THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [December b, 1887. 
CEYLON TEA ON THE CONTINENT OF 
EUEOPE AND IN THE UNITED KINGDOM 
(From Our Special dorm&pondent.) 
COFFEE IN MINCING LANE : A BEAR, SCARCE ARTICLE — 
CINCHONA BARK AND QUININE AT ITS CHEAPEST. 
" Were I a yuung man and anxious to make 
money," said Mr. MacAll to me, " I should cer- 
tainly endeavour to start a popular restaurant for 
the supply of tea in Paris." I may have already 
alluded to this remark in connection with the 
tield which Paris seems to present for the multi- 
plication of cafes ar rather " the-eries," not only 
in view of the need of supplying a good, whole- 
aomo, refreshing beverage to a people who are es- 
sentially temperance-living, but as a check on 
the liquor and beer shops which of late years have 
sprung up mushroom-like on every side in the 
French capital. I have alluded to the legislative 
attention recently given to alcohol laws as an 
evidence of the change coming over Paris, and in 
corroboration of this statement, as also of that 
respecting " five o'clock teas," the following amus- 
ing extracts may be worth giving : — 
" The Alcohol Committee was formed today at the 
Finance Ministry. It is divided into three sub-com- 
mittees. The one named tr report on the proposed 
Governmental monopoly for the sale of alcohols is 
headed by M. Leon Say, and includes M. Wilson. The 
second, which is to report on the hygienic bearings of 
the scheme, has for its chairman M. Sadi Carnot ; and 
the third, which will report on small distilleries and 
private stills, is headed by M. Tirard. As the scheme 
stands it is proposed to let everyone who pleases distil 
alcohol, but to allow nobody to sell it unless to Gov- 
ernment, which will be then the great retail dealer, as 
of tobacco and matches. If the alcohol is of the same 
inflammatory strength as the matches it will be quite 
inoffensive. 
We have become, says Le Petit Meniteur, the prey of 
the English, the Gorman, the Yankee, the Spaniard, 
the Italian, and tutti quanti. Most of all, however, it 
appears that the British yoke is pressing French society. 
To wit : "A brutal shake-hand (!) has replaced our 
foimer elegant way of ki-siag a lady's rosy fingers. 
The quadrille, so convenient for the exchangeof spirited 
talk, is replaced by boorish Boston, a sort of dance more 
suitable for kangaroos than for our graceful Parisian 
ladies. If we look at our dress and at our language we 
find the same state of things. Before long our great 
boulevards will be nothing but atrocious caricatures of 
Regent-street or of Fifth-avenue. Look at these young 
men. Are they Frenchmen, or are they not rather 
stable-lads in their Sundny garments? And where are 
they f/oing ? to the five o'clock tea of a society lady. 
Toe five o'clock tea has existed at all times, only for- 
merly it was called le gnUter, and pretty women used to 
tty at it with fruits or light pastry. Now England has 
quickly put her heavy paw on the graceful custom, 
»ud at these orgies of English tea, ham, sandwiches, 
motrins (!), pudding, gengember-pie (!), &c, are swal- 
lowed aown, and our bordeaux has given way to chem- 
ical compositions known as cok (!) tail and sherry 
g)bler(!). We have no longer any cafes; they have 
b come taverns, bars, and musik (!) halls." 
That a good deal of tea is drunk through the 
fashionable five o'clock custom is evidenced by 
the sales made from the one well-known dep6t 
in Paris, the " Hotel de Lille et d'Albion," 
Rue St. Honor6. There is a want of attractive- 
ness about the place, the service and the supply 
of good things usually associated with the drinking 
of tea he»e, so that the proprietor chiefly depends 
for a business and profits on the sale of tea in 
the bulk. But that progress has been made at all, 
in view of the non-attractiveness referred to, is 
evidence that with due enterprise and knack, the 
promoters of "the-eries" could speedily get 
Parisians and Frenchmen to overcome their ob- 
jection to tea (as a drug) and to understand that 
the same refreshing, sustaining property equally 
belongs to tea as to their favourite but 
now scarce and expensive beverage, coffee. 
The linenweavers of Belfast and Ulster gener- 
ally long ago showed that tea (the strongest 
and dearest to be got) and potatoes sustained them 
at work in a way other food products could not 
with so much acceptance ; and a French Com- 
mission on one occasion reported that coffee and 
potatoes constituted at once the most economical 
and suitable food coalminers in the South of 
France could work on. " The most logical people 
in the world," as the educated French consider 
themselves to be, would speedily appreciate such 
facts a3 these, together with chemical analyses, 
testimonials from hygienic and food authorities, if 
such were freely distributed to back up the claims 
of tea in the householder and the habitue" of cafas 
and restaurants. I have said the "educated French ;" 
but with free, compulsory education, the rising 
generation will be all ready to read and appreciate 
what can be said for tea or any other good article 
placed before them. Never at the most crowded 
London station in the busiest season did I witness 
such a scene of pressure and enormous passenger 
traffic as at the commodious station of the P. L. M. 
(Paris, Lyons and Mediterreanan) railway at the 
beginning of this month. The explanation was found 
in the return from the holidays of the immense multi- 
tude of students from all parts of France who make 
Paris their resort for the benefit of some of the 
ablest lectures and thoroughly worked classes known 
in Europe — the charges being either nil, or at ex- 
tremely moderate rates. So much by the way. 
Since my return to London I have learned that 
some of our Ceylon Tea Agencies have begun to 
do a fair business with Paris, and I have heard 
of several tea-sellers throughout France who 
are anxious to touch this product, I have also 
learned that a public-spirited Ceylon official (soon 
to be with you again) has, during recent residence 
in Germany and Switzerland, done much to make 
Ceylon tea known, several orders for chests re- 
cently reaching London being traced to his making 
its virtues known. His opinion, I believe is, that 
tea can never be expected to be largely consumed 
in the Southern, cheap- wine-drinking countries of 
Europe ; but that in the Middle and Northern 
States there ought soon to be a considerable and 
increasing demand. As regards Germany, this ia 
borne out by the opinion of an Anglicized German 
House in Great Tower Street, long established as 
coffee buyers for the Continent, who tell me that 
a change in the direction of tea — a really good 
article — must inevitably set in, in view of the 
scarcity and dearness of coffee. Already small 
parcels are being sent on trial sales in new directions. 
As regards Bussia I have had the benefit of 
several chats with Sir Graeme Elphinstone, who 
tells me he was much pleased with the prospects 
opened out through his visits to St. Petersburg and 
Moscow, and that nothing but the family afflic- 
tions which occurred soon after prevented him from 
following the matter up then. True, repeated samples 
forwarded have failed to reach some of his agents, 
being confiscated in the Customs ; but through 
private channels he has been able to make our 
teas known and thoroughly appreciated, and he 
means very shortly to push the matter to a 
practical issue. This good opinion of Ceylon tea 
in Bussia is confirmed by letters I have seen 
from the family of Prince Gargaim and the ex- 
Minister of Public Institution, both of whom much 
appreciate Nawara Eliya tea and want to know 
I how they can be regularly supplied. In Mincing 
I Lane, yesterday, again I learned of one broking 
I firm at least who were endeavouring to push a 
