The Marquess of Westminsterpresented five petitions from temperance societies, praying for encouragement to the growth of Assam tea. He had no sort of doubt that her Majesty's Ministers would do every thing in their power to restore amicable relations with China, at the same time that they would not allow the honour of this country to be tarnished. He had heard a great deal said about the trade in opium, but he was sure that it would be very difficult to persuade the people of the eastern coasts of China, to abandon the use or abuse of a drug to which they had been so long habituated, and it would also be very difficult to prevent adventurous traders from supplying a commodity from the traffic, in which they derived such large gains. However, if our relations with China should be interrupted for a long time, it would be a great advantage to derive a sufficient supply of tea (which had 999 become to this nation almost a necessary of life) from our own dominions. He had no doubt that with encouragement, Assam would soon be able to furnish a sufficient quantity of tea for our consumption; and having tried the quality of the tea grown in that province, he could say that it was very palatable, and he could not doubt that it would before long be equal to the best of Chinese growth. The demand for tea would be greatly increased by the extensive progress of the "temperance pledge" in all parts of the United Kingdom, and especially in Ireland, where the progress of the pledge had been so great as to alarm the noble Marquess opposite, (Westmeath,) perhaps more than the uncourteous allusion to the "bilious scion of the house of Derby." He hoped the prayers of the petitioners would have some weight, and that the Legislature would give every encouragement to the growing of tea in the East Indies.
The Marquess of Westmeathhad heard, that the people who took the temperance pledge in Ireland, did really abstain from drinking spirits, but he did not believe they had yet taken to drinking tea. If the only manifestation at the temperance meetings in Ireland, had been that of a desire to abstain from spirits and to drink tea, he should have been very little alarmed.