For the following valuable information respecting the ingenious devices of the “_gentlemen_” wine-merchants, I am indebted to the pages of “_The Private Gentleman and Importing Merchant’s Wine and Spirit Cellar Directory_:”—A work replete with the most useful information on the subject, as containing the best and most practical instructions on the selection, purchase, management, medication, and preservation of foreign wines, of any work extant in any language. It has been well said by a judicious critic, “No book is more wanted than a good, practical, and complete one on this important subject: it would be worth its weight in gold, and its author would be a public benefactor to his country. More than nine-tenths of the wine imported into this country is either spoiled or impoverished by the ignorance or mismanagement of the wine-dealer or the purchaser; as at present conducted, the management of a wine-cellar is, in most cases, all random, hap-hazard, and guess-work. Ought we to be surprised at the result, the consequent loss or injury of the wine? It is, therefore, with considerable satisfaction we recommend this little work as a valuable addition to our domestic economy.” “As many people place reliance on the genuineness of wines purchased in the Docks, and think that such purchases are more exempt from fraud and imposition than if obtained from the dealer’s shop or vaults, and that they will have them ‘_neat as imported_,’ it is necessary to caution them to be on their guard in respect of the persons with whom they deal. Inferior articles, false descriptions, substitutions for the one selected, and various other peculations, take place there as frequently as is the case when wines are purchased at the dealer’s shop, &c. Other impositions of as flagrant a nature consist in transferring wines of a _most_ inferior sort into pipes recently emptied, and originally filled with wine of the best vintages and flavour; and as the outside of the cask bears the marks of the foreign houses of character, from whose vintages the wines contained in the casks were furnished, this fraud is found to turn to very good account. By delusions of this kind, the most detestable trash ever vended under the name of wine is frequently foisted on purchasers. But if this statement is not sufficient to satisfy those who fondly suppose that by making their purchases in the ‘Docks’ that they will always have their expectations of obtaining unadulterated wine fulfilled, they should recollect that the owners of wines in the ‘Dock’ are at liberty to mix them in whatever manner and proportions they please, provided they come under one denomination as to colour and pay the same duty. These remarks will, I trust, satisfy my readers that ‘an extensive range of counting-houses,’ ‘numerous clerks employed’ and professions of ‘the high character of the house,’ should not supersede the necessity of making a _little_ inquiry as to the _fair dealing and integrity_ of the vender.”