Of all non-alcoholic beverages, Tea claims the pre-eminence, being drank by nearly, if not quite, half the population of the world, and common alike to all climes and all nations. In China it is the national beverage, and it is used not only as an ordinary drink, but it is the chief factor in visits of ceremony, and in hospitality. Japan, too, is a large consumer, and its houses of entertainment are “Tea” houses. In the wilds of Thibet its use is universal, and so it is on the steppes of Tartary, where, however, it is made as nauseous and repulsive a drink as possible. In Russia, it is the traveller’s comfort, and every post house is bound by law to have its _samovar_ hot and boiling, ready for the wayfarer. In Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania, the “billy” of tea is familiar, and forms the only drink of the shepherd, the stockman, and the digger. All the British colonies and possessions are devotees to the “cup which cheers, but not inebriates.” Great Britain herself is a great tea drinker, whether it be the “five o’clock tea,” which has developed into a cult, with vestments peculiar thereto; the poor seamstress, stitching for hard life, who takes it to keep herself awake for her task; or the labourer, who takes his tin bottle with him to the field. In fact, go where you will, in every civilized portion of the world (except Greece, where the consumption is merely nominal), and you will find drinkers of tea. Great Britain is the centre of the tea trade of the world, and in 1889 she imported a total quantity of 222,147,661 lbs., the declared value of which was £9,987,967. Of this she took for her own consumption, and paid duty thereon, 185,628,491 lbs, which, at 6_d._ per lb. duty, produced a revenue of £4,640,704. Wisely or not, Mr. Goschen, in the Budget for 1890, reduced the duty to 4_d._ per lb. In spite of this enormous quantity of tea drank in Great Britain, she does not rank as the largest consumer per head, which, leaving out China, Japan, Thibet, and Tartary, where statistics are unknown, is as follows:—[121] Australian Colonies, New Zealand, Tasmania, Great Britain, Newfoundland, Canada, Bermuda, United States, Holland, Cape Colony, Natal, Russia, Denmark, Uruguay, Argentine Republic, B. Honduras, Barbadoes, Trinidad, Antigua, British Guiana, Persia, Portugal, Bahamas, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, Grenada, Morocco, St. Vincent, Jamaica, Belgium, Sweden, France, Roumania, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Spain, Turkey (no returns), Italy (ditto), Greece (nominal), Mauritius, 1888, 106,589 lbs. Sierra Leone, 1888, 6,008 lbs.