ROYAL HATERS OF TOBACCO. 105 
The death of King James, followed by its occupancy of 
the throne by his son Charles L., did not lessen the persecu- 
tion against tobacco.* In 1625, the year of his accession, he 
issued a proclamation against all tobaccos excepting only the 
growth of Virginia and Somerites. Charles II. also probib- 
ited the cultivation of tobacco. in England and Ireland, 
attaching a penalty of 10£ per rood. Fairholt, in alluding 
to the Stuarts and Cromwell as persécutors of tobacco, says: 
“Cromwell disliked the plant, and ordered his troops to 
trample down the crop wherever found.” 
It is an historical fact that both James I. and the two 
Charleses as well as Cromwell had the strongest dislike against 
the Indian weed. 
With such powerful foes it seems hardly possible that the 
custom should have increased to such an extent that when 
William ascended the throne the custom was said to be 
almost universal.t “Pipes grew larger and ruled by a 
Dutchman, all England smoked in peace.” From this time 
forward the varieties-used served only to increase the demand 
for the tobacco of the colonies, and as its culture became 
better understood the leaf grew in favor, until the demand 
for it was greater than the production. 
During the reign of Anne, the custom of smoking appears 
to have attained its greatest height in England ; the consump- 
tion of tobacco was then proportionably greater, considering 
the population, than it is at the present time. Spooner, in 
his “ Looking-Glass for Smokers,” 1703, says of the custom: 
“The sin of the kingdom in the intemperate use of tobacco, 
swelleth and increaseth so daily, that I can compare it to 
nothing but the waters of Noah, that swell’d fifteen enbits 
above the highest mountains. So that if this practice shall 
continue to increase as it doth, in an age or two it will be as 
hard to find a family free, as it was so long time since one 
that commonly took it.” 
*Tobacco has been able to survive such attacks as these—nay, has raised up a hoat of 
defenders ns wellas opponents. The Polish Jesuits published a work entitled Anti-Miso- 
capnus," in answer to King James. In 1628. Raphael Thorius wrote a_pvem “ Hymnus- 
Tobici.” A host of names appear in the field: Lesus, Braum and Simon Pauli, Portal, Pia, 
Vanquelin, Gardaune, Posselt, Reimann, and De Morveau. ; 
+Says an enthusiastic writer on tobacco, “If judged by the vicissitudes through which it 
has traveled, it must indeed be acknowledged a hero among plants; and if human pity, 
respect, or love should be given it for ‘the dangers it has passed,’ the pepiration of Desde- 
monia's love for Othello, then might its most eloquent opponent be dumb, or yield it no 
inconsiderable meed of homage.” 
