With respect to the wines called Sacks, much diversity of opinion has prevailed, and although the question has been frequently discussed, it still remains, in a great measure, undetermined. It seems admitted, on all hands, that the term _sack_ was originally applied to certain growths of Spain. In a MS. account of the disbursements by the chamberlain of the city of Worcester for 1592, Dr. Percy found the ancient mode of spelling to be _seck_, and thence concluded that sack is a corruption of _sec_, signifying a dry wine. Moreover, in the French version of a proclamation for regulating the prices of wines, issued by the privy Council in 1633, the expression _vins secs_ corresponds with the word _sacks_ in the original. The term _sec_ is still used as a substantive by the French to denote a Spanish wine; and the dry wine of Xerez is known at the place of its growth by the name of _vino seco_. The foregoing account is abridged from _The History of Ancient and Modern Wines_, by Alex. Henderson, Lond. 1824. The following is taken from Cyrus Redding's _History of Modern Wines_, Lond. 1833: "In the early voyages to these islands (the Canaries), quoted in Ashley's collection, there is a passage relative to sack, which will puzzle wise heads about that wine. It is under the head of 'Nicols' Voyage.' Nicols lived eight years in the islands. The island of Teneriffe produces three sorts of wine, Canary, Malvasia, and Verdona, 'which may all go under the denomination of sack.' The term then was applied neither to sweet nor dry wines exclusively, but to Canary, Xeres (_i. e._ sherry), or Malaga generally. In Anglo-Spanish dictionaries of a century and a quarter old, sack is given as _Vino de Canarias_. Hence it was Canary sack, Xeres sack, or Malaga sack." [Greek: Halieus]. Dublin. In reply to your correspondent, I believe sack to be nothing but _vino secco_, dry wine, probably identical with sherry or madeira. I once, when an undergraduate at Oxford, ordered a dozen from a travelling agent to a London wine merchant, probably from Shakspearian associations, and my belief is that what he sold me under that name was an Italian wine of some sort, bearing a good deal of resemblance to the _vino panto_, of which Perugia is the head-quarters. B. D. This is the same wine which is now named sherry. Falstaff calls it _sherris sack_, and also _sherris_ only, using in fact both names indiscriminately (2 _Henry IV._, Act IV. Sc. 3.). For various commentaries regarding it, see Blount's _Glossographia_; Dr. Venner's _Via recta ad Vitam longam_, published in 1637; Nares' _Glossary_, &c. Cotgrave, in his _Dictionary_, makes sack to be derived from _vin sec_, French; and it is called _seck_ in an article by Bishop Percy, from an old account-book at Worcester, anno Elizbethae 34. N. L. J. * * * * * IRISH LAW IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. (vol. ix., p. 270.)