James Greenwood

“ It is on this spear that they are perpetually spitting the unlucky possessor of a licence to sell spirits and beer, and holding him up to public execration as a fiend in human shape-a sort of bloated vampire, squatted on the bodies of his million victims, whose blood and sustenance he has devoured. ”

“ SAY the energetic and well-meaning gentlemen who would convert the whole country to be total abstainers - the lurking devil at the heart and core of the whole business, is not so much that pure spirit or a simple effusion of good hops and roasted barley hurts the man who drinks it: it is the sickening concoctions, the baneful ingredients, that the unscrupulous publican finds it to his profit to add to the various liquors he dispenses that works the main mischief. ”

“ Is the revolution that has taken place in the "preparation of beer for the public during the last few years the result of a discovery made by some keen, calculating member of the craft, who argued thus: "By the use of certain drugs that a fastidious public regard as more or less objectionable, I am enabled to produce, at a cheap rate, a beverage, the stupefying qualities of which shall exceed those of the genuine article. Jack Jones, who drinks as much beer as any man, likes it. Jack judges of the quality of beer by the quantity he is able to drink of it before he is made drunk. ”

“ In a neighbourhood such as this, if in any, there exists a temptation for the dishonest publican to "play tricks" with his gin. The lucrative pursuit of the vile trade that the women follow depends in great part on the accommodating disposition of the publican, and therefore the women dare not complain, and the sailors half their time are spoony drunk, and will swallow anything as long as gentle "Poll" of Wapping presses it on his acceptance. Well, what is the worst that can be said of the gin of Ratcliff-highway? Only that it contains thirty-one per cent. of spirit, with sugar and water. ”

“ Seven samples, each representing the popular English beverage, to "rob a poor man" of which is commonly accounted an offence deserving the severest punishment human ingenuity can inflict; and all collected from just that kind of public- house where beer worship is most devoutly observed. The seven pints have been put on their trial fairly - and without prejudice, excepting that slight degree of it which human nature is bound to harbour against anybody or anything brought up to be examined "on suspicion." It cannot be denied that my seven pints of beer were taken on suspicion. ”

“ To be sure, it is not much to prove that a large body of influential tradesmen are not stained with the guilt of enriching themselves at the cost of health-the life even-of the very people on whom they most rely for support; but it is a great deal to assist in dispersing the cloud of suspicion that undeservedly, and by virtue of vague rumour only, has been so long permitted to overshadow them. That the publicans of London are innocent of all "tricks of trade" cannot in truth be stated ”

“ But even the publicans there have a conscience that preserves them innocent of the crime of hastening their customers' deaths beyond the speed at which simple alcohol is capable of carrying them. The gin of Kent-street is of fair average quality, registering thirty and a half - water, sugar, and "aromatic seasoning" being called in as substitutes for the amount of alcohol of which the original liquor has been plundered. ”

“ Jack finds that three pots of my mixture knock him clean off his legs, and then he reels home 'glorious.' So much for pernicious adulteration. Now, suppose I turn over a new leaf. Instead of using in my beer drugs that produce 'lethargic stupor,' I will dilute it with nothing beside burnt sugar and water, with the addition of a fair sprinkling of salt. With plenty of salt in his liquor, he will keep sober twice as long as formerly, and his drink making him thirsty, he will imbibe at least twice asmuch ”

“ To be sure, it is not so artless and innocent as might be desired; but it contains no poison; assuming, that is to say, that the seven samples that have undergone the severest tests it was possible to apply to them may be regarded as fairly representing the great bulk of fourpenny beer that in pints and "pots" crosses thousands of metal-topped counters every day throughout the year. As with the "quarterns of gin," they were collected from the lowest neighbour- hoods ”

“ And though, of course, calmly reasoning people have felt it incumbent on them to make broad allowances for party-blind exaggeration, there exists a universal opinion, that the publican does doctor "his liquors." ”

“ Sample marked "O." - This from the New-cut; from the roaring, rattling market-place that is literally crammed on Saturday night, road and pathway, by working men and their wives; whose belief in its being lucky to spend the "market penny" is as old-established as it is respected. ”