The use of coffee appears to be rapidly declining in
England. The reduction of the duty to three-halfpence a pound has had no effect on consumption, and the Commissioners of Customs report that in the year ending March 31st, 1886, some 314,000 lb. were consumed less than in the previous year. They attribute the decline to the comparative difficulty which the poor find in making coffee ; but it is quite as likely that the true causes are the declining use of alcohol, and the cheapness of tea and sugar. The bulk of the people prefer tea to coffee, whenever they are not deterred from the former by the price, the female vote, which counts in this instance for half, being all one way. If tea were ever to become really cheap—say, sixpence a pound— nothing else would be drunk ; and it would be drunk all day, cold as well as hot. The taste for it is becoming universal, and distinctly increases with the admixture of the Indian teas, which are rougher, and develop the special " teaey " flavour. It is a harmless luxury, for people who work at any rate ; and though something must be taxed, it is to be regretted that the Treasury cannot spare a duty on what must now be regarded as food.
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