1827 Wine and spirit adulterators unmasked

As an old Wine and Spirit Merchant retired from business, with a competency, acquired by fair trading, no feeling of pique, as to the in- jury caused to my own pursuits by the system I feel it rny duty to reprobate, can be supposed to have suggested the idea of opening the eyes of the public, to the fraudulent practises it con- ceals; or, in so doing 1 , to influence me in offering any other, than an impartial and matter-of-fact statement. Having a few leisure moments on my hands, and from my youth having 1 been accustomed to an active life, I was induced, in order to occupy my leisure, to commence this treatise * for the in- formation of my own circle of acquaintance; nor should I have been prevailed on, to offer it to the notice of the public, but for a late trial in the Court of Exchequer, for adulteration, f and the additional incitement, occasioned by a conviction of the influence which the present system of im- position (through the means of advertisements and printed bills) is gaining on the public mind. We have lately witnessed mining and other wild speculations, by which the pockets of hundreds have been emptied, and their estates ruined. We * Since penning the chief part of this treatise, I have ob- served some clever articles on the same subject in Nos. 516, 517, 518, of the Literary Gazette. t Attorney-General versus Oldfield, to which I shall have oc- casion to refer when I arrive at another part of my subject.