One of the difficulties attendant on domestic brewing is the expense of
the cask, but this may always be got by having a barrel of beer on trial
from a regular brewer, and saying it is not quite out when the cask is
applied for. By agreeing to pay for the beer, one barrel under the
other, the expense becomes merely nominal.
In order to prevent the lightning from turning the beer, a lightning
conductor should be fixed in the bung-hole of the cask, or a stair-rod
would perhaps be an economical substitute.
Families who brew without exactly knowing how, may try the experiment of
a polite note to Messrs. Barclay and Perkins, asking one of them to step
round to put the parties in the right way, if they should be making a
failure of the brewing.
If the beer should be flat after having been left to cool in
washing-tubs, a raisin may be thrown in, and if it fails to produce any
effect, another raisin may be tried; but should the second raisin prove
unsuccessful, it will be waste of time—and raisins—to go on with the
experiment.
[Illustration:
COURT OF YOUNG ENGLAND.
]
YOUNG ENGLAND.
A BIOGRAPHY.
The subject of the present notice was born of very obscure parents in
London, and was placed, soon after his birth, at the doors of the
Treasury, under the impression that Sir Robert Peel might stumble over
it, and be induced to take it in and provide for it. The Premier,
however, merely moved it on one side with his foot, and Young England
began to cry out very lustily; but its voice was so weak that no one
paid any attention to it. Soon after, the bantling attracted the notice
of the press, and its case was laid before the public, but it excited
very little interest; and an appeal to Old England in favour of Young
England was equally unsuccessful, the former denying the latter to be
its legitimate offspring. A novel, entitled "Coningsby," was afterwards
written, in the hope of doing something for Young England; but the more
the book was read, the less was Young England thought of.
It is a curious fact, that while Young England never could succeed in
winning popularity, a rival, in the shape of Young America, was very
successful, under the name of General Tom Thumb, who was received very
graciously at Buckingham Palace. Surely, if mere littleness confers a
claim to admiration, Young England is almost as deserving of it as
General Tom Thumb, who, on the principle that extremes often meet,
frequently found himself in the presence of greatness. Young England
would give its little finger to make its way at Court as little Thumb
has done.