A Treatise on Adulterations of Food, and Culinary Poisons / Exhibiting the Fraudulent Sophistications of Bread, Beer, Wine, Spiritous Liquors, Tea, Coffee, Cream, Confectionery, Vinegar, Mustard, Pepper, Cheese, Olive Oil, Pickles, and Other Articles Employed in Domestic Economy

by Friedrich Christian Accum

The defendant was convicted in the penalty of 50l.

The King against Samuel Hallett.—The defendant, Hallett, a grocer and dealer in tea and coffee, was charged with having seven pounds of imitation coffee in his possession.

Charles Henry Lord, an officer of the Excise, being sworn, stated, that he and Spencer, an officer, went, on the 28th of February last, to the shop of the defendant, and asked for an ounce of coffee, at three halfpence per ounce. He received the same, and having paid for it, left the shop. He examined the article, and found it was part coffee, and part imitation coffee, or what the defendant called vegetable powder, which is nothing more nor less than burnt pease and beans ground in a mill.

Spencer, the officer of the Excise, corroborated the above evidence, and stated, that the sham-coffee seized at the defendant's house was shown to Mr. Joseph Hubbard, grocer, and tea and coffee dealer, in High-street, in the Borough of Southwark.

Mr. Hubbard being sworn, stated, that he had examined the sham-coffee seized by the officers in the defendant's shop. The one ounce purchased by Lord, he knew to be nothing else than black pigeon's beans; there was no coffee amongst it.

The defendant was convicted in the penalty of 50l.

The King against Fox.—Mr. Edward Fox, grocer, and dealer in tea and coffee, was charged with having a large quantity of sham-coffee in his possession, and with selling the same for genuine coffee.

Henry Spencer, an officer of the Excise, stated, that on the 21st of February he and Lord, another officer, went to the defendant's shop and purchased an ounce of coffee, for which he paid three halfpence. They examined it, and he was satisfied it was not genuine coffee; they purchased another ounce (which he produced to the commissioners of the Excise, who examined it); they were convinced it consisted partly of coffee and beans and pease.

The defendant, in his defence said, that the poor people wanted a low-price article; and by mixing the vegetable powder and coffee together, he was able to sell it at three halfpence an ounce; he had sold it for years; he did it as a matter of accommodation to the poor, who could not give a higher price; he did not sell it for genuine coffee.

Commissioner.—"Then you have been defrauding the public for many years, and injuring the revenue by your illicit practices: the poor have an equal right to be supplied with as genuine an article as the rich."