major portion of a present trade of twelve millions 

 sterling a trade, which, looking at the increasing 

 demand from Australia, America, and the Continent 

 of Europe, bids fair soon to double itself, and, 

 per contra, tea cheapened to that point, at which 

 it can be consumed as a staple, by the great mass 

 of the natives of this Country, Afghanistan, Thibet, 

 Persia, and the Orient in general. 



Surely such prospects, if they be not exaggerated, 

 are a subject of congratulation, and the undertaking 

 affording them worthy of the attentive considera- 

 tion and fostering care of those entrusted with 

 the guidance and control of the affairs of this great 

 Empire. 



But to turn from the ideal to the real, from 

 what may be, to what has been, and is ; and thus 

 to put ourselves in a better position to decide how 

 far present results justify the foredrawn conclusions, 

 I shall take a brief retrospect of the history of 

 this very interesting experiment. 



Little more than a quarter of a century ago no 

 one had any well formed idea that the tea plant 

 would grow and flourish in India. It is true that 

 there were speculations on the subject; that so 

 early even as 1793, Lord Macartney despatched 

 plants from China to Bengal " some parts of which ' 

 says Sir G. Staunton ' His Excellency had been 

 informed, were adapted for their cultivation ;' that 

 experiments had been made at Penarig, in Java, 



