APPENDIX.
Note to [page 28].
I have said at the above mentioned page that “the perfection of adulteration is in gin;” and on reviewing that passage I have no cause to modify the expression; but must, with all my heart and soul, assent to the declaration of honest Jonas Hanway, that it is “a liquid fire;” and must further agree with the said true-hearted old Englishman, that “it should be sold only in quart bottles, sealed up with the king’s seal, with a very high duty, and never sold without being mixed with a strong emetic.” This I admit is a very harsh prescription, and no doubt every true lover of “blue-ruin” will exclaim, notwithstanding that he or she is aware that their “comfort” is in the most abandoned state of adulteration, and is a rank slow poison, equally ruinous to the health and the purse;—What! a gin-drinking nation, and yet not a drop of “the genuine”—of the popular English beverage, the diurnal consumption of which in the metropolis alone, would inundate the largest parish within the bills of mortality—not a drop of “the genuine” to be had for money! Yes, Bull, whether thou beest of the masculine or feminine gender, this is the truth; and it is a circumstance, the reformation of which would well become the labours of the informing tribe and the bellowers of radical reform. Here there would be a fine field for radicalism and “informing” to exercise themselves in.
Note to [page 83].
I have stated at page 83, that fish out of season is unwholesome. The following fact will confirm the truth of this assertion. It is well known that in Ireland and Scotland, where great facility is presented to the country people in catching salmon, both during and after the spawning season, the eating of the fish in that state has been productive of very serious consequences to the health of the consumers. Probably the unwholesome consignments of noxious fish obtained exclusively, as the fashionable fishmongers phrase it, out of season, and to be purchased only at extravagant prices, often occasion to their epicurean customers and the legitimate gourmands much of the illness assigned to other causes.
Note to [page 87].
At page 87, I have said that the quantity of tea consumed in this country is between twenty and thirty millions of lbs. weight; but I forgot to state that between two and three millions of pounds sterling are drawn out of the pocket of the public yearly in its purchase, either in the form of price or of duty. Surely the expenditure of this enormous sum by the good people of this country, and considering that tea has become so essential a part of the diet of every person in the kingdom, imposes an obligation on the sovereign company of tea dealers in Leadenhall Street to take care that the inhabitants of “this land of milk and honey,” who pay nearly eight times as much as their neighbours do for the same article (namely bohea tea), have a good and fresh commodity, instead of the tasteless, parched, insipid, and scentless rubbish which they retail out to the public, after having remained in the warehouse long enough to perish its good qualities even were its flavour and taste ten times more delicious and grateful than they are. Would it not, as it has been well said, be to the credit of some of our genuine members of the legislature to endeavour to procure the sale of a pure and good article, instead of the trash that is foisted upon the public at present, and which they cannot appeal from, by introducing a law into parliament legalizing the purchase of the article from other hands than the Leadenhall Street monopolists.
Note to [page 89], &c.
An experienced friend in the tea trade who has read over and approved of the various tests I have mentioned at page 89, &c. for detecting the qualities of tea, has kindly furnished me with the following valuable communication: