The Statesman.
London, England, 1818-07-25 00:00:00

.11M1I PRICE OF PORTER.

LIMO). A CORRESPONDENT.]
The trouble that has been taken to investigate the
causes of the high price and bad quality of Potter,
and the result that has attended those proceedingt.
are worthy of much consideration, particularly if
any prospective or ultimate advantage is hoped for.
At present, it is evident that the Brewers have ob-
tained an unexpected victory over the Anti-Mono.
polies end the Public; and they too well know
how to make a proper use of it, iu order to enrich
themselves at the public impence. The strange Re-
port of the Committee of Enquiry seems only to be
considered in one light by all who bare given it the
least attention—and that is, as a vindication of the
great Brewers against all the principal charges and
insinuations which were made against them. It lie-
dicstes them, for example, its Coto, against the charge
of oohing any deleterious ingredients in their compo-
sition, and intimates the impracticability of their tell«
ing it at a less price than the present, as tong es the
materials bear the same relative proportion. Now,
this we conceive to be the main point et issue be-
tween the Public and the Brewers, with their host of
Parliamentary friends at their becks; and we were
both surprised and disappointed that it was not con-
siderably enlarged upon at the late Meeting, where,
however, the business was almost entirely confined
to the hacknied topic of the evils in the System of
Licensiog,. But the Report of the Committee Wee
to have street a deadly apathy amongst the Pebiie,
who justly believe that they bevy as little hopes of
obtaining Potter better end cheaper than it is at pre-
sent, as they have of obtaining a free trade in its sale.
We are much mortified at witnessing this general
carelessness oo a subject so interesting to all the
community, but particularly that portion of it which
must ever form the strength and vitals of a country.
It is like a tacit acknowledgment, that speculation is
irresistible, and that to combat it is useless. If this
opinion prevail, see may in vain expect that the exist-
ing generation will live to see the lower and middle
classes of society again able to enjoy those comforts
which they formerly possessed, and which they have
a right, in a period of profound peace, and under the
wise regulations of a mild and paternal Government,
again to look for. The community is like an hour-
glass, with the sand continually running : the poor
have run out, and the nest rank have fallen into their
places, making room for the rank above them, while
speculation is now triumphantly shaking the glass,
to make it run the faster.
Let us, however, take a brief view of the conse-
quences which this victory of the Brewers will have
upon the Public at large. Is not that part of the
statement which wits made at the last Meeting, of the
bad quality of the Porter, and its injurious effects on
the constitutions of labouring men, whoarecompelled
to drink five, six, or more pots a day, a fact incon-
trovertible ? It cannot be denied, that these poor
persons do not derive that nourishment from it which
they would receive if it were made as pore and as
strong as it was 30 years ago. The Physicians of
all the Public Dispensaries and Institutions can tar-
nish lamentable proofs of the numerous cases of
diarrhoea and dysentery amongst that clam of persons,
attributable, perhaps, solely to the unwholesome ea-
ters of the beverage in question. Yet the men must
drink it; and their addiction to ardent spirits, as a
corrective, is, on this account, in a great degree ea,
eatable, although it is the taking of one poison as
an antidote for another. The melancholy reflection,
then is, that neither these persons nor those to whom
the beverage is not so indispensable, can expect to
base any improvement in its quality or reduction in
its price. But ought the Public to sit down quietly
end submit to the extortions of speculators, on their
tipeedeserunt that they cannot get a sufficient profit
for their capital and industry by altering their system
for the benefit of the community ? If, instead of
dwelling so much on the result of a free trade, the
Brewers had been treated at the Meeting with a cow-
parities average statement of the price of malt end
hops for the whole period since they have filed beer
at 6d. per pot ; this, contrasted with the lower prices
when they sold it cheaper, and their proposition,
never performed, rebutted on them, of making the
beer stronger when they increased the price—if the
statements made at the Meeting in January had
been re-urged—sod, above all, if the Brewers bad
been called on to show why they ought to put
the savings of the War Malt Daly and the
IK-
come Tax in their pockets, without making some
allowance to the Public, the debate would assuredly
have taken a different tern. The Brewers in the
room wete Gentlemen of very considerable ability ;
and, if these points had been started, they would have
felt themselves boand to make oat a case in jowl&
cation of their whole fraternity. Bat the Li-
censing System was the alpha and omega of all the
arguments, and every other feasible point was aban-
doned. Thus, the Public are left more than ever at
the will and mercy of the Brewers. The Meeting,
it is tree, pledge themsrivete perievere in their ex-
ertions; and we hope they will redeem their pledge.
It is as demonstrable as any proposition in Euclid,
that the extra price of a penny a pot (no matter whe-
ther it arise from the Licensing System, or the ava-
rice of the Brewers) takes about 4,000,0001. sterling
a year out of the pockets of the inhabitants gene-
rally ; but the assertion, that this extra price is paid
in consequence of the Licensing System, and that
alone, is assuming a fact which has not been suffici-
ently made oot—at least, not to our satisfaction.—
We would suggest a test by which the question could
be proved. We insist, that a strong, pyre, and
powerful beer could be made and sold at sd. a pot,
and even less—s beer fat superior to the best with
which the Public is supplied—and that these who so
made and sold it would derive a fair and abundant
profit for their capital. It was admitted at the
Meeting on the 14th inst. that the Goldeu.lane
Brewery bad merged into one of the. others. At a
time, then, when so much capital is held in many
bends, that the holders are glad to take the most in.
significant interest for it, upon good !vicinity, it
would be a fair, honourable, and beneficial specu-
lation*, to the Public and to individuals, to set op an-
other grand public Brewery, to supply beer at all
times one penny a pot les% than the price arbitrarily
filed by the present all-powerfal Monopolist,. We
have now the important information, thattbera are
2359 free public-houses in the Meiropolis sad its vi.
chilly). out of 4247, that is, Mere than oas-half,