ANTIQUITIES. 



419 



In 1 753 the king of Por- Rix 



tugal farmed out the dollars. 



tobacco tradeforabout 2,500,000 

 The revenue of the king 



of Spain from tobacco 



amounted to 7,330,933 



In 1759, the duties on 



tobacco in Denmark 



brought in 40,000 



In 1770, the empress 



Maria - Theresa re- 

 ceived from dutieSj 



&c. on tobacco 806,000 



In 1773, the duties on 



tobacco in the Two 



Sicilies amounted to 446,000 

 In 1780, the king of 



France received from 



tobacco a revenue of 



29 millions of livres, 



that, is, about 7,250,000 



Total annual revenue of 



these six kingdoms 



from duties, &c. on 



tobacco 18,372,933 



a sum greater than the revenues of 

 the kingdoms of Denmark, Noi'way, 

 and Sweden together, on an aver- 

 age, amount to. 



To me it appears probable, re- 

 marks professor Beckmann, that, 

 even before the discovery of the 

 fourth quarter of the globe, a sort 

 of tobacco was smoked in Asia. 

 This conjecture being mentioned to 

 the celebrated traveller, M. Pallas, 

 he gave the folio winganswer: 'That 

 in Asia, and especially in China, 

 the use of tobacco for smoking is 

 more ancient than the discovery of 

 the New World, I too scarcely en- 

 tertain a doubt. Among the Chi- 

 nese and among the Mongol tribes 

 who had the most intercourse with 

 them, the custom of smoking is so 

 general, so frequent, and become so 

 indispensable a luxury ; the tobacco- 

 purse affixed to their belt so neces- 



sary an article of dress ; the form 

 of the pipes, from which the Dutch 

 seem to have taken the model of 

 theirs, so original ; and, lastly, the 

 preparation of the yellow leaves, 

 which are merely rubbed to pieces 

 and then put into a pipe,- so pecu- 

 liar ; that we cannot possibly derive 

 all this from America by way of 

 Europe ; especially as India, where 

 the habit of smoking tobacco is not 

 so general, intervenes between Per- 

 sia and China. May we not expect to 

 find traces of this custom in the first 

 account of the voyages of the Portu- 

 guese and Dutch to China.''' To in- 

 vestigate this subject I have indeed 

 the inclination, but, at present at 

 1 east, not sufficient leisure ; and must 

 therefore, leave it to others. How- 

 ever, I can now adduce one impor- 

 tant confirmation of my conjecture 

 from Ulloa's voyage to America : 

 ' It is not probable,' says he, ' that 

 the Europeans learned the use of 

 tobacco from America ; for, as it is 

 very ancient in the Eastern coun- 

 tries it is natural to suppose that the 

 knowledge of it came to Europe 

 from those regions, by means of the 

 intercourse carried on with thembj'' 

 the commercial states on the Medi- 

 terranean Sea. No where, not even 

 in those parts of America where the 

 tobacco- plant grows wUd, is the use 

 of it, and that only for smoking, 

 either general or very frequent. 



A short chronological Accouniof the 

 religious Establishments made hy 

 English Catholics, on the Continent 

 of Europe ; by the Abbe Mann. 



IF the subject which I take in 

 hand appears little interesting at 

 a time when the reigning spirit of 

 several nations is far more disposed 

 to destroy all the monuments of the 

 Ee2 



