s 



moking control 



Not long after the proprietors' letter was received the 

 General Court of the colony issued the first of a series 

 of prohibitory orders against smoking and commerce in 

 tobacco. Under the regulation of 1632 no one was per- 

 mitted to smoke publicly under penalty of a fine. That 

 seems to have been ineffective; two years later the fine 

 was considerably increased with the added injunction 

 that none smoke in company or, "when alone, before 

 strangers." This effort to make smoking a secret and 

 solitary habit was so openly defied that, in 1637, the 

 Court announced that "all former lawes against tobacco 

 are repealed, tobacco is set at liberty." 



A year later the Court again exercised its authorit\', 

 but it was obviously weakening before the strength of 

 a powerful recreative custom. Shaking its collective 

 head in sorrow, the Court found that since the former 

 laws against tobacco had been repealed, "the same is 

 more abused than before." Tliis time, however, smoking 

 was only prohibited in fields except on journeys, and 

 during meals in private rooms of inns. 



In 1635 it had been ordered that no tobacco could be 

 bought or sold. Tlie order was amended tlie following 

 year to exempt wholesalers "pro\ided they transport it 

 out of this jurisdiction." 



D 



issenting opinion 



The Court was stubborn but not nearly as stubborn— 

 or as adaptable— as the smokers it was trying to control 

 by judicial regulations. When, in 1646, the wise men of 

 the bench made it a punishable oftense for parishioners 



17 



