The generous juice of barley, seems to draw out the more kindly and human feelings of all who have their dealings in it. Can any such thing be said of distilled liquors? The late Khedive of Egypt, who has done more for the advancement of that country than any other ruler since the time of the Pharaohs, perceived the advantages to be gained by the introduction of beer, and granted very valuable privileges to a company of Swiss brewers, whose establishment is now in full and successful operation at Cairo. The consumption is chiefly in the cities which are largely inhabited by Europeans, generally disposed to drink beer if it is good and readily attainable, but sure to use stronger drinks if the beer is wanting, and perhaps, from the circumstance of residence at a distance from home, more apt to use any intoxicating liquor to excess. Japan, a kingdom hardly known to us twenty-five years ago, and now recognized as one of the most highly civilized in the world, has thus far suffered very little from intoxicating drinks. Native stimulants have been used, and in some cases have proved as injurious as strong whisky, though perhaps more strictly harmful to the individual, and less so to his family and the community. The people are by nature and education gentle and polite, and their social manners are in many particulars a lesson to Europeans. They are usually temperate in all things, happy and contented. The Mikado, however, wisely considering that in the growing intercourse of Japan with foreign countries, a taste for ardent spirits can hardly fail to be developed, unless some counteracting influence be at work, has decided to foster the erection of beer breweries, and thus avert as far as possible an impending danger, while at the same time he gives his subjects an innocent and refreshing beverage. With this view, the representatives of Japan, now in Germany, have been directed to enter into arrangements with well-known brewers, for the erection of large breweries in Yokohama, Tokio, Saga, Nagasaki and Shidz-u-o-ka. The Shah of Persia also, is so far convinced of the advantages of beer, as to have made arrangements during his last visit to Vienna, for parties there to undertake its introduction in his kingdom. In Turkey, there are at Constantinople six breweries with an annual product of about one hundred and twenty thousand gallons. The hops are imported from Germany, but the other materials are supplied by the country. After the island of Cyprus passed from Turkish to English rule, it is worthy of notice that the first shipment by the _Thessalia_ was fifty barrels of beer, a shipment well illustrating English national habits. The condition of the beer trade in the United States being part of the general subject of this book, and especially illustrated in the chapter under the heading “The Condition and Prospects of the Beer Trade,” and also in the list of breweries given in Appendix C, needs no remark here.