Malt spirit, or gin, the favourite liquor of the lower order of people, which is characterised by the peculiar flavour of juniper berries, over which the raw spirit is distilled, is usually obtained from a mixture of malt and barley: sometimes both molasses and corn are employed, particularly if there be a scarcity of grain. But the flavour of whiskey, which is made from barley and oats, is owing to the malted grain being dried with peat, the smoke of which gives it the characteristic taste. The malt distiller is not allowed to furnish, under a heavy penalty, any crude or raw spirit to the rectifier or manufacturer of gin, of a greater strength than seven per cent. over proof. The rectifier who receives the spirit from the malt distiller is not allowed, under a certain penalty, to sweeten the liquor with sugar or other substances; nor is he permitted to send out the spirit to his customers but of a certain strength, as is obvious from the following words of the Act: "No rectifier or compounder shall sell or send out any British brandy, British rectified spirits, British compounds, or other British spirits, of greater strength than that of one in five under hydrometer proof[97]: and if he shall sell and send out any such spirits of a greater strength than that of one in five under hydrometer proof, such spirits, with the casks or vessels containing the same, shall be forfeited, and may be seized by any officer of Excise; and he shall also forfeit treble the value of such spirit, or 50_l._ at the election of the King's attorney-general, or the person who shall sue for the same; the single value of such spirits to be estimated at the highest London Price.[98]" If we examine gin, as retailed, we shall soon be convinced that it is a custom, pretty prevalent amongst dealers, to weaken this liquor considerably with water, and to sweeten it with sugar. This fraud may readily be detected by evaporating a quantity of the liquor in a table-spoon over a candle, to dryness; the sugar will thus be rendered obvious, in the form of a gum-like substance, when the spirit is volatilised. One hundred and twenty gallons of genuine gin, as obtained from the wholesale manufactories, are usually _made up_ by fraudulent retailers, into a saleable commodity, with fourteen gallons of water and twenty-six pounds of sugar. Now this dilution of the liquor produces a turbidness; because the oil of juniper and other flavouring substances which the spirit holds in solution, become precipitated by virtue of the water, and thus cause the liquor to assume an opaline colour: and the spirit thus weakened, cannot readily be rendered clear again by subsidence. Several expedients are had recourse to, to clarify the liquor in an expeditious manner; some of which are harmless; others are criminal, because they render the liquor poisonous.