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280 Gaelic Society of fnuerness.
of the laws of God. The law which made distillation illegal
came to them in a foreign garb. Highlamlcrs had no great love
or respect for the English Government. If the Scottish Parliament
could pass an Act to destroy all pewits' eggs, because the
birds migrated South, where they arrived plump and fat, and
afforded sport and food for the English, it need not cause surprise
if Highlanders liad not forgotten Glencoe, Culloden, Butcher
Cumberland, the tyrannical laws to suppress the clans, and the
" outlandish race that filled the Stuart's throne."
While a highly sentimental people, like the Highlanders,
were in some degree influenced by these and similar considerations,
the extent of illicit distillation depended in a great measure on
the amount of duty, and the nature of the Excise i-egulations.
The smuggler's gain was in direct proportion to the amount of the
spirit duty ; the higher the duty the greater the gain and the
sti'onger the temptation. We have seen how the authorities of
the time, regardless of the feelings and the habits of the people,
and of the nature and capabilities of the Highlands, imposed restrictions
which were injudicious, vexatious, and injurious ; which
not only rendered it imjiracticable for the legal distiller to engage
profitably in honest l)usiness, but actually encouraged the illicit
distiller. We have seen how particularly under the operation of
the still licence, the legal distiller, in his endeavours to increase production,
sacrificed the quality of his spirits, until the illicit distiller
commanded the market by supplying whisky superior in quality
and flavour. To this fact, more than to anything else, is due the
popular prejudice which has existed, and still exists in some
quarters, in favour of smuggled whisky. There can be no doubt
that while the still licence was in force from 1787 to 1814, and perhaps
for some years later, the smugglers whisky was superior in
(piality and flavour to that produced by the licensed distiller.
lUit this holds true no longer ; indeed, the circumstances are
actually reversed. The Highland distiller has now the best
appliances, uses the best materials, employs skill and e.xpcnience.
exercises the greatest possil)le care, and further, matures
his spirit in bond—whisky being highly deleterious unless it
is matured by age. On the other hand the smuggler uses
rude imperfect utensils, very often inferior materials, works by
rule of thumb, under every disadvantage and inconvenience,
and is always in a state of terror and hurry which is incompatible
with good woi-k and the best results. He begins by
purchasing inferior barley, wliich, as a rule, is imperfectly malted.
He brews without more idea of projjcr heats than dipi)ing his