Mr. Dawson Burns sends to the Times a really remarkable
statement as to the amount of money which the people of the United Kingdom spend on their drink. They bought last year 20,205,306 gallons of alcohol in distilled spirits, 2,592,660 in foreign wines, 54,699,320 in malt liquors, and 650,000 in cider, perry, and British wines, the amounts given being in alcohol, not in liquor. For this quantity, all of which, except perhaps the alcohol in malt liquor, may be taken to be either mere waste or luxury, they paid in 1874 :— For ardent spirits
... £41,574,134
For foreign wines ... ... 12,963,288 For malt liquor
72.932,426 For cider, perry, and British wine ... 1,000,000 £128,469,848 Mr. Dawson Burns thinks that all of this could be retrenched, but it is certain that one-half, a sum equal to the whole taxation of the kingdom, could be saved without much diminution in the happiness of the people, and with a great improvement in its morale. That does not prove that the majority has a right to compel the minority to save it.
Previous page
