foreign wines were simply a matter of supply,
quantity only being considered, the advocates
of a reduction would find an abundance of
figures to support their case. We have already
observed that France has been in the habit
of producing above nine hundred millions of
gallons yearly. Austria makes annually five
hundred millions of gallons. Portugal yields
one hundred and fifty millions; Spain, a
hundred and twenty millions; Prussia and
other German States, forty-five millions;
Madeira and Sicily, four millions. Here there
is an aggregate of upwards of two thousand
millions of gallons; besides which, we are
told that there are still immense tracts of
land in the wine-producing countries capable
of vine cultivation.

Unfortunately, however, quality has to be
considered as an important element in the
calculation; and keeping that in view, we
are driven to results directly opposed to what
we might have expected on a first view of the
subject. Setting aside the extremely conflicting
evidence as to the probability of succeeding
in so augmenting the demand for
foreign wines, under a low duty, as to realise
an equal amount of duty with the present,
and which may well be doubted—at least for
many a long period—we come to the question
as to the obtaining the needful quantity, of a
quality adapted to English palates.

Surely a sufficient portion of the nine hundred
millions of gallons yearly made in France
could be spared for us. Surely the peerless
vintages of the Marne and the Gironde, the
medium vineyards along both banks of the
Rhone, from Isère to Vaucluse, and the more
humble produce of the Garonne, Herault, and
the Oriental Pyrenees, can be made to yield
us a sufficient supply of good sound wine.
This is debateable ground. There was evidence
enough given before the Wine Committee
to show that all this could be accomplished;
but according to the statement
before us, which appears to be carefully collected,
and thrown together in a masterly
manner, we should fail to obtain the supply
of wine from France of a suitable character;
whilst any large quantity taken would have
the effect of raising the first cost of the
article more than equal to the reduction of
the duty.

We turn next to Austria and Italy, full of
hope; but there again are disappointed. The
bulk of their wines are either too costly to
benefit by a low duty, or too poor to meet
any favour with a people so long accustomed
to the fortified wines of Spain and Portugal.
The Peninsula, then, is evidently our resting-
place—our forlorn hope. There, we were
told in eighteen hundred and fifty-two, are to
be found sherries of marvellous quality,—
ports of surpassing richness, well suited to
our tastes, and equally adapted to our pockets.
Our author is once more against us in
opinion and fact. That there is an abundance
of good wines in both countries, though not
nearly equal to what has been stated, is not
questioned; but the great distance of the
majority of the wine districts of Spain from
sea-ports, the absence of roads, the want of
coopers and casks, added to the use of skins
on mules' backs for conveying wines, which
destroy their flavour, all preclude the hope
of gaining any sensible supply from Spain,
until an industrial revolution shall have
taken place in that benighted land. Under
the most favourable circumstances, the two
kingdoms might between them furnish fourteen
million gallons of wines,—but a small
portion of what would be needed under the
new order of things.

Turning once more to France, we find, at
the present moment, a state of things in relation
to the wine trade which of itself is quite
sufficient, without any other cause, to put out
of reach, for a long period, the realisation of
our hopes in respect of cheap wines in abundant
quantities. Between eighteen hundred
and forty-eight and eighteen hundred and
fifty-one, there was a succession of disastrous
vintages throughout the greater part of the
French wine districts. From eighteen hundred
and fifty-two to the present year, the
vine disease has committed fearful havoc,
and the stocks of wine, diminished in quantity,
and greatly lowered in quality, have
been reduced to the lowest ebb, whilst prices,
affected by these combined causes, have
reached unheard-of prices. In eighteen hundred
and forty-eight, the total yield of all
the French vineyards was above eleven hundred
millions of gallons; in eighteen hundred
and fifty-four, it has fallen to two hundred
and thirty millions. The export of wines,
during the same period, has declined to one-
half, and that of brandy, from seven millions
of gallons, in eighteen hundred and fifty-two,
to three millions of gallons in last year.

A still more striking proof of the lowness
of the French supply of wines is to be found
in the fact of France becoming a considerable
importer of wine and spirits from other
countries. In eighteen hundred and fifty-
two, France imported seventy-six thousand
gallons of foreign wines; last year she took
upwards of two millions of gallons. During
the same period, her imports of foreign spirits
rose from less than three hundred thousand
gallons to upwards of a million gallons.
For some years to come, then, this terrible
scourge of the vineyards will, we fear, place
the realisation of our hopes out of the question;
and, at all times, its possible recurrence must
form a serious element in our calculations.

Before concluding, we will remark that
tobacco forms a remarkable exception to the
rule of high taxation discouraging consumption.
Whilst wine feels the effect of a duty
equal to three hundred per cent on its value,
tobacco, in spite of a duty amounting to
twelve hundred per cent, on its cost, has
increased, from an average consumption of
less than twelve ounces per head, in eighteen