The Professor classes tea as a necessary, but confesses that it is difficult to define whether certain articles in daily use are necessaries or luxuries. Many articles, he points out, such as white bread, tea, sugar, which not long ago were considered luxuries, are now, with the improved condition of the people, regarded as absolute necessaries. He refers, in particular, to the effect of indirect taxes in greatly enhancing the cost of the taxed article to the consumer. "The wholesale import price of tea, for example, may be 1_s._ a pound, and upon this there is 6_d._ duty. But immediately as it passes from the importer to the dealer, and from the dealer to the retailer, the whole price, duty paid, is charged first with ten, and then with thirty per cent. to meet expenses and profits of trade, whereby the retail price is increased probably from 2_s._ to 3_s._ 6_d._ or 4_s._ per lb. This trading, therefore, constitutes so much extra tax, and it is a tax which the working classes pay to the middle and higher classes, through whose hands such articles pass." Whether we shall ever have a free breakfast-table, it is impossible to say; but if the tax on tea were abolished, it is obvious that it would be necessary to impose some other tax, probably even more objectionable. FOOTNOTE: [7] _Hyson_ means before rain, or flourishing spring; therefore it is often called "young Hyson." "Hyson Skin" is composed of the refuse of other kinds, the native term being "tea-skins." Refuse of still coarser descriptions is called "tea-bones." _Bohea_ is the name of the hills in the region where it is gathered. _Pekoe_, or _Poco_, means "white hair," or the down of tender leaves; _Powchong_, "folded plant;" _Souchong_, "small plant." _Twankay_ is the name of a river in the region where it is bought. _Congo_, from a term signifying "labour," for the care required in its preparation.--"_Notes and Queries_," _Third Series_, vi. p. 264. INDEX. Abernethy, Dr., 51. Ackworth School, 13. Aikin, Dr., 12. Alcohol and endurance, 72, 75. Alcohol and genius, 80, 91, 94. Ale, use of, 12, 73, 101. American Health and Temperance Association, 118. Animals, experiments upon, 111, 117. Anti-Corn-Law League, 40, 102. Anti-Teapot Society, 120. Apprentices, 13. Arctic weather, 67. Artists and temperance, 42. Assam tea, 19, 20, 22. _Band of Hope Chronicle_, 39. Banks, Collingwood, 42. Barnett, Miss, 132. Beer-gardens, 10. Beer, use of, 12, 73, 101. Betel, 107. Beverley, Dr., 74. _Blackwood's Magazine_, 102. Blue Ribbon meetings, 35. Blyth, Dr. Wynter, 72. Boswell, 81, 82. Botanical Gardens, 19. Bowles, 84. Bright, John, 13. Brotherton, Joseph, 39. Bryant, William Cullen, 93. Buckle, 66, 93, 119. Burns, 80. Byrom, John, 13. Cakes and tea, 9. Camellia, the, 18. Capel, Hon. Reginald, 60. Carlyle, Dr. Alexander, 8. Carlyon, Dr., 52. Catherine, Princess, 6.