A rough construction of this kind was (perhaps is) sold under the title of ' Schleiringeen Patent,' in which a round ruler of wood is simply con nected with a flat bevelled ruler, so as to carry it when it rolls. This is meant to rule lines for writing, but it may be made to do good service as a parallel ruler for other purposes. , RUM is a spirit distilled from the sugar-cane, that is, from cane juice ; or from the ecummIngs of the juice from the boiling-house; or from treacle. or molasses; or from " dunder," the Ices of former distil lations. What is called rum is not distilled from different aubstances :' it is simply flavoured with slices of pine-apple put into the puncheon. As the entire juice of the cane is not necessary for making rum, the distillation is carried on in conjunction with the manufacture of sugar. The best rum is made from the uncrystallised syrup called molasses. Ploi.assEs-) The proportion of molasses made in crystallising • a ;cwt. of sugar varies I from 50 to 90 gallons, and depends both upon the climate and the season ; being lowest in the Leeward Islands, which have a dry climate, and highest in Demerara and Trinidad. It is in the latter that in fine seasons the proportion reaches 90 gallons per cwt. Nearly one gallon of proof rum may be made from one gallon of molasses.
The rum consumed in the United Kingdom is entirely the produce of the West Indies, and to a great extent of the island of Jamaica, which is of a superior quality. For many years the home demand has not taken off the whole supply ; and the surplus, which consists chiefly of the Leeward Islands rum, and other kinds of inferior quality, is exported.
British spirits are said to be extensively sold for rum, the flavour being imitated by.the rectifier.
The equalisation of the duties on East and West India sugar, by 6 Wm. IV. c. 26, rendered it expedient to giro a practical equality to all the products of the sugar-cane, without which the cultivation of sugar plantations in India could not have been so profitably extended, as the molasses would have been comparatively wasted. The rum con sumed in the navy is exempt from duty. That which we re-export is chiefly sent to Germany, Prussia, Holland, Italy, and Australia. After various changes in the mode of arranging the duty, it was determined in 1847 that rum should pay the samo amount of Customs' duty as British spirits paid of Excise duty. There still remained a few anomalies, arising out of the excise duty being unequal in different parts of the United Kingdom ; but this inequality was removed in 1858, and in 1860 the State was put in the receipt of 103. 2d. per gallon on all rum, gin, whiskey, and British spirit of every kind, consumed in the United Kingdom ; and an additional 3d. per gallon on rum not the production of the country whence imported.
The rum imported in four equidistant years will show the recent progress of the trade:— The computed real value in 1854 (the first year in which such values were calculated by the Customs), was 1,490,661/. ; from which the values for the other years named may easily be calculated, supposing the price to have remained unchanged. In looking at the above numbers, it would seem as if rum had been rapidly increasing in con sumption in England about the year 1854 ; but such was not the case. Of the whole quantity imported, only the following (in each year) was retained for home consumption The large excess beyond these quantities was either re-exported, or consumed on shipboard.