2 TOBACCO OROWJNG IN GREAT BRITAIX. 



the enormous sum of §4 per pound was obtained 

 at the Centennial p]xhibition for some Virginian 

 tobacco. 



From the foregoing statements it will be seen 

 that the political reasons which formerly induced 

 the Government to place a prohibitive duty on 

 home-grown tobacco — i.e., benefiting the English 

 colonies and securing a source of revenue, have 

 entirely disappeared — as entirely, we venture to 

 think, as those less political reasons which in- 

 duced the Popes to inveigh against smoking as 

 irreligious and profane, and which caused the 

 Russian rulers to punish smokers with the loss 

 of their noses, the Turks forcing the unfortunate 

 votaries of the pipe to have the said implement 

 thrust up their nostrils — the Persians even pun- 

 ishing the offence with death ; for so infatuated 

 were these Eastern people with the newly- 

 imported luxury, that sooner than forego the 

 pleasure of its indulgence they left their homes 

 and fled to the mountains to smoke in peace. 



Equally unreasonable, and equally out of date, 

 appear the motives which prompted our own 

 James I., in slightly less barbaric England, 

 to fulminate his celebrated " Counterblaste" to 

 tobacco, in which smoking was said to be " a 

 custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, 

 hai-mful to the brain, dangerous to the luntrs. 



