ADULTERATION OF BEER. Malt liquors, and particularly porter, the favourite beverage of the inhabitants of London, and of other large towns, is amongst those articles, in the manufacture of which the greatest frauds are frequently committed. The statute prohibits the brewer from using any ingredients in his brewings, except malt and hops; but it too often happens that those who suppose they are drinking a nutritious beverage, made of these ingredients only, are entirely deceived. The beverage may, in fact, be neither more nor less than a compound of the most deleterious substances; and it is also clear that all ranks of society are alike exposed to the nefa❤ rious fraud. The author (Child) of a Practical Treatise on Brewing, which has run through eleven editions, after having stated the various ingredients for brewing porter, observes, "That however much they may surprise, however pernicious or disagreeable they may appear, he has always found them requisite in the brewing of porter, and he thinks they must invariably be used by those who wish to continue the taste, flavour, and appearance of the beer. And though several acts of parliament have been passed to prevent porter brewers from using many of them, yet the author can affirm, from experience, he could never produce the present flavoured porter without them. The intoxicating qualities of porter are to be ascribed to the various drugs intermixed with it. It is evident some porter is more heady than other, and it arises from the greater or less quantity of stupefying ingredients. Malt, to produce intoxication, must be used in such large quantities as totally exclude, the brewer's profit." would very much diminish, if not Early practice of Adulterating Beer with Substances, noxious to Health, and rapid progress of this Fraud. The practice of adulterating beer appears to be of early date. By an act so long ago as Queen Anne, the brewers are prohibited from mixing cocculus Indicus, or any unwholesome ingredients, in their beer, under severe penalties: but few instances of convictions under this Act are to be met with in the public records for nearly a century. To show that they have augmented in our own days, we shall exhibit an abstract from documents laid before Parliament in 1819. These will not only amply prove, that unwholesome ingredients are used by fraudulent brewers, and that very deleterious substances are also vended both to brewers and publicans for adulterating beer, but that the ingredients mixed up in the placed above all competition, even brewer's enchanting cauldron are with the potent charms of Mackbeth's witches: "Root of hemlock, digg'd i' the dark, "For a charm of pow'rful trouble, The fraud of imparting to porter and ale an intoxicating quality by narcotic substances, appears to have flourished during the period of the late French war; for, if we examine the importation list of drugs, it will be noticed that the quantities of cocculus Indicus imported in a given time prior to that period, will bear no comparison with the quantity im ported in the same space of time during the war, although an additional duty was laid upon this commodity. Such has been the amount brought into this country in five years, that it far exceeds the quantity imported during twelve years anterior to the above epoch. The price of this drug has risen within these ten years from two shillings to seven shillings the pound. It was at the period to which we have alluded, that the preparation of an extract of cocculus Indicus first appeared, as a new saleable commodity, in the price-currents of brewers'druggists. It was at the same time, also, that a Mr. Jackson, of notorious memory, fell upon the idea of brewing beer from various drugs, without any malt or hops. This chemist did not turn brewer himself; but he struck out the more profitable trade of teaching his mystery to the brewers for a handsome fee. that time forwards, written directions, and receipt-books for using the chemical preparations to be substituted for malt and hops, were respectively sold; and many adepts soon afterwards appeared every where, to instruct brewers in the nefarious practice first pointed out by Mr. Jack son. From From that time, also, the fraternity of brewers' chemists took its rise. They made it their chief business to send travellers all over the country with lists and samples exhibiting the price and quality of the articles manufactured by them for the use of brewers only. Their trade spread far and wide, but it was amongst the country brewers chiefly that they found the most customers; and it is amongst them, up to the present day, as I am assured by some of these operators, on whose veracity I can rely, that the greatest quantities of unlawful ingredients are sold. The Act of Parliament (Geo. III. c. 2) prohibits chemists, grocers, and druggists, from supplying illegal ingredients to brewers under a heavy penalty, as is obvious from the following abstract of the Act: "No druggist, vender of or dealer in drugs, or chemist, or other person, shall sell or deliver to any licensed brewer, dealer in or retailer of beer, knowing him to be such, or shall sell or deliver to any person on account of or in trust for any such brewer, dealer or retailer, any liquor called by the name of or sold as colouring, from whatever material the same may be made, or any material or preparation other than unground brown malt for darkening the colour of worts or beer, or any liquor or preparation made use of for darkening the colour of worts or beer, or any molasses, honey, vitriol, quassia, cocculus In- . dicus, grains of Paadise, Guinea pepper or opium, or any extract or preparation of molasses, or any article or preparation to be used in worts or beer for, or as a substitute for, malt or hops; and if any druggist shall offend in any of these particulars, such liquor preparation, molasses, &c. shall be forfeited, and may be seized by any officer of excise, and the person offending shall for each offence forfeit 500!." The following is a list of druggists and grocers prosecuted by the Court of Excise, and convicted of supplying unlawful ingredients to brewers: Druggists and Grocers prosecuted and convicted from 1812 to 1819, for supplying illegal Ingredients to Brewers for adulterating Beer, Messrs. Dunn and Co. druggists, for selling adulterating ingredients to brewers, verdict 500/ Messrs. Rugg and others, druggists for selling adulterating ingredients to brewers, verdict 500l. Messrs. Hodgkinson and others, for selling adulterating ingredients to brewers, 100/. and costs. Messrs. Hiscocks and others, for selling adulterating ingredients to a brewer, 2001. and costs. Mr. Hornby, for selling adulterating ingredients to a brewer, 2001. Mr. Wilson, for selling adulterating ingredients to a brewer, 2001. Mr. Andrews, grocer, for selling adulterating ingredients to a brewer, 251. and costs. Mr. Knowles, for selling a substitute for hops, costs. Messrs. Kernot and Alsop, for selling cocculus India, &c. 251. Messrs. Brandram and Co.* for selling various drugs, 100%. Mr. Moss, for selling various drugs, 300%. Mr. Whitcombe, Mr. Dunn, and Mr. Waller, druggists, for having liquor for darkening the colour of beer, hid and concealed. Mr. Hebberd for having liquor for darkening the colour of beer, hid and concealed. Mr. Whitcombe, Mr. Dunn, and Mr. Waller, druggists, for making liquor for darkening the colour of beer. Mr. Lord, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, 201. and costs. Mr. Smith Carr, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, 201. and costs. Mr. Fox, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, 251. and costs. Mr. Cooper, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, 40/. and costs. Mr. Bickering, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, 401. and costs. Mr. Howard, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, 25l. and costs. Mr. Reynolds, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, costs. Mr. Hammond, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, 201. and costs. Mr. Mackway, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, 201. Mr. Renton, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, costs, and taking out a licence. Mr. Adamson, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, costs, and taking out a licence. Mr. Weaver, for selling Spanish liquorice to a brewer, 2001. Mr. Moss, for selling Spanish liquorice to a brewer. Mr. Braden, for selling liquorice, 201. Mr. Draper, for selling molasses to a brewer, 201. UPON DRUNKENNESS. When we talk of sin, we mean, if we be rational, some offence coinmitted against our neighbour; that is to say, against some particular persons, or against the community in Not Messrs. Brandram, of Sizelane, Cannon-street. general; and of all the sins of which man can be guilty, there is perhaps none, when we consider it in all its effects, greater than that of drunkenness, and certainly none which admits of so small a degree of palliation, To other sins, or, at least, to the greater part of other sins, there is more or less of temptation. In cases where nature works so powerfully within us; where reason itself is so frequently unequal to the task of resistance; where the propensity, when thwarted, produces sometimes the total loss of sanity, and, at others, urges the unhappy victim on to selfdestruction in such cases, though we dare not justify the gratification of the propensity, it becomes us to judge with great caution, and to feel much more of compassion than of anger. Those acts which are committed with a view of appropriating to ourselves that which belongs to others, arise frequently from absolute want, or from a desire to avoid want. Even murder itself has frequently, and most frequently, want to plead in mitigation. But, drunkenness is a man's own act; an evil deliberately sought after; an act of violence wilfully committed against reason, against nature, against the word and in face of the denunciations of God; and that, too, without the smallest temptation, except from that vicious appetite which the criminal himself has voluntarily created. The Bible, from one end to the other, enjoins temperance and sobriety. SOLOMON, in Prov. ch. xxiii. v. 31, says, " that the drunkard and glutton shall come to poverty;" and in ver. 29 and 30 of the came chapter, he asks, "Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?" The answer is, "They that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed wine." Never was a truer picture than this. Here are the effects, and here is the cause. The drunkard, he who delights in drink, passes upon himself the sentence of poverty, and of unpitied poverty, too; he suffers all its pains and penalties without receiving and without meriting compassion; because he hath sinned, as was before observed, against nature as well as against reason, and the word of God. "Drowsiness," says Solomon, " shall clothe a man with rags." And of all the drowsiness and laziness that is witnessed in the world, nine-tenths arise from an inordinate indulgence in drink. When once this vice has taken fast hold of a man, farewell industry, farewell emulation, farewell attention to things worthy of attention, farewell the love of virtuous society, farewell decency of manner, and farewell, too, even an attention to person: every thing is sunk by this predominating and brutal appetite. In how many instances do we see men who have begun life with the brightest prospects before them, and who close it without one ray of comfort or consolation, after having wasted their time in debauchery and sloth, and dragged down many innocent persons from prosperity to misery! Young men with good fortunes, good talents, good tempers, good hearts, and sound constitutions, only by being drawn into the vortex of the drunkard, have become, by degrees, the most despicable and most loathsome of mankind. At first the thing is not so visible; but in the end it is complete in its effects. The "redness of eyes" becomes the outward and visible sign of the commencement of ruin; and, at last, fortune and family, friends, parents, wife, and children; all are sacrificed, if necessary, to this raging and ungovernable vice. This vice creates more unhappiness in families; is the cause of more strife between man and wife; is the cause of more of those separations which disgrace the married parties themselves, which send the children forth into the world humbled and tarnished, and rather than be the cause of which, a father ought to be ready to suffer, if possible, ten thousand deaths: of these fatal effects drunkenness in the husband is more frequently the cause than all other causes put together. In the house of a drunkard there is no happiness for any one-all is uncertainty and anxiety. He is not the same man for any one day at a time. No man knows any thing of his out-goings or of his in-comings: when he will rise or when lay down to rest is wholly a matter of chance. Whether he will be laughing or sullen at his return to his house no one can tell. At sometimes he is one man, at other times another. His time is chiefly divided between raving and melancholy. Well might the apostle warn his disciples not to sit down at table with drunkards; for leaving the sin of drunkenness itself out of the question, what is so intolerable as the babble of a drunken man? what so uncertain as the consequences of communication with him? This minute he shakes you by the hand; the next he seeks life; your and the only recompence you receive for the injuries he inflicts, is an acknowledgment that, at the time of committing the injury.he had voluntarily put himself upon a level with the brute. (To be continued) were HOW TO ENJOY A HOLIDAY, AND KEEP ONE'S MONEY. Farmer White's labourers often complaining that things were so dear that they could not buy a bit of meat. He knew it was partly true, but not entirely; for it was before the very hard times that their complaints began. One morning he stept out to see how an outhouse which he was thatching went on. He was surprised to find the work at a stand. He walked over to the thatcher's house. "Tom," said he, "I desire that piece of work may be finished directly; if a shower comes, my grain will be spoiled." "Indeed, master, I shan't work to-day, nor to-morrow neither," said Tom; "you forget that 'tis Easter Monday, and to-morrow is Easter Tuesday, and so on Wednesday I shall thatch away, master. But 'tis hard if a poor man, who works all the season round, may not enjoy these few holidays, which come but once a year." "Tom," said the farmer, "when these days were first put into our Prayer-book, the good men who ordained them to be kept, little thought that the time would come when holiday should mean drunkenday, and that the seasons which they meant to distinguish by superior piety, should be converted into seasons for more than ordinary excess. How much dost think now I shall pay thee for this piece of thatch?” "Why you know, master, you have let it to me by the great: I think between this and to-morrow night, as the weather is so fine, I could clear about four shillings, after I have paid my boy; but thatching does not come often, and other work is not so profitable." "Very well, Tom; and how much do you think you may spend in these two holidays?" "Why, master, if the ale is pleasant, and the company merry, I do not expect to get off for less than three shillings." "Tom, can you do pounds, shillings, and pence?" "I can make a little score, master, behind the kitchendoor with a bit of chalk, which is as much as I want." Well, Tom, add the four shillings you would have earned to the three you intend to spend, what does that make ?" "Let me see! three and four make seven. Seven shillings, master." "Tom, you often tell me the times are so bad that you can never buy a bit of meat. Now, here is the cost of two joints at once; to say nothing of the sin of wasting time and getting drunk." "I never once thought of that," said Tom. "Now, Tom," said the farmer, "if I were you, I would step over to butcher Jobbin's, ard buy a shoulder of mutton, which being left from Saturday's market, you will get a little cheaper. This I would make my wife bake in a deep dish, full of potatoes. I would then go to work, and when the dinner was ready, I would go and enjoy it with my wife and children; you need not give the mutton to the brats; the potatoes will have all the gravy, and be very savoury for them." Aye, but I've got no beer master; the times are so hard that a poor man' can't afford to brew a drop of drink now, as we used to do." "Times are bad, and malt is very dear, Tom, and yet both don't prevent you from spending seven shillings in keeping holiday. Now, send for a quart of ale, as it is to be a feast; and you will even then be four shillings richer than if you had gone to the public-house. I would have you put by these four shillings, till you can add a couple to them; with this I would get a bushel of malt, and my wife should brew it, and you may take a pint of your own beer at home of a night, which will do you more good than a gallon at the Red Lion.' "I have a great mind to take your advice, master, but I shall be made such fun of at the Lion! They will so laugh at me if I don't go!" "Let those laugh that win, Tom." "But, master, I have got a friend to meet me there." "Then ask your friend to come and eat a bit. of your cold mutton at night, and here is sixpence for another pot, if you will promise to brew a small cask of your own." "Thank you, master, and so I will; and I won't go to the Lion. Come, boy, bring the helm, and fetch the ladder." And so Tom was upon the roof in a twinkling. The barn was thatched, the mutton bought, the beer brewed, the friend invited, and the holiday enjoyed. INSTITUTION IN HOLLAND TO PREVENT POVERTY. In the works of Doctor Franklin the following description of a Dutch Institution for the Poor is to be found: "Those houses are handsome, neat buildings, with very comfortable apartments; some form the sides of a square, with grass-plots and gravelwalks, flowers, &c. and some have little separate gardens behind each apartment. Those for men are called Oud Mannen Hayzen, for women Oude Vrouwen Hayzen. I think the different kinds sometimes make different sides of the same square. There is a chapel for prayers, a common kitchen, and a common hall, in which they dine together. Two persons, such as best like one another, and choose to associate, are generally lodged in one apartment, though in separate beds, that they may be at hand to assist each other in case of sudden illness in the |