ADULTERATION PREVENTION

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXI, Issue 108, 12 May 1896, Page 4

ADULTERATION PREVENTION

» " Beer, beer, glorious beer" is the refrain of one of the most popular psalms of the music halls just now (writes a London correspondent.) Every honest British workman worships his pot of " four-arf," and the more ardently he loves the beverage. This being so, the long-continued efforts of Mr Outhbert Quilter, M.P. (erstwhile apostle of Art, with a big A), m the interests of pure beer, do not, I fear, meet with the grateful recognition they deserve. Mr Quilter has for the last ten years regularly introduced a Bill into the House obliging brewers to use barley, malt, and hops m the manufacture of aio. Yet it has never got beyond a fivst readirg. Why ? " Surely," says the general public, "every lion, member wants pure beer." Theoretically, yes ; practically, no. The Tory party were floated into power by Bung, and offend him they dare not. It seems that the beers of the populace are made of rice, maize, sugar, or anything elee that can be conveniently dropped into the '* free mash tun." Only firms of first magnitude and reputation, such as Bass, Foster, and Gumness, use bar* ley, malt, and hops only. Mr Quiiter does not seek to veto the " free mash tun" altogether— to rob tho poor man of his concocted " booze." He simply demands that these mischievous mixtures shall not be called beer. When a man asks for ale or stout he wants him to be absolutely sure of getting it. We never look for a glimmer of common sense from the Temperance party, or we should have expected them to welcome an obviously beneficent measure cf this description. But no, the teetotallers, like the brewers and the British workmen, don't desire pure beer. In this matter the drunkard and the teetotaller join hands. Neither longs for simple sobriety. The teetotaller cries out for total abstinence ; the tippler howls ''Give me the beer that goes furdest," or, m other words, which fuddles quickest. And the House of Commons dispassionately aids both these extremists,