PROVIDENT. BANK,

ST. PAUL, COVENT GARDEN,

ESTABLISHED FOR

The Security and Improvement of the SAVINGS of Tradesmen, Artificers, Servants, &c. until required for their future wants, or advancement in life.

The BANK is open every MONDAY Evening from SEVEN until EIGHT O'Clock, in the Office, at the South Entrance of the Church.

No sum less than a Shilling can be received, but any part of the deposits, or the whole, may be drawn out whenever desired.

Interest, at Five per Cent. computed by Calendar Months, will be allowed on the deposits, as often as they amount to one pound, and be paid at the end of the year:

But no fraction of a month, or of a pound, will be taken into the account of interest; and it will be necessary for the depositor to retain not less than one pound in the Bank until the end of the year, to be entitled then to receive interest.

Persons who wish their names to be concealed, may open an account with a number.

A SHORT

LETTER

TO THE

CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER,

ON THE

DANGEROUS COMPETITION

COMP

OF THE

DISTILLERIES WITH THE BREWERIES.

BY A FREEHOLDER.

LETTER,

&c. &c.

SIR,

I

TAKE the liberty of addressing you, in the interval which allows you some repose from the close of this week to the afternoon on Monday next, on a subject which will engage the early and most serious attention of the Legislature, and influence the most important interests of the People, in the fate of the various Petitions which have already been, and will still be presented to the House of Commons; praying the immediate Repeal of the War Tax on Malt, for the relief of the Barley-Growers, as one means of lessening the distress of the farmers, so generally acknowledged throughout the Kingdom.

I am persuaded, by much inquiry on the subject, that the Barley-Growers cannot be effectually or promptly relieved, without the most speedy interposition of the Legislature to encourage the Brewery; and that the Repeal of the War Tax on Malt, will be very inadequate to the Relief of the Barley-Growers, without an increase in the duties on Gin.

In this view of the question, I take the liberty of inclos

1

ing to you with this letter an important Report of the Magistrates of the County of Surrey, to restrain the alarming increase of Shops for the sale of Gin; and to express my conviction, that all regulations of Magistrates for that purpose will be futile, and will give the go-by to the prevention of the dangers and miseries occasioned by the excessive use of Gin, without the interposition of Parliament to lessen the temptation to drink Gin instead of Beer, from the cheap-. ness of Gin in proportion to the cost of Beer; according to the relative potency of exhilarating, to the pungency of the one, to the flavour of the other, and the relish for each.-Gin is putting down Beer, and will continue to do so, until the relative cost and price of each may again recommend Beer, as a preferable refreshment to all the laborious classes of the People.

The effect of this to the Barley-Grower is important, and is of ten-fold greater importance to the victims of dram-drinking; the truth of both which assertions will appear, from the following statement, which I believe to be

correct.

The Coal-Whippers, who discharge the vessels in the Pool, are enabled to work from sun-rise to sun-set, through the heat and labour of a long summer's day, by the refreshment of sixteen pots or four gallons of beer in the day; and I am informed, that the heat and severe labour of Anchor-Smiths requires a still greater proportion of beer to enable them to perform a hard day's work. This statement will appear incredible to persons unacquainted with the quantity of beer required for hard labour, and the quantities which can be taken by persons drinking beer to great Three persons drank 101 pots of beer in a day, at the Queen's Head, the corner of North street, near Whitechapel Turnpike-eight gallons each and five pots. over; and this, not for any wager, but for a trial of their NO. XIV.

excess.

Pam.

VOL. VII.

2 K

prowess; or, in the politer dialect of the vulgar tongue, for "the fancy❞—the fancied fame.

Hard drinkers of Gin, before they are worked down in their rapid progress from health to the workhouse and the grave, can drink two pints, some three pints of Gin in the day; and one public character of great celebrity, Sir Jeffery Dunstan, Mayor of Garratt, could, and did drink four pints in the day, whenever he could get it; and he never from choice did drink more than four pints of spirits in the day; but he fell a martyr to a cruel experiment which was made upon him, on the day which closed his life :-some persons, some gentlemen I had almost said, called him into a publichouse, and gave him a pint of brandy after he had previously taken three pints of gin in the former part of the day: he drank the brandy, and remaining in the room informed the persons who had treated him, on his rising to depart, that, if they pleased, he would take a pint of Gin: the Gin was called for; he drank it, probably to cool the heat of the stronger spirit he had previously taken; and, walking out, he said, boastingly, to the people of the house, "those gentlemen thought to make a fool of me; but I think I have made fools of them."

He walked out, but did not reach his family; he was found a corpse in the street, the next morning, with his head resting on the step of a door; but whether he had placed himself there, when unable to walk further, or what is more probable, that being recognized by persons who knew him, he had been placed there with humane care to sleep off his intemperance in that easy posture, was never discovered.

I was informed, at the Queen's Head in Whitechapel, that the surgeons agreed with his widow, for the purchase of his body for dissection; but that his daughter resisted the bargain; and that he was interred in a very deep grave