that of all other countries, 1s. 3d. (or three times the entire cost of it in New York.) This makes every lb. of coffee consumed cost 30 cents more in consequence of monopoly. There are 25,000,000 lbs. consumed annually in the three kingdoms, but as most of it is brought from the colonies, upon which the duty is only 6d. per lb., the reve nue receives less than a million sterling. It follows, therefore, that the consumer is compelled to pay as high a tax to the colonial monopolists, as he pays to the government for a duty.

TEA. The revenue derived from this article in 1840, was £3,473,963, or about seventeen million dollars. The heaviest duties have for a long time been imposed upon tea. Under the reign of the East India monopoly, "the duty, was in fact, about 200 per cent. ad valorem," or three times as much as the original cost. The ad valorem duties in 1834, and at present the duties are charged as follows:

"If we compare the duties with the prices at New York and Hamburg, they will be found to be exceedingly heavy," (M'Culloch.) "The price of bohea in the New York market," says the American edition of M'Culloch, "in 1834, was

from 13, to 16 cents per lb," or less than half the duty in England. "To impose such a duty on an article, fitted to enter largely into the consumption of the lower classes, seems to be in the last degree oppressive and absurd." (M'Culloch.) We are not left to speculate on the effect of such extravagant duties in raising the price, and consequently diminishing the consumption, of these articles among the lower classes,—the report furnishes us with facts.

"The company, by reducing the price of tea from about 2s. 6d. to 1s. 10 d. per lb., (which was of course accompanied by a corresponding reduction of duty,) increased the consumption from 1, 873,881 lbs. in 1822-23, to 6,474,838 lbs. in 1831 -32. Here we have consumption more than trebled by a fall of about 1s. 3d. per lb. And we have not the slightest doubt, that a further fall of 1s. 3d. would by bringing the article fairly within the command of a vastly greater number of consumers, extend the demand for it in a much greater degree." (Report.) M'Culloch also has one remark on this subject worthy of special notice: "We may also add that nothing would do so much to weaken the pernicious habit of gin-drinking, as a fall in the price of tea, coffee, &c." The committee spoken of, feeling that facts on this point were desirable, examined the keepers of five principal coffee-houses in London. There were only, they state, a dozen of these houses in London twenty-five years ago—

their present number is nearly 2000, and increasing at the rate of 100 a year. The price varies at these houses from 1d. to 3d. a cup for coffee; and one of these keepers who charges 1d. stated to the committee, that he had from 1,500 to 1,800 persons daily at his house. The following is the evidence of Mr. Lechford: "Does a man come and obtain breakfast? Yes; he comes in the morning at four o'clock, and has a cup of coffee, a thin slice of bread and butter, and for that he pays 1d; and then again at eight, for his breakfast, he has a cup of coffee, a penny loaf and a penny worth of butter, which is 3d. and at dinner time instead of going to a public-house, at one o'clock he comes in again. Would a reduction in the duties on coffee and sugar be a great and important advantage to the classes of society that resort to your house? Most material. And that too in a moral point of view, as well as with regard to their pecuniary means? Most decidedly. Then those societies which formerly met in public-houses, are now gradually resorting to coffee-houses? They are, particularly at the east end of the town; I believe that not one-third of my customers ever go into a public house at all. These witnesses complain bitterly of the pressure of the present high prices of coffee and sugar on their trade; and say that if they continue, they will be compelled to raise the price of coffee; and thus take a step which will have a very bad effect in checking the habit of drinking coffee in preference to beer and

could, after paying all the expense of transportation, deliver all kinds of American meat in London at less than one-half its average price there for the last twenty years, if it were not for the heavy duties it is compelled to pay. If this be so, the tax paid by the British people, in consequence of the duty upon meat, is far greater than Dr. Bowring's highest estimate. The Edinburgh Review says that not less than a fourth part of every man's expenditure on these articles that are protected, is paid to uphold the monopolists, besides that portion which goes to the revenue.

CORN LAWS.-I have so fully entered into the statistics of the Corn Laws in my former work, (see Glory and Shame of England, 2d. vol. p. 230,) and as I shall also have occasion to refer again to the subject in the Fourth Book of these volumes, that I will here only give the result of these calculations. Those who are informed on this subject, as every person should be before he is qualified to give an intelligent opinion, will not charge me with extravagance, carelessness, or error, when I make the assertion, that the average price of wheat and all other grains in Great Britain, for the last thirty years, has been double the price in the American and continental markets during the same period. This statement can be abundantly substantiated, by referring to M'Culloch's Statistics—Parliamentary Reports, containing the returns of the

Corn Receivers-the Statistics of Mr. J. R. Porter, Mr. J. M'Gregor, Mr. J. D. Hume, and Dr. Bowring, than whom no men in the world have paid more attention to the subject, or had better facilities for arriving at the truth. These same authorities estimate that 12s. per quarter will pay all the average expense of transporting grain from the American and continental markets to London. We have then the following result from these calculations.

Average Price of Wheat per quarter, in
London for 30 years, up to 1842

64s.

Average Price of the 15 largest Corn Mar

kets in Europe and America for the
same time

32s.

32s.

Deduct Expense of Transportation 12s.

Extra Price per Quarter by Corn Law Tax 20s.

This Tax on 30 million Quarters of Wheat £30,000,000.

This vast sum of $150,000,000 is paid by 27,000,000 of people, every year, to 30,000 land owners! As we have already remarked, this is only the tax upon wheat. The number of quarters of barley, oats, rye, peas, beans, &c. consumed, is as great as that of wheat, and estimated at half the value. The Corn Laws apply to all kinds of grain, and have raised the price of all in the same proportion. It follows, therefore, that the tax upon them is half as great as that upon wheat, (viz.) £15,000,000 or $75,000,000. There are many other of the necessaries of life subjected