6 
practice, but the King and Czar forbade its use under pain of death , 
with the pleasant alternative of having the nose cut off for 
enjoying it in the form of snuff. 
But these Potentates could not stem the tide. James soon 
found this out, and with an eye to the'main chance, cannily changed 
his tactics. He saw there was “a tide in the affairs of man, 
which taken at the flood leads on to fortune,” so he took to 
himself the pre-emption of all tobacco imported. He also decreed , 
with a view of putting money in his purse, that only those holding 
his Letters Patent should be allowed to import. 
It is perhaps not generally known that Charles the Martyr 
began his reign in 1625, to all intents and purposes, as a tobacco 
merchant and monopolist. The fact remains however that all 
tobacco not grown in Virginia and Bermuda was seized for his 
benefit, and that 50,000 lbs. of Spanish tobacco were bought by 
himself and resold to his subjects. 
Camden, in his annals, asserts that in the reign of the First 
Charles tobacco was highly prized, “ both as a recreation and a 
health restorative.” 
We smokers are much indebted to Lord Baltimore for the fillip 
he gave to tobacco cultivation. In 1633 he emigrated to Maryland 
with 200 persons who were specially encouraged to cultivate the 
industry which has been maintained there ever since. Great 
quantities were grown in England in the middle of the 17th 
century, but of course the psalm singing Rump Parliament 
prohibited its growth. The smokers, however, were too strong 
for Cromwell, and also for Charles the Second, who, vicious as 
he was, might have permitted his loyal subjects to indulge in the 
little vice of smoking, if it is one. 
In 1660 by 12 Carl. II., Chap. 34, Charles, simply to increase 
his own pocket money and to furnish means for his expensive 
habits, issued a legal prohibition against the cultivation of tobacco. 
Smokers were not to be daunted however. He could not put 
their pipes out, for the Yorkshire men pursued the industry with 
characteristic vstubbornness, and notwithstanding persecution and 
*m\ 
