§ MR. WOOTTON ISAACSON (Tower Hamlets, Stepney)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade if his attention has been drawn to a letter from a wine merchant at Brighton, which appeared in the Times of Tuesday last, enclosing a circular from Messrs. Delvendahl and Kuentzel, Berlin and Malmo, essences, essential oils, colours, &c., manufacturers and distillers, 21, Ritterstrasse, Berlin, S., July, 1890, in which they offer for sale cognac essence (about 4lbs. of essence for 100 gallons of spirit 10 under proof), price 7s. per lb., duty paid; rum essence (about 4lbs. of essence for 100 gallons of spirit 12 over proof), price 6s. 6d. per lb., duty paid; gin essence, price 6s. 6d. per lb., duty paid; port wine essence, at 3s. 9d. per lb., duty paid; sherry essence, at 3s. 6d. per lb., duty paid, &c. Vegetable colours, in powder, guaranteed harmless for every purpose: port wine colour, at 3s. per lb.; red wine colour, at 2s. 9d. per lb.; cognaccine colour, at 20s. per lb., a beautiful and rich colour for colouring brandies and spirits generally; rum colour, price 20s. per lb. Every description of sugar colourings in casks of about 6 cwt. or 7 cwt., as:—rum colouring (in 40 o.p.), spirit colouring (in 58 o.p.), and wine colouring, 4s. 6d. to 7s. per gallon; and whether he will state in what way the public can be protected from such an infringement of the Adulteration Act?
§ SIR M. HICKS BEACHMy attention has been called to this letter by the question of the hon. Member. The Customs inform me that nothing is known there of the articles mentioned in it. If anything sold as wine is shown to be adulterated in a manner to which the Adulteration Acts would apply, it would be open for proceedings to be taken by the Local Authorities under those Acts. But probably the best protection to the public would be that people should learn to understand that wines professing to be of first quality are not likely to be genuine if offered at very low prices.