Still great caution is necessary in the use of these statistics. Mr. Burns tells us in his paper referred to,[306] that Mr. Gladstone’s legislation in 1860, which reduced the duty on light French wines, had failed as a measure of temperance, inasmuch as it had stimulated the consumption of strong Spanish and Portuguese wines, and in proof he cites the customs’ returns of 1858 to 1860 inclusive, and then those of 1863 to 1865 inclusive, showing that the importation of claret had not prevented that of the strong Spanish and Portuguese wines from rising rapidly from an annual average of 6,600,000 gallons to one of 11,270,000 gallons. Feeling certain that Mr. Burns had formed an erroneous estimate of the effect produced by Mr. Gladstone’s fiscal legislation, the author procured from him further statistics, and this is really how the matter stands:—Mr. Gladstone’s legislation took place, as already stated, in 1860. Beginning with the year 1859, the wine imported from France was 695,911 gallons; from Spain and Portugal, 4,893,916 gallons. Whilst in 1876 the wine imported from France was 6,745,710 gallons; and from Spain and Portugal, 10,186,332 gallons. The importation of strong wines had therefore actually fallen below the average of 1863-65, whilst that of French wine had increased tenfold by the reduction of the duty. We have no hesitation in repeating that it is to the increased consumption of these light wines the improved drinking habits of the middle classes are largely to be attributed. And now we must bid adieu to statistics, which are, as Abbé Moigno once remarked, very eloquent, but which, as we have sought to show, are often very misleading, and although in perfect good faith, are frequently much misapplied.