ere tax on the malt and on the hops.

26. Well, then, to brew this ample supply of good beer for a labourer's
family, these 274 gallons, requires _fifteen_ bushels of malt and (for let
us do the thing well) _fifteen pounds of hops_. The malt is now eight
shillings a bushel, and very good hops may be bought for less than a
shilling a pound. The _grains_ and yeast will amply pay for the labour and
fuel employed in the brewing; seeing that there will be pigs to eat the
grains, and bread to be baked with the yeast. The account will then stand
thus:

_L._ _s._ _d._

15 bushels of malt 6 0 0
15 pounds of hops 0 15 0
Wear of utensils 0 10 0
-----------
_L._ 7 5 0[4]

27. Here, then, is the sum of four pounds two shillings and twopence saved
every year. The utensils for brewing are, a brass kettle, a mashing tub,
coolers, (for which washing tubs may serve,) a half hogshead, with one end
taken out, for a tun tub, about four nine-gallon casks, and a couple of
eighteen-gallon casks. This is an ample supply of utensils, each of which
will last, with proper care, a good long lifetime or two, and the whole of
which, even if purchased new from the shop, will only exceed by a few
shillings, if they exceed at all, the amount of the saving, arising _the
very first year_, from quitting the troublesome and pernicious practice of
drinking tea. The saving of each succeeding year would, if you chose it,
purchase a silver mug to hold half a pint at least. However, the saving
would naturally be applied to purposes more conducive to the well-being
and happiness of a family.

28. It is not, however, the _mere saving_ to which I look. This is,
indeed, a matter of great importance, whether we look at the amount
itself, or at the ultimate consequences of a judicious application of it;
for _four pounds_ make a great _hole_ in a man's wages for the year; and
when we consider all the advantages that would arise to a family of
children from having these four pounds, now so miserably wasted, laid out
upon their backs, in the shape of a decent dress, it is impossible to look
at this waste without feelings of sorrow not wholly unmixed with those of
a harsher description.

29. But, I look upon the thing in a still more serious light. I view the
tea drinking as a destroyer of health, an enfeebler of the frame, an
engenderer of effeminacy and lazi