Volume 72: Macarthur family correspondence relating to wine, 1846-1900: No. 375
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[Page 375]
having been Royalist & [indecipherable]; are the Thiery [Casimir Periex, Decazer?] & all those parties who got associated to exploit our coal mines, from [indecipherable] & all that.
The Emperor how ever has acted with his usual determination & has had time to study their tactics, no man & no government was better fitted for the operation of their overthrow; which constituted [indecipherable] & our government when they were nominally & to a great extent free, could never have been effected.
You had heard I see that our 1858 Vintage had turned out well & been abundant. The fact is so, the vintage is very good & I think will rank with the best; but the abundance is only relative for it does not surpass if it does attain the half of an average; but when you think we have had less than a quarter of an average every year since 1853, half is a great gain, especially when the quality assists. The prices of course went high at once, but chiefly owing to an English speculator no less a person than the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England Mr Harry Dobree [buying?] Laffitte's vintage at 4000f pr Ton, There were