78 / 248
THE FLOWING BOWL
on the wines of bonnie Scotland made another
statement at the same time which is eminently
calculated to remove all fears lest whisky, like
brandy, be on the down line. "The serpent
Alcohol," remarks a writer in the Daily Tele
graphy in discussing Mr. Dewar's speech, " may
have been scotched" — was this meant for a
joke?—"but it is far from having been killed."
According to the Ex-SherifF's statistics the dis
tillation of Irish whisky, despite its diminishing
popularity, has increased during the last fourteen
years by about thirty per cent; while in Scot
land during the same period the increase has
been at the rate of nearly eighty per cent.
Ireland, that is to say, which produced eleven
million gallons in 1884, now produces fourteen
million and a half gallons ; while the Scotch
output, which was eighteen million gallons in
the former year, had risen in 1898 to the enor
mous figure of thirty-three millions and a half.
Hech sirs ! these be braw figures indeed.
Yet let not the British be held up to reproba
tion as hard drinkers, as long as France is a
going concern. Statistics prove that in Scotland,
the land o' the barley bree, the consumption of
spirits during the year 1892-93 averaged a little
more than twelve and a half pints per month,
which is little more than the proportion of spirits
required by the Parisians, without wine, absinthe,
and—other things. The boulevardiers are called
" temperate," although they drink as much spirits
as do the Scots, and thirty times as much wine,
not to mention cider and beer.
Distilling in Britain dates from the eleventh