LIVES Jhortened by TEA. 
2 39 
I have heard it faid, that thofe who drink tea mod, are Jeaft 
addicted to fpirituous liquors; but this ! do not believe; and 
if it were true, it is faying very little in behalf of tea. We 
are not doomed to deftroy ourfelves, neither one way nor the 
other. Nurfes who drink tea and fugar, unavoidably confume 
a great part of their weekly allowance ; and if they can by any 
means receive it, after the child is dead, it becomes their gain 
and profit. Heaven knows how many poor infants are dis- 
patched into the other world ! I hope they meet a kinder re- 
ception there. Whether it arifes moft from vicious indulgences, 
or ignorance and ftupidity, that fo great a mortality reigns 
amongft the poor, I will not undertake to determine ; but I 
firmly believe that a dead child is a more pleafing, and a more 
familiar object, to the generality of common nurses, than a 
living one ; and that by habit they contract as little fenfibility 
of the death of others, as a common foldier after a dozen bloody 
campaigns. Adieu. I am yours, £§Pc. 
LETTER VIL 
7 o the fame. 
Madam, 
N OTWITHSTANDING the prevalency of tea and gin, 
I believe the truftees of the charity-schools, as well a 9 
the governors of the foundling hospital, have hitherto been 
fo wife and humane, as to keep both from the children under 
their care. This however is not the cafe of workhouses : it is 
well known that gin is permitted there. It feems as if the regu- 
lation of charity- fchools and work-houfes, more than the aug- 
mentation 
