the benefits they derive from their connexion with this country, to wish to renounce that alliance for the equivocal advantage of admission to the American Federacy. In tonnage and seamen, the trade of the British North American provinces is said to employ, at present, about one-fifth of the whole foreign trade of this country.

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We regret to find Professor M'Culloch countenancing the extravagant misrepresentations and malignant clamours that have been circulated respecting Sierra Leone. The prodigality of the expenditure occasioned by this colony, he asserts to be 'unmatched, except by its uselessness.' Commercially considered, it appears to quite as little advantage, he says, as in other points of view; and if an establishment be really required for the advantageous prosecution of the trade to Western Africa, it is abundantly obvious, that it should be placed much further to 'the south than Sierra Leone.' We take leave to say that this is the reverse of obvious. Captain Beaver, no friend to the colony, admitted, that if commerce were one of the principal objects of the Company, they had chosen a tolerably good situation, with an excellent harbour,'*-the only good one, in fact, between Gibraltar and the Gold Coast. And if this station has not had the effect of destroying the slave-trade carried on with the countries round the bights of Biafra and Benin, it has extinguished it from the Rio Nunez to the Shebar inclusive. Nor does its insalubrity, which has been grossly exaggerated, by any means entitle it to be styled the most pestiferous of all pes'tiferous places.' The climate of Guinea, of the island of Fernando Po, respecting which such delusive accounts were circulated, and of Mozambique, is still more destructive. Nay, the Havannah, and the Dutch East India islands, exhibit a greater mortality. Even the Quarterly Reviewers now admit the declamations against Sierra Leone, which their own Journal was chiefly instrumental in instigating, to be misplaced and absurd.' 'There can be no question," they say, ' that, as a colony, it is not 'worth retaining; but where, within the necessary limits, is a 'healthy spot to be found, where the objects which the treaties have in view can be fairly accomplished?' We do not concede that, even as a colony, it might not be made worth all that it costs us; but the project of looking out for a more advantageous situation further south, has been sufficiently exposed as founded on ignorance and illusion.

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In all that Professor M'Culloch says as to the inefficiency of

*African Memoranda, p. 307.

+ Quart. Rev. No. LXXXIV. p. 525. The whole sum expended upon Sierra Leone at present, is stated to be ridiculously small, compared with the statements which have been put forth.'

the mixed commission courts,-the absurdity of bribing Spain and Portugal to relinquish the slave-trade, the evil effects inevitably resulting to the colony from the annual importations of uncivilized negroes,-and the propriety of employing instructed blacks to fill up the official stations, -we completely concur. The colony has been grievously injured by the want of any systematic plan for its government, by jobbing and mismanagement; it has had, in short, every thing against it. But, under a judicious and effective administration, it might be rendered of the highest advantage to Africa, and of far greater use to the commerce of this country. By the way, from his manner of referring to Sierra Leone at p. 340, it is evident that our Author is not aware, that both the Portuguese and the French had formed settlements on the river, before us; and that Golberry, the French traveller, had spoken of the bay as one of the most delightful sites in the world.

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Upon the subject of our West India colonies, Professor M'Culloch discovers considerable embarrassment. For the present depression of the trade, it is perhaps impossible,' he remarks, to point out any means of effectual relief:-their only rational and substantial ground of hope seems to be in a further reduction of 'the duties on sugar, coffee, and rum.' We are sorry to find him countenancing for a moment the revival of the slave-trade under the pretence of transporting slaves from one British colony to another. The old islands would, like Virginia, if that were allowed, be converted into breeding-grounds. We are surprised, too, that he should represent the black population of Jamaica as having ' increased more than five times as rapidly as the whites;' which conveys the idea of a natural increase. In 1673, Jamaica contained 7,768 whites and 9,504 slaves. It would have been well 'for the island,' he remarks, had the races continued to preserve 'this relation to each other; but unfortunately,-the whites have increased from 7,768 to about 30,000, while the blacks have increased from 9,504 to 322,421, exclusive of persons of colour. Professor M'Culloch does not state how large a number of blacks were imported into the island during that period; he does not state, that, prior to the abolition of the slave-trade, Jamaica lost annually 7000 individuals or 2 per cent. on the slave population; nor that the total black population at this moment does not amount to one half the number imported into the island; so that, instead of any increase upon the black population, there has been a decrease of 435,000 upon 850,000 imported ! * All this he does not tell us; but he affirms, that it is the immense (numerical) preponderance of the slave population, that renders the

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* See Eclect. Rev. 3d Series, Vol. IV. p. 23. Between 1700 and 1808, Jamaica alone received from Africa, nearly 677,000 negroes.

VOL. VIII.-N.S.

BB

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' question of emancipation so very difficult.' How this contributes to the difficulty, is not explained. If any danger arising from their emancipation to the whites is referred to, nothing can be more fallacious. They have the same physical power as slaves, which they would possess as freemen; they would still be under the same political restraints that now retain them in subjection; all experience proves that slaves are more dangerous to a state, than free labourers; and their numbers, by rendering their labour less valuable, would keep them the more dependent upon their employers. It is only as slaves that their numbers can be formidable.

We have felt it to be our duty to point out these flaws in Professor M'Culloch's truly valuable work; flaws which we hope to see disappear in a new edition. They detract little from its substantial merit and usefulness, nor will they, we apprehend, diminish in the slightest degree its popularity. In fact, in certain quarters, it will only be the more acceptable for the opinions we have ventured to controvert, and the omissions to which we have referred. It would have been easy to extend this paper almost indefinitely by extracts from many entertaining articles; and among other important subjects, that of the East India trade would furnish abundant matter for comment. But our limits forbid, and we can only make room for one more extract, taken from a very long and curious article upon Tea.

The tea shrub may be described as a very hardy evergreen, growing readily in the open air, from the equator to the 45th degree of latitude. For the last 60 years, it has been reared in this country, without difficulty, in greenhouses; and thriving plants of it are to be seen in the gardens of Java, Singapore, Malacca, and Penang; all within 6 degrees of the equator. The climate most congenial to it, however, seems to be that between the 25th and 33d degrees of latitude, judging from the success of its cultivation in China. For the general purposes of commerce, the growth of good tea is confined to China; and is there restricted to five provinces, or rather parts of provinces, viz. Fokien and Canton, but more particularly the first, for black tea; and Kiang-nan, Kiang-si, and Che-kiang, but chiefly the first of these, for green. The tea districts all lie between the latitudes just mentioned, and the 115th and 122nd degrees of East longitude. However, almost every province of China produces more or less tea, but generally of an inferior quality, and for local consumption only; or when of a superior quality, like some of the fine wines of France, losing its flavour when exported. The plant is also extensively cultivated in Japan, Tonquin, and Cochin-China; and in some of the mountainous parts of Ava; the people of which country use it largely as a kind of pickle preserved in oil!

Botanically considered, the tea tree is a single species; the green and black, with all the diversities of each, being mere varieties, like the varieties of the grape, produced by difference of climate, soil, lo

cality, age of the crop when taken, and modes of preparation for the market. Considered as an object of agricultural produce, the tea plant bears a close resemblance to the vine. In the husbandry of China, it may be said to take the same place which the vine occupies in the southern countries of Europe. Like the latter, its growth is chiefly confined to hilly tracts, not suited to the growth of corn. The soils capable of producing the finest kinds are within given districts, limited, and partial. Skill and care, both in husbandry and preparation, are quite as necessary to the production of good tea, as to that of good

wine.

The best wine is produced only in particular latitudes, as is the best tea; although, perhaps, the latter is not restricted to an equal degree. Only the most civilised nations of Europe have as yet succeeded in producing good wines; which is also the case in the East with tea; for the agricultural and manufacturing skill and industry of the Chinese are there unquestionably pre-eminent. These circumstances deserve to be attended to, in estimating the difficulties which must be encountered in any attempt to propagate the tea plant in colonial or other possessions. These difficulties are obviously very great; and, perhaps, all but insuperable. Most of the attempts hitherto made to raise it in foreign countries were not, indeed, of a sort from which much was to be expected. Within the last few years, however, considerable efforts have been made by the Dutch government of Java, to produce tea on the hills of that island; and having the assistance of Chinese cultivators from Fokien, who form a considerable part of the emigrants to Java, a degree of success has attended them, beyond what might have been expected in so warm a climate. The Brazilians have. made similar efforts; having also, with the assistance of Chinese labourers, attempted to propagate the tea shrub near Rio de Janeiro; and a small quantity of tolerably good tea has been produced. But owing to the high price of labour in America, and the quantity required in the cultivation and manipulation of tea, there is no probability, even were the soil suitable to the plant, that its culture can be profitably carried on in that country.

It might probably be successfully attempted in Hindostan, where labour is comparatively cheap, and where the hilly and table lands bear a close resemblance to those of the tea districts of China; but we are not sanguine in our expectations as to the result.

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Species of Tea.-Manner in which they are manufactured.-The black teas usually exported by Europeans from Canton are as follows, beginning with the lowest qualities:-Bohea, Congou, Souchong, and Pekoe. The green teas are Twankay, Hyson-skin, young Hyson, Hyson, Imperial, and Gunpowder. All the black teas exported (with the exception of a part of the bohea, grown in Woping, a district of Canton,) are grown in Fokien, a hilly, maritime, populous, and industrious province, bordering to the north-east on Canton. Owing to the peculiar nature of the Chinese laws as to inheritance, and probably, also, in some degree to the despotic genius of the government, landed property is much subdivided throughout the empire; so that tea is generally grown in gardens or plantations of no great extent. The plant comes to maturity and yields a crop in from 2 to 3 years. The leaves are

.picked by the cultivator's family, and immediately conveyed to market; where a class of persons, who make it their particular business, purchase and collect them in quantities, and manufacture them in part ; that is, expose them to be dried under a shed. A second class of persons, commonly known in the Canton market as "the tea merchants," repair to the districts where the tea is produced, and purchase it in its half prepared state from the first class, and complete the manufacture by garbling the different qualities; in which operation, women and children are chiefly employed. A final drying is then given, and the tea packed in chests, and divided, according to quality, into parcels of from 100 to 600 chests each. These parcels are stamped with the name of the district, grower, or manufacturer, exactly as is practised with the wines of Bourdeaux and Burgundy, the indigo of Bengal, and many other commodities; and, from this circumstance, get the name of chops, the Chinese term for a seal or signet. Some of the leaf buds of the finest black tea plants are picked early in the spring, before they expand. These constitute pekoe, or black tea of the highest quality; sometimes called "white-blossom tea, from there being intermixed with it, to give it a higher perfume, a few blossoms of a species of olive (olea fragrans), a native of China. A second crop is taken from the same plants in the beginning of May, a third about the middle of June, and a fourth in August; which last, consisting of large and old leaves, is of very inferior flavour and value. The younger the leaf, the more high flavoured, and consequently the more valuable, is the tea. With some of the congous and souchongs are occasionally mixed a little pekoe, to enhance their flavour; and hence the distinction, among the London tea dealers, of these sorts of tea, into the ordinary kinds and those of "Pekoe flavour". Bohea, or the lowest black tea, is partly composed of the lower grades; that is, of the fourth crop of the teas of Fokien, left unsold in the market of Canton after the season of exportation has passed; and partly of the teas of the district of Woping in Canton. The green teas are grown and selected in the same manner as the black, to which the description now given more particularly refers; and the different qualities arise from the same causes. The gunpowder here stands in the place of the pekoe; being composed of the unopened buds of the spring crop. Imperial, hyson, and young hyson consist of the second and third crops. The light and inferior leaves, separated from the hyson by a winnowing machine, constitute hyson-skin, an article in considerable demand amongst the Americans. The process of drying the green teas differs from that of the black; the first being dried in iron pots or vases over a fire, the operator continually stirring the leaves with his naked hand. The operation is one of considerable nicety, particularly with the finer teas; and is performed by persons who make it their exclusive business.

The late rise and present magnitude of the British tea trade are among the most extraordinary phenomena in the history of commerce. Tea was wholly unknown to the Greeks and Romans, and even to our ancestors previously to the end of the 16th or the beginning of the 17th century. It seems to have been originally imported in small quantities by the Dutch; but was hardly known in this country till after 1650. In 1660, however, it began to be used in coffee-houses;