The Sun.
London, England, 1834-11-04 00:00:00

THE TEA TRADE

ARRIVALS ANDTCH DEPARTURES AT THE
SCO WHARFS.
Nov. 3, 6 P. m.—Though several additional losses and disas•
ters at sea continue to be received through various channels,
the ravages of the late storm are now, it is to be hoped, nearly
fully ascertained. We formerly mentioned that the smack
Eagle of Peterhead, Captain Stewart, the property of
been
the
Peterhead and London new Shipping Company, had
driven on shore whilst on her passage from London to Peter-
head with a valuable cargo of merchandise, near Bridlington
Quay, during the late very tempestuous weather, and that on
the casualty being made known in the metropolis, C. R. Col-
man, Esq. the active agent at Downe's Wharf, had proceeded
to Bridlington by the mail, there personally to superintend,
and to give his best advice and attention in the emergency of
the case. Mr. Colman, on his arrival at Bridlington, on
on Wednesday night, found the Eagle on shore, embedded in
about three feet of sand and clay, and the gale raging with
unabated violence from N.N. W. The preservation of the
smack being dependant on being early floated off, excavations
were made with all practicable speed, when, contrary to ex-.
pectation, it was discovered that the principal damage the
Eagle had sustained was a plank near the heel, which was
broken. It was immediately repaired, and on they urn of tide
a steam-towing-vessel (a class now in general use, which had
been employed in taking a dismasted brig into Sunderland,
was engaged by Mr. Colman to bring the Eagle from her un-
seemly resting place. In this the steam-tug succeeded, and
towed the Eagle into the harbour. The cargo, valued at up-
wards of 2,0001., and nearly all uninsured, had been previously
landed with very little damage, and has since been shipped on
board the ship London, Captain R. Martin, for its destina-
tion. The Eagle's repairs not being extensive, she was ex-
pected to be able to proceed to Peterhead yssterdaY or to-day.
The report of a Berwick smack having been ashore on the
gun-fleet, on the 29th ultimo, supposed to have been down-
ward bound, is happily destitute of truth.
HORE'S WHARF, Nov. 3.—Arrived at four p.m. the Dun-
dee, Perth, and London Shipping Company's fine with an
Sovereign, Captain William Simmers, from Dundee, wi
extensive cargo of merchandize, principally consisting of ma-
nufactured linens in bales, for mercantile houses in the City.
No sailings.—Advice— The Arbroath and London Shipping
Company's smack Defiance, Captain James Mill, sailed from
Arbroath, for London, on Thursday the 30th ultimo.
DOWNE'S WHARF, Nov. 3.—No arrivals or departures, and
no advices.
CARRON WHARF, Nov. 3. Arrived at 2 aan• the schooner
Totness, Captain John Bence, from Exmouth, with a general
cargo.—No sailings or advices.
MILLER'S WHARF, NOV. 3.—Arrived at 3 p.m. the Edin-
burgh and London Shipping Company's smack Favourite,
Captain James Dickson, from Leith, with an extensive cargo,
principally consisting of whisky and Edinburgh ales.—No
sailings. Advices—The Aberdeen and London Shipping
Company's smack Regent, Captain Leslie Lawson, arrived at
Aberdeen on the Ist instant. The Edinburgh and London
Shipping Company's smacks Pilot, Captain George Howie,
and the Earl of Hopetoun, Captain David Miller, were in
Bridlington Bay, on the 26th ultimo, all well.
LEITII AND GLASGOW WHARF, Nov. 3.—Arrived at 3 p.m.
the steam-ship Royal Adelaide, Commander James Mill, from
Leith, with a considerable number of passengers and a most
extensive cargo, which included 112 puncheons of whisky and
a great quantity of celebrated Edinburgh ales. West of
Scotland manufactured goods formed no inconsiderable part
of her cargo. This excellent steam-ship sailed from Leith on
Saturday, about half-past 2 p.m., thus having made the pas-
sage, in rather disadvantageous weather, in 48i hours.—No
sailings or advices.
LEITH AND BERWICK WHARF, Nov. 3.---No arrivals or de•
partures, and no advices.
red I

Mr. Culling Charles Smith arrived at the residence
of the Marquis of Worcester, in Park-place, on Saturday, from
a tour.
NEW VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY.—We are requested
to state that the " Narrative of the Voyage of his Majesty's
ship Chanticleer, made in the years 1829, 30, and 31, under
the Command of the late Captain Henry Foster, R. N. F. R. 5.,"
and undertaken by order of the British Government, will be
published on Saturday next, the Bth inst., by Mr. Bentley,
New Burlington-street, Publisher in Ordinary to his Majesty.
Mr. Daniel O'Connell has published in an Irish
paper a most shuffling denial of the charge which we brought
against him respecting O'Gorman Mahon. We shall not
condescend to notice this new instance of O'Connell's brazen
indifference to truth, further than to declare that his denial
is a falsehood, and that he in his heart well knows it to be
stwh.— Observer.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF THE COURIER,
UPON THE SUBJECT OF THE TEA DUTIES.
By JOHN TRAVERS.

Second Edition, with Additions. Wilson, Royal Exchange.
When an end was put to the East India Company's
monopoly of the trade with China, it followed as a ne-
cessary consequence, that an alteration shouldbe made
in the mode of levying the duty on tea. Under the
old system the tea was sold by public auction, and the
duty, being ad valorem, was levied without any diffi-
culty, and without reference to the name or distinction
affixed to the articles sold, by which it was in no way
affected. It was regulated entirely by the price ob-
tained at the sale, to which price it always bore an
exact proportion, or rather stood in the relation of per-
fact equality, for whatever the price was, such, to a
farthing, was the duty. So arbitrary and indefinite,
indeed, were these names and distinctions, and so little
regarded as indications of quality, that it was by no
means uncommon for the inferior denomination to ex-
ceed the superior in price ; Bohea, for instance, often
selling dearer, and consequently paying a higher duty,
than Congou, and Congou than Souchong. This is a
fact which it is material to keep in view, for it is to
the disregard of it, that we may attribute the blundering
legislation which has produced the war now raging
between the Government and the tea trade, and which,
if a timely remedy be not applied, is likely, we fear, to
produce consequences of a much more serious nature.
With a system of free trade (there being no means
of ascertaining prices) the mode of taxation which we
have described, and which was well adapted to a mo-
nopoly, was manifestly incompatible. It was equally
manifest that a substitute was to be found only in one
or other of the two following plans. Either the same
duty must be raid on all descriptions of tea, or a dif-
ferent duty on different descriptions. The former is
designated, in the tea controversy, the fixed duty, the
latter the scale of duties. Which of these plans is the
best ? This was the question which the Government
had to decide ; and when the extent to which it in-
volves the interests of the revenue and the comforts of
the public is considered, we shall not be accused of
exaggotating its importance, when we say that they
ought not to have decided it without resorting to every
accessible source of information, for the guidance of
their judgment. So far from following this course,
dictated alike by the magnitude of the interests at
stake, and their own want of experience, they seem to
have entertained a morbid apprehension, lest any glim-
mering of practical light should break in to disturb
their theoretic dreams. They eschewed, most scrupu-
lously, all communication with the tea trade; brought a
bill into the House of Commons without giving them
notice of their intention; and passed the bill through the
House in the space of five days; thus setting an exam-
ple of fair dealing to the trade, by commencing their
new system with a smuggling transaction. And after
all, the provisions of the Act, instead of being in ac-
cordance with the principle of taxation avowed by its
promoters, and advocated by their partizans, are totally
irreconcileable with that principle.
The manufacturer of the Bill, finding, no doubt,
when he came to work up his materials, that they were
rather untractable, set about hatching a new scheme,
and by one of those efforts of sagacity which mark a
first-rate genius, struck out a plan of his own, which
will procure him a passport to fame, if not a statue in
Leaden Hall, or a diploma from the Board of Trade.
Embarrassed, as well he might be, with the onerous
task assigned him of apportioning the duty to the mul-
titudinous and undistinguishable grades, scents, fla-
vors, and denominations of tea, he attempted to jump
over the difficulty, by dividing all teas into three
classes with a different duty on each ; overlooking the
unimportant considerations that his classes were as un-
distinguishable as the subordinate varieties of which
they were composed, and that until he had drawn a
marked and palpable line of distinction between them,
he was, to all practical intents and purposes, as far as
ever from his point. He was, in truth, farther than
ever from his point, for by an enviable happiness of
ingenuity, he contrived to miss all the advantages,
and to combine all the disadvantages, both of the fixed
duty and the scale of duties. Some suspicion of this
result seems to have found its way into the mind of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer. The noble Lord ap-
pears to have had some misgivings as to the working
of this newly-invented machinery ; for in the course of
a few months after the passing of the Act, he moved in
the House of Commons for a select committee to
enquire into 'the expediency of substituting a fixed
duty on tea instead of the present scale of duties. Now
use no
when it is considered that this motion was a virtual
condemnation of the precipitate haste—to
harsher term—with which the measure was passed,
we cannot sufficiently admire the candour of the noble
Lord. We cannot help thinking, however, that even
his candour, proverbial as it is, would have shrunk from
the trial, had he foreseen the evidence that was to be pro-
duced before the committee. It is impossible to look at that
evidence without being struck with the immense prepon-
derance in favour of the'fixed duty. In fact the whole
of that which can be held of any value is on that side.
In the Government scale there is nothing, or what is
so near to nothing—to abstract and absolute levity—
that it cannot be considered an appreciable quantity.
As the scale-of-duty plan is based entirely on the
assumption that the various kinds of tea are easily dis-
dinguishable from each other, the determination of this
point naturally became an object of main importance
with the committee, the question at issue hinging upon
it. Now let us cast a glance at the evidence. Mr.
Reeves states that the various denominations of tea
run into one another by such imperceptible gradations,
that he cannot distinguish between the contiguous sorts
—that he cannot, for example, draw the line between
the higher degrees of Congou and the lower degrees of
Souchong, nor between the higher degrees of Bohea
and the lower degrees of Congou ;—that so inter-
changeable were these contiguous sorts, that the select
committee at Canton used to christen the same tea
Souchong or Campoi (names now belonging to diffe-
rent classes), just as there happened to be a demand
from home for the one or the other name ; and that
Bohea is for the most part nothing but adulterated
Congou. The evidence of Mr. Hunt and Mr. Good-
hall is equally decisive with that of Mr. Reeves, as to
the impossibility of drawing a practical distinction be-
tween the various grades of tea ; and Mr. Goodhall
thinks that even if it were possible to draw such a dis-
tinction, justice could not be done to the revenue and
to the merchant, with a scale of duties, without turning
the tea out of every chest imported, and examining it
throughout,—a process not very easy in itself, when
applied to half a million of chests, and, we should
think, not much calculated to improve either the ap-
pearance or the flavour of the herb.
But who, it may be asked, are these gentlemen ?
What is the value of their testimony ? Are they spe-
culative or practical men? Mr. Reeves was appren-
ticed to a tea-broker in 1789; appointed inspector of
tea, in London, to the East India Company, in 1808 ;
and, in 1812, promoted to be their Inspector in China,
where he remained till 1831. Mr. Hunt was ap-
pointed to the tea department of the East India Com-
pany in 1804 ; succeeded Mr. Reeves as the London
Inspector in 1812, and continues to hold that office.
Mr. Goodhall has been in the Company's service since
1783, and has been their tea-warehouse-keeper for
the last 12 years.
Now, if skill in practical matters be acquired by

Turn we now to the evidence on the other side.
The witnesses are Messrs. Ellis, Crawfurd (not the
city Member,) Bates, Davies, and Wybrow.
The first two of these gentlemen having never been
in trade, and having only a theoretical acquaintance
with tea (excepting always the knowledge acquired at
the tea-table) are, if not entirely passed_ over, pru-
dently kept in the back-ground by the economists
who advocate a scale of duties. We may, therefore,
safely take it for granted that there is not much
weight in their evidence. That of Mr. Bates we
think important, inasmuch as that gentleman, being
enlisted on the side of the scale-of-duty system, and a
large importer under it, is compelled to acknowledge
that some of the Congous and Boheas are debateable
teas. Mr. B. seems to have a pretty considerable
portion of originality in his views, and if his acuteness
in discriminatiag the different qualities of Tea bear
any portion to his power of discriminating moral
actions, we should, without hesitation, pronounce him
nearly equal to Mr. Wybrow in all the great requisites
for the office of inspector. Mr. B. states that "in
his opinion no individual, who valued his reputation,
would think of attempting any such fraud on the re-
venue as to introduce one kind of Tea for another, but
that," he adds with great naivete, " if the Congou
imported were so like Bohea that it could not be dis-
tinguished from Bohea, he saw no fraud in passing
it as Bohea." This is certainly an exquisite morceau,
whether it is contemplated in reference to logic, to
morals, or to his Majesty's exchequer. The next
witness is Mr. Davies, aci devant militaire, who,
though he has been brought up to no trade, and has
been only five years a retail dealer in a small way, has
acquired so great a superiority over all other men in
distinguishing Teas, that he can, he says, tell the
difference between Congou and Bohea " blindfolded."
This, we imagine, will be deemed, by our readers,
quite sufficient as a sample of Mr. D's evidence ; but we
are tempted to add that he states his decided convic-
tion that he, (the said Davies) is perfectly competent
to discharge the duties of an inspector, should he be
appointed to that office. We cannot, of course, sup-
pose that this witness has an eye to such an appoint-
ment ; but if a discriminating Government should
confer upon him so appropriate a reward, we would
advise him to assume a new title, as " blindfolded
Inspector" sounds something like a contradiction in
terms. He may say, indeed, that no change of title
is called for on that account, for the mighty goddess,
who presides over Inspectors and. their proceedings, is
represented with a bandage over her eyes, though she
is, at the same time, trimming her balance with the
most fastidious scrupulosity—an operation which, one
would suppose, requires (if any does) the exertion of
the visual faculty, the want of which faculty cannot be
supplied by the functions of the nasal or palatal organs,
however splendidly developed.
Last; though not least, comes the redoubtable Mr.
Wybrow, who states that till within the last fifteen
months he had paid no attention to the examination
of Teas, and could hardly distinguish the flavour of one
Tea from that of another. He, however, set to work,
and by dint of grinding and cramming, made such
proficiency in his studies, that he was able to astonish
the Committee. How ?—by his knowledge of Tea ?
No, but by the production of a certificate of qualifi-
cation as an Inspector, V the present law were carried
into Oct. So much for Mr. Wybrow's qualifications ;
a word as to his position.
If a man be asked his opinion concerning the com-
parative merits of two plans ; and if, by the adoption
of No. One, he expect to get a snug comfortable place
for life,—by the adoption of No. Two, nothing; we may,
without imputing to him more than the average rate
of that amour propre by which all men are more or
less influenced, prognosticate pretty accurately how he
will decide. Accordingly, Mr. Wybrow, following
what may be called an instinctive impulse, gives it in
favour of No. One. Mr. W.'s hopes have been rea-
lized ; he has been appointed Inspector, and has made
his debut in his new office with some little eclat. The
first case which occurred for the exercise of his official
perspicacity, was this :—A small parcel of tea was im-
ported from the Continent as Souchong, which Mr.
w. pronounced to be Bohea ; but being enlightened
by the broker, he afterwards declared it was neither
Souchong nor Bohea, but Congou. This was blunder
the first. The next occasion which called forth a
display of Mr. W.'s discriminative faculties, was when
the first importation from the East arrived in London
—an occasion of no small interest to the Tea Trade,
and one that could not fail to put a new Inspector on
his mettle. A quantity of tea was passed by Mr. W.
as Bohea—brought to public sale us such—and there
pronounced by the unanimous voice of tea-dealers- and
tea-brokers (including the broker who was commis-
sioned to sell the article), NOT TO BE TEA AT ALL.
This was blunder the second. Since this memorable
occurrence, a second importation has taken place—
and a second public sale—and spurious stuff passed
by Inspector Wybrow as Bohea, has been a second time
withdrawn, the selling broker again joining in the
verdict of the Tea Trade, THAT IT DID NOT CON-
TAIN A SINGLE LEAF OF TEA. This was blunder
the third, though we fear it will not be the last ; and
now, we think Mr. Wybrow's capabilities are pretty
well disposed of. He must himself, by this time, be
beginning to suspect that although cramming may be
very conducive to the improvement of turkies, there
are other bipeds whose digestive organs it does not