The Sun.
London, England, 1851-04-25 00:00:00

the Commissioners are fettered, and the Act of Par-
r - red il+terly
efficacious by certain resolutions and instructions
emanating from the Lords of the Treasury. By a
section in the Act of the 43d Geo. 111., c. 129, a penalty
cf 1001. was imposed upon any dealer in coffee who
should offer or keep for sale any vegetable substance
prepared for the purpose of resembling or serving as
a substitute for coffee ; the sale of scorched or roasted
corn, peas, beans, or parsnips—and that in a whole
state, but not ground or crushed—being per-
mitted only, under a licence, to persons not
being dealers in coffee or cocoa, by the 3d
George IV., c. 53, in which the foregoing section of
the former Act is recited. Thus the law is sufficiently
clear and explicit, and, if put in force, would be
amply sufficient to answer the intended purpose,
namely the prevention of the adulteration of coffee
by the admixture with it of any other substance or
ingredient whatever. The power of prosecuting
under any Act of Parliament relating to the Customs
or Excise revenue is, by statute, limited to the com-
missioners of Excise, who are themselves thereby
subjected to the control of the Lords of the Trea-
sury. Such being the case, in April 1832, proceed-
ings were instituted against a firm who had mixed
chicory powder with coffee, whereby the law was
manifestly infringed, but were stayed by direction of
the Treasury, on the grounds of an alteration being
contemplated in the law with respect to the
sale of the article complained of. In two
months after the Excise Commissioners re,.
turn to the Treasury earnestly desiring to
know what steps they are to take when chicory is
mixed with coffee, coffee being adulterated to a great
extent; and are instructed in a reply, bearing date the
21st August, " that the sellers of coffee should be
informed that they must abide the consequences, if,
after a notice of two months, they shall continue to
sell it mixed with any other ingredient contrary to
law ; but that the sale of chicory powder should not
be interfered with." This was all fair and equitable,
punishment being held out to the fraudulent seller of
a spurious mixture, and the law being relaxed in
favour of the honest dealer, by the non-imposition of
any penalty upon the coffee dealer who should sell
chicory, provided he sold it pure and unmixed, and
under its proper name.

Things then went on smoothly for eight years, until
in August, 1840, out comes another Treasury minute,
the question being again brought under their Lordships'
consideration, and at no subsequent period would
information be given by those august persons as to the
reasons by which they were guided in this total
change of their recorded views, in the absence of any
intermediate enactment passed upon the subject, or of
any authorityhaving been given by the existing Acts,
under which any alteration could be made. The
text of this precious document is as follows
My Lords consider that the law was altered (!) with
the view of admitting the mixture of chicory with
coffee. My Lords, therefore, do not consider that
any measures should be enforced to prevent the sale
of coffee mixed with chicory. My Lords do not con-
sider such admixture will be a fraud on the revenue,
so long as chicory pays the proper duty ; and" (it con-
cludes with beautiful and touching disinterested-
ness) " as between the seller and the consumer, my
Lords desire that Government should interfere as
little as possible." O❑ this profound promulgation
being communicated to the Commissioners of Excise,
nothing remained for them but to issue a general order
—" That no objection be made, on the part of the Re-
venue, to dealers in and sellers of coffee mixing
chicory therewith, or to having the same so mixed on
their premises." _ _

Now, if there be any persons who, being of the
same taste as Sir CHARLES WOOD—and it is with dif-
fidence that we put forward any views of our own in
contradiction to the emanations of that giant mind—
prefer the compound to the simple, and rubbish to the
sound,we would say to them, " Swill yourselves what
filthy draughts you like; de gustibus non est, 6-c., but
do not put us of less convenient stomachs to the
necessity of either abandoning a pure and favourite
beverage altogether, or of joining with you in im-
bibing revolting impurities." Even, for a moment
supposing that the foreign ingredient were
confined to pure chicory, and again, that
the salubrious and nutritious qualities thereof
were unquestioned, why may we not get the genuine
article without having an olla-podrida of nauseous-
ness palmed off upon us ? But it is now notorious
to mankind,—and all honour to the Lancet for its
elucidation of the villanies perpetrated under cover of
the permitted admixture,—that the most abominable
ingredients enter largely into the omnium-gatherums
sold as genuine coffee, and that chicory itself is largely
adulterated in the ground state. But even a contri-
bution of that home-grown article at 4d. per lb. is
deemed too costly to be generally used, and the price
is frequently reduced to the poor man through the
use of horse-beans, acorns, and even tan, to whom
benevolent grocers can pretty well afford to vend a
pound of so-named coffee, into which not above two
or three ounces of the genuine material is permitted
to enter, at a shilling or fourteenpence the pound.
Those ingenious gentry distribute with a liberal hand
such delectable articles as these—viz., damaged corn,
beans, peas, acorns, horse-chesnuts, lupin-seed, earth,
brickdust, sawdust, dog-biscuits, tan, &c. ; and at
the meeting recently held in the City, a retail coffee
dealer stated that " an intelligent man came to his
shop with an article composed of burnt peas, dog-
biscuit, powdered earth, and another article which
he would not name (but which proved to be tan) ;
that he told him there were four tons of it ready for
use, and that it was a substitute for chicory, or" (hear
this, ye sons of sneeshin') "might be used in the adul-
teration of snuff." Let any candid coffee-drinker
ponder dispassionately on the extensive use of these
refreshing and ingenious amalgamations, and then

" To breakfast with what appetite he may."
He will proffer a sympathising prayer that the simple
remedy may be resorted to—namely, that the Trea-
sury Minute of 1840 may be rescinded, and that we
may revert to the preceding Minute of the 21st of
August, 1832. But, however sanguine may be his
temperament, his hopes of a speedy improvement will
sink to zero, when he reflects that the representative
for Halifax presides over the Exchequer, daily
developing the fruits that spring from a union
of the crassest perversity with incapacity the most
profound.

His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge is ex-
pected to arrive in town from Dublin early in the ensuing
month to take leave of his Royal mother and sister on their
departure for the Continent, and to participate in the Royal
hospitalities at Buckingham Palace.

THE CORK ELECTION.—Mr. Sergeant Murphy was
on Wednesday returned, without opposition, for the city of
Cork, in room of Mr. W. Fagan. lie was proposed by Mr.
F. B. Beamish, and seconded by Mr. James Roche, J.P. The
learned sergeant, when be appeared as a candidate at a
previoas election, had not made up his mind on the question
of Protection, but in his addseas on the present occasion
he declared himself a supporter of Free-trade. Under those
circumstances, his return for the important commercial city
of Cork is a fact of considerable importance.

THE LATE LORD LANGDALE.—YesterdayDaming,
at half-past 10, the mortal remains of this Noble and Learned
Lord were interred in the vault of the Temple Church. The
funeral arrangements were conducted in as private a manner
as possible, at the desire of the deceased. The body was
brought from his Lordship's country seat at Roehampton, and
was followed by two mourning coaches, without any private
carriages. The Noble Lord was deeply respected in the
vicinity of his residence, and most of the tradesmen closed
their sbops, and the church bells of Roehampton, Barnes,
and Putney were tolled as the mournful procession passed.
The principal mourners were the Rev. Henry Beckwith, Sir
Stephen Lushington, Sir George Rose, and Sir David Dun-
das ; but a great number of the members of the bar, of which
his Lordship so recently took a painful farewell, testified
their esteem and regret by being present on the solemn occa-
sion. The coffin (which was covered with marone-coloured
silk velvet) bore the following inscription :—" The Right
Hon. Henry Lord Langdale, late Master of the Rolls. Died
18th April, 1851. Aged 67 years."
FATAL ACCIDENT TO Mg. TOMLIN, THE BARRIS-
TER, OF PAPXR-BVILDINGS.—About 11 o'clock, last night,
this gentleman, after having returned to his chambers from
his club, where he had been dining, unfortunately fell
from a window on the second landing of the stair-case,
and was so much injured, that it was thought
necessary to remove him immediately to the King's
College Hospital, where be expired at quarter-past five
o'clock this morning. What renders this accident extraor-
dinary is, that the deceased gentleman, at the time he fell
from the window, was not in the least intoxicated, as people
might infer.

EMIGRATION PROSPECTS.—Extract from a letter
received from Melbourne, Port Philip, dated Dec. 9, 1850:
" Labour is again getting dear. Whatever are the people
about at home that so few immigrants come out? Good
wages, good food, good prospects for the future, with no fear
of want, are open to all who are the least inclined to work
and can do something; and yet ships come in loaded with
goods, but short of men, women, and children. For want of
hands some of the wool must be got up in the grease, instead
of being washed; and loss is thereby occasioned to all
parties." • • . " Servant girls are still at a premium.
Even the needlewomen have all gone off, though there were
some worthless ones among them. Asa whole, in point of
virtuous character, the Irish orphan girls stand mach higher."