pursue it, and the means by which persons engaged in it are enabled, by bribing the officers, to elude detection; but this profit is sometimes uncertain, depending on the price of corn and the success of the subsequent sale of the spirit. There is also a great waste of wash and of grains, which in many cases are thrown away and buried, in order to prevent discovery.

Some idea of the magnitude of this evil may be formed from the following table, which contains the number of unlicensed stills that appear to have been seized in the course of five years, from 1802 to June, 1806.*

The report, from which this account is extracted, states, that as the extent of country occupied by the unlicensed distilleries, comprises some of the most wealthy and populous districts of Ireland, it will not be too much to assume upon a point where no correct calculation can be formed, that the unlicensed distilleries supply one-third of the spirits consumed in the country; and to shew the probable loss sustained by the revenue from frauds both in the licensed and illicit distillery, the following calculation is given :

It appears from official returns, that the duty paid on home-made spirits was, on an average of the two last years £714,241. 10s. 7d., and that during the same time a quantity was exported from the king's warehouses, on which the duty, if payable, would have amounted to £141,820. 18s. per annum. It is also in evidence, that the licensed distillers evaded duty in one year on a quantity of spirits, equal as well to that on which they had paid duty, as upon that which had been exported from the king's warehouses; by which it is probable, as we have before endeavoured to shew, that a loss of revenue was sustained to the amount of £856,000. per annum. Besides the export from the king's warehouses,

September 11th. Ards.-The illicit distillers malt their own barley, by putting it into a dunghill, where it vegetates. They then dry it. The gauger receives a regular rent from all the stills within his district. One of them has saved between five and six thousand pounds. These people are allowed very handsome salaries from government, yet employ fraud to increase them. Some stills hold only 40 gallons; 25 state of barley makes 10 gallons of spirit, to which is added, one third of water to convert it into whisky.

Fifth Report of the Commissioners on Fees, Gratuities, &c. of Public Offices in Ireland, ordered to be

printed March 18th, 1807, p. 166.

it appears, that 231,646 gallons of spirits were, on an average of the two last years, exported from private stores, on which the draw-back of the spirit duty, at 4s. 4d. per gallon, amounted to £50,189. 19s. 4d.; this sum, deducted from £714,241. 10s. 7d. will leave £664,051. 11s. 3d. as the whole receipt of duty on home-made spirits consumed in Ireland; to which, if the above sum of £856,000. be added, the entire duty which ought to have been received from the licensed distillers of spirits consumed in Ireland will amount to £1,520,051. 11s. 3d. ; and if it be granted that onethird of the consumption is supplied by unlicensed distillation, we shall be entitled to add £760,025. 15s. 7dž. as a duty which that portion ought annually to have paid; making the entire duty which should have been paid on home-made spirits consumed in Ireland to amount to upwards of £2,280,000. per annum, while the duty actually received thereon was little more than £664,000.*

The legislature have, from time to time, made various provisions and regulations, some of them exceedingly severe, in order to suppress illegal stills; but the means employed to counteract them are conducted in so systematic a manner, and in some places with such a determined spirit of opposition, that they do not appear to have answered the proposed end. This, added to the collusion of the officers, render it exceedingly difficult to carry into execution any measures likely to be attended with effect. Private stills are, for the most part, erected in bogs, mountains, and retired places,+ and in many parts, they cannot be suppressed for want of a sufficient military force to assist the officer. Excise officers are frequently in the pay of the private distillers in their respective walks, and on that account do not discharge their duty. Notice is frequently sent to those feed officers, when an old still is worn out, and become useless, that they may be enabled, by seizing it, to obtain the reward given by the excise; and officers, when they make a real seizure, seldom spill the pot-ale, or break the different vessels, though they are by law expressly required so to do, except in some instances where an old vessel is designedly left for that purpose; and they often permit the soldiers to sell to the distiller the vessels that are seized.

But even when officers, who conscientiously discharge their duty, search for stills, the whole country is alarmed by the sounding of horns and firing of muskets and other arms, so that every thing is frequently entirely removed from the premises before the officer arrives; for, as these stills are never fixed, but placed upon loose stones, they are easily conveyed away, and sometimes are thrown into bogs and other unfrequented places, where they are covered with earth and sods. As officers, known to be faithful to their trust, dare not venture to visit places suspected of unlicensed distillery, unless supported by a body of soldiers, their approach is soon perceived; especially as the private distillers, in general, have a sentinel + Ibid, p. 228. Ibid, 229.

* Report, p. 167.

p Ibid, ibid.

placed in certain stations, to give them notice when the enemy appears; thus they are better enabled to get their whole apparatus removed to a place of safety before the officer approaches.

Legal distilleries are established at Limerick* and Cork.+ There are licensed distilleries, also at Ross, Dublin, Drogheda; and in consequence of the bounty held out to those who used large stills, there was a probability of their being confined to these places. A great deal of their spirit is extracted from malt; but they intermix as much oats as they can. The greater part of the illegal distillation is

from the latter.

The fifth report of the commissioners on fees, gratuities, &c. of public officers of Ireland, already quoted, presents a very curious picture of the frauds practised both by the excise officers and distillers, in order to render the laws on this subject inef fectual. In many instances the visits of the gaugers are accommodated to the convenience of the distiller, who is thus enabled to regulate his work in such a manner as to have his premises apparently correct on these occasions; and if the time of the officer's coming be inconvenient, he goes away, and returns at an appointed hour. It is stated, also, that frequently the entries made in their books are altogether fictitious, particularly those of their evening visits, and written with a preparation

• Dec. 1st, 1808. LIMERICK.-There are here two distilleries.

week. Government

+ Cork.-Called on Mr. Walker, the greatest distiller in the kingdom. He has two stills, which contain each 1,500 gallons; and he makes 17,000 gallons of spirit per week, and works his stills from nine to ten months in the year. Twelve stone of grain are allowed to every six gallons of spirit. Messrs. Hewson and Co. have a still which holds 1,780 gallons, and make 9,000 gallons of spirit per allow one-eighth for expansion, there remain 1,560 gallons of spirit. Two-fifths, or 624 gallons for each doubling, multiplied by 58, give 36,192 gallons of spirit to be made every 28 days. The distiller must either make it, or pay duty; if once begun, 200 barrels of grain, of 12 stone each, make the 1,750 gallons. In Ireland, it is necessary to brew ferment, and distil in the course of 624 hours; in England, there is no limits to distilleries, only they must work 32 weeks in the year. The distillers here seldom use their grains and their wash, the former are sold by the kilderkin. Twelve stone, of 14 pounds each, of dry grain, are put into the mash-tub, the value from 1s. to 1s. Id. a kilderkin, according to its quality, whether oats or barley. The casks are made of American timber. A quarter of barley, weighing in England, about 50lbs. to the bushel, or 400 lbs. sells by the last market return for 48%. In Ireland it is bought by the barrel, containing 36 stone of 14lbs. to the stone, or 404lbs. The present price is 41s., but screening and drying adds ten per cent. It is still a great deal cheaper, but on weighing a bushel it was found to be barely 48lbs. A barrel of oats, containing 33 stone of 14lbs. each, or 462lbs., sells for 32s. and 35s., to which must be added ten per cent for screening and drying. In England, a quarter, or eight bushels, of 393lbs. is at present 40s. The malster sells by weight, and hence his barley is not half malted. In Cork there are five or six rectifiers, who work under special license from the commissioners of Mr. Walker says distillation was first carried on in the north, and was introduced into the south within the last twenty years. Sugar will never be used here; as the market is in England, the expense of transporting it becomes too great. No gross distiller in Ireland is allowed to be a rectifier. There are three other distilleries in Cork, two of which have stills capable of holding 1,500 gallons, and one, the still f

excise.

which holds 500.

of ink easy to be discharged, in order to substitute false entries ;* and it appears from the deposition of several eminent distillers, that government, by collusions of this kind, sustain a loss, the extent of which is immense. One distiller candidly acknowledged, that he frequently made 5,300 gallons of spirits in a week, at a time when he was charged with 2,075 only; another, that he annually made 9,000 or 10,000 gallons of spirits weekly, when his charge was but 4,970 gallons, and that had it not been for some defect in the apparatus, he could have made a still greater quantity; a third, that he made, on an average, 6,500 gallons, and sometimes 7,000 weekly, when charged with no more than 3,500; and a fourth stated it as his belief, that the spirits privately made by distillers in general, were, at the least, equal in quantity to the spirits with which they were chargeable. The commissioners, therefore, say, "When we find all the examinations concur in stating, that the distillers every where made considerable quantities of private spirits, we probably shall not exaggerate, if we compute the private spirits made by licensed distillers, to have been more than equal, both to those which paid duty, and those exported from the king's warehouses. The average amount of duty paid in the two years, ending 29th Sept. 1806, was £714,241. 10s. 7d. ; and the quantity of spirits exported from the king's stores on the average of two years, ending the 10th of October, 1806, was 654,558 gallons, the duty on which would have amounted to £141,820. 18s. If, therefore, we are well founded in the computation of the quantity of private spirits made by distillers, of which their testimony can leave little doubt, it will follow, that by the frauds of licensed distillers alone, the revenue has, on the average, sustained a loss of £856,000. and upwards, for each of the two last, and, perhaps, preceding years. This monstrous fraud on the revenue, we are sorry to remark, could not have been effected but by the collusion and connivance of the officers, whose corrupt intercourse with the distillers, appears to have been general, and would, almost without any other evidence, be manifested by the enormous amount of their fees."+

* Report, p. 148.

+ The surveyors' fees are rated at about twenty guineas per month from each distiller; gaugers are said to have received ten, and sometimes twenty guineas a month for a 500 gallon still, and 20 guineas per month for 1,000 gallon still, besides one guinea for every puncheon of private spirits removed under cover of a fraudulent permit. Report, p. 154.

Number of Gallons of Irish Spirits exported from the several Ports of Ireland, for the years ending the 10th of October 1802, 1803, 1804, 1805, and 1806.*

Quantity of Irish Spirits exported from the King's Warehouses, for two years, ending 10th of October 1805 and 1806.

1805, Gallons 838,105.

1806, Gallons 471,012.

Average Quantity exported from private stores:

In 1805 and 1806, Gallons 231,646.

An Account of the Amount of Bounties paid to Distillers in each of the following years, ending 5th of January, in each year, being a bounty on large stills beyond a certain size, and of a bounty paid to spirit retailers :