42 tobacco: its use and abuse. 



degeneration of Spain. A Spaniard is never without a 

 cigar in his mouth. It was observed during the Penin- 

 sular war, that the Spanish officers passed the whole day 

 in smoking, in cutting and mincing tobacco to make 

 paper cigars, and in eating and sleeping — and never 

 existed men sunk in such idleness, indolence, and 

 apathy. I am sorry to add, that the Portuguese were 

 in the same degraded condition. Germany is said to be 

 as immersed in *obacco as Spain. And I fear we are 

 fast drifting into the same degraded condition. Fenelon 

 Bays, " Youth is the flower of a nation; it is in the flower 

 that the fruit should loe cultivated." Condorcet, on the 

 progress of the human mind, thus concludes : " Such is 

 the practice of using fermented liquors, hot drinks, 

 opium,* and tobacco, that men have sought with a kind 



* The author of " Confessions of an English Opium Eater," states, 

 that the number of amateur opium-eaters in London is immense. 

 And in Manchester, the work people of the cotton manufactories are 

 rapidly getting into the practice of opium-eating. In the Nineteenth 

 Keport of the Inspectors of Prisons in the Northern and Eastern 

 Districts of England, it is stated that, in the district of Wisbeach, 

 *' opium-eating is very prevalent in this district, and the use of the 

 drug is often apparent in its effects on the morals and intellects of the 

 prisoners." The Rev. A. S. Thelwall, in his interesting work on 

 *' The Iniquities of the Opium Trade with China," gives a deplorable 

 account of the destructive effect on the health of the Chinese who in- 

 dulge in it. He gives a translation of a memorial to the Emperor, 

 by Choo Tsun, a member of Council, &c. " In the history of For- 

 mosa," says he, "we find the following passage: Opium was first 

 produced in Kaoutsinne, which by some is said to be the same as 

 Kalapa or Batavia. The natives of this place were, at the first, 

 sprightly and active, and, being good soldiers, were always successful 

 in battle. But the people called Hung-maou (red-haired,) came 

 thither, and having manufactured opium, seduced some of the native* 



