SNUFF AS A PACIFICATOR. 253 
composedly ask those around for a pinch of the precious 
restorative. When we consider the beneficial influence 
which snuff has exerted over mankind generally, we cannot 
help regretting that its virtues were not sooner known. 
“For we put forth the proposition seriously, that its 
effect upon the world has been to render it more humane and 
even-tempered, and that had the western hemisphere dis- 
covered the tobacco plant earlier, historians would have had 
more pleasant events to chronicle. For instance, it is not 
impossible—nay, most probable—that the fate of Rome, dis- 
cussed by the ‘Triumvirate over their snuff-boxes, would have 
been different. Is it likely that, under the humanizing influ- 
ence of mutual pinches, Antony would have asked for, or 
Augustus resigned, the head of Cicero to his bloodthirsty 
colleague ; or that the other details of the conscription which 
deluged the streets of Rome with the blood of her best 
citizens, would have been agreed to? Again, can any one 
imagine Charles the Ninth and his evil counsellors plotting 
the massacre of St. Bartholomew over pinches of the soothing 
dust? Is it probable that the High Court of Justiciary 
would have entitled its royal martyr to a special service in 
the Book of Common Prayer, if its deliberation had been 
inspired by the kindly snuff which since that time has so 
often softened the rigor of the law? My hypothesis may seem 
an absurd one, but history supports it. 
“When Charles the Second introduced snuff into general 
use, men’s hands had scarcely adapted themselves to more 
peaceable occupations than cuttiug their neighbors’ throats, 
and the ashes of a long and bitter civil war needed little fan- 
ning to break into a blaze aoe and yet, for forty years of 
misgovernment the nation kept its temper. How can this 
forbearance be accounted for? Was it that circumstances no 
longer called for as stern and as effectual remedies as before ? 
No. Was the second Charles one whit more desirable than 
the first of that ilk? Was Clarendon more liked than Staf- 
ford? was Russell’s head of less consequence than Prynne’s: 
ears? No. Again, wrongs as grievous as those which Hamp- 
den had died in resisting were to be avenged, but in a milder, 
better fashion ; for fianbind had in the meantime learned to 
take snuff. Much of the haste and irritation which had pre- 
viously led to blows discharged itself in a good-natured 
sneeze. Snuff made men forbearing, even jocular over their 
wrongs. Who can doubt that the revolution which ended in 
placing William of Orange on his father-in-law’s throne owed - 
