pound for twenty-two pounds and three-quarters. In 1669 their own importation was one canister, of 143 lbs., from Bantam : they had it only second hand for some time. After the revolution, tea became common. Thus "the progress of this famous plant has been somewhat like the progress of truth; suspected at first, though very palatable to those who had the courage to taste it; resisted, as it encroached; abused, as its popularity seemed to spread; and establishing its triumph at last in cheering the whole land, from the palace to the cottage, only by the slow and resistless efforts of time and its own virtues."-Edinborough Review. Thomas Garway, in Exchange-alley, Cornhill, tobacconist and coffee man, was the first who sold and retailed tea, recommending it for the cure of all disorders. The following is his shop-bill: "Tea in England hath been sold, in the leaf, for six pounds, and sometimes for ten pounds, the pound weight; and, in respect of its former scarceness and dearness, it hath been only used as a regalia in high treatments and entertainments, and presents made thereof to princes and grandees, till the year 1657. The said Garway did purchase a quantity thereof, and first publicly sold the said tea in leaf or drink, made according to the directions of the most knowing merchants trading into those eastern countries. On the knowledge of the said Garway's continued care and industry in obtaining the best tea, and making drink thereof, very many noblemen, physicians, merchants, &c., have ever since sent to him for the said leaf, and daily resort to his house to drink thereof. He sells tea from 16s. to 50s. a pound." From the prices, it is supposed this bill was issued in 1660. In the year 1652 an English Turkish merchant brought a Greek slave to London, who taught the art of roasting coffee, and put forth the following hand-bill: "The vertue of the coffee drink, first publiquely made and sold in England by Pasqua Rosee, in St. Michael's-alley, Cornhill, at the sign of his own head.” In the "Women's petition against coffee," 1674, they complained that "it made men as unfruitful as the deserts whence that unhappy berry is said to be brought: that the offspring of our mighty ancestors would dwindle into a succession of apes and pigmies; and, on a domestic message, husbands would stop by the way to drink a couple of cups of coffee." The chocolate was brought from Mexico, where it was called chocollatti: it was a coarse mixture of ground cacao and Indian corn with rocou; but the Spaniards, liking its nourish * It now takes sixty millions of pounds to supply Europe and America. In 1700 the English had a factory at Chusan. App. xiv. ment, improved it into a richer compound, with sugar, vanilla, and other aromatics. These articles were the means of causing the resort of people to coffee-houses; and, when so met, in those exciting times of religious and political discussions, they soon attracted the notice of the government, as well as different party writers. In "A broad-side against coffee, or the marriage of the Turk," 1672, the writer notices this change in the manners: "Confusion huddles all into one scene, Like Noah's ark, the clean and the unclean; In 1675 Charles the II., by a proclamation, shut them all up for a time. A general discontent took place, and emboldened the merchants and retailers of coffee and tea to petition: permission was granted to open them to a certain period, under a severe admonition that the masters should prevent all scandalous papers, books, and libels being read in them, and hinder every person from spreading scandalous reports against the govern- . ment. This would be a difficult matter for the masters to decide upon; for how could they determine what was scandalous, what book was fit to be read, and what political intelligence might be proper to communicate? The Earl of Cork, in the following verse, could have told them "There is a lust in man no charm can tame, While virtuous actions are but barn to die." HORACE. On the introduction of chocolate, Roger North thus complains: "The use of coffee-houses seems much improved by a new invention called chocolate-houses, for the benefit of rooks and culleys of quality, where gaming is added to all the rest, and the summons of w-——————— seldom fail; as if the devil had erected a new university, and those were the colleges of its professors as well as his schools of divinity." As coffee was sold in such small quantities as penny-worths, these places were called " penny universities," At the close of the seventeenth century a house near the bottom of Fleet-street commenced selling saloop, which was nothing more than an infusion of sassafras served with milk and sugar: it was a beverage pleasant to my taste. I have also seen it sold at the corners of streets. The use of it has declined, I expect, from its being sold dear. "Saloop is the root of the male orchis; when boiled, it is somewhat hot and disagreeable.”* Coffee-houses were numerous; they had them both by land and by water: there was a large one (and it must have been a very pleasant one) floating on the Thames. This, in summer weather, must have been a delightful place of resort, away from clatter and dust or mud, and enjoying the cool, refreshing breeze, occasionally enlivened by the distant sounds of some charming peel of bells "swelling with musical cadence upon the listening ear." If the present race had so fine an opportunity of passing away a few hours in such a sort of half social solitude, with " the fineflavoured pinch" or "the fragrant weed," "Where care, like smoke, in turbid wreaths Round the gay ceiling flies," HORACE. how pleasant would it be to muse on the following lines, by Young: "Let not the cooings of the world allure thee: Which of her lovers ever found her true ?" TOBACCO AND SNUFF. "Tobacco's pungent leaves proclaim The Indians naught but death could tame." THESE two articles (which may be spoken of as one) were the cause of much pamphleteering. King James lashed its use with all his feeble powers, which brought forth replies from various wits in prose and poetry. It has outlived all the witlings, and seems to have become one of the necessaries of life.† It has not the ill effects which were formerly assigned to it. From a work of Dr. Holland, entitled " Medical Notes and Reflections," 1839, it does not appear to be a cause of dyspepsia. Snuff-taking increased very much after Sir George Rooke's expedition to Spain, great quantities having been taken and sold as prizes. Dr. Beach, in his " Family Physician," recommends the following compound for the head: "High laurel, sassafras, and blood-root, of each one ounce, well mixed and finely powdered." * Cooke's Third Voyage. + It was a Captain Lane, in 1586, who taught Raleigh smoking. The English smoking has generally been attributed to that enterprising and unfortunate man. According to Dodsley, (on agriculture,) they also used the follwing compound: -He the salubrious leaf Of endial sage, the purple flowering head No doubt, like many other things which we take, it may be abused; for Richard Fletcher, Bishop of London, died smoking tobacco: but it has its use. Bulwer has thus spoken of it: "A pipe! it is a great soother, a pleasant comforter; blue devils fly before its honest breath; it ripens the heart; and the man who smokes, thinks like a sage and acts like a Samaritan." Charles Lamb, the poet, thus speaks of it enthusiastically: "For thy sake, tobacco, I Would do anything else but die." Light tongs, with a long rivet, like tailors' sheers, and a spring attached to make them close, were soon introduced for the more ready reaching and handing round a piece of hot coal for lighting pipes. I saw an ancient pair, of polished steel, very bright, the two ends which held the coal filed and fashioned like a delicate lady's hand. These seem now to have gone out of make; but, I expect, would be worth reviving in. this smoking country. If this should meet the eye of any one inclined to speculate upon the subject, I will give them the proper instructions. I should like to see, in an equal company of smokers and anti-smokers, some knotty question propounded to each, to be answered off-hand, and each answer taken down without any communication with each other. I have no doubt but the deliberation the whiffs would occasion would be the cause why the smokers' solution would be considered the best: smoking stops twattle. In this country I have noticed their use as being very conducive to sociability; as being an easy and pleasant introduction; as a means of lessening some aristocratic pride, which riches in all societies create. The snuff-box, the cigar, and the pipe, with its filling and lighting, seem to be as open to all as the wild prairie is to a new race of squatters. This article was soon made exciseable, from which an immense revenue is derived; and none is allowed to be grown in any part of Great Britain. As the greater part is exported from this country, the exise is a benefit to it, rather than otherwise. LAWS RESPECTING RELIGION. "How long halt ye between two opinions?" 1 KINGS 18: 21. "One faith, one measure, and one coin BEDILIUS ALL MONATIS. THE religious persecutions all over Europe produced some extraordinary circumstances in forcing people to emigrate. I will first give some of the English enactments. The first attack on the monastics was the suppression of the Knights' Templars, by Edward II., about 1307. The first act to suppress the monasteries was passed 1535, by Henry VIII. The next act was in the first year of Edward VI.; an act against speaking irreverently against taking the sacraments in both kinds." The next was in the second year of the same reign: there came forth the book of common prayer, and rites and ceremonies. The next was in the third year of the same reign: the priests were permitted to marry. In the first year of Queen Mary's reign all these laws were repealed, and the Catholic religion re-established. The first year of Queen Elizabeth she abolished again the Catholic religion; and an oath was imposed upon all people to take, declaring her supremacy in all things, spiritual and temporal. Her second act re-enacted the common prayer book. Her third act excluded all from any share in the tithes, or any other church property, who did not swear to, and subscribe to, certain articles. Another act, "to restrain the queen majesty's subjects in their true obedience." This act was made against all manner of dissenters, then called non-conformists, (there were other acts against the Catholics,) who were called "schismatical and wicked people." These were enacted for punishment by fine, imprisonment, banishment, or death. These laws continued through the reigns of James I., Charles I.,* under Oliver Cromwell, and Charles II.; and never began to be mitigated until the reign of James II., which mitigation was the sole cause of driving him from the throne. * In 1772 Lord Folkstone said, in a debate, that that part of the liturgy which calls King Charles a martyr, was composed by Father Patré, the Jesuit confessor of King James II. This debate, which was moved by Mr. Montague, to get rid of this fast, was lost in the house of commons by a vote of 97 for, and 127 against, abolishing it. |