brought to London; in some years afterwards three millions; and in 1755, near four millions of pounds, or two thousand tons, in which we are not to reckon that which is surreptitiously introduced, which perhaps is nearly as much. Such quantities are indeed sufficient to alarm us; it is at least worth inquiry to know what are the qualities of such a plant, and what the consequences of such a trade.

He then proceeds to enumerate the mischiefs of Tea, and seems willing to charge upon it every mischief that he can find. He begins, however, by questioning the virtues ascribed to it, and denies that the crews of the Chinese ships are preserved in their voyage homewards from the scurvy by Tea. About this report I have made some inquiry, and though I cannot find that these crews are wholly exempt from scorbutick maladies, they seem to suffer them less than other mariners in any course of equal length. This I ascribe to the Tea, not as possessing any medicinal qualities, but as tempting them to drink more water, to dilute their salt food more copiously, and perhaps to forbear punch, or other strong liquors.

He then proceeds in the pathetick strain, to tell the ladies how, by drinking Tea, they injure their health, and, what is yet more dear, their beauty.

"To what can we ascribe the numerous com

plaints which prevail? How many sweet crea"tures of your sex languish with a weak digestion, "low spirits, lassitudes, melancholy, and twenty dis"orders, which in spite of the faculty have yet no names, except the general one of nervous com

plaints? Let them change their diet, and among "other articles, leave off drinking Tea, it is more

" than probable the greatest part of them will be "restored to health."

"Hot water is also very hurtful to the teeth. "The Chinese do not drink their Tea so hot as we "do, and yet they have bad teeth. This cannot "be ascribed entirely to sugar, for they use very

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little, as already observed: but we all know that "hot or cold things which pain the teeth, destroy "them also. If we drank less Tea, and used gentle "acids for the gums and teeth, particularly sour "oranges, though we had a less number of French "dentists, I fancy this essential part of beauty "would be much better preserved.

"The women in the United Provinces, who sip "Tea from morning till night, are also as remark"able for bad teeth. They also look pallid, and

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many are troubled with certain feminine disorders "arising from a relaxed habit. The Portuguese "ladies, on the other hand, entertain with sweet"meats, and yet they have very good teeth: but "their food in general is more of a farinaceous "and vegetable kind than ours. They also drink "cold water instead of sipping hot, and never taste any fermented liquors; for these reasons the use "of sugar does not seem to be at all pernicious to "them."

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"Men seem to have lost their stature and come"liness, and women their beauty. I am not young, "but methinks there is not quite so much beauty. "in this land as there was. Your very chamber"maids have lost their bloom, I suppose by sip"ping Tea. Even the agitations of the passions at "cards are not so great enemies to female charms.

VOL. II.

"What Shakespeare ascribes to the concealment "of love, is in this age more frequently occasioned by the use of Tea."

To raise the fright still higher, he quotes an account of a pig's tail scalded with Tea, on which however he does not much insist.

Of these dreadful effects, some are perhaps imaginary, and some may have another cause. That there is less beauty in the present race of females, than in those who entered the world with us, all of us are inclined to think on whom beauty has ceased to smile; but our fathers and grandfathers made the same complaint before us; and our posterity will still find beauties irresistibly powerful.

That the diseases commonly called nervous, tremors, fits, habitual depression, and all the maladies which proceed from laxity and debility, are more frequent than in any former time, is, I believe, true, however deplorable. But this new race of evils will not be expelled by the prohibition of Tea. This general languor is the effect of general luxury, of general idleness. If it be most to be found among Tea-drinkers, the reason is, that Tea is one of the stated amusements of the idle and luxurious. The whole mode of life is changed; every kind of voluntary labour, every exercise that strengthened the nerves, and hardened the muscles, is fallen into disuse. The inhabitants are crowded together in populous cities, so that no occasion of life requires much motion; every one is near to all that he wants; and the rich and delicate seldom pass from one street to another, but in carriages of pleasure. Yet we eat and drink, or strive to eat and drink,

like the hunters and huntresses, the farmers and the housewives of the former generation; and they that pass ten hours in bed, and eight at cards, and the greater part of the other six at the table, are taught to impute to Tea all the diseases which a life unnatural in all its parts may chance to bring upon them.

Tea, among the greater part of those who use it most, is drunk in no great quantity. As it neither exhilarates the heart, nor stimulates the palate, it is commonly an entertainment merely nominal, a pretence for assembling to prattle, for interrupting business, or diversifying idleness. They who drink one cup, and who drink twenty, are equally punctual in preparing or partaking it; and indeed there are few but discover by their indifference about it, that they are brought together not by the Tea, but the Tea-table. Three cups make the common quantity, so slightly impregnated, that perhaps they might be tinged with the Athenian cicuta, and produce less effects than these Letters charge upon Tea.

Our author proceeds to shew yet other bad qualities of this hated leaf.

"Green Tea, when made strong even by infu“sion, is an emetick; nay, I am told it is used as "such in China; a decoction of it certainly per"forms this operation; yet by long use it is drank "by many without such an effect. The infusion “also, when it is made strong, and stands long "to draw the grosser particles, will convulse the "bowels; even in the manner commonly used, it has "this effect on some constitutions, as I have al"ready remarked to you from my own experience.

"You see I confess my weakness without re"serve; but those who are very fond of Tea, if "their digestion is weak, and they find themselves "disordered, they generally ascribe it to any cause

except the true one. I am aware that the effect just mentioned is imputed to the hot water; let "it be so, and my argument is still good: but who "pretends to say it is not partly owing to parti"cular kinds of Tea? perhaps such as partake of

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copperas, which there is cause to apprehend is "sometimes the case: if we judge from the man"ner in which it is said to be cured, together with "its ordinary effects, there is some foundation for "this opinion. Put a drop of strong Tea, either “Green or Bohea, but chiefly the former, on the "blade of a knife, though it is not corrosive in the "same manner as vitriol, yet there appears to be "a corrosive quality in it, very different from that "of fruit which stains the knife.”

He afterwards quotes Paulli to prove that Tea is a desiccative, and ought not to be used after the fortieth year. I have then long exceeded the limits of permission, but I comfort myself, that all the enemies of Tea cannot be in the right. If Tea be desiccative, according to Paulli, it cannot weaken the fibres, as our author imagines; if it be emetick, it must constringe the stomach, rather than relax it.

The formidable quality of tinging the knife, it has in common with acorns, the bark and leaves of oak, and every astringent bark or leaf: the copperas which is given to the Tea, is really in the knife. Ink may be made of any ferrugineous matter and astringent vegetable, as it is generally made of galls and copperas.