obtain a cup of good tea at a somewhat lower price than the King and John Company had willed. No dealer could send out six pounds of tea without a permit. Excisemen were issuing permits and examining permits all over the kingdom. But six hundred per cent. profit was too much for the weakness of human nature and the power of the exciseman. From the peace, to the opening of the China tea-trade in 1833, and the repeal of the excise duty in 1834, there was a considerable increase in the consumption of tea, but not an increase at all comparable to the increase since 1834. We consumed ten million pounds more tea in 1833 than in 1816, a period of sixteen years; we consumed in 1848, a period of fifteen years, seventeen million pounds more than in 1833. In 1848 we retained for home consumption, 48,735,791 pounds. It is this present period of large consumption which forms the fifth epoch. The present duty on tea is 2_s._ 2¼_d._ a pound. The experienced housewife knows where to buy excellent tea at 4_s._ a pound. But there are shops in London where tea may be bought at 3_s._, and 3_s._ 4_d._ a pound. Such low priced teas are used more freely than ever by the hard-working poor. The duty is now unvarying, but enormously high. It is unnecessary to assume that the cheap teas are now adulterated teas. In the London Price Currents of the present May, there are several sorts of tea as low as 8_d._ per pound, wholesale without duty. The finer teas vary from 1_s._ to 2_s._ In 1833, previous to the opening of the China trade, the price of Congou tea in the Company’s warehouses ranged from 2_s._ to 3_s._ per pound; in 1850 the lowest current price was 9_d._, the highest 1_s._ 4_d._ In 1833, the Company’s price of Hyson tea varied from 3_s._ to 5_s._ 6_d._; in 1850, the lowest current price was 1_s._ 2_d._, the highest 3_s._ 4_d._