"You see I confefs my weakness without referve; "but those who are very fond of Tea, if their digef"tion is weak, and they find themselves difor"dered, they generally afcribe 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 "fo, and my argument is ftill good: but who pre"tends to fay it is not partly owing to particular "kinds of Tea? perhaps fuch as partake of copperas, "which there is caufe to apprehend is fometimes "the cafe: if we judge from the manner in which it "is faid to be cured, together with its ordinary "effects, there is fome foundation for this opinion. "Put a drop of strong Tea, either Green or Bohea, "but chiefly the former, on the blade of a knife,

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though it is not corrofive in the fame manner as vitriol, yet there appears to be a corrofive quality "in it, very different from that of fruit which stains "the knife."

He afterwards quotes Paulli to prove that Tea is a deficcative, and ought not to be used after the fortieth year. I have then long exceeded the limits of permiffion, but I comfort myself, that all the enemies of Tea cannot be in the right. If Tea be deficcative, according to Paulli, it cannot weaken the fibres, as our author imagines; if it be emetick, it must conftringe the ftomach, 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 aftringent 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 aftringent vegetable,

5

vegetable, as it is generally made of galls and copperas.

From Tea the writer digreffes to fpirituous liquors, about which he will have no controverfy with the Literary Magazine; we fhall therefore infert almost his whole letter, and add to it one teftimony, that the mifchiefs arifing on every fide from this compendious mode of drunkennefs, are enormous and infupportable; equally to be found among the great and the mean; filling palaces with difquiet and diftraction; harder to be borne as it cannot be mentioned; and overwhelming multitudes with incurable difeafes and unpitied poverty.

Though Tea and Gin have spread their baneful "influence over this ifland and his Majefty's other "dominions, yet you may be well affured, that the "Governors of the Foundling Hofpital will exert "their utmost skill and vigilance, to prevent the "children under their care from being poifoned, or "enervated by one or the other. This, however, "is not the cafe of workhouses: it is well known, "to the fhame of those who are charged with the care of them, that gin has been too often permitted

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to enter their gates; and the debauched appetites "of the people who inhabit thefe houses, has been "urged as a reafon for it.

Defperate diseases require defperate remedies: if "laws are rigidly executed against murderers in the "highway, thofe who provide a draught of gin, which "we fee is murderous, ought not to be countenanced. "I am now informed that in certain hofpitals, where "the

Z3

"the number of the fick ufed to be about 5,600 in $6 14 years,

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"From 1704 to 1718, they increased to 8,189; "From 1718 to 1734, ftill augmented to 12,710; "And from 1734 to 1749, multiplied to 38,147.

"What a dreadful Spectre does this exhibit! nor "muft we wonder, when fatisfactory evidence was "given before the great council of the nation, that near eight millions of gallons of diftilled fpirits, at "the ftandard it is commonly reduced to for drinking, was actually confumed annually in drams! the "fhocking difference in the numbers of the fick, and we may prefume of the dead alfo, was fuppofed to "keep pace with gin; and the most ingenious and "unprejudiced phyficians afcribed it to this caufe. "What is to be done under thefe melancholy cir

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cumftances? fhall we ftill countenance the distillery, "for the fake of the revenue; out of tenderness to the "few who will fuffer by its being abolished; for fear "of the madness of the people; or that foreigners will

run it in upon us? There can be no evil fo great "as that we now fuffer, except the making the fame "confumption, and paying for it to foreigners in

money, which I hope never will be the cafe.

"As to the revenue, it certainly may be replaced by taxes upon the neceffaries of life, even upon the "bread we eat, or in other words, upon the land,

which is the great fource of fupply to the publick and to individuals. Nor can I perfuade myfelf,

“ but

"but that the people may be weaned from the habit "of poifoning themfelves. The difficulty of fmug.

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<6

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gling a bulky liquid, joined to the feverity which

ought to be exercifed towards fmugglers, whofe illegal commerce is of fo infernal a nature, muft in "time produce the effect defired. Spirituous liquors being abolished, inftead of having the moft undif ciplined and abandoned poor, we might foon boast a race of men, temperate, religious, and induftrious even to a proverb. We fhould foon fee the pon"derous burden of the poor's rate decrease, and the beauty and frength of the land rejuvenate. Schools, workhoufes, and hofpitals, might then be fufficient "to clear our streets of distress and mifery, which never will be the cafe whilft the love of poifon pre

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vails, and the means of ruin is fold in above one "thousand houfes in the city of London, two thousand "two hundred in Westminster, and one thousand nine "hundred and thirty in Holborn and St. Giles's,

"But if other ufes ftill demand liquid fire, I would "really propose, that it should be fold only in quart "bottles, fealed up with the King's feal, with a very

high duty, and none fold without being mixed with "a firong emetick.

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ap

Many become objects of charity by their intemperance, and this excludes others who are fuch by "the unavoidable accidents of life, or who cannot by any means fupport themfelves. Hence it pears, that the introducing new habits of life is the "moft fubftantial charity; and that the regulation of charity-fchools, hofpitals, and workhouses, not "the augmentation of their number, can mako

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"them answer the wife ends for which they were "inftituted.

"The children of beggars fhould be alfo taken "from them, and bred up to labour, as children of "the publick. Thus the difireffed might be relieved, "at a fixth part of the prefent expence; the idle "be compelled to work or starve; and the mad be "fent to Bedlam. We fhould not fee human nature

difgraced by the aged, the maimed, the fickly, and young children begging their bread; nor would compaffion be abufed by thofe who have reduced "it to an art to catch the unwary. Nothing is wanting but common fenfe and honesty in the execution " of laws.

"To prevent fuch abuse in the streets, seems more practicable than to abolish bad habits within doors, "where greater numbers perish. We fee in many "familiar inftances the fatal effects of example. "The careless fpending of time among fervants, "who are charged with the care of infants, is often "fatal: the nurse frequently deftroys the child! the poor infant being left neglected, expires whilft fhe is fipping her Tea! This may appear to you as rank

prejudice or jeft; but I am affured, from the most "indubitable evidence, that many very extraordinary "cafes of this kind have really happened among "thofe whofe duty does not permit of fuch kind of "habits.

"It is partly from fuch caufes, 'that nurfes of the "children of the publick often forget themfelves, and "become impatient when infants cry: the next step "to this, is ufing extraordinary means to quiet

"them.