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249
[1905
mean or understand by the word, but I have tried to discover from the evidence here what
people who ask for " whiskey" expect to get.
The dictionary definitions have not been seriously called in aid by either sit'e in these
cases, and at this I am not greatly surprised after searching the dictionaries and books of
reference myself. All I can adopt from such authorities is that "whiskey" is "a spirit
distilled from grain." As for particulars of the method of manufacture or the kind of grain
it is manufactured from, where such particulars are given each book differs more or less
from the others; so I really get almost no help from the books and only find a description
or definition of "whiskey," that I can adopt, which is accepted by both parties to these prosecutions.
Of the many witnesses called before me some say whiskey is the produce of the pot still
only, none say it is the produce of the patent still only; some say it may be made either by
the pot or by the patent still. All say it can only be made from grain, but they do not
all agree as to the kind of grain.
" Whiskey," I have no doubt, is a word derived a century or so ago from the word
"usquebaugh, which signified a spirit distilled in a form of pot still in Ireland or Scotland
from grain grown, and generally malted, in Ireland or Scotland. Until some 45 years
ago all that which was drunk as "whiskey" was so made. Then the patent still came
into use, and it was soon found that spirit distilled in that form of still from grain grown
in the country in which the still was, or abroad, might be mixed with whiskey, which cost
more to produce, to the benefit of the seller of whiskey, and by degrees the proportion of
patent still spirit mixed with pot still spirit, or whiskey, became larger and larger, until
to day there is an immense output of patent still spirit made, with very few exceptions, from
a mash composed very largely of maize; 75 per cent, of maize is, I believe, not uncommon
when maize is cheaper than other grain, though a great deal of foreign barley is used in
the patent stills. That part of the output of the patent still which is consumed in this
country by the public is not generally sold to them alone, but mixed with more or less of
pot still spirit, and then it is sold as " whiskey."
The evidence given before me does not satisfy me that the public generally does now or
has ever accepted the product of this patent still alone as " whiskey "; certainly not when
maize is used. The evidence as to the consumption of this spirit as "whiskey" is that of
Mr. McNab, who stated that the spirit made at the Glen Mavis Distillery, Bathgate, was made
from all-malt by the patent still. This he said was sold retail as "whiskey" in the neighbourhood
of the distillery, though most of it went for mixing with pot still product either
in Scotland or the colonies. Mr. McNab asserted that the drinkers of Glen Mavis spirit in
the neighbournood of the distillery preferred it quite new, fresh from the still; yet his
firm, the owners of Glen Mavis Distillery, kept their spirit five years before it went out to
the public, the reason for this apparent lock-up of capital against the taste of the consumers
was not explained by Mr. McNab. Then Professor, Sir James Dewar and Dr. Tatlock, have
been for years drinking " Cambus," a spirit made by the patent still and largely from
maize. This they drank as " Scotch Whiskey"; but their having done so goes no way towards
proving that the public have done so, because both these witnesses obtain the spirit direct from the
distillery as a matter of indulgence by the maker. It was said that this " Cambus " spirit
was sold as "whiskey" in one public house in Glasgow, and that that fact would be proved,
but no one was called to prove it. No evidence was given on which I could find that pure