POINTS FROM LEI t ERS T A PROTEST.
In your issue of 20th inst., under the heading " The Budget," tea is referred to as a " universal necessity," and again in the same paper, "Watchman " calls tea " a necessity of the poorer classes." Ignoring the question of whether tea is necessary to everybody, or to a section of the community only, what we should know is whether tea is a necessity at all. My dictionary defines a necessity as " that which is unavoidable," " which must be," " which cannot be done without," and much more to the same effect. I am quite unable to find it saying that a necessity is " that which is desired," whether by the poorer clasees only or by the whole nation.—Guy PORTER, Mahara, Upper King's Cliff, Jersey, C.I.
[Our correspondent is right. A necessity is by all rules of etymology that which is unavoidable," but surely usage, which is a living thing and therefore superior to the dictionary, makes it permissible to refer to tea as a universal necessity " in the sense that the great majority of the nation consumes it.—En. Spectator.]
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