[85] Also, 2 Geo. I, c. 30, § 5; and 4 Geo. II, c. 14, § 11.
[86] The examination of twenty-seven samples of imitation tea of different qualities, from the most costly, to the most common, which it fell to my lot to undertake, induces me to point out the marks of sophistications here detailed, as the most simple and expeditious.
[87] Mr. Twining, an eminent tea-merchant, asserts, that "the leaves of spurious tea are boiled in a copper, with copperas and sheep's dung."—See Encyclop. Britan. vol. xviii. p. 331. 1797. See also the History of the Tea Plant, p. 48; and p. [167] of this Treatise.
Counterfeit Coffee.
The fraud of counterfeiting ground coffee by means of pigeon's beans and pease, is another subject which, not long ago, arrested the attention of the public: and from the numerous convictions of grocers prosecuted for the offence, it is evident that this practice has been carried on for a long time, and to a considerable extent.
The following statement exhibits some of the prosecutions, instituted by the Solicitor of the Excise, against persons convicted of the fraud of manufacturing spurious, and adulterating genuine coffee.
Alexander Brady, a grocer, (See p. [182]) prosecuted and convicted of selling sham-coffee, said, "I have sold it for twenty years." Some of the persons prosecuted by the Solicitor of the Excise for this fraud, we might, at first sight, be inclined to believe, were inconscious that the adulterating of genuine coffee with spurious substances was illegal; but this ignorance affords no excuse, as the Act of the 43 Geo. III. cap. 129, explicitly states: "If after the first day of September, 1803, any burnt, scorched, or roasted pease, beans, or other grain, or vegetable substance or substances prepared or manufactured for the purpose of being in imitation of or in any respect to resemble coffee or cocoa, or to serve as a substitute for coffee or cocoa, or alleged or pretended by the possessor or vender thereof so to be, shall be made, or kept for sale, or shall be offered or exposed to sale, or shall be found in the custody or possession of any dealer or dealers in or seller or sellers of coffee, or if any burnt, scorched, or roasted pease, beans, or other grain, or vegetable substance or substances not being coffee, shall be called by the preparer, manufacturer, possessor, or vender thereof, by the name of English or British coffee, or any other name of coffee, or by the name of American cocoa, or English or British cocoa, or any other name of cocoa, the same respectively shall be forfeited, together with the packages containing the same, and shall and may be seized by any officer or officers of Excise; and the person or persons preparing, manufacturing, or selling the same, or having the same in his, her, or their custody or possession, or the dealer or dealers in or seller or sellers of coffee or cocoa, in whose custody the same shall be found, shall forfeit and lose the sum of one hundred pounds."
The Attorney-General against William Malins.—This was an information filed by the Attorney-General against the defendant, charging him, he being a dealer in coffee, with having in his possession a large quantity of imitation coffee, made from scorched pease and beans, resembling coffee, and intended to be sold as such, contrary to the statute of the 43d of the King, whereby he became liable to pay a fine of 100l.