The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-14 00:00:00

•
appears to be such that there are absolutely 11°
limits to the wealth that may thus be acquired,
It would appear from the case of Abrahams
v. Attenborough, which was tried by the
Court of Queen's Bench on Monday, that chain;
pagne may even be purchased at the very modere
price of 12s. 9d. a dozen, and sold at the racecours
at a guinea a bottle. It has been asked—leiow can
a genuine picture of one of the old masters possess
ie
so ranch value when the best judges are often unab
origie.ae l
to tell whether any particular pice is an
or a copy ? It the quantity and the quality of the
gold in an alleged counterfeit sovereign is so Equal
t ) that of a genuine one that you cannot tell the'
apart by the nicest test, what difference of intrioste
value can there be between them ? Similar queries
suggest themselves with regard to chanapegne• °v.°
would have thought that the mouths belongieg,`°
the pockets which could disburse a guinea for a sin'
ale bottle of champagne would know the gcnuiet;
article when they tested it, and be able in a women_
to distinguish it from epueious. If they cannot c,°
this, as it seems they cannot, then the ioference 1,3
that the counterfeit must be very like the original
It is said that there is more champagne e.:rutik 11
the world in ono single day than the w hole yiel"
of the champagne country would amount to fro 11)..
the accumulated vintages of 20 years. The brawl.:
Swiss grape, cut of which excellent champagne
said to be manufactured, appears to have a faun'
dable rival in the equally celebrated Putney gense:
berry. If there is,:2o times as much charopagn
drunk in a day, taking the world over,
as there Is
produced by the champagne vineyards in a Yea%
one would suppose that every drop must be drainer
out of its native locality the moment it is fit f°e
export, and that anybody applying there for a bottle
would be in the same predicament as the travelle;
who stopped at Epping to taste the famous sausage,
and was told he could rot hare any, for the sig,nl,,
ficant and suggestive reason that " the Len"...
coach had not come in." It appears that.certaill
champagne warrants had been pawned in 186.41
with the defendant in the action mentioned
above. In May last these warrants were put
uP
for sale at Messrs Debenham and Storr's in
Covent-garden. How it was that in the surnaler
season, when champagne drinking is part Of
the normal state of things, eager specuiator,t
anxious to make a hasty fortune by clearing 2,o°_,
per cent., would not invest in this metaphorical got
o
mine, does not appear. The champagne bad to q°
a,-begging. "No one appeared to venture on it
ru
bulk," so it was attempted to get it off in anal
lots of a dozen or two. The plaintiff Abrahanaa.in:
vested to the extent of a couple of dozen.
seems to have encouraged the defendant to ace°,
him and make him an offer of the whole cinentit'7
on hand, and " ultimately it was agreed betweent
them that the plaintiff should have the remainder°
12s 9d a dozen, but it was afterwards made 13
dozen. The defendant in the course of conversation'
said the wine came from Switzerland, and weaver/
good, and as the Derby and Bath races were coming
off, it would be a good thing for him." The plaint
also swore that " this wine suited people who it't:
tended races. It is sold on racecourses at a gaine„
a bottle and under," and we dare say when t,
%
weather is warm, and there is much demand, it
sold at auinea a bottle "and over." The facts an;
issue of the case are of interest as illustrating the
mysteries of the champagne trade, and pertictilarl'e
as furnishing an infallible recipe for making a large
fortune in an incredibly short space of time. If 1".„
wine, and any amount of the same sort, had been
bought by one knowing what to do with it just 000
tore the races were coming on, and sold it at 2,
per cent. profit immediately afterwards, and thew
the proceeds turned in the same way again sad agate
at the successive races through the year, and se °s
during subsequent years, the heaps of gold than
would be piled up by this process is the course of
single decade are perfectly astounding. The 11511
thetical farthing put out at compound intereet;
Anna Domini 1, and amounting by this tilneho
countless globes of gold as big as this earth, is t."
only parallel worthy of being placed in contraetwitll
,
so marvellous a phenomenon. Something bittet",
however, is generally sure to turn up in the sWeera
eat draught ; and this excellent champagne fr° ar
Switzerland, warranted to realise about 2,000 Pi,
cent. profit on the racecourse, had been Eo unlock©
as to get into Chancery. When the plaintiff svent.eg,
Fenning's wharf with his warrants to get the Wi',
he found that no less than five injunctions had 5t
„.
tached themselves to it, and held it in their grip
The worst of it was that he had sold it before 00
had obtained corporal possession of the article. TllO
keeper of the Grand Stand at Epsom was ito betc
twelve dozen at 255, per deem. The defence so,
that not the wine but only the warrants were sole)
and that the defendant did not warrant his wet
rants, but only agreed to cell them as he held them'
His counsel impeached the patriotism of the plain
tiff' tiff for having " extolled awls champagne el'-
ignored the Putney gooseberry ;" but his burnt
and his eloquence were alike thrown away, As
jury returned a verdict which gave back the
tiff the £4O he had paid, together with £26 "3e
wages for not being able to complete his contraele.
with the persons to whom he had told the win
%en the injunctions are got rid of, this ebnifs
pagne will no doubt be consnmed at the races De'
season at the rate of a guinea a bottle.