The question of spurious or injurious tea seems to be
growing important. The Chinese have discovered that tea-leaves mixed with dung, iron filings, and other substances, all powdered fine, suits the English market, and are sending compounds of that sort over in huge masses, of course not without connivance from some English dealers on this side. On Tuesday it was alleged by the Sanitary Commissioners of the City that no less than 10,000,000 lb. of such tea, totally unfit for human food, was in bond ready for sale. The quantity would, we believe, be greatly increased, if partially adulter- ated tea were added to the list, and we do not see why the City Board of Health want additional powers to compel its destruction. They only want additional courage to offend the importers, who are often men of the highest " respectability." They order the tea, and they know what they are ordering, parti- cularly when, if a magnet is introduced into a cheat, it is drawn out covered with iron filings. The grand difficulty rests with country purchasers, who want tea at ls. 6d., which 'they cannot have, the lowest remunerative price being 2s., but the Customs have certainly power to send dangerous tea to "Her Majesty's tobacco-pipe," the furnace into which for- bidden articles are thrown, and should do it.
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