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REPLY

TO A

PAPER in the GAZETTEER

of May 26, 1757*.

T is obferved in the fage Gil Blas, that an ex

IT

afperated author is not eafily pacified. I have, therefore, very little hope of making my peace with the writer of the Eight Days Journey: indeed fo little, that I have long deliberated whether I should not rather fit filently down under his displeasure, than aggravate my misfortune by a defence of which my heart forebodes the ill fuccefs. Deliberation is often ufelefs. I am afraid that I have at laft made the wrong choice; and that I might better have refigned my caufe, without a ftruggle, to time and fortune, fince I fhall run the hazard of a new offence, by the neceffity of asking him why he is angry.

Diftrefs and terror often difcover to us thofe faults with which we fhould never have reproached ourfelves in a happy ftate. Yet, dejected as I am, when I review the tranfaction between me and this writer, I cannot find that I have been deficient in reverence. When his book was first printed, he hints that I procured a fight of it before it was published. How the fight of it was procured I

* From the Literary Magazine, Vol. II. Page 253.

do

do not now very exactly remember; but if my curiofity was greater than my prudence, if I laid rafh hands on the fatal volume, I have furely fuffered like him who burft the box from which evil rushed into the world.

I took it, however, and inspected it as the work of an author not higher than myself; and was confirmed in my opinion, when I found that thefe letters were not written to be printed. I concluded, however, that though not written to be printed, they were printed to be read, and inferted one of them in the collection of November laft. Not many days after I received a note, informing me, that I ought to have waited for a more correct edition. This injunction was obeyed. The edition appeared, and I fuppofed myself at liberty to tell my thoughts upon it, as upon any other book, upon a royal manifefto, or an act of parliament. But see the fate of ignorant temerity! I now find, but find too late, that instead of a writer whose only power is in his pen; I have irritated an important member of an important corporation; a man who, as he tells us in his letters, puts horfes to his chariot.

It was allowed to the difputant of old to yield up the controverfy with little refiftance to the mafter of forty legions. Those who know how weakly naked truth can defend her advocates, would forgive me if I should pay the fame refpect to a Governor of the Foundlings. Yet the consciousness of my own rectitude of intention incites me to afk once again, how I have offended.

There are only three fubjects upon which my unlucky pen has happened to venture. Tea; the

author

author of the Journal; and the Foundling Hofpi tal.

Of Tea what have I faid? That I have drank it twenty years without hurt, and therefore believe it not to be poison: that if it dries the fibres, it cannot foften them; that if it conftringes, it cannot relax. I have modeftly doubted whether it has diminished the ftrength of our men, or the beauty of our women; and whether it much hinders the progrefs of our woollen or iron manufactures; but I allowed it to be a barren fuperfluity, neither medicinal nor nutritious, that neither fupplied strength nor cheerfulness, neither relieved wearinefs, nor exhilarated forrow: I inferted, without charge or fufpicion of falsehood, the fums exported to purchase it; and proposed a law to prohibit it for ever.

Of the author I unfortunately faid, that his injunction was fomewhat too magisterial. This I faid before I knew that he was a Governor of the Foundlings; but he seems inclined to punish this failure of respect, as the czar of Mufcovy made war upon Sweden, because he was not treated with fufficient honours when he paffed through the country in difguife. Yet was not this irreverence without extenuation. Something was faid of the merit of meaning well, and the Journalist was declared to be a man whofe failings might well be pardoned for his virtues. This is the highest praise which human gratitude can confer upon human merit; praife that would have more than fatisfied Titus or Auguftus, but which I muft own to be inadequate and penurious, when offered to the member of an important corporation.

I am afked whether I meant to fatirize the man

or criticise the writer, when I say that he believes, only perhaps because he has inclination to believe it, that the English and Dutch confume more Tea than the vast empire of China? Between the writer and the man I did not at that time confider the diftinction. The writer I found not of more than mortal might, and I did not immediately recollect that the man put horses to his chariot. But I did not write wholly without confideration. I knew but two causes of belief, evidence and inclination. What evidence the Journalist could have of the Chinefe confumption of Tea, I was not able to discover. The officers of the Eaft-India Company are excluded, they best know why, from the towns and the country of China; they are treated as we treat gypfies and vagrants, and obliged to retire every night to their own hovel. What intelligence fuch travellers may bring is of no great importance. And though the miffionaries boast of having once penetrated further, I think they have never calculated the Tea drank by the Chinese. There being thus no evidence for his opinion, to what could I afcribe it but to inclination?

I am yet charged more heavily for having faid, that he has no intention to find any thing right at home. I believe every reader restrained this imputation to the subject which produced it, and fuppofed me to infinuate only that he meant to fpare no part of the Tea table, whether effence or circumftance. But this line he has felected as an inftance of virulence and acrimony, and confutes it by a lofty and fplendid panegyrick on himself. He afferts, that he finds many things right at home, and that he loves his country almoft to enthufiafin.

I had

I had not the leaft doubt that he found in his country many things to please him; nor did I fuppofe that he defired the fame inverfion of every part of life, as of the ufe of Tea. The propofal of drinking Tea four fhewed indeed fuch a difpofition to practical paradoxes, that there was reafon to fear left fome fucceeding letter fhould recommend the drefs of the Picts, or the cookery of the Eskimaux. However, I met with no other innovations, and therefore was willing to hope that he found fomething right at home.

But his love of his country feemed not to rife quite to enthusiasm, when, amidft his rage against Tea, he made a fmooth apology for the Eaft India Company, as men who might not think themfelves obliged to be political arithmeticians. I hold, though no enthufiaftick patriot, that every man who lives and trades under the protection of a community, is obliged to confider whether he hurts or benefits thofe who protect him; and that the moft which can be indulged to private interest is a neutral traffick, if any fuch can be, by which our country is not injured, though it may not be benefited.

But he now renews his declamation against Tea, notwithstanding the greatness or power of those that have intereft or inclination to fupport it. I know not of what power or greatnefs he may dream. The importers only have an intereft in defending it. I am fure they are not great, and I hope they are not powerful. Those whofe inclination leads them to continue this practice, are too numerous, but I believe their power is fuch, as the Journalist may defy without enthusiasm. The love of our country, when it

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