WE have seen that the manufacture and consumption of
whisky on an extensive scale in the Highlands is comparatively recent. So
far as can be ascertained, the quantity was not large even 100 years ago.
Since the beginning of the 17th century the Highland people were in the
habit of distilling in their homes for their own private use, and no doubt
to this practice is due to a great extent the prevalence of illicit
distillation among them at one time. As late as 1859 every household was
allowed to have a bushel of malt for making ale, and cottagers are to be
again exempted from the brewing licence recently imposed upon them. Such a
privilege as the Ferintosh exemption must have exercised an evil influence
among the people. They must have looked upon illicit distillation as a very
venial offence when Government would grant permission to manufacture whisky
practically duty free. As a rule, spirits were distilled from the produce of
their own lands, and the people being simple and illiterate, ignorant alike
of the necessity for a national Exchequer, and of the ways and means taken
by Parliament to raise revenue, they could not readily and clearly see the
justice of levying a tax upon their whisky. They drew a sharp distinction
between offences created by English statute and violations of the laws of
God. The law which made distillation illegal came to them in a foreign garb.
Highlanders had no great love or respect for the English Government. If the
Scottish Parliament could pass an Act to destroy all pewits' eggs, because
the birds migrated South, where they arrived plump and fat, and afforded
sport and food for the English, it need not cause surprise if Highlanders
had not forgotten Glencoe, Culloden, Butcher Cumberland, the tyrannical laws
to suppress the clans, and their dress, and the "outlandish race that filled
the Stuart's throne."
While a highly sentimental people, like the Highlanders,
were in some degree influenced by these and similar considerations, the
extent of illicit distillation depended in a great measure on the amount of
duty, and the nature of the Excise regulations. The smuggler's gain was in
direct proportion to the amount of the spirit duty; the higher the duty the
greater the gain and the stronger the temptation. We have seen how the
authorities of the time, regardless of the feelings and the habits of the
people, and of the nature and capabilities of the Highlands, imposed
restrictions which were injudicious, vexatious, and injurious ; which not
only rendered it impracticable for the legal distiller to engage profitably
in honest business, but actually encouraged the illicit distiller. We have
seen how, particularly under the operation of the still licence, the legal
distiller, in his endeavours to increase production, sacrificed the quality
of his spirits, until the illicit distiller commanded the market by
supplying whisky superior in quality and flavour. To this fact, more than to
anything else, is due the popular prejudice which has existed, and still
exists in some quarters, in favour of smuggled whisky. There can be no doubt
that while the still licence was in force from 1787 to 1814, and perhaps for
some years later, the smugglers' whisky was superior in quality and flavour
to that produced by the licensed distiller. But this holds true no longer;
indeed, the circumstances are actually reversed. The Highland distiller has
now the best appliances, uses the best materials, employs skill and
experience, exercises the greatest possible care, and further, matures his
spirit in bond-whisky being highly deleterious unless it is matured by age.
On the other hand, the smuggler uses rude, imperfect utensils, very often
inferior materials, works by rule of thumb, under every disadvantage and
inconvenience, and is always in a state of terror and hurry, which is
incompatible with good work and the best results. He begins by purchasing
inferior barley, which, as a rule, is imperfectly malted. He brews without
more idea of proper heats than dipping his finger or seeing his face in the
water, and the quantity of water used is regulated by the size and number of
his vessels. His setting heat is decided by another dip of the finger, and
supposing he has yeast of good quality, and may by accident add the proper
quantity, the fermentation of his worts depends on the weather, as he cannot
regulate the temperature in his temporary bothy, although he often uses
sacks and blankets, and may during the night kindle a fire. But the most
fatal defect in the smuggler's appliances is the construction of his still.
Ordinary stills have head elevations from 12 to 18 feet, which serves for
purposes of rectification, as the fusel oils and other essential oils and
acids fall back into the still, while the alcoholic vapour, which is more
volatile, passes over to the worm, where it becomes condensed. The
smuggler's still has no head elevation, the still-head being as flat as an
old blue bonnet, and consequently the essential oils and acids pass over
with the alcohol into the worm, however carefully distillation may be
carried on. These essential oils and acids can only be eliminated,
neutralised, or destroyed by storing the spirits some time in wood, but the
smuggler, as a rule, sends his spirits out new in jars and bottles, so that
the smuggled whisky, if taken in considerable quantities, is actually
poisonous. Ask anyone who has had a good spree on new smuggled whisky, how
he felt next morning. Again, ordinary stills have rousers to prevent the
wash sticking to the bottom of the pot and burning. The smuggler has no such
appliance in connection with his still, the consequence being that his
spirits frequently have a singed, smoky flavour. The evils of a defective
construction are increased a hundred-fold, when, as is frequently the case,
the still is made of tin, and the worm of tin or lead. When spirits and
acids come in contact with such surfaces, a portion of the metal is
dissolved, and poisonous metalic salts are produced, which must be injurious
to the drinker. Paraffin casks are frequently used in brewing, and it will
be readily understood that however carefully cleaned, their use cannot
improve the quality of our much-praised smuggled whisky. Again, the rule of
thumb is applied to the purity and strength of smuggled spirits. At ordinary
distilleries there are scientific appliances for testing these, but the
smuggler must guess the former, and must rely for the latter on the blebs or
bubbles caused by shaking the whisky. On this unsatisfactory test, plus the
honesty of the smuggler, which is generally an unknown quantity, the
purchaser also must rely. This is certainly a happy-go-lucky state of
matters which it would be a pity to disturb by proclaiming the truth. Very
recently an order came from the South to Inverness for two gallons of
smuggled whisky. The order being urgent, and no immediate prospect of
securing the genuine article, a dozen bottles of new raw grain spirit were
sent to a well-known smuggling locality, and were thence despatched South as
real mountain dew. No better proof could be given of the coarseness and
absolute inferiority of smuggled whisky.
