MANUFACTURES.

809

hanic»l

esses.

1

t

1

t

Manufac-

tures.

Mr. Dehany also suggests the extension of the dutyto Ireland , by which one of the few remaining distinc-tions which prevent the trade between the two Countriesfrom being in all respects a coasting trade would beremoved; and he considers there will be the less ob-jection to it, as there are very few, if any, hop-growersin Ireland .

The Commissioners express their concurrence in Mr.Dehany’s suggestion.

The question of the extent of credit which is allowedby law to the grower of hops, before his duty is collected,is fully entered into in the Report.

By the original Act of Anne a credit of six monthswas allowed, but under the 1st and 2d Wm. IV. e. 53, afull year must now elapse before the duties are entirelydischarged: an extent of credit very much exceedingthat which is allowed in any other case. It will besufficient here to state, that the Commissioners of Inquiryrefer to their Reports on paper and on malt, in whichthey have fully explained the opinion they entertain,“ that Excise duties ought to be collected upon the articlescharged, as soon as those articles shall be ready to bedisposed of by the maker;” an opinion which they con-ceive to apply with greater force to the case of hops, inwhich a much more protracted period of payment isgiven, although the sale of hops generally takes place assoon as they are ready for consumption.

The Commissioners, however, express their sense ofthe difficulty of withdrawing an indulgence which is inpart coeval with the imposition of the duty itself; but,being persuaded of the mischief which arises from theextension of credit in Excise duties, they recommend thatthe attention of the department of Excise should becalled to the possibility of effecting an arrangement onterms satisfactory to the planters, under which this dutymight, with respect to the time of payment, be assimi-lated to the other duties of Excise .

The Commissioners conclude their observations by afew comments on the effects which the high customs’duty of £8 11*. per hundred-weight on hops importedfrom foreign Countries has, in confining the supply in agreat degree to the home grower, and thereby increasingtlie cost to the customer in England ; a species of mo-nopoly which would prevent the consumer deriving thebenefit of a reduction of duty, by a corresponding re-duction of price in the market; and, under these cir-cumstances, they express their opinion, that there seems( o be no reason why the revenue should not benefit bythe present amount of duty, more especially as hops arecomprised in that class of articles to which they havealready referred in their Seventh Report, as being morefitting subjects for taxation than those which may bereckoned among useful manufactures.

“orter

dewing.

J. .

(1125.) In our alphabetical division we haviArticle descriptive of the process of brewing on a -scale for domestic purposes ; we shall confine ourshere, therefore, to a description only of P™ 'and machinery employed in the larger esta isparticularly in our metropolitan porter breweries.

Porter originally differed only from other kin sof the same degree of strength by being rewebrown or high-dried malt, which gave to it the peccolour and flavour which distinguish it from o eras described in Art. 1122 ; but at present it is bre

from a mixture of pale and brown malt, the colour beingless than formerly, or with all pale malt, and the colourgiven to it by certain colouring matter, such as burntsugar, or burnt sugar of concentrated wort, &c. AllLondon porter is professed to be what is called entirebutt, that is, of one kind only; but it is more commonlycompounded of two kinds, or rather the same liquor intwo different stages, the due admixture of which ispalatable, although neither is good alone : the one beingnew or mild, and the other staler or old ; the former isthat which has the slight bitter flavour, from having beenlately brewed, the other gives the pleasant astringentcharacter which distinguishes good porter. This mix-ture, however, is not made by the brewer when he sup-plies publicans with it for sale. In these cases the twodifferent qualities are sent in different barrels, and thepublican mixes them to the taste of his different cus-tomers, which was done formerly in the cellar ; but thisdepartment of trade, like all others, has benefited bymechanical contrivance; and the matter is now so ma-naged that pipes are communicated from different bar-rels in the cellar to a beer pump in the bar, and the beeris thus drawn and mixed with the greatest facility. Theusual beer machine has four pumps, but only threespouts, because two of these pumps are connected withone spout. One of these two draw from the mild andthe other from the stale barrel, and the tapster, by adexterous management of the handles, works the twopumps so as to draw in any proportion from each; andto an indifferent observer, as all the liquor is deliveredfrom one spout, no mixing would be suspected.

The London brewers, in consequence of the largescale of their business, have been led to study with themost minute attention every thing which can tend toimprove their beer, or to economize the materials ofwhich it is composed, as also to diminish the labour ofremoving such large quantities of liquor from one partof their extensive premises to another, and to substituteas far as possible mechanical power for that of horses

Mechanical

Processen.

and men.

The first porter brewer in London who erected a Adoption ofsteam-engine for this purpose was the late Mr. Good- the steam,wynne, and it was the first engine erected in London by f“g‘ n ® » nthe late Mr. Watt. Another was soon after put up by leWerltK -the celebrated brewer Mr. Whitbread , at his establish-ment in Chiswell-street, where many other improve-ments were introduced. Indeed it is commonly assertedthat the steam-engine was first erected on these pre-mises, which is, however, a mistake. The writer of thisarticle has been assured by Mr. Goodwynne that whenMr. Watt proposed to Mr. Whitbread to erect a steam-engine on his premises he decidedly refused, and thatWatt subsequently applied to him, that he agreed tomake the trial, and that this was the first steam-enginewhich Watt erected in London . Whitbread ’s was,however, for a long time the most scientifically arrangedbrewing establishment; but at present, we believe, thisclaim is due to the Golden-lane brewery.

The water employed by the porter brewers in London sfor the brewing part is mostly drawn from deep wells the wateralthough a very popular notion prevails that it is the fo1 ' tl,eThames water which gives to London porter its peculiar London quality. This is, however, erroneous. There is an breweries 'immense quantity of water below the London clay whichis in communication with springs considerably elevated •so that by sinking a well 150 or 200 feet deeo so as topenetrate and pass through the clay, an almost un-