TOBACCO AND ITS HISTORY. 13 



Jiccreditcd with having been tlie first English sniokor. Sir John 

 Hawkins is also credited by some as the original carrier of 

 Tobacco to England in 1565 ; but the proof in this case is too 

 meagre to accept. 



Through the influence of Sir Walter Raleigh's practice of 

 smoking, all the young nobles of Queen Elizabeth's Court soon 

 began to smoke ; and the fact that this illustrious personaire 

 smoked on the morning of his execution induced the aristocracy 

 to follow his exami)le, and the habit of smoking soon became 

 deep-rooted amojig all classes, and spread rapidly throughout 

 the European continent. About 1650 it appears to have com- 

 manded special attention in every accessible portion of the 

 world. 



The first record of Tobacco being used as snufFby Christians 

 comes from France about the year 1562. About tlie same 

 time a snuff manuflvctory was estabiished at Saville, which pro- 

 duced the celebrated Spanish snuff. 



TlIK CULTIVATION OF TOBACCO COMMENCED IN HOLLAND 



in 1613, and soon after in England. In 1657 the manufacture 

 and sale of Tobacco were farmed out in Venice, yieldins'- con- 

 siderable government revenue. 



Although the habit of Tobacco using had become immensely 

 popular in the early i)art of the seventeenth century, the weed 

 had its foes as well as its friends, and soon 



A WAR OF EXTERMINATION WAS WAGED AGAINST TOBACCO, 



compared with which that now raging against the English spar- 

 row in the United States and Nova Scotia is unworthy of notice, 

 Queen Elizabeth, who was pestered with Tobacco-fumes in 

 the royal palace, whilst her youthful admirers enjoyed the 

 luxury of " pulKng," issued her edict against it. Her Majesty's 

 plea for enforcing the decree states, that smoking is "a demor- 

 alizing vice, tending to reduco Inu- subjects to the condition of 

 those savages whose hp-uts they imitated." 



