98 
and by the occasion of the meeting of 
disaffected persons in them, divers false, 
malicious, and scandalous reports, were 
devised and read abroad, to the defama- 
‘tion of his majesty’s government, and to 
the disturbance of the peace of the realm.” 
The opinion of the judges was taken on 
this great point of stopping people’s 
tongues, when they sagely replied, 
* That retailing of colfee ahd tea might 
be an innocent trade; but asit was used 
to nourish sedition, spread lies, and scan- 
dalize great men, it might also be a com- 
mon nuisance.” However, on a petition 
of the merchants and retailers of coffee 
and tea, permission was granted to keep 
open the coffee-houses until the 24th of 
June next: and here the matter, after 
some admonition, ended. 
After this long digression I shall con- 
clude with some remarks on the cultiva- 
tion of tea in our colonies, as proposed 
by your correspondents, E. N. and Phy- 
tophilus, to supersede the purchase of it 
from China; and in my subsequent, and 
perhaps last letter, adyert to it, in a mo- 
ral and political point of view. 
This exotic shrub delights particularly 
in Valleys, and on the declivities of hills, 
and upon the borders of rivers, where it 
enjoys a southern exposure to the sun, 
though it endures considerable variations 
of heat and cold, as it flourishes in the 
northern clime of Pekin, as well as about 
Canton, the former of which is in the 
same latitude with Rome ; and from me- 
teorological observations, it appears, that 
the degree of cold about Pekin is as se- 
vere in winter aS in many parts of Eu- 
rope. The best. tea, however, grows in 
a mild temperate’climate 5 the country 
about Nankin producing better tea than 
either Pekin or Canton, between which 
places it is situated: it is hence proba- 
ble, that tea would thrive in many parts 
of the world of a suitable degree of tem~- 
perature of climate; but how far the 
price of labour would adinit of its becom- 
ing an object of trade, may be doubted, 
as well as, whether its cultivation would 
not exclude other articles, to greater loss 
than the gains of tea would compensate, 
as labour in China does not exceed a 
penny a day, which suffices to purchase 
rice for the daily consumption of its tem- 
perate native. 
. Phytophilus mentions the cultivation of 
tea.in Jamaica: with this fact I am other- 
wise unacquainted, ‘and I imagine that 
neither the climate, nor the price of la- 
our, will ever renderit a matter of pro= 
On the Cultivation of the Tea Plant. 
fit. 
and America: but here future experience 
must determine. 
About the year 1770 it was introduced 
into Georgia in America, but I believe 
its cultivation, as an article of commerce, 
has been abandoned. The ingenious au- 
thor of Occalis (Mrs. Morton) in her 
poem of Beane-hill, in describing the pro- — 
ducts of this province, introduces the 
exouc of China: 
Yet round these shores prolific plenty twines, 
Stores the thick field, and swells the clus- 
tering vines ; 
A thousand groyes their glossy leaves unfold, — 
Where the rich orange rolls its ruddy gold, 
China's green shrub, divine Magnolia’s bloom, 
With mingling odours fling their high per-~ 
fume. 
TsJAA-PHILUS. 
——_—— 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
REMARKS on the POETIC ROMANCE of 
MARMION. « 
S no effort ought to be wanting to 
prevent the vitiation of the public 
taste as well as morals, I desire, as areader™ 
of the poem of Marmion, to enter my pro- 
test against that portentous prodigy. In 
the general effect of the composition it is 
unquestionably very inferior to the ‘‘ Lay of 
the Last Minstrel,” which is itself the pro- 
duction of a very wild andecceutric genius, 
Of narrative, whether poetry or prose, 
the first requisite is perspicuity. But 
never surely was a tale either of joy or 
woe, wrapped up insuch a veil of obscure 
and turgid phraseology. Never were in- 
cidents so ill-connected or so thinly scat- 
tered through the immense void of 500 ~ 
pages. Amid the chaos of description 
and episode it is difficult to trace the pro-— 
gress of the story without bestowing upon 
it much more attention than such a trifle 
can be supposed to deserve. Let the ad- 
mirers of this extravagant performance 
take the trouble of comparing it with the 
Palamon and Arcite of Dryden, in which 
every species of poetic excellence is dis- ~ 
played. An interesting tale is told with 
simplicity and elegance. The ornamented 
parts bear a just proportion tothe whole; 
and the sympathy excited by the narra- — 
tive gradually increases to the end. In _ 
Marmion the substance of the story is lost — 
amidst a profusion of meretricious and — 
gewgaw embellishments; and it exhibits” 
much the same analogy to thé finished — 
and classic production of Dryden as Our | 
Lady of Loretto to the Venus of Medieis. 
. The 
; [Sept. 1, va 
. It appears to me best suited for the — 
climate of the southern -parts of Europe — 
se 
~~ 
cH 
a 
