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or fifty, who infest London and its environs (and for aught I know, may extend their pestiferous designs to remote parts of the country), connected with private stills, who are particularly anxious to introduce themselves to your notice, under the guise of goosefeeders, dealers in India handkerchiefs, or any other guise that may favour their villanous purposes, and throw you off your guard. But I caution you to beware of those "wolves in sheep's clothing:" their real design is to introduce themselves to you as the venders of illicit spirits. They will use every artifice to seduce you to purchase the prohibited commodity. They will invite you to their goose-farms at Thornton-Heath, Hadley, and elsewhere, and by unremitting attention, persuasion, and tempting offers at low prices, at last overcome all your scruples to violate the law, and endanger your welfare and character. But I again caution you to have no communication with the "deceivers;" it will be your certain ruin, as it has been that of many others: even some of the knaves them

selves have paid the forfeit of their knavery, One of them opened a large wine and liquor vault in the metropolis, at a great expence, but he did not long escape the vigilance of the Excise: his unlawful gains were all seized and condemned. Pro

bably this is not the only instance of the kind that has happened to the gang. They have my good wishes that the same fate may await them all; and I assure them, that as far as my information and means will allow me,. I will lose no opportunity of bringing them to "condign justice.";

11. Ascertaining or Calculating the Strengths of Spirits.

Foreign spirits are generally imported into this country over-proof, and are usually sold by the importer in the docks in that state; and this is the preferable manner of buying spirituous liquors; for as the Excise duty is chargeable only on the over-proof you are charged with, the greater the advantage will be to you, as I shall shew, when treating of the Purchase and Management of Rum, in the

following pages. You should therefore endeavour to purchase spirits of the highest over-proof strength that can be met with, except rum, the flavour of the lower strengths (namely, 14 to 20 per cent.) being generally the finest.

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Unsweetened gin is sent out from the rectifier's stock at two strengths, namely, 17 and 22 per cent. by Sykes's hydrometer; but of course, for a proportionate increase of price, you may have goods delivered of a higher strength. Purchasers generally prefer at 22 per cent. under proof.

Your next object should be to ascertain whether the spirits are of the strength represented, in order to know whether you have been fairly treated, as also to enable you to determine what reduction they will admit of. This last-mentioned object may be accomplished either by burning the spirits, or by the samplephial, or the more certain and efficacious application of the hydrometer*.

The hydrometer proof, or trial of legal strength, is not always certain; for when spirits have been unlawfully sweetened (a practice frequently resorted to by unfair dealers), no

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The phial-proof consists in agitating the spirit in a bottle, and observing the form and magnitude of the bubbles that collect round the edge of the liquor, technically termed "the beads," which are larger or smaller, according to the strength or weakness of the spirit. These probably depend on the solution of resinous matter from the cask, which is taken up in greater or smaller quantities, according to the strength of the spirit. Still, however, various simple additions to weak spirit may produce this appearance in it. The proof by burning is also fallacious; because the magnitude of the flame, and the quantity of residue in the same spirit, vary greatly, according to the form of the vessel in which it is burned. According as the vessel is kept cool, or suffered to become hot, according as it is deeper or shallower, the results will vary in each case.

Before I proceed to mention the hydrometer proof, it may not be amiss to pre

satisfactory result can be obtained by means of that instrument; the real strength can only be truly ascertained by the process of distillation.

mise, that in the management of spirits, whether foreign or British, the first business of a retailer is to be able to ascer tain, by sure and certain means, their proper strength. But though this knowledge is of the highest importance, it is very little attended to, and hardly even known, by the greatest part of the retail trade. In the communication of this necessary part of every skilful dealer's duty, I shall be as brief and intelligible as possible.

In the first place, it should be remembered, that spirits of wine have the greatest strength of any known spirit; and although that strength may be increased by means of salt of tartar, yet such factitious spirit, when exposed to the air, returns, or falls down, almost immediately, to its original or general strength of alcohol, or spirits of wine. Taking pure spirits of wine then as the greatest possible strength that can be obtained for practical purposes, you can naturally comprehend that pure water possesses the lowest temperature or quality of all liquids. Having settled these

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