The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1818-05-18 00:00:00

LdW INTFLLIGENCE.
acourn OF KING'S DEW!II. iTerritesTea,
Partial:ore. My le.
THE KING "e. Nancsaffia.
TM" wee It roseeutoon against the Defend.int,
'for having fnenclulently appropriated to the pay-
ment of' the cxoenses encoding two indictments§ on
whirl, Ite'wes tried some time ago, eertein sums 'of
• tno•ley, tare property of the perish of St. Matthew,
`.Bethnal-gram. Tbs. I)efendesit is well known as
11e testi of greet property and influence in that
• .

Itlv. s

...

Mr. Jusffce Assort', in his charge to the Jory,
went over the whole of the evidence, a►d corn.
inented at large on the particular paints of it ; ob-
serving that for the defence, it was at leiet ex-
tremely.contradictory, and in some instance* even
i►upossible. The question was,•Had a full and fair
‘viotice been given of this audit, or had it not ? And
it certainly appeared to him that it lard nbt. ft Wag
stionsobent On the Defendant, knowing the ani-
mosities that eoxisted against him in the parish, to
have given the utmost publicity to his transaction,
if lie had Meant uprightly. The prudent man, at
least, would have been careful to have avoided unl-
y►icion. But this 'was not the case•; 'for Sit w*s
evident there were hot more than ten or twelve
persons present, and they were the sworn friends,
as it were, of the Defendant. The taw any.,
that tonney raised for the use of the I►nnr.
ishoulti not be applied to any other p►erpose.
If, therefore, the Jury were of opinion that this had
tieeti otherwise applied, it had been so done unlaw.
toll►• ; and if they thought sufficient wirier had not
beets given, it had been done clandestinely; and
they would of course pronounce accordingly.
The Jury immediately, without retiring from
th► box, pronounced the Defendant—Gaily.
Ile was sundered to be brought np ou the fuuith
day of next Term for judgment.

COURT OF EXCHEQUER, Wrornumck,
SATURDAY, MAT 16.

IMITATION TEA—POISON.
Tilt ATTORNET-OFiIUAL v. PALMER.
Mr. WA T.Toe opened the declaration, and stated.
that this was an informatie• hied by the Amenity-
:t tient, Priusyt the Defendant, which charged him,
fw b►►ing a dealer in. and seller of tea, with having
iii has 'possession a quantity of sloe leaves and white-
thorn home, fabricated into
,an imitation of tea,
whereby be forfeited 10/. for every pound weight of
ends imitation. There were other counts, chart:-
ing the offence differently, to all of which the De-
fendant pleaded Not Galli!.
Mr. MUNCLY stated the case to the Jury, and
observed, that the proceeding to which he WM bald
to call their attention woe almost new to the Court,
as well as to those whom he had the honour of ad-
dressing. and certainly was of very great itn-
Iportanee—important to the Defrocked, inasmneliall
the penalties which were sought to be recovered
from him, went to • very considerable amount (an
amount. however, by no means dieproportioned to
The gain which lie had made by engaging in this
sort I.f transaction) —important also to them. to
him, and to the public at large, because the gain
of the Defendant was at the expense of their health.
In fact, as the lialoitrof society at present existed,
there were scarcely env persons who were mot in the
daily and constant habit of running the risk of being
injured and imposed upon, by taking the ►commo-
tlity which formed the subject of the present prose.
motion. The prosecution against the Defendant, at
they had heard from 'his Learned Friend, was for
haring in his possession, and also for disposing of, a
commodity es tea, which in point of fact was not tea.
The universal use of tea made this question of uni-
versal importance. It was lamentable to think, that
in this greit town there were persons who were
in the d lialoit of selling deleterious drugs, nu-
tier different masks, and that while the public were
imagining they were drinking at their meals nutri-
tious beverages, they were in fact wallowing a slow
host certain poison—snd this in order that parties
like the Defendant might take advantage of the
wile of an article which was not merchantable, at a
price far beyond its intrinsic value. They load
already heard, during the prrsent sittings, that
those who supposed they were drinking coffee were
deceived, end were in fact drinking neither mere
nor less' than an infusion of scorched peas and
beaus. This they were told was in itself harmless,
and he believed, at least, there was uo mixture of
tinwholesotne ingredients. Not so in the present
case, fur he should prove that the most pernicious
drugs had been used; and it was clear that all
ranks of society, whether male or female, were
alike exposed to their effects. The Defendant,
.Mr. Palmer. was a grocer, and hail ilo doubt reaped
no small advantage from his nefarious traffic. It
would appear that a regular manufactory of this
imitation tea. as it was called, was established in
11;u1datone-street. end he should call • witness who
would go through the whole history of the trauser
lion. The parties by whom the manufactory was
co •ducted, was a person of the name of Procter,
and another person named John Molina, the son of
AVilliani Malin*, carrying on business in a place
railed Northumberland-alley, Fenchurch-street,
I►rofessedly as • coffee-roaster. These two persons
engaged others to furiiii.h them with leaves, which,
vfier undergoing a certain process, that he would
describe, were said to end drank by the public as
trip. The parties gatlwriug the leaves, which were
of the white and black thorn tree, were paid et the
rate of two-pence per pound for the produce of
their labour. These leaves, in order to be convert-
ed into an article resembling black tea, were brat
boiled, then baked upon an iron plate; and when
airy, rubbed with the hand, iu order to produce that
curl which the 'pawns, tea had. This was, in fact,
the most wholosome part of the operation, for the
colour, which was yet to be given to it, was produced
lagwood; whether this was so injurious ingre-
dient cr no► he did not know, but he believed few of
Ins auditor' would willingly drink an infusion of that
da,•e. With regard to the green tea, that was manu-
factured in a less questionable and in a more destruc-
tive msnoer—he neasur destructive to the constitu-
Coo of those by whom it was drank. In this 'sort
leaves, after haw-
laid upon sheets
• colour from au

1
, .
1111
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of the 1.13..hie54 it 111.re:fled that the le
Sl.it been p Mild dried, were 14
1 of copper, where they received their