1827 Wine and spirit adulterators unmasked

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Wine, was clearly established to his conviction. The way in which he had obtained room in his Sherry, to admit so much Cape Wine, without an increase appearing, must have been by his not drawing permits for the quantities of Sherry, or any other White Wines (not being French or Cape) which he had occasion to send out, between the period at which the Excise Officer had sur- veyed his stock, and the time when the mixing took place, together with the assistance afforded him, as being an advertiser, by the quantities he had sold under one dozen. That this system of adulteration had been fre- quently practised before, appeared also on the and it may readily be inferred therefrom, (not to mention any thing of the extent to which it is carried, by others, through the medium of vats, much more capacious in size than those used by Oldfield,) that the profits are sufficiently adequate to occasion the risk of a casual detection, and penalty, of no very great consequence, particularly, as there are several ways known to the skilful, of preventing its publicity ; or should any doubt exist, on that which I have thus advanced, a further insight into the subject, will, I think, easily remove it. It may, perhaps, be said, that to allow of any opportunity for carrying on the mixing of Wines, (or at all events in such large quantities as by the defendant Oldfield,) the exposure is too certain, and the temptation of receiving half the penalty, trial;