of tasting the celebrated cyder made in Normandy, but was never able to discover that it had anything " cheery" in it.

MUM.

66

The clam'rous crowd, is hushed with mugs of Mum,

Till all tuned equal, send a general hum.

РОРЕ.

THAT this liquor was formerly much drunk in this country, the lines of the poet furnish sufficient evidence. It is a kind of malt liquor, which has been almost entirely superseded by ale. It is, however, still much drunk in Germany, and the best is brought from Brunswick. It is made of wheat and malt (7 bushels to 63 gallons of water) with a small proportion of oatmeal and ground beans. It ought to be kept two years.

MALT LIQUOR,

Oh the rare virtues of this Barley-broth,

To rich and poor, it's meat-and drink-and cloth.

VIRTUES OF YORKSHIRE ALE.

We shall now pay a pop-visit to Sir John Barleycorn. Nations to which nature has denied the richer juice of the grape, have in all ages, cultivated some kind of substitute, Hence, the fertility of the soil in grain, put the Egyptians upon drinking ale, of which they have the credit of being the inventors, Ale is said to have been first made at Pelusium, (a place situated on one of the mouths of the Nile), about 1200 years before the Christian era. Of this Pelusian liquor, or barley-wine (for it bore both names), their were two kinds; the one called carmi being sweet and glutinous, the other named erythum seems to have had some resemblance to modern beer. For our present purpose it may be sufficient to mention, that in the history of ancient customs and festivities in England, ale is to be traced in every record. In the ninth century, lands were held at a rental which included two tuns of clear ale, a hundred loaves, and ten mittan of Welsh ale. A comb full of a sort of ale called Lithes or mild ale, is mentioned in Dugdale's Monasticon, as reserved in a grant of Offa. In Church history, ale is variously denominated. From the predominance of this old English beverage in the feasts of the people, we have the terms bridalale, leet-ale, lamb-ale, whitsun-ale, &c. denoting respectively

a wedding feast, an entertainment at the court-leet of a manor, a lamb-shearing, &c.

Ale, beer, or barley wine, as it formerly was called, is a beverage peculiarly English; but what with the poverty of the lower classes-the lowering of wages-the heavy tax on the barley when made into malt-and the tax upon hops, home-brewed ale is not so generally drunk as it ought to be. Owing to the excess of taxation, the use of malt has declined as the population of the country has increased; the consumption being less by nearly 300,000 quarters in 1828 when the population amounted to upwards of 13,000,000, than it was in 1787 when it did not amount to 8,000,000. This will not excite any great surprise when it is stated, that the duty on malt liquor, amounted altogether, till recently, to 175 per cent on its value!

Ale is a liquor to which the climate of England seems peculiarly adapted. It can be kept for almost any length of time; liquor of various degrees of strength can be drawn from the same material, and that too in any quantity large or small, as may best suit either the wants or wishes of the party. Of all the drinks known, none can equal home-brewed malt liquor for the labouring man. Ale is liquid bread; and happy would it be, if the British labourer could be enabled to return to the beverage of his ancestors, and the foaming tankard of nut-brown ale, be replaced upon his board,

This wine of grain is distinguished by containing a large portion of mucilage and saccharine matter;—by an invigorating bitter with which it is charged;-by a small proportion of alcohol;—and by the absence of super-tartrate of potash, a salt found in all wines expressed from the grape. The hop, when too much is not used (which is often the case),

has a beneficial tendency: it slightly invigorates the stomach, and promotes digestion, and in some degree counteracts any bad effects which the beverage may possess. Malt liquor nourishes, whilst drams excite and increase action without supplying expenditure. The stimulant power of malt liquor is less, and its nutriant power greater. Ardent spirits when habitually taken to excess, rapidly incapacitate the digestive organs, and soon destroy the appetite altogether. Malt liquor when taken in the same excess, also destroys the powers of digestion; but then its stimulant power being so much less than that of drams, and its nutriant matter so much greater, the bad effects are not so speedily felt, and are not so distressing when they are felt. The difference betwixt a pint of honest ale and a glass of gin, bears some analogy to the difference to a horse betwixt a feed of corn and the application of the spur. The one gives what is wanted, solid support; the other merely excites to action, which is very soon followed by proportional exhaustion and fatigue.

Porter was first introduced about the year 1730, and its manufacture has been subject to all the changes which capricious taste could devise It was soon found that the best method of making porter appear old, was to mix porter that had become sour, with a certain quantity of fresh drink. Hence two separate hogsheads were provided, the one supplied with sour, the other with fresh drink. At last, public houses had small hydraulic engines fitted up, and by means of two or three pumps, drink of any age required could be drawn from the cellar ready made! Before the year 1730, the malt liquors in general use in London, were ale, beer, and two-penny, and it was the custom to call for a pint of half and half, that is, half of ale and half of beer, or half of ale and half of two-penny. Afterwards it was customary to call for

a pint of three threads, meaning a third of ale, beer, and twopenny thus the publican had to go to three casks for a pint of liquor. A Brewer of the name of Harewood succeeded in making a liquor which partook of the united flavours of ale, beer, and two-penny. It was called Entire Butt, meaning it was drawn entirely from one cask or butt, and as it was a hearty nourishing liquor in great request amongst the street porters of London, it obtained the name of porter.

ADULTERATION. Beer, ale, and porter are adulterated to a great extent. If we taste twenty different ales the flavour of scarcely any two is at all alike, which sufficiently proves that there are various methods of brewing, or rather making even this our old national beverage. The ingredients with which malt liquors are sophisticated are numerous. The most common are quassia, hyoscyamus (henbane), belladonna (deadly night shade), cocculus indicus (commonly called fuddle berry),&c.-It is more than probable that opium, or some similar drug is used, which acts specifically in distending the vessels of the brain, and in this way becomes a powerful exciting cause of palsy and apoplexy, diseases which have certainly increased of late years.

The influence of wine, spirits, and ale, may be summed up in this way: wine courteously solicits;-drams rudely extort ;--malt liquor generously gives.

The culture of the hop plant was introduced into England from Flanders in 1524, and the strobiles were first used for preserving English beer in the latter part of the reign of Henry VIII; but the prejudice against them was so considerable, that the city of London, a hundred years afterwards, petitioned the parliament to prevent their use! The valuable properties of the hop do not reside in the leaves themselves-but in an impalpable yellow powder peculiar to the female plant. This substance is called Lupulin,