If the British considered the taverns as the hot-beds of sedition, as in fact they did, the Patriots with equal justice regarded them as the nurseries of liberty; and it is not at all unlikely that in the tavern of his father-in-law, where he so often made himself useful as a tapster, Patrick Henry imbibed the ideas which culminated in his soul-stirring utterance, “Give me liberty or give me death.” Enough has been said, we trust, to prove the truth of the assertion that throughout the Colonial period, and up to the time of the adoption of the Constitution, the trade was practiced by the very best people—men whose names adorn the pages of our history, and remind us of the fact that this industry has at all times given to the cause of freedom and popular rights some of the most eminent champions; such men as James Artevelde, to whom Hewlett, in his “Heroes of Europe,” accords a prominent place, or Santerre, whom Dumas regarded as “the gigantic personification of the popular will,” a man who sacrificed all he possessed in order to alleviate the sufferings of his people.[1] [1] For the names of prominent brewers in New York, see Chap. II. [Sidenote: SPIRIT OF EARLY LEGISLATION] In all the laws and ordinances relating to brewing, erroneous economic theories, fiscal considerations and a natural but often misguided desire to foster home industries, seemed to be in continual conflict with the avowed intention of encouraging the consumption of malt liquors, not only for moral and hygienic reasons, but also because the minds of the Puritans were imbued with the strong conviction that beer was the salvation of the British nation; a sentiment to which in the following century, the laurel-crowned poet, Warton, gave eloquent poetic utterance in his “Ode to Oxford Ale.” This conviction arose from an appreciation of the physical, moral and intellectual qualities of a race addicted for many centuries to the use of beer, as compared with the effects of spirits, just as in our own time the celebrated Pasteur wrote a book designed to encourage brewing, because, as he states in the preface, he attributed the superior physical qualities of his country’s conquerors to the use of malt liquors.