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A SPIRITUOUS DISCOURSE
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takes its trade colour, and, to a certain extent,
flavour, from the sherry-casks in which it is
matured. It is also coloured by the direct addi
tion of caramel (burnt sugar), or a maturing
wine.
In America, Rye or Bourbon whisky is made
from wheat or maize grown in the Bourbon
country, Kentucky, and some of it would kill
at forty yards. The chief distillery states on
the other side of the Atlantic are Illinois, Ohio,
Kentucky, Indiana, NewYork, and Pennsylvania.
At the Cape, and throughout South Africa, there
is decent whisky procurable, as also a pernicious
compound known as " Square-face " or "Cape
smoke," and in much favour with the dusky
races of the country. On the Congo, palm-wine
—similar to the fermented toddy of the East
Indies—was for centuries the only livener, but
with the march of civilization have come the
whiskies of Great Britain, more or less adulter
ated j and whereas in the past death by the
sword, or the club, was the only known punish
ment for the subjects of the native tyrants who
are so fond of thinning out the population, a
well-fuselled whisky is now freely employed for
the same purpose.
Although whisky is now freely partaken of
all over GreatBritain, it was comparatively speak
ing despised in England until the first half of
the present century had slipped by. This fact
is apparent from a perusal of contemporary litera
ture. And in no country has " malt" had such a
rise in public estimation as in the greatcontinent
of Hindustan, where "John Exshaw " and "John
G