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    Untitled Article

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    ¦ .. ¦ ¦ ¦ WINE. .. - .. ¦ ¦ and

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    THE WHITWOUTH GUNS.

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    Untitled Article

    I T would be . 1 canton waste of revenue a gross imposition upon a credulous public to reduce tlie duty upon wine , if , as has been stoutly contended , the wine-producing countries are not on y unable at present to supply any increased demand , -Jut cannot , so limited is tie extent of soil adapted to the cultivation of the vine , augment their production in any sufficient measure by planting fresh .. ¦ vineyards . It would be almost as idle to make the sacrifice involved m a tins re . duction of duty if the statements—brought forvvard to sustain and cover this broad assertion—that France alone , can be looked to for a STipplv , but that such a supply , if obtained , must consist entirely ol tlrin light wines , quite unsuited to Englis h tastes , were correct . These objections , however , are quite untenable . The supply of wine is practically unlimited , and the quality of the greater -part of that annually produced in Europe is of the strong , full-bodied Jund assumed to be irrevocably selected by Englishmen . We shall not now discuss the question whether English taste is so faxed—we do not believe that it isnot only because the original taste of the nation

    , was for a lighter kind of wine , as is evidenced by the great consumption of claret two hundred years ago , but from the fact that the importation of French wines has been gradually but surely increasing- of late years , whilst it is within the knowledge of all that the consumption of Bourdeauxis fast gaining ground . It is however a matter of little importance , except so far as sobriety and health are likely to be , prompted by the preference for light wines , since , assuming the taste to be for wines of a port or sherry character , it can be gratified to almost any extent . We will now give the reader . some idea of the capabilities of Europe for the production of wine , requesting him always to bear in mind that the English consumption has , during the last few years , averaged from six to-seven million gallons .

    We could obtain a supply stiffiuient for tenfold our present consumption from Portugal alone . The . whole soil of . that country is stated to be peculiarly adapted to the production of the grape . With even the present cultivation of the Alto Douro , we might have three times as much : ' g-bod port as we now get , if the monopolising restrictions of the Oporto Wine Company did not prevent its . exportation / Only an arbitrarily determined quantity is allowed to . be shipped to Europe each year , and that not the purer port— -such of which as we do get being smuggled by the large wine houses —but a strong sweet wine , full of .-spirit . But a small quantity is allowed to comeand the price of that is augmented by fees and

    , dues . A wine merchant of great experience , no . advocate for the remission of the duty , stated . " before the Wine Committee of 1852—and he was confirmed even by . the representatives of the great wine louses , who fear an interference with their own monopoly from the reduction of duty , that if tjie duty were reduced to two shillings the gallon , and the control of the Oporto Wine Company got rid of , first class young port might be sold in Iiondon at twenty-four shillings the dozen , and a very good wine at fourteen shillings . Of the abolition of the Company tliere can be little doubt .. Without it Portugal must see her wines entirely excluded from the English

    prevails in this country that France can send us only light sour clarets aild frothy champagnes , but it is one of those strange delusions about other countries which stilt linger amongst us . One third at least of the produce of France is strong , highly alcoholised wine , most of it now used in the want ' of a market as wine for distillation . No better evidence can be : given of its character than the fact , that a large quantity of the port drunk in England and South America comes from the South of France . The Roussillon wines from the neighbourhood of the Pyrenees are allowed by wine merchants to be scarcely distinguishable from port , and some admitted before the Wine Committee of 1852 that they were unable to detect Masdeu Svhen offered them as a high-class port . So much for the quality , now for the price . The wine-growers of the Herault would be amply satisfied with threepence a gallon , and M : Michel ChevaIiIEU calculates that a good wine could be delivered in London , free of every charge but duty , afc Is . Id . the gallon ; assume the duty at Is ' . Qd . ( 2 s . 7 d . ) , and allow the large proportion of Is . 5 d . for profit , good wine could be retailed at sixpence the pint . All persons ^ acquain ted with the French wine trade agree that with such a duty as is now determined upon , good claret can be sold at one shilling tie bottle . We have referred to three great sources to which we may look for ' our supply of wine , but we haveby . no means exhausted the fields open to us . Germany , for instance , yields an immense quantity of wine , and its capabilities are scarcely developed . The Austrian empire alone , it is calculated , could produce as much as France now does . But let that calculation be ever so much exaggerated , no doubt can exist that it is able to furnisli an immense quantity . The wines of Hungary are comparatively little known , but they have been sold in England under the name of Port-. wine;—a pretty good proof that they possess spirit and body ; - —and those of Dalmatia . mid Lower Austria are highly praised by competent judges . It is morevdifiiculfc to speak of the capabilities of Italy . According to some , it can supply any quantity of capital wine ; according to others , it yields none that other countries would care to have ; and it is beyond question that the Oidium has , for the present , put it in the background . Sicily , however , has already couquered the English market for Marsala—a wine the demand for which steadily increases , and the red Marsala has made its way surreptitiously as port ; The Greek wines , too , have many admirers , and an English market would lead to greater care in their production . Passing over Madeira and Teneriffe as wines that have had their day , and fondlytrusting tlat South African has bad its day , we may fairly assure our countrymen , that the wine will always be ready whenever they havethe wish . to drink it and the nioney to pay for it .-, Suoh disappointment as may follow the reduction of the duty will rather fall to the lot of the wine-growers . They will probably forget that a nation cannot change its tastes or habits in a few months , and , in the expectation of a brisk market , skip us quantities of vyin-e which will prove absolutely unsaleable at anything like a remunerative price . However cheap wine may be , it will be some years before the masses take kindly to it .

    market , to the advantage of other countries which produce what may be termed port wine , inasmuch as , although not coming from Oporto , it has all the characteristics of the wine shipped from that place . Port wine , however , is not the only product of Portugal . To pass over Colares and other wines of a claret character , highly praised by those who have drunk them , it yields Lisbon and Bucellas , both well known in this country , although the former has gone much out of use , and several other delicious wines of a sherry description , the supply of which is illimitable , and the price so low , that , at a two shilling duty , they could be sold in London at niuepence the bottle ,

    Spain is a very El Dorado of wines , and , for the most part , yet unworked . It produces . annually millions of gallons of most -delicious wines , which are comparatively unknown even to Spaniards themselves , and are sold at prices which appear to us ridiculous . The great cause of this state of things has boen the deficiency in means of transit ; it has been impossible to carry the wine any distance , and often it has been so plentiful , that , Mr . Lumxky-tells us , it has been used to mix mortar and water the vineyards . At any rnto , it has been purchasable at one halfpenny the gallon ,, and that wine of a strong , sound character . The wine-growers of Spain have been stiirr . ed « by the demand for France during its years of bad vintages , and have begun to fcalce more care in their manufacture , and something has been done within the last few years to malco

    the interior more accessible . Spain way be taken to produpo even now two hundred and fifty million of gallons every year , and that quantity , tho most experienced observers tell us , might easily bo doubled or tripled . Spanish wines are nearly nil full-bodied and highly alcoholized , some partaking- of the port wine character , us Beni Carlos , which , although at present badly made , has found its way into the English market , others being of the sherry description ,. The district of Xores , which yields tho winos from which sherry ought to bo compounded , could produce a much larger quantity than it does ; and most roliable witnesses before tho Wino Xhities Committee of 1852 stated what Mr . Lummv ' s report fully boars out , that Spain could immediately supply any possible demand from England for strong , full-bodied wines .

    As to the quantity of ( wino France am supply , . thorp must assuredly coaso to be any question after the fact vouched by official returns , that she yearly produces more than pi ^ Ht hundred million gallons . Assume that our domnu < l augments immediately in a tonfold ratio- —and the assumption is vory extravagant—what are seventy million gull on a to such a harvest P The other question , however , arses—is tho wino such fts Englishmen are likely to drink ? A notion

    Untitled Article

    rpHE surprising success or Mr . VVhitwoiitii s guns A to the conclusion that the money spent upon those of Sir Williaji . Armstjiong has been thrown away , or that the cannon of the hitter ' gentleman will have to be set aside to make way lor those of his triumphant competitor . It is , however , to be doubted , whether the Government exercised a wise discretion in expending all their energies upon one form of artillery , when there were good reasons . for believing that Mr . VViUTWOjaxH was acting- upon sounder -principles , and would obtain a more accurate result .

    "Nothing in the history of projectiles is so astonishing as tho recent performances of the Wuixwoiml guns at Southpo . , and it is to be remarked that the means employed are . precisely those which have been lortg known to be the best when adapted to small arms ; althpugh , perhaps from their merits , they have always been ignored and disliked by the old fogey party winch rules in our military- affairs . The Swiss , tho Americans , and tho late General Jauob , all , arrived at tho muue conclunion , that a rapid twiat in rifle-grooving was essential to long range shooting-, and accurate performance beyond trilling distances ; and wlionJMi-. Whitwoutk produced : his rifle , ho adhered to this rule , not from any fancy for a particular theory , but because ho wna lod to it from curoful experiments , ^ Muny years ago tho Swiss proyed that a lmlf-ouneo ball

    firod from u rillo with a tvvjst about twice that adopted | , y Qur Government , would penetrate 3 {> inches of dual at rntlior more than half a mile j while gne hundred balls in succession' at that distance struck a target eight foot six inches square . Genera!—then Major— - Jacob , with a projectile of mthor diflbront pat torn , and a rifle whieh had four grooves , instead of tho seven employed by tho Swiss , arrived at equally important result * , but upon tho saino principle of a high twist , and obtained an oiloctivo range of two thousand fired from rillo which

    yards wifU balls weighing about 1 J ountio , a had one turn in twenty-four inches . In all those qxiiorimonts two things wero remarkable—first , tho great vungo and penetrating : power of-tUo shot ; and secondly , the small angle , of elevation and tho llutn'OHt * of thp curve of tho Hue . oF Hiyht—a mutter uf groat practical importanoo , bocauao itmakes slight miaoaluulutioiiH ot'dfstunce of comparatively little conscaueuco , and materially udds to tho dostructivoness of projectiles ilrud at a considorablo run ^ o among a body of wqu . In ooiifbfiiiity with tho notorious oonistifcution ot rod-tapeworm existence , our niitliuriiios do ( fidod to lmvo « rillo witu a small twiat . and an unnecessary uujjlo of olovution , fer iv Jut ? to its pro-

    Untitled Article

    March 3 , 1860 . J The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 205

    ¦ .. ¦ ¦ ¦ Wine. .. - .. ¦ ¦ And

    and ¦ . . WINE . .. - .. ¦ ¦

    The Whitwouth Guns.

    THE WHITWOUTH GUNS .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 3, 1860, page 205, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2336/page/9/