mother; but the greatest consolation to us is, that we have every reason to believe that she died in the full triumphs of faith. She died in the fall of 1827, and a funeral sermon was preached; the text was in Matt. xxiv. 44. "Therefore be ye also ready." Your sister Mary Anne has got better than ever could be expected. She is but small, but very smart, and enjoys good health; she is earnest in trying to secure the one thing needful, even the salvation of her soul. Charles and Daniel are both living at home. Charles was born in the year 1819, about the twentieth of March. I have got a good place of my own, and we are living very comfortably, and enjoy great privileges in this country, superior to what they were when you left it. Your brother Thomas is married and is doing well, he has three children, Phebe, William, and Eve. John is married and has two children, Lavinia and Mary. William is married and has one child, Charlotte, and is like to have another soon; they all have got farms of their own, and are all living in sight of one another. Henry is not married as yet, he has some thoughts of going to study for a doctor. Your uncle Casper Coras, and your aunt Mary, are both well. Mariah Coras was married, and her husband is dead, but she has married again. Your uncle William Caselman enjoys his health very poorly, but your aunt enjoys good health, they have got five children. Your uncle Ben Picket is married again, and enjoys good health, and all the rest of the family as I know of. Your cousin Hannah Picket's husband is a poor, drunken, miserable fellow; her father has to support her and her children. I wish you to sell off what you have got, and come if possible to this country, as I think you can do better here than in England, and we will assist you as far as we can. Your step-grandfather and grandmother are both dead, and my father and mother are both dead, and Susan and Hannah are both dead. David Cudney is dead. My sister Lydia, Thomas and William live about twenty-five miles from us. Your mother has, since we received your letter, shed many tears, thinking that you are living in a careless state concerning your soul; if you have not already given your heart up unto God, I do most earnestly desire you to set about

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SUBSTITUTE FOR TEA AND COFFEE.

13

it immediately, as life is uncertain, but death is certain; so try to secure your soul's eternal salvation, that if we never meet again in this world we may meet at the right hand of God, where parting shall be no more for ever. I wish you to write as soon as you conveniently can, and give us all the information you can, what you think of coming here or not. So no more at present from your loving father, mother, brother, and sister,

Upper Canada.

SIR,

DANIEL AND EVE M'PHERson.

SUBSTITUTE FOR TEA AND COFFEE.

I WAS glad to see in your November number directions for making a substitute for Tea and Coffee, as I have always been of opinion that something might be got out of our fields and gardens, which would answer the purpose as well as what we get from the other side of the world. Indeed, we know it to be a fact, that much of what is sold for China tea, is a great part of it made up of English leaves; and there is no reason why we should pay the shopkeeper for this substitute if we can gather it for ourselves.

I do not know whether a tea made of the dried leaves of black currant will, according to your correspondent's statement, make "a substitute for green tea, which very few can detect," and at this season of the year we have not an opportunity of trying, but I certainly mean to make the experiment on the very first young leaves of the black currant that I can collect, having first taken the precaution to ask my doctor whether there is any thing unwholesome in them, or at least, not more unwholesome than tea. I suppose your correspondent means that the black currant leaves alone are for green tea, but that, for common use, one part of dried leaves of black currant, with four parts of the leaves of the common sloe, or plum, is better. I should think this would be a rough tea, and I should suggest that a few dried cowslip flowers would add greatly to the flavour, and give that sort of taste which is found in some of the superior China teas.

As to the substitute for coffee, this may be tried at any

time of the year, as the roots of the dandelion are too abundant at all seasons. I have made no trial of them, and cannot, therefore, give an opinion of their flavour, but I feel confident that this would be a most wholesome beverage; for it is, in fact, the same plant from which comes the Tarraxinum, so much recommended now by the medical men, especially in the early stages of consumption.

There are numbers of herbs in our gardens, such as sage, balm, &c. which would make far more wholesome tea than that which comes from China; but they have a strong positive taste about them, which few persons would like for constant use. As to coffee, we know that our own wheat burned answers well, and will suit many persons better than foreign coffee; but I should think it well worth while to try the dandelion roots, as this can be done with very little trouble, and no expense; and would probably agree with many persons better than coffee, and to others might be of great service, and I should imagine could do no harm to any one: but it is not wise to try experiments on things of which we know nothing, without having first consulted some person in whose opinion we have confidence. Dandelion has, however, long been considered a most wholesome herb, and dandelion tea has been long used for scorbutic and other complaints, but the tea has been made from the leaves. X. Y.

CAUSES OF POVERTY.

IT has been often said, that, where there is care and prudence, and sobriety and good management, there will not be much very distressing poverty; and, though it would be insulting the poor to say that every case of poverty is brought on by the poor man's own fault,—yet it is, in truth, very often the case. The poor in Ireland appear to be in a state of much greater misery than the poor in England,-and there may be many reasons for this-but Mr. Buckingham, in his lectures, has given one reason why the poor creatures in the neighbourhood of Dublin will be sure to continue in their present

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15.

wretched state, unless there is a change in their habits. The following is an extract from Mr. B.'s lectures :—

"POVERTY IN DUBLIN.-While in Dublin, my wife and I put up at the hotel in Sackville-street, and if we had never gone beyond its precincts, we should have returned with the idea that such things as drunkenness, want, and misery, were unknown, for we were surrounded by wealth, elegance, and courtesy. But my wife and I went out in a car, (that the people might not say we came as spies,) and proceeded to the liberties of Dublin, and we were petrified with horror at what we saw. Only conceive a street nearly half a mile in length, with not a door from one end to the other, but, if you looked within, you would see a pig, three or four fowls, a naked child or two, with the wretched mother looking as if water had not been near her skin for a month, while not a pane of glass is to be seen for yards in succession, but here a rag, and there a piece of pasted paper; and, in houses like this, it is not unfrequent to find eighty or ninety persons living together. Was this poverty? No doubt it was in part, but in the midst of all this squalidness and misery, you would see women coming out whose dress it would be impossible to describe, being composed of rags of all hues tied together by bits of cord here, and pieces of tape there, through which as they moved their bodies (and they were obliged to move them from the vermin which covered them), you saw their naked skin peeping out-yet even in this destitute state, with nothing worthy of the name of clothes to cover them, you saw them coming out with a bottle of whiskey in one hand, and a glass in the other. Where do they get the money to buy this? and is it possible that they can be any thing but poor while such improvident habits are pursued?"-Buckingham's Lectures.

There is a notion among English and Irish working people that great strength is given to man by drinking a quantity of beer;—and many labouring men who know that gin and other spirituous liquor will destroy a man's constitution, yet believe that beer gives them a great deal of strength, because it is made from malt (or at least should be), and there is therefore some of the nourish

ment of corn in it, yet this nourishment is very little indeed in comparison with what is to be found in solid food; so that if a man spends that money in beer which he might have spent in bread or meat, he is making a very great mistake. It is true, however, that, besides the absolute nourishment of beer, there is something cheering in it; and what gives a man courage and cheerfulness for his work, may do him good: therefore, if a man can afford it, it may be well for him to take a small portion of wholesome beer. But if there is no strength without beer, how was it that the soldiers of ancient days were so strong and powerful, though beer was not known amongst them, which was the case with the greater part of the people in former days;—and how is it that the people manage now, in the greater part of the world, where no such thing as beer is ever heard of? In many parts of the world, indeed, where grapes grow in abundance, the lowest of the people get a sort of thin new wine, which refreshes them, though it cannot have much strength in it, and the Roman soldiers in former days were in the habit of carrying a little vinegar or acid wine, which they mixed with water, and made a cool refreshing drink. We consider beer to be a better beverage for a poor man, and we would not wish that he should be without it, but we can never believe that a man is greatly strengthened by it, in the way that he supposes.

V.

The following extract from Mr. Buckingham's lectures is curious:

"TEMPERANCE AND STRENGTH.-Among the Arabs, the Persians, and the Turks, you do not meet with those undersized, rickety, consumptive beings which are so common in Europe-you do not meet with such pale, wan, sickly-looking countenances; their complexions are bright and florid, they are strong and vigorous, able to ride a hundred miles a day, and capable of performing feats which our professed wrestlers would not be able to do. I remember seeing a most striking instance of their powers. A band of men from the Himalaya mountains had come to Calcutta for the purpose of exhibiting feats of strength, and they were indeed perfect Samsons.