REPORTS OF MEETINGS. IO7 



wards placed in layers in shallow wooden boxes, and submitted to pressure ; 

 it is then placed in the cutting machine, a sort of modification of a chaff 

 cutter, the width of the cut being regulated by a cog wheel. After being 

 cut, a portion of the moisture is dried out of the mass over a slow fire, when 

 it is ready for sale. 



One of the early objections to the use of tobacco was the great expense of 

 the luxury, as it is said the beaux of Elizabeth's reign frequently spent 

 £300 or £400 on tobacco alone; and within three years of its introduction 

 into England it was sold at three shillings an ounce, equal to about eighteen 

 shillings of our present money. This must have been the fancy price paid 

 for a new fashion, as the impost duty was then only two shillings per lb. 

 In the early part of the seventeenth century the best sorts cost eighteen 

 shillings per lb. , and according to Aubrey it was sold for its weight in silver. 

 In 1626 Sir Henry Oglander records a payment of five shillings for eight 

 ounces of tobacco. These prices were due not only to the high impost duty 

 imposed by James I. , but also to the granting of licenses to sellers, involving 

 heavy annual money payments. Aubrey notes that in 1680 tobacco was the 

 most productive article of revenue his Majesty possessed ; and in the present 

 day the returns from this article alone is greater than Queen Elizabeth received 

 from the entire Customs of the country. The amount of duties paid to the 

 Custom-house was in 1770, £219,000, in round numbers ; in 1775 it had 

 increased to £298,000 ; in 1790 to £645,000 ; in 1836 to £3,354,000 ; in 1851 

 to £4,419,000 ; and in 1871 to nearly 7 millions. Yet with this heavy 

 impost the consumption increased from 12-ozs. per head of the population in 

 1821 to 19-ozs. in 1853. At the present day, in the tobacco warehouse at 

 London Docks, may sometimes be seen 40,000 hogsheads in bond. 



In compiling these notes, in addition to the authorities mentioned, I am 

 indebted to the works of Fairholt, Professor Lindley, Professor Volcker, 

 Johns, Mrs. Stone, and the English Cyclopaedia and the Encyclopaedia 

 Britannica, and others. 



