amuse the idle, and relax the studious, and dilute the full meals of
those who cannot use exercise, and will not use abstinence. That time is
lost in this insipid entertainment cannot be denied; many trifle away,
at the tea-table, those moments which would be better spent; but that
any national detriment can be inferred from this waste of time, does not
evidently appear, because I know not that any work remains undone, for
want of hands. Our manufactures seem to be limited, not by the
possibility of work, but by the possibility of sale.

His next argument is more clear. He affirms, that one hundred and fifty
thousand pounds, in silver, are paid to the Chinese, annually, for three
millions of pounds of tea, and, that for two millions more, brought
clandestinely from the neighbouring coasts, we pay, at twenty-pence a
pound, one hundred sixty-six thousand six hundred and sixty-six pounds.
The author justly conceives, that this computation will waken us; for,
says he: "the loss of health, the loss of time, the injury of morals,
are not very sensibly felt by some, who are alarmed when you talk of the
loss of money." But he excuses the East India company, as men not
obliged to be political arithmeticians, or to inquire so much, what the
nation loses, as how themselves may grow rich. It is certain, that they,
who drink tea, have no right to complain of those that import it; but if
Mr. Hanway's computation be just, the importation, and the use of it,
ought, at once, to be stopped by a penal law.

The author allows one slight argument in favour of tea, which, in my
opinion, might be, with far greater justice, urged both against that and
many other parts of our naval trade. "The tea-trade employs," he tells
us, "six ships, and five or six hundred seamen, sent annually to China.
It, likewise, brings in a revenue of three hundred and sixty thousand
pounds, which, as a tax on luxury, may be considered as of great utility