IV.-HANWAY'S EIGHT DAYS' JOURNEY. [From the Monthly Review, 1757. "A Journal of eight Days' Journey from Portsmouth to Kingston-upon-Thames; through Southampton, Wiltshire, &c. With Miscellaneous Thoughts, moral and religious; in sixty-four Letters: addressed to two Ladies of the Partie. To which is added, an Essay on Tea; considered as pernicious to Health, obstructing Industry, and impoverishing the Nation : with an Account of its Growth, and great Consumption in these Kingdoms. With several political Reflections; and Thoughts on Public Love. In thirty-two Letters to two Ladies. By Mr. H**** Edition, corrected and enlarged. (1) 8vo. 2 vols.] The second MR. Hanway, who has already obliged the public with an account of his travels into distant parts of the world,(2) here presents the reader with the result of his travels nearer home. This journal was, perhaps, at first designed for the amusement of his friends, and by their too partial applause he might have been tempted to send it into the world; however, he can lose little reputation though he should not succeed in an attempt of such a nature as this; especially as he has already shewn himself equal to subjects and undertakings that require much greater abilities. Novelty of thought and elegance of expression, are what we chiefly require in treating on topics with which the public are already acquainted: but the art of placing trite materials in new and striking lights, cannot be reckoned among the excellences of this gentleman; who generally enforces his (1) The first edition was printed about a year ago, and presented by the author to his friends only, but not sold. (2) [Jonas Hanway published, in 1753, "An Account of the British Trade over the Caspian Sea, with Travels through Russia, Persia, Germany, and Holland." These travels contain very curious details of the then state of Persia.-Croker's Boswell, vol. i. p. 381.] opinions by arguments rather obvious than new, and that convey more conviction than pleasure to the reader. The description of the places through which this journey of eight days was performed, takes up but a very little part of this performance. The reader will find that, in his present travels, the author's mental are much more frequent than his personal excursions; as, through the whole, he takes every opportunity (and sometimes forces one) to indulge his propensity to moralizing. In this capacity, indeed, he shews great goodness of heart, and an earnest concern for the welfare of his country. However, though his opinions are generally true, and his regard for virtue seems very sincere, yet these alone are not, at this day, sufficient to defend the cause of truth; style, elegance, and all the allurements of good writing, must be called in aid; especially if the age be in reality, as it is represented by this author, averse to every thing that but seems to be serious. In these letters, which may with more propriety be styled essays, or meditations, the author informs the two ladies of his party concerning every thing that happened upon the journey, (though it is supposed they wanted no information in that respect,) and on every occurrence he expatiates, and indulges in reflection. The appearance of an inn on the road suggests to our philosopher an eulogium on temperance; the confusion of a disappointed landlady gives rise to a letter on resentment; and the view of a company of soldiers furnishes out materials for an essay on war. But he seems to reserve his powers till he comes to treat of Tea, against which he inveighs through almost the whole second volume; assuming the physician, philosopher, and politician. To this plant he ascribes the scurvy, weakness of nerves, low spirits, lassitudes, melancholy, "and twenty different disorders, which, in spite of the faculty, have yet no names, except the general one of nervous complaints." Nay, (as the author exclaims) our very nurses drink tea! and, what is more deplorable still, they drink run tea, that costs not above three or four shillings a pound! The ladies spoil their teeth and complexions, and the men have lost their stature and comeliness, by the use of this pernicious drug our time is consumed in drinking it; our morals injured by the luxuries it induces; our fortunes impaired in procuring it; and the balance of trade turned against us by its importation. To remedy these evils, the author, though he allows us to continue the use of our porcelain cups, and our sipping, would substitute in the place of tea, several very harmless herbs of our own growth, such as ground-ivy, penny-royal, horehound, trefoil, sorrel, not forgetting cowslip flowers, whose wine, he tells us, is a powerful soporific; and, truly, if this be the case, the infusion might have some good effects at many a tea-table. "It is the curse of this nation," exclaims our author, "that the labourer and mechanic will ape the lord; and therefore I can discover no way of abolishing the use of tea, unless it be done by the irresistible force of example. It is an epidemical disease; if any seeds of it remain, it will engender an universal infection. To what a height of folly must a nation be arrived, when the common people are not satisfied with wholesome food at home, but must go to the remotest regions to please a vicious palate! There is a certain lane near Richmond, where beggars are often seen, in the summer season, drinking their tea. You may see labourers who are mending the roads drinking their tea; it is even drank in cinder-carts; and, what is not less absurd, sold out in cups to hay-makers. He who should be able to drive three Frenchmen before him, or she who might be a breeder of such a race of men, are to be seen sipping their tea! "Was it the breed of such as these, Were they the sons of tea-sippers who won the fields of Cressy and Agincourt, or dyed the Danube's streams with Gallic blood? What will be the end of such effeminate customs extended to those persons who must get their bread by the labours of the field! "From the pride of imitating their betters, and the habit of drinking this deluding infusion, nurses in general, in this part of the island, contract a passion for this bitter draught, which bears down all the duties of humanity before it! Nor are these alone distempered with this canine appetite for tea; you know it to be almost literally true in many instance; every mistress of a family knows it to be true of their servants in general, especially the females, who demand your submission to this execrable custom; and you submit as if the evil was irremediable; nay, your servants' servants, down to the very beggars, will not be satisfied unless they consume the produce of the remote country of China. They consider it as their Magna Charta, and will die by the sword or famine, rather than not follow the example of their mistresses. What would What would you say, if they should take it into their heads not to work without an allowance of French wine? This would not be thought a more extravagant demand now, than tea was esteemed forty years ago. Consider the tendency of these pernicious and absurd customs! "Look into all the cellars in London, you will find men or women sipping their tea in the morning or afternoon, and very often both morning and afternoon: those will have tea who have not bread. I once took a ramble for two months, attended only by a servant: I strolled far into several parts of England, and when I was tired of riding, I walked, and, with as much decency as I could, often visited little huts, to see how the people lived. I still found the same game was playing, and misery itself had no power to banish tea, which had frequently introduced that misery. I have been told, that in some places, where the people are so poor that no one family possesses all the necessary apparatus for tea, they carry them to each other's houses, to the distance of a mile or two, and club materials for this fantastic amusement! "What a wild infatuation is this! it took its rise from example; by example it is supported; and example alone can abolish the use of it. The suppression of this dangerous custom depends entirely on the example of ladies of rank in this country. Tea will certainly be acknowledged a bad thing as soon as you leave off drinking it. No lady's woman, or gentlewoman's chamber-maid, will drink a liquor which her mistress no longer uses. Some indeed have resolution enough in their own houses, to confine the use of tea to their own table; but their number is so extremely small, amidst a numerous acquaintance, I know only of Mrs. T****, whose name ought to be written out in letters of gold." Thus we see how fortunate some folks are. Mrs. T. is praised for confining luxury to her own table: she earns fame, and saves something in domestic expences into the bargain! But, to be as much in earnest as Mr. Hanway himself seems to be,-this gentleman appears more desirous of saying every thing that may be said on every subject, than of only selecting all that can be said to the purpose; and by endeavouring to obviate every doubt that might still remain with his reader, he often uses a redundancy of argument, that rather serves to tire than convince us. When he treats of tea in his assumed medical capacity, |