Since the prohibition of the admixture of chicory with coffee, when sold to the public, and the compulsory sale by Treasury minute of the two articles in separate packages, a large and rapid increase in the consumption of coffee has taken place, and the trade is now placed in a healthy position. Whilst the increase in the consumption of coffee from the 1st of January, to 5th September, 1852, was but 142,267 lbs. as compared with the same period of 1851; the increase in the remaining four months of the year was to the amazing extent of 2,350,368 lbs. This increased consumption is likely to continue, and our colonial possessions are furnishing us with larger proportionate supplies, as may be seen by the following figures:-- TOTAL IMPORTS OF COFFEE IN 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 Produce of lbs. lbs. lbs. lbs. lbs. British Possessions 35,970,507 40,339,245 36,814,036 35,972,163 42,519,297 Ditto foreign countries 21,082,943 22,976,542 13,989,116 17,138,497 11,857,957 ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- Total 57,053,450 63,315,787 50,803,152 53,110,660 54,377,254 In the year 1832 chicory was first imported into England, subject to a duty equivalent to that levied upon colonial coffee, and permitted to be sold by grocers _separately_ as chicory; but notices were at the same time issued, that the legal penalties would be rigidly enforced, if discovered mixed with coffee. In 1840, in consequence of memorials from the grocers and dealers in chicory, and also from the circumstance of exceedingly high rates then ruling for coffee, together with the disruption of our commercial relations with China, simultaneously advancing the price of tea (thus rendering both these popular beverages excessively dear to the consumer), an order was issued from the Treasury to the Excise Board, authorizing the admixture of chicory with coffee; a duty, however, being still maintained on the former of £20 per ton on the kiln-dried, and 6d. per lb. on the powdered root, when imported from abroad. In the year 1845, the cultivation of chicory was introduced upon British soil, and, being a home-grown commodity, was exempt from duty, but nevertheless, by virtue of the said Treasury Order, was permitted to enter into competition with a staple production of our own colonies, contributing on its import a tax of 60 to 80 per cent. to the revenue of the State. The result, as might have been foreseen, necessarily created and stimulated a demoralizing system of fraud, unjust and destructive to the interests of the coffee planter, and prejudicial to the national revenue. The effects of so baneful a system being equally manifest upon both consumption and revenue, they are here separately illustrated.