236 LIVES Jhortened by TEA. 
not much better. There is a great fault fomewhere, or we 
fhould not fee infants expofed in the streets to the compli- 
cated miferies of hunger, cold, and inclemency of weather. 
Under thefe circumftances, it is not ftrange that a recruit of 
many thoufands fhould become neceffary in thefe cities ; and 
how long the country will be able to afford recruits, is a point 
not very eafy to determine. 
I remember to have heard* a patriot citizen declaim on the 
great quantity of tea which was run in upon us, notwithftand- 
ing the duties were then lowered, and the eagt-india company 
had augmented their importation of this commodity to the quan- 
tity of three millions of pounds. The late mr. pelham, that 
worthy gentleman, whofe memory muff be ever grateful to this 
nation, anfwered in thefe words : “Tea then is become ano- 
“ ther gin !’* meaning, as I under flood, that the vaft confump- 
tion, and injurious effeds of tea, feemed to threaten this nation 
equally with gin. And, indeed, his opinion and predidion 
feem to be verified in their full extent. 
No man was better inclined than myfelf to believe that com- 
plaining of vicious pradices is one of the foibles of the time, 
or the effed of more than common piety, in thole who com- 
plained, but not that this age is more wicked than the for- 
mer : indeed I had marked it out, in the hiftory of my time, 
as the age of idleness and puerility. But with regard to the 
point in queftion, I can withhold my afient no longer ; I feel the 
force of convidion > the repeated and indubitable teftimonies 
of the havock amongft the poor, in their infant ftate, are ex- 
tremely fhocking to humanity ; the evil calls aloud for redress. 
Frona 
