SNUFF AS A PACIFIC ATOR. 253 



composedly ask those around for a pinch of the precious 

 restorative. When we consider the beneficial influence 

 which snuff has exerted over mankind generally, we cannot 

 help regretting that its virtues were not sooner known. 



" For we put forth the proposition seriously, that its 

 effect upon the world has been to render it more humane and 

 even-tempered, and that had the western hemisphere dis- 

 covered the tobacco plant earlier, historians would have had 

 more pleasant events to chronicle. For instance, it is not 

 impossible nay, most probable that the fate of Rome, dis- 

 cussed by the Triumvirate over their snuff-boxes, would have 

 been different. Is it likely that, under the humanizing influ- 

 ence of mutual pinches, Antony would have asked for, or 

 Augustus resigned, the head of Cicero to his bloodthirsty 

 colleague ; or that the other details of the conscription which 

 deluged the streets of Rome with the blood of her best 

 citizens, would have been agreed to? Again, can any one 

 imagine Charles the Ninth and his evil counsellors plotting 

 the massacre of St. Bartholomew over pinches of the soothing 

 dust? Is it probable that the High Court of Justiciary 

 would have entitled its royal martyr to a special service in 

 the Book of Common Prayer, if its deliberation had been 

 inspired by the kindly snuff which since that time has so 

 often softened the rigor of the law ? My hypothesis may seem 

 an absurd one, but history supports it. 



" When Charles the Second introduced snuff into general 

 use, men's hands had scarcely adapted themselves to more 

 peaceable occupations than cuttiug their neighbors' throats, 

 and the ashes of a long and bitter civil war needed little fan- 

 ning to break into a blaze again ; and yet, for forty years of 

 misgovernment the nation kept its temper. How can this 

 forbearance be accounted for ? Was it that circumstances no 

 longer called for as stern and as effectual remedies as before ? 

 No. Was the second Charles one whit more desirable than 

 the first of that ilk ? Was Clarendon more liked than Staf- 

 ford ? was Russell's head of less consequence than Prynne's 

 ears ? No. Again, wrongs as grievous as those which Hamp- 

 den had died in resisting were to be avenged, but in a milder, 

 better fashion ; for mankind had in the meantime learned to 

 take snuff. Much of the haste and irritation which had pre- 

 viously led to blows discharged itself in a good-natured 

 eneeze. Snuff made men forbearing, even jocular over their 

 wrongs. Who can doubt that the revolution which ended in 

 placing William of Orange on his father-in-law's throne owed 



