HISTORICAL. 17 



the compliment of pronouncing them much more 

 rational than their neighbours on all sides, who 

 fined, ruined, mutilated, or decapitated their 

 miserable subjects in the vain effort to resist a 

 propensity as strong and imperative as any that 

 Gall or Spurzheim discovered, or fancied they 

 discovered, in the human brain. The French- 

 man whose statistics have just been quoted 

 boldly puts forth the following question and 

 answer : — 



" Can we now set a term to an increase of consumption 

 so enormous? We think not . . , . ; for we believe that 

 there exist two causes which must cause a manifest in- 

 crease in the consumption of tobacco. The first is the 

 increase of population ; and the second is the improved 

 condition of the poorer classes ; for how many peasants 

 are there in France who do not smoke simply because 

 they are in want of bread ? " * 



Nor is the career of tobacco less striking in 

 England and her colonies. In 1615, the year 

 before King James's ' Counterblast,' the fields, 

 the gardens, the public squares, and even the 

 streets of Jamestown, Virginia, were planted 

 with tobacco — nay, it became not only the staple, 



♦ Joubert, * Tabac,' p. 9. 



C 



