WHISKY (Gaelic, tei.Te, water; visge-beatha, commonly written usquebaugh, water of life), a spirit made by distillation from grain, roots, and other materials, the best being produced from barley after it has been malted, though what is termed raw grain whisky (made from wheat, oats, rice, rye, Indian corn, buckwheat, millet, etc.), after being kept for two or three years, is scarcely inferior in quality. Whisky is also made from beet root, potatoes, beans, molasses, sugar, etc. In these cases malt is used to a small extent. The mode of manufacture is described under DISTILLATION. Whisky was for merly almost exclusively manufactured in Scotland, Ireland, and the United States; but distilleries are now at work largely in England, Prussia, Sweden, France, Holland, and Belgium, the foreign spirit being, however, coarser, and only suited for fortifying wines and for methylated spirit for manufacturing purposes. According to the statistics for 1871 there was distilled in Scotland 13,813,062; in Ireland, 253; and in England 7,739,720 gallons. In 1878 duty was paid in England on 13,664,573 gallons; in Scotland on 9,211,817; and in Ireland on 8,216,894. The largest quantity is always made in ticotland; but owing to a large quantity of the spirit being removed to England duty ree, to be converted by English rectifiers into British gin, duty is paid on it in England. cotland sends to England, in excess of the quantity returned from that country, about SI millions, and Ireland sends upward of a million gallons annually. The surplus not accounted for is either exported or retained in bond. Owing to legislation in 1848 the export of British spirits rose front less than 300,000 gallons very rapidly, though with great fluctuations, till in 1856-57, it reached nearly 6 millions of gallons; but owing to continental competition, our export has fallen below million gallons annually, and the trade is now almost entirely colonial. Export is encouraged by a drawback in excess of duty of 2d., while 5d. a gallon is added to duty on foreign spirit imported (except ruin, on which 2d. is charged). This allowance is to equalize the loss caused by excise restrictions to the native producer. The manufacture of whisky (as well as of other spirits) indite United Kingdom is placed under the surveillance of the excise, and by act of parliament (6 Geo. IV. c. 80) the distiller is subjected to numerous strin gent regulations, with a view to prevent the evasion of the very high duties.
Parliament attempted, at the beginning of the 18th c., to check the excessive use of ardent spirits by imposing the enormous duty of 20s. a gallon, and taxing retailers. The trade became unprofitable, and got entirely into the hands of the profligate and criminal classes. Smuggling flourished, the excise officers were violently opposed, and informers hunted down. The act became a dead letter, and was repealed in 1742, and a moderate duty imposed.
In Ireland the repressive system was carried to a still greater extent, a flue being imposed on the district in which illicit distillation was detected, and the unfortunate operatives subjected to transportation for seven years. The effect of this was, that of
10,000,000 gallons annually (1820-23) consumed, only about 3,000.000 paid duty; frequent and murderous conflicts took place between the smugglers and the excise-officers and military, and much of the country was almost in a state of rebellion. In Scotland also, illicit distillation flourished afresh at each rise of the duty; lawless violence was resorted to freely, the common people invariably sympathizing with or aiding the smugglers; and in many cases the officers of excise were effectually intimidated. The difficulty of dealing with illicit distillation in Ireland and Scotland led to the adoption, beginning with 1823, of a considerably lower duty in these two countries than in England. The following table exhibits the relative rates of duty on spirits in England, Scotland, and Ireland at different periods during the present century: In 1858, the duty on spirits was equalized in the three kingdoms, thus putting a stop to the systematic and (as was found) irrepressible practice of smuggling spirits from Scotland. and Ireland into England, which had prevailed for a long time previously. The duty was in 1860 raised to 10s. per imperial gallon, at which rate it still remains. ThiS rate was increased to its present value by Mr. Gladstone with the avowed intention of diminishing the consumption of ardent spirits; and though it does not seem to have produced this effect, neither has it, as was always the case formerly, increased the prat Lice of illicit distillation, owing to the improved moral tone of the population, the more thorough execution of the law, and the great capital embarked in the distilling trade acting as a deterrent against fraudulent distillation on any extensive scale. Illicit dis tillation is now very much on the decrease, and is almost confined to Ireland. The high price of whisky, besides limiting its consumption, has had a deleterious effect in Increasing the temptation to produce a cheaper drink for the poorer classes by introdut lug noxious materials resembling it in effect and flavor. In years when the vine crop it France is a failure, large quantities of whisky are sent to that country, and returned al French brandy. In the United States the process of manufacture is the same as in this country, and is largely carried on in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and, in a less degree, in Tennessee, Missouri, and California. A large juantity is also rectified, and reduced to alcohol, and much is exported and in part *chimed in the form of "French brandy," " Hollands," etc. The "Monongahela" whisky of Pennsylvania, and that from Bourbon county, Kentucky, arc considered the best in the United States, and always fetch a high price.