258 Advantages of TEA. 
wholefome and agreeable beverage, be it cold or hot, to fupply 
the place of tea ; and that you will recommend it, in the 
ftrongeft terms. You will fee prefently what further weighty 
reafons I have to be very ferious in this affair. How many are 
interested to fupport tea, is not the queftion ; I hope not one 
will attempt it at the hazard of ruining his country. Fare- 
well. I am yours, &c. 
LETTER XII. 
To the fame . 
Madam, 
M ANY a private man who has acquired a good fortune 
by one trade, has loft it again by another : thus 
whilft we extend and increase our commerce, we ought to 
take fome pains to diftinguifh what is profitable to us as a 
nation, and what is hurtful, that we may not, by a multi- 
plicity of affairs, seem to be increafing our riches by the very 
means that really diminifh them : nor for fear of making an 
incision, cover over our wounds as if they were healed, tho’ 
in reality we are bringing on a mortification. As I take no 
advantages but fuch as are founded in truth, before I pro- 
ceed any further, I will tell you, as far as my knowledge goes, 
what may be faid in favor of tea. 
In a national light, the tea trade employs fix hundred fea- 
men, and confequently many other induftrious fubjedds to fup- 
port them, together with fix fhips, which we annually fend to 
canton, and I fuppofe are loaded entirely with tea : and what 
is more, it brings in a revenue of about three hundred and 
a fifty 
