t, causes great expenses
of various sorts to the maltster. The hops pay a tax of 2_d._[2] a pound;
and a bushel of malt requires, in general, a pound of hops; if these two
taxes were taken off, therefore, the consumption of barley and of hops
would be exceedingly increased; for double the present quantity would be
demanded, and the land is always ready to send it forth.

22. It appears impossible that the landlords should much longer submit to
these intolerable burdens on their estates. In short, they must get off
the malt tax, or lose those estates. They must do a great _deal more_,
indeed; but that they must do at any rate. The paper-money is fast losing
its destructive power; and things are, with regard to the labourers,
coming back to what they were _forty years ago_, and therefore we may
prepare for the making of beer in our own houses, and take leave of the
poisonous stuff served out to us by common brewers. We may begin
_immediately_; for, even at _present prices_, home-brewed beer is the
_cheapest_ drink that a family can use, except _milk_, and milk can be
applicable only in certain cases.

23. The drink which has come to supply the place of beer has, in general,
been _tea_. It is notorious that tea has no _useful strength_ in it; that
it contains nothing _nutritious_; that it, besides being _good_ for
nothing, has _badness_ in it, because it is well known to produce want of
sleep in many cases, and in all cases, to shake and weaken the nerves. It
is, in fact, a weaker kind of laudanum, which enlivens for the moment and
deadens afterwards. At any rate it communicates no strength to the body;
it does not, in any degree, assist in affording what labour demands. It
is, then, of no _use_. And, now, as to its _cost_, compared with that of
_beer_. I shall make my comparison applicable to a year, or three hundred
and sixty-five days. I shall suppose the tea to be only five shillings the
pound; the sugar only sevenpence; the milk only twopence a quart. The
prices are at the very lowest. I shall suppose a tea-pot to cost a
shilling, six cups and saucers two shillings and sixpence, and six pewter
spoons eighteen-pence. How to estimate the firing I hardly know; but
certainly there must be in the course of the year, two hundred fires made
that would not be made, were it not for tea drinking. Then comes the great
article of all, the _time_ employed in this tea-making affair. It is
impossible to make a fire, boil water, make