PRESENT AND FUTURE CONSUMPTION. 119 



it for tea ; nor would the poor laboring classes in this and 

 in European countries, who work so unsparingly of them- 

 selves, pay 75 cents to $1 for a pound for it. 



Well, it is seen that China cannot produce enough of 

 tea for herself, and that the poor in Europe and America, 

 the Indian, &c., cannot get an article, that cost only 

 some 2 to 5 cents to produce, for less than on an average 

 100 cents per Ib. for an adulterated kind. Therefore, tea 

 is in a manner forbidden to man, by man's own mental 

 indolence, and by the reprehensible indifference of those 

 who have had opportunity, and means, to investigate all 

 things connected with it. Truly, man counteracts the 

 benevolent designs of the Creator, and then blasphemes 

 against Him, and accuses Him of the miseries of which 

 his indolence, his apathy, and his selfishness alone are the 

 causes. 



Let the consumption of tea in England be taken into 

 consideration 30,000,000 of people consume 50,000,000 

 Ibs. of tea, for which they pay from 100 to 150 cents 

 per Ib. The duty levied on tea by the English govern- 

 ment is 55 cents per Ib., although some of that tea sells 

 in London as low as 8 to 12 cents per Ib., or one-seventh 

 the amount of the duty alone so the poor hard working 

 man has for that tea which sold in London for 4 to 

 G pence the Ib., (in bond,) to pay the extraordinary 

 price of 3s. 6d. to 4s. per Ib., or (874- to 100 cents per 

 Ib.) Can anything be more oppressive and tyrnanical, 

 can anything be more cruel, than that a poor simple 

 laborer and his poor family should be so shamefully 

 mulct that poor man whose sinews are ever on the 

 ^tret-ii, whose perspiration is ever pouring forth for the 

 support of the whole fabric of society for the support of 



