WHY IT SHOULD BE GROWN. 23 



measures sound like freedom, or are we re- 

 minded rather of despotic Russia and the ante- 

 diluvian exclusiveness of Celestial China ? The 

 fact of any Government taking the initiative in 

 a step so wise, and founded so distinctly on the 

 laws of freedom, as that of making trade un- 

 restricted, could not but gain the lasting sym- 

 pathies of the people, and especially of those 

 classes which would so materially benefit by 

 the change, and benefit in a manner which a 

 superficial glance may fail to detect, i. e. in the 

 reduction of his (the poor man's) enormously 

 disproportionate share in taxation. But "<ve 

 have not space to enter into this matter. 



As the Navigation Acts, the Corn Laws, and 

 others, have been altered or abolished to suit 

 the times and the march of civilisation, so the 

 Acts of Charles IT., George III., and William IV., 

 prohibiting the gi-owth of tobacco in this country, 

 should be modified to meet the ui-gent necessity 

 of the present time. 



It will be a proud moment for England and 

 Ireland when our drooping agi'iculturists can lift 

 up their "hands" of home-cured tobacco, with 

 the triumphant sensation that once more the 

 wealth which has leaked and flowed out into 

 foreign lands is at last eddying and circulating 



