn'e'.TNthera:the man:Tees of Covrnt Uarden written by Mr. Millman, of those already appointed. ly ( 11: 14 1 e .‘ , 15 a i n ifr' d lately brought out .t Bath, au uatomtwon degree of interest to • Theatre, re u : s e:l : : :s i eltioin seen in that theatre we un derstand:in:ions to fulfil the it duty to tine are prep .r. , Mg the play for r,:pres,utati,,n, it: the beILI that the interesting part of Ei«;:c2 cwt, t.lone be. i‘alise... by :he svul-rending rnwers of N:iss 0 Neill. /i 7 c‘ .4 • *rA• Nfi