36 TOBACCO GROWING IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



The climate and soil proved perfectly adapted 

 to the requisites of the plant, and the trade was 

 beginning to flourish and bring in promising 

 receipts when rumours were heard that the 

 Government projected extending the prohibitive 

 laws to Ireland. 



Mr. Brodigan immediately sent a petition to 

 head-quarters on the subject, setting forth the 

 advantages accruing to the country from the 

 pursuit of so flourishing a branch of agriculture. 

 He Avas answered by Mr. G. Dawson, M.P., from 

 whose letter we give an extract : — 



" The duty in the United Kingdom on this 

 article, in 1829, amounts to £2,800,000 ; you will 

 allow, therefore, in our present financial condition, 

 that every effort must be made to protect it. There 

 are but two ways of effecting this object, either 

 by prohibiting the growth, by which the laws in 

 the three parts of the United Kingdom Avill be 

 assimilated, or by imposing an excise duty on 

 the home-gi'own article. The former mode has 

 been preferred as the least liable to objection in 

 practice, though I must allow it is in opposition 

 to the principles which have lately been adopted 

 with respect to trade." — Exti'act from letter to 

 Mr. Brodigan from G. Dawson, Esq., M.P., 

 Treasury, London. 



