Pacts about Port and Madeira. By Henry Vizetelly. (Ward and
Lock.)—Here we have a republication of a series of letters which originally appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette. Mr. Vizetelly is a great authority on his subject, and it is satisfactory to find that he is generally reassuring. He disposes, for instance, of the elderberry scare. It was the brilliant imagination that is now, in unison with Lord Beaconsfield, shaping an Indian policy, that invented the re- markable statement that "all port wine intended for the English market was composed almost quite as much of elderberries as grapes,' and that the Paiz Vinhateiro of the Alto Douro abounded with elder- trees. Both statements are about as baseless as the vision of "a strong and friendly Afghanistan," with which the English public has been amused.
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