The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal. 269 



ever, we suspect that the Tea Company will find that before 

 they can manufacture, they must begin to plant; and that 

 circumspection and skill will be required in the selection 

 of the most suitable lands. We have so poor an opinion 

 of the extent of the wild plant, that we think it would 

 hardly do more than afford sufficient seed for new plantations. 

 So far therefore from all things being ready in Assam for the 

 extensive manufacture of tea for commercial purposes, as the 

 public are led to imagine from the report of Mr. Bruce, we 

 think that every thing is yet to be effected, and that some 

 time and money have been spent in vain, and the public 

 exposed to encounter some degree of disappointment in 

 consequence of Mr. Bruce's report being allowed to go abroad, 

 without a few remarks from the Tea Committee, to qualify 

 what appears to us the extravagant views contained in it 

 regarding the extent of the tea localities, With the Assam 

 tea, as with other objects of popular interest, nothing is 

 received with favour that does not flatter our expectations, 

 however unreasonable and even absurd these may be in 

 reality. We always find in the long run, however, that 

 we have to pay pretty dearly for our indulgence, for while 

 few have the moral courage to express an unpopular opinion, 

 thousands live and flourish for a time by the dissemina- 

 tion of popular error, until something happens to give the 

 question another turn. With regard to the subject before 

 us ; all we will venture to recommend is, that such flat- 

 tering reports as the one we have noticed, be not allowed 

 to impress us with the idea, that the present stock of 

 wild tea plants in Assam is of such extent as to afford 

 any thing like a return to the Assam Company. From 

 what we have ourselves seen of the tea plant in the 

 Sing-Pho jungles, in the Muttack, and in Raja Parunder 

 Sing's territory — the only three tracts in which it occurs — 

 the whole, root and branch, if converted into tea, would 

 not make a single consignment such as would annually be 

 expected from the Assam Tea Company; and after a care- 



