f another; but, with us, to mean well is
a degree of merit, which overbalances much greater errours than impurity
of style.

We have already given, in our collections, one of the letters, in which
Mr. Hanway endeavours to show, that the consumption of tea is injurious
to the interest of our country. We shall now endeavour to follow him,
regularly, through all his observations on this modern luxury; but, it
can scarcely be candid not to make a previous declaration, that he is to
expect little justice from the author of this extract, a hardened and
shameless tea-drinker, who has, for twenty years, diluted his meals with
only the infusion of this fascinating plant; whose kettle has scarcely
time to cool; who with tea amuses the evening, with tea solaces the
midnight, and, with tea, welcomes the morning.

He begins by refuting a popular notion, that bohea and green tea are
leaves of the same shrub, gathered at different times of the year. He is
of opinion, that they are produced by different shrubs. The leaves of
tea are gathered in dry weather; then dried and curled over the fire, in
copper pans. The Chinese use little green tea, imagining, that it
hinders digestion, and excites fevers. How it should have either effect,
is not easily discovered; and, if we consider the innumerable
prejudices, which prevail concerning our own plants, we shall very
little regard these opinions of the Chinese vulgar, which experience
does not confirm.

When the Chinese drink tea, they infuse it slightly, and extract only
the more volatile parts; but though this seems to require great
quantities at a time, yet the author believes, perhaps, only because he
has an inclination to believe it, that the English and Dutch use more
than all the inhabitants of that extensive empire. The Chinese drink it,
sometimes, with acids, seldom with sugar; and this practice our author,
who has no intention to find anything right at home, recommends to his
countrymen.

The history of the rise and progress of tea-drinking is truly curious.
Tea was first imported, from Holland, by the earls of Arlington and
Ossory, in 1666; from their ladies the women of quality learned its use.
Its price was then three pounds a pound, and continued the same to 1707.
In 1715, we began to use green tea, and the practice of drinking it
descended to the lower class of the people. In 1720, the French began to
send it hither by a clandestine commerce. From 1717 to 1726, we
imported,