prosecution tobacco and smokers gallantly held their own. In 
1782 a descent was made on the York cultivators. All their 
stock of tobacco was seized and publicly burnt, and the dealers 
were mulcted in penalties to the amount of £30,000. Even as 
late as 1831 were tobacco cultivators harassed. William the 
Fourth, of whom better things might have been expected, in that 
year prohibited its growth in Ireland. I think I am right in saying 
that at the present moment great efforts are being made to restore 
its cultivation in the United Kingdom. Truly it may be said, in 
reference to the “ noxious weed —Tempora mutantur et nos 
mutamur in illis. 
Curiously enough, in the reign of George the Third the practice 
of smoking was well nigh superseded by the practice of snuff 
taking. 
With reference to snuff, at that period, Wesley, in his ’* Poems 
on several occasions,” observes : 
“ To such a height with these is fashion grown 
They feed their very nostrils with a spoon.” 
Latterly smoking has, in my opinion, been happily revived. It has 
found a steady supporter in the future King of England. Except 
with the object of securing a good sneeze after dinner the 
somewhat unclean habit of snuffing is a thing of the past. 
Now let us turn to the consideration of the growth and 
cultivation of Tobacco in the West Indies. This is a u Minor” 
industry which certainly might be a “ Major” one, to which I have 
given very great and assiduous attention. I started the industry 
in the Bahamas in 1875-6 and notwithstanding the general want 
of soil, the manufacture of very smokable cigars soon commenced 
and is still carried on there. Most of the tobacco consumed by 
the middle and lower classes in the Bahamas when I left in 1880 
was grown and cured in Nassau. On the 22nd February, 1882, 
when Governor-in-Chief of the Windward Islands I pointed out 
to the Administrator of St. Lucia that the climate, soil, and 
rainfall of that rich Island were very similar to those of Havana, 
