For about twenty years after the introduction of coffee in this kingdom, we find a continued series of invectives against its adoption, both in medicinal and domestic views. The use of coffee, indeed, seems to have excited more notice, and to have had a greater influence on the manners of the people, than that of tea. It seems at first to have been more universally used, as it still is on the Continent; and its use is connected with a resort for the idle and the curious: the history of coffee-houses is often that of the manners, the morals, and the politics of a people. Even in its native country the government discovered that extraordinary fact, and the use of the Arabian berry was more than once forbidden where it grows; for Ellis, in his History of Coffee,' 1774, refers to an Arabian MS. in the King of France's library, which shows that coffee houses in Asia were sometimes suppressed. The same fate happened on its introduction into England. * The frequenting of coffee-houses is a custom which has declined within our recollection, since institutions of a higher character, and society itself, has so much improved within late years. These were, however, the common assemblies of all classes of society. The mercantile man, the man of letters, and the man of fashion, had their appropriate coffee-houses. The Tatler dates from either to convey a character of his subject. In the reign of Charles II., 1675, a procla mation for some time shut them all up, having become the rendezvous of the politicians of that day. Roger North has given, in his Examen, a full account of this bold stroke: it was not done without some apparent respect to the British constitution, the court affecting not to act against law, for the judges were summoned to a consultation, when, it seems, the five who met did not agree in opinion. But a decision was contrived, that "the retailing of coffee and tea might be an innocent trade; but as it was said to nourish sedition, spread lies, and scandalize great men, it might also be a common nuisance." A general discontent in consequence, as North acknowledges, took place, and emboldened the merchants and retailers of coffee and tea to petition; and permission was soon granted to open the houses to a certain period, under a severe admonition that the masters should prevent all scandalous papers, books, and libels from being read in them, and hinder every person from spreading scandalous reports against the government. It must be confessed, all this must have frequently puzzled the coffee house master to decide what was scandalous, what book was fit to be licensed to be read, and what political intelligence might be allowed to be communicated. The object of the government was, probably, to intimidate, rather than to persecute, at that moment. Chocolate the Spaniards brought from Mexico, where it was denominated Chocollatti; it was a coarse mixture of ground cacao and Indian corn, with rocou; but the Spaniards, liking its nourishment, improved it into a richer compound, with sugar, vanilla, and other aromatics. * * * * * We had chocolate-houses in London long after coffee-houses; they seemed to have associated something more elegant and refined in their new term when the other had become common. Roger North thus inveighs against them: "The use of coffee-houses seems much improved by a new invention, called chocolate-houses, for the benefit of rooks and cullies of quality, where gaming is added to all the rest, and the summons of Wseldom fails; as if the devil had erected a new university, and those were the colleges of its professors, as well as his schools of discipline." Roger North, a high tory, and attorney-general to James II., observed, however, that these rendezvous were often not entirely composed of those "factious gentry he so much dreaded;" for he says, "This way of passing time might have been stopped at first, before people had possessed themselves of some convenience from them of meeting for short despatches, and passing evenings with small expenses." And old Aubrey, the small Boswell of his day, attributes his general acquaintance to "the modern advantage of coffee-houses in this great city, before which men knew not how to be acquainted, but with their own relations and societies:" a curious statement, which proves the moral connection with society of all sedentary recreations which induce the herding spirit. 251.-THE PROGRESS OF DISCONTENT. [WRITTEN AT OXFORD IN 1746.] When now mature in classic knowledge, The joyful youth is sent to college, T. WARTON. His father comes, a vicar plain; 66 Sir, I'm a Glo'stershire divine, And for his parts, to tell the truth, Has Horace all by heart--you'd wonder And mouths out Homer's Greek like thunder A scholarship would nicely fit him: Your vote and interest, sir!"-'Tis done. Without a woman at its head! Would some snug benefice but fall, Of Dean, Vice-Pres.-of Bursar too; Come, tithes, and house, and fruitful fields!" Continuing this fantastic farce on, Not over weighty in the purse, But many doctors have done worse: Thus fixt, content he taps his barrel, And regulates the state of pews; Rides a sleek mare with purple housing, To share the monthly club's carousing; Of Oxford pranks facetious tells, And-but on Sunday-hears no bells; Sends presents of his choicest fruit, And prunes himself each sapless shoot; Plants cauliflow'rs, and boasts to rear The earliest melons of the year; Thinks alteration charming work is, Keeps Bantam cocks, and feeds his turkeys; Builds in his copse a fav'rite bench, And stores the pond with carp and tench. But ah! too soon his thoughtless breast By cares domestic is opprest; And a third butcher's bill, and brewing, Threaten inevitable ruin: For children fresh expenses yet, |