Nicotiana; Or the Smoker's and Snuff-Taker's Companion

Many an excellent cause has been lost through the want of sound arguments, founded on a knowledge of the case, to support and place it in its proper light. None, perhaps, more than smoking and snuff-taking, the propriety of which, in the upper orders of life, have been and are, whether as regards their social or medicinal qualities, so frequently called in question by their enemies. These, the author is sorry to say, by the use of a few specious arguments, that chiefly pass current in refined society—the ladies in particular—have, strongly aided by prejudice, often made the defence succumb to the attack—an unpardonable weakness on the part of a consumer of the herb, who is naturally enough expected to know the entire history of the favorite of his adoption. Unacquainted with the excellence of his subject, its importance and consequence in ancient and modern annals—its high worshippers and eulogists, medical, and non-medical, with its many endearing and social virtues acknowledged over the far greater part of the world; he, the Author asserts, unacquainted with the above data and references, opposes but a feeble barrier to the sweeping and general assertions of his adversary.

In the above glorious cause (i. e. Anti-Smokers and Snuff-Takers v. Lovers of the Herb) the Author himself holds a brief in the defence as counsel, and flattering himself he has made himself fully master of the case, he begs to impart it as a proper, if not an absolutely requisite accompaniment to all lovers of the ‘soothing leaf.’ The prejudices against smoking are numerous. Smoking that is called unsocial, the author affirms to be the common source of harmony and comfort,—the badge of good fellowship in almost every state, kingdom, and empire. Aye, from the English settlers in the wildernesses of America, where the Calumet or Pipe of Peace is smoked by the natives, to the turbaned infidel of the East—from the burning zone of Africa to the icy regions of the North. In fact, in almost every clime and condition of society it is known as a common sign, or freemasonry of friendly feeling and social intercourse. In the East, the first act of hospitality is proffering the pipe with its invariable accompaniment coffee, which is more or less observed under various modifications over nearly the rest of the habitable world.

Smoking that is termed low and vulgar was, and is, an occasional recreation with most of the crowned heads of Europe, among which may be named his late Majesty, and their Royal Highnesses the Dukes of Sussex and Cumberland—Ferdinand of Spain, and the Emperor Nicholas of Germany—besides very many of the nobility of either empires and kingdoms.

Smoking that is termed idle, is singularly popular with mechanics, the most industrious classes of England.

Smoking that is said to be dirty and filthy, is in the greatest esteem, among the most moral and cleanly sect in Christianity—the Society of Friends or Quakers.

Smoking that is affirmed to be revolting and disgusting, is indulged in by the most rigidly kept women in the world—those of Turkey, who elevated in the dignity of the Haram, are taught to consider a whiff of their lord’s chibouque a distinction. Then the ladies of both Old and New Spain, who twining in the mazes of the giddy waltz, take the cigarros from their own pretty lips to transfer to those of their favoured partners. If indeed, royalty be wanted in the female line, since the good old times of Elizabeth, who can be so lamentably ignorant in the annals of smoking, as not to know, that the late Tumehemalee, Queen Consort of Tirahee, king of the Sandwich Islands, was dotingly fond of a pipe—sensible woman and above all petty prejudices as she was, at our own honoured court.

Now, in regard to snuff, that like smoking is so much abused, coming under the bans of the ignorant and prejudiced, beastly is the word commonly given to its application, though used to the greatest excess in the famed land of politesse—France. The most polished and fascinating address is ever followed by the gracefully proffered snuff-box. What a vast deal does it not speak at once in a man’s favor, begetting instantly a friendly sympathy in the head that gradually extends to the heart. What does not Moliere, their favorite author say, in favor of the herb? for the benefit of casuists we quote the sublime panegyric, which alone ought to confirm the bold lovers of the pipe and box, and ‘inspire and fire’ the diffident and wavering.

“Quoi que puisse dire Aristote, et toute la philosophie, il n’est rien d’égal au tabac; c’est la passion des honnêtes gens, et qui vit sans tabac, n’est pas digne de vivre. Non seulement il réjouit et purge les cerveaux humains, mais encore il instruit les ames à la vertu et l’on apprend avec lui à devenir honnête homme. Ne voyez-vous pas bien, dès qu’on en prend, de quelle manière obligeante on en use avec tout le monde, et comme on est ravi d’en donner à droit et à gauche, par tout où l’on se trouve? On n’attend pas même que l’on en demande, et l’on court au devant du souhait des gens; tant il est vrai que le tabac inspire des sentimens d’honneur et de vertu à tous ceux qui en prennent.”

The pipe and the box are twin-brothers; they are the agents of friendship, conviviality, and mirth; they succour the distressed, and heal the afflicted; impartial and generous, they administer to all that sue for comfort, and the spirits of peace advance at their call; they live in charity with all men, unite them, and re-unite them, and they sympathise all hearts, entwining them in a cheerful and lasting community of soul and sentiment. The pipe and the box give a vigour to the mind, and a language to its ideas. They give harmony a tone, and discord a silence. They inspire the bold, and encourage the diffident. Yes! through their agency alone, all these benefits are received and experienced. In short, they express in one breath, superlative happiness. A few illustrations will suffice:

A man in public company wishing to give utterance to some particular opinion or sentiment, invariably finds the pipe or the pinch the best prompter. A man wishing to be silent, in meditation finds the pipe his excuser. A man in anger with himself, his family, or the public, the pipe or the pinch will generally restore to kindness. A man desirous of meeting a friend, need but give him a “pinch,” and the heart is at once opened to his reception. A man in misfortune, either in sickness or in circumstances, will learn philosophy from the pipe, and count upon the latter, at least, as his own: in this case, from both tobacco and snuff, he borrows an independent vigour, and a cheerfulness that shines even in the sadness of his heart. The impregnative spirit of tobacco will wind its way to the most secret recesses of the brain, and impart to the imagination a soft and gentle glow of heat, equally remote from the dullness of fervor, and the madness of intoxication; for to these two extremes, without the moderative medium of the pipe, an author’s fancy will alternately expand itself. To the man of letters, therefore, the pipe is a sovereign remedy.

Amongst the incidental benefits of the pipe and box, may also be noticed their great advantages in a converzatione; they smooth the arrogance of an apostrophe, and soften the virulence of a negative, give strength to an ejaculation, and confidence to a whisper. In short, they extract the sting, and purify the spirit, which are too frequently inhering concomitants, in the common associations of life.

In conclusion, fully impressed with the sovereign consequence of his subject, the Author taketh his leave of the reader with the assurance, if his labours meet their due object, viz. imparting of the entire History of the much-aspersed, yet idolized herb, to its votaries, it will give him infinite pleasure. Should he not be so fortunate in upholding by that means,—

——the grand cause,
I smokes—I snuffs—I chaws,—

Philosophy still offers him consolation for the degeneracy of the times, in a pinch of Lundyfoot, or the fumes of his Merschaum.

Newington, Oct. 1831.

 

 

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	PAGE
Invocation to Tobacco	1
The History of the Importation of the Tobacco Plant into Europe, and the Origin of Smoking in England	3
On Snuff and the Origin of the Lundyfoot	18
Select Poetry:
Tobacco	27
Snuff	28
Thou art a Charm for Winter	30
All Nations Honour Thee	31
Walton and Cotton	34
On a Pipe of Tobacco	36
My Last Cigar	37
A Review of the Laws and Regulations concerning Tobacco	38
The Importance of Smoking and Snuff-taking, exemplified in a Grave Dissertation, dedicated to the Youth of the Rising Generation	48
The Medical Qualities of Tobacco	81
Botanical History and Culture of the Tobacco Plant	91
Original Poetry.
New Words to an Old Tune	102
Ode on Tobacco	104
Stanzas to a Lady	105
The Last Quid	106
Anecdotes	108
Divans	116
Mems. for Smokers	121

 

 

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Weed of the strange pow’r, Weed of the earth, Killer of dullness— Parent of mirth; Come in the sad hour, Come in the gay, Appear in the night, Or in the day: Still thou art welcome As June’s blooming rose, Joy of the palate, Delight of the nose. Weed of the green field, Weed of the wild, Foster’d in freedom,— America’s child; Come in Virginia, Come in Havannah, Friend of the universe, Sweeter than manna: Still thou art welcome, Rich, fragrant, and ripe. Pride of the tube-case, Delight of the pipe. Weed of the savage, Weed of each pole, Comforting,—soothing,— Philosophy’s soul; Come in the snuff-box, Come in cigar, In Strasburg and King’s, Come from afar: Still thou art welcome, The purest, the best, Joy of earth’s millions, For ever carest!

 

 

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NICOTIANA.

 

 

The earth, perhaps, has never offered to the use of man a herb, whose history and adoption offer so varied a subject for thought and the mind’s speculation, as tobacco. In whatever light we view it, there is something to interest the botanist, the physician, the philosopher, and even the historian, while, from the singularity of its discovery in a corner of the world where it had remained so long concealed, it would almost seem intended by Providence, to answer some especial purpose in the creation. Few things ever created a greater sensation than it did, on its first introduction into Europe. It was adopted with an avidity, so far from decreasing with time, that the experience of nearly three centuries has but rendered it universal. That the habits of snuffing, and smoking, are not beneficial to the human constitution, has been asserted as a fact by many savans, and more powerfully defended by others. Probably, after all, the most singular thing in favour of these habits is, that the practice of them, which should perfect our knowledge, advocates so strongly their use as agreeable stimulants, promoting cheerfulness, and mild and gentle in their operation when not adopted to too great an extent. This will be found the belief among the most enlightened, as well as the millions who echo its praises, from every clime and corner of the habitable globe.

The precise introduction of the tobacco plant into Europe, from the varied and contradictory accounts that exist concerning it, is involved in some obscurity. That it was unknown to the Europeans, till the discovery of South America by that indefatigable voyager Columbus, is certain; although Don Ulloa,[1] a Spaniard, and a writer of celebrity in the last century, would fain have shown that the plant was indigenous to several parts of Asia; as China, Persia, Turkey, and Arabia. He asserts, with some ingenuity we grant, that the plant was known and used in smoking in those countries, long previous to the discovery of the New World. But, as the Old Testament and the Koran, books that treated of the most trifling Eastern customs, make not the slightest mention of it, and more especially as no travellers have ever recorded its existence previous to the discovery of America, we cannot but dismiss the supposition, for want of data, as idle in the extreme.

Although we cannot, with the powers of observation Columbus is said to have possessed, but imagine the plant must have been known to him, particularly as it was so popular among the natives, yet no mention is made of that fact or of its introduction into Spain by him. On the contrary, one account furnished us, attributes it to Hernandez de Toledo, and another with a greater show of probability to Fernando Cortes.

This latter adventurer, after the death of his great and ill-fated predecessor, succeeded to the command of a flotilla to prosecute those researches in the New World, as it was then called, that promised such an influx of wealth to the nation. It was in the year 1519 that Cortes, flushed with the sanguine expectations of an ambitious people, set out to take possession, in the name of the Spanish sovereignty, of a country whose treasures were deemed boundless.

Coasting along for several days, he came to a part of the shore of a very rich and luxuriant description, which induced him to come to anchor, and land; the natives asserting that it abounded in gold and silver mines. This place was a province of Yucatan in the Mexican Gulf, called Tobaco, the place from whence tobacco is supposed to have derived its present name. There it was that the plant was discovered, in a very thriving and flourishing state. Among the natives who held it in the greatest possible esteem and reverence, from the almost magical virtues they attached to it, it was called petun, and by those in the adjoining islands yoli. So singular a production of the country could not but draw the attention of the Spanish commander to it. The consequence was, that a specimen of it was shipped home with other curiosities of the country, with a long detail of its supposed astonishing virtues, in pharmacy. In the latter end of the year the plants arrived at their destination, and this may fairly be deemed to have been their first entry into the civilized portion of the world.

A dreadful disease, first brought from America by the last return of Columbus, raged about this period with a fearful and unchecked virulency in Spain, committing dreadful devastations on the human frame, and finally ending in the most horrible death imagination could picture. This circumstance served to procure it a most sanguine welcome; for the sailors composing the fleet, having learnt it from the natives, had disseminated the belief, that it was the only known antidote against its ravages,—that it in fact answered the purposes of mercury in the present day, a belief welcomed with enthusiasm, and ending in despair.

No sooner, however, was its inefficacy perceived, than it sunk in the estimation of its worshippers, as low as it previously had risen. Indeed, into such obscurity did it fall after the hopes it had vainly excited, that nearly forty years elapsed, ere it obtained any notice worth commemorating. At about the end of that period, however, we find that it had regained the ground it had previously lost, on a surer and better footing, as a soothing and gentle stimulant.

From Spain, the plant was carried into Portugal; and from thence, gradually exported to the different kingdoms throughout Europe. Shortly after this, it was sent to the East, where it soon came into notice, as a narcotic, and consequently found a ready market. Peculiar facilities at this time too presented themselves to the Spaniards, above every other nation; for Vasco de Gama, another of its adventurers, had discovered and explored a great portion of the countries lying beyond the Cape of Good Hope. Among other articles, exchanged in the way of commerce with the natives, was tobacco: and this, despite of the reasoning of Don Ulloa mentioned some time back, was the first channel through which Hindostan, Arabia, and China, received the plants, now so common throughout the whole of the Eastern Empire. This occurred about the year 1560, shortly after it had been carried into France and Italy.

While the nations of the Peninsula were thus distinguishing themselves, and in the meridian of their glory, extending their discoveries, conquests, and trade to the furthermost parts of that world which they had opened to the eyes of astonished Europe, England, for a time, was incapacitated from pursuing a similar course by intestine broils and factions at home. And even when Elizabeth ascended the throne, her naturally enterprising and ambitious spirit was almost solely confined to arranging domestic discords, and settling foreign quarrels.

Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a plain blunt soldier, instigated by feelings of emulation and national enterprise, was the first to direct the attention of the maiden queen towards the benefits that would naturally result from planting a British colony in America. At his request a patent was granted, empowering him to plant and colonize some of the southern districts. He accordingly fitted out a squadron at his own expense, and proceeded on his voyage, which, from different circumstances that occurred, miscarried. A similar fate attended two subsequent attempts, when Sir Humphrey’s half-brother, the after-celebrated Sir Walter Ralegh or Raleigh, as it is now spelt, returned home from the wars in the Netherlands.

Inspired by a restless ambition that ever distinguished this great man, he succeeded in persuading the knight to undertake a fourth voyage, offering to accompany him himself. Combining courage, enterprise, and perseverance, with a degree of knowledge little known at the period we treat of, few men were better qualified for the successful execution of such an enterprise than Raleigh. The sequel proved the truth of this remark, Newfoundland was discovered and taken; though the original gallant projector, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, we have recorded, was drowned on his passage home.

In the year 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh applied for the renewal of the letters patent in his own name, which the queen immediately granted him. Having fitted out a squadron, he put to sea, and after a somewhat tedious voyage, discovered Wingandacoa, which he afterwards called Virginia, in honor of Elizabeth. On his return, he was received with peculiar favour by the queen, who testified her satisfaction by making him a knight, while she lent a willing ear towards the colonizing schemes Sir Walter opened to her aspiring view.

In pursuance of some of these, Sir Richard Grenville, another relation of Sir Walter Raleigh’s, was sent out with Captain Lane, whom he left in command of one hundred men in one of the southern districts of the country, appointing him at the same time to act as governor; and promising to return to him before the next spring with stores and fresh provisions. Circumstances, that have never yet been properly explained to this day, prevented Sir Richard from keeping his word, in consequence of which, the colony was reduced to great distress. Shortly afterwards, taking the advantage of Sir Francis Drake’s return from the Spanish wars, they embarked on board his ships for England, where they arrived in the month of July, A. D. 1686, with their commander, Lane. Among the specimens of the productions and peculiarities of the country, they brought with them that which forms our subject, the tobacco plant.

This, by some, is said to have been its first importation into Great Britain; Lobel, however, asserts, it was cultivated here in 1570, a statement plausible enough, we admit, considering the previous length of time the plant had been known in Spain and Portugal, but yet irreconcileable with the data our own historical research gives us. That it might indeed have been introduced from France previous to its importation from Virginia, and cultivated in trifling quantities, is highly probable, inasmuch as the French date its first appearance among them in 1560, just ten years previous to Lobel’s affirmation. Linnæus likewise mentions that the plant became known in Europe the same year the French date from, and Humboldt so far corroborates him, as to state that seeds of it were received from Yucatan in 1559.

That it was known in France, some years previous to its being carried into England, from the above accounts handed down to us, we cannot doubt. The French history of the importation of the plant into their country, attributes it to Jean Nicot of Nismes, who was their ambassador at the court of Lisbon in the reign of Francis II. Some of the seed, we are informed, was given him by a Dutchman, who had brought it with him from Florida. This, we imagine, must have been shortly after it had begun to regain notice in Spain.

Impressed with the current account of its properties as a medicine and luxurious stimulant, he sent a portion of it home, where it arrived, and under high court patronage soon became popular.

In England—and we shall now proceed to note our own accounts of the subject,—the first importer is very commonly thought to have been Sir Walter Raleigh, who is said to have brought it from Virginia in 1586—a period when the tobacco plant was known throughout nearly the whole of Europe, while whole fields of it were cultivated for commerce in Spain and Portugal. If it is to be attributed to an Englishman, few possess a better claim to the honor than Sir Francis Drake, as he had made several voyages to the New World in 1570-2-7, ere Raleigh had undertaken his first. This idea is exactly in accordance, too, with the dates furnished us by Lobel, Linnæus and Humboldt. Independent of this strong circumstantial evidence, Bomare[2] and Camden[3] both attribute its first appearance to him,—authority not to be disputed for a moment.

That Sir Walter was the first distinguished individual that set the fashion of smoking, we have recorded, although this, we are again told, was taught him by the notorious Ralph Lane, whose adventure, we have a page or too back slightly touched upon. Lane had himself learnt the habit, from the Virginians, and having brought several of their pipes home with him, communicated it to Raleigh, who indulged in it greatly, as a pleasant pastime. It was during one of his pleasing reveries under the soothing influence of the pipe, that the well-known anecdote is said to have occurred of a lacquey drenching him with water, supposing from the smoke he saw issuing from his nose and mouth that he was internally on fire. To such a degree, indeed, did he adopt and set the fashion of smoking, that he was frequently in the habit of giving entertainments to his friends, in which the fare consisted of pipes of tobacco, and ale seasoned with nutmegs—a somewhat curious origin of smoking-parties, or divans, in England. The result was, the example of a man so justly celebrated and popular was soon imitated by the court, and in the course of years gradually became common among the lower orders of people.

Elizabeth, notwithstanding her strong and powerful mind, possessed the sex’s natural vanity and love of novelty to a great degree, and would seem to have very warmly patronized the custom; some writers of the period have gone as far as to affirm, in her own person. We are further borne out in this statement by the authority of the Biographia Britannica, that the ladies of the court indulged in smoking the fragrant herb, as well as the noblemen and gentle men. That the queen therefore set a personal example, is by no means so strange. What a striking contrast does this afford, in regard to the taste expressed by the sex in the present day towards tobacco!

In reference to the nomenclature of the tobacco plant, like that of most things handed down to posterity, it admits of many versions. As we have previously observed in America, it was termed among the natives, petun and yoli, besides other barbarous names, probably each appellation peculiar to a different tribe. On the appearance of the plant in England, it received the name it is still recognized by, namely, Tobacco. This word, by some writers, is supposed to have had its derivation from Tobago in the West Indies, while others assert it is derived from Tobaco, a different place altogether; which latter, from its closer approximation to the word tobacco, we cannot but imagine correct. In botany it is more particularly known under the scientific appellation of Herba Nicotiana, so named on its introduction into France, in compliment to her ambassador, Jean Nicot of Nismes, from whom it was received. It was also well known under the imposing titles of Herba Reginæ Catharinæ Medicæ, and Herba Reginæ: the first given in honor of the queen, and the latter of a grand prior of the house of Lorraine, both of whom were the first receivers of the plant, and fostered it on account of the many virtues it was supposed to be possessed of in pharmacy. In different countries its names were various. In Italy at that time it was called St. Crucis, taken from St. Croix, an apostolic legate who brought it into the country, somewhere in the middle of the 16th century. The Dutch call it Taboc, or Taboco, indifferently. Some of the German writers describe it under the name of the Holy or the Indian Healing Herb—Heilig wundkraut, or Indianisch wundkraut. In most other countries Tobac or Tabac prevails.

Notwithstanding the extreme popularity that attended the introduction of the plant generally throughout Europe, there were not wanting those sovereigns who testified an antipathy at first to the tobacco plant, little short of that, for which king James was afterwards remarkable—of whom we shall have occasion to speak anon.

Amurath the Fourth forbade its introduction in any form whatever within his dominions under very severe penalties. The Czar of Muscovy and the king of Persia issued edicts of a similar nature, while Pope Urban the Eighth made a bull to excommunicate all those who took tobacco into churches.

 

 

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Jove once resolv’d, the females to degrade, To propagate their sex without their aid; His brain conceiv’d, and soon the pangs and throes He felt nor car’d the unnatural birth disclose: At last when tried no remedy could do, The god took snuff and out the goddess flew. Joe Miller.

Snuff was manufactured and consumed in great quantities in France, long previous to its adoption in England. For the account of its being introduced to Great Britain we are indebted to the once celebrated[4] Charles Lillie.

Before the year 1702, when we sent out a fleet of ships under the command of Sir George Rook, with land forces commanded by the duke of Ormond, in order to make a descent on Cadiz, snuff-taking was very rare, and indeed very little known in England; it being chiefly a luxurious habit among foreigners residing here, and a few English gentry, who had travelled abroad. Among these, the mode of taking snuff was with pipes the size of quills out of small spring boxes. These pipes let out a very small quantity of snuff, upon the back of the hand, and this was snuffed up the nostrils with the intention of producing the sensation of sneezing, which we need not say forms now no part of the design, or rather fashion of snuff-taking.

But to return to our Cadiz expedition by sea. When the fleet arrived near Cadiz, our land forces were disembarked at a place called Port St. Mary, where after some fruitless attempts, it was resolved to embark the troops, and set sail for England. But previous to this, the port and several adjacent places were plundered. There, besides some very rich merchandize, plate, jewels, pictures, and a great quantity of cochineal, several thousand barrels and casks of fine snuffs were taken, which had been manufactured in different parts of Spain. Each of these contained four tin canisters of snuff of the best growth, and of the finest manufacture.

With this plunder on board (which fell chiefly to the share of the land officers), the fleet was returning to England; but on the way, it was resolved to pay a visit to Vigo, a considerable port in Spain, where the admiral had advice that a number of galleons from the Havannah richly laden had put in: here, our fleet got in and destroyed the greater part of the Spanish shipping, and the plunder was exceedingly rich and valuable.

It now came to the turn of the sea-officers and sailors to be snuff proprietors and merchants; for at Vigo they again became possessed of prodigious quantities of gross snuff from the Havannah in bales, bags, and scrows,[5] which were designed for sale in different parts of Spain.

Thus, though snuff was very little known, as we have here remarked at that period, the quantities taken in this expedition, which were estimated at fifty tons weight, plainly show that in the other countries of Europe, snuff was held in great estimation, and that the taking of it was not at all unfashionable.

The fleet having returned to England, and most of the ships been put out of commission, the officers and sailors brought their snuff—called by way of victorious distinction—“Vigo snuffs,” to a very quick and cheap market: waggon loads being sold at Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Chatham, for not more than 4d. per lb. The purchasers were chiefly Spanish Jews, who in the present case, bought up almost the whole quantity at considerable advantage.

The land officers who were possessed of the finer kinds of snuff, taken at Port St. Mary, had sold considerable portions at the ports where they had touched on their homeward voyage. Others, however, we are told, better understood the nature of the commodity which had fallen to their share, and kept it for several years; selling it off by degrees for very high prices.

From the above-mentioned quantities of different snuffs, thus distributed throughout the kingdom, novelty being quickly caught in England, arose the custom and fashion of snuff-taking; and growing upon the nation by degrees, they are now as common here, as almost in any other part of Europe; France alone excepted.

After giving us a somewhat elaborate account of the manufactures of different Spanish, Havannah and Brazilian snuffs, Lillie proceeds to describe a snuff he calls ‘Inferior Lisbon,’ that singularly enough, closely approximates to the celebrated Lundy Foot. “This kind,” he says “from the great heat used in drying it, has an agreeable smell, like high-dried malt, and is often called snuff of the burnt flavour; but the smell soon goes off on exposure to the air, for which reason, it is advisable to put no more into the snuff-box than shall be used whilst fresh.” Though we cannot but be aware, from the preceding account, that a snuff exactly resembling in all its attributes our own famous high-dried, called Lundyfoot, so named from the nominal inventor, existed; yet the history of its discovery is of too facetious a description to be omitted here.

Lundy Foot, the celebrated snuff manufacturer, some six-and-twenty years ago, had his premises at Essex-bridge in Dublin, where he made the common scented snuffs then in vogue. In preparing the snuffs, it was usual to dry them by a kiln at night, which kiln was always left in strict charge of a man appointed to regulate the heat, and see the snuffs were not spoilt. The man usually employed in this business, Larey by name, a tight boy of Cork, chanced to get drunk over the ‘cratur’, (i. e. a little whiskey) that he had gotten to comfort him, and quite regardless of his watch, fell fast asleep, leaving the snuff drying away. Going his usual round in the morning, Lundy Foot found the kiln still burning, and its guardian lying snoring with the fatal bottle, now empty, in his right hand. Imagining the snuff quite spoilt, and giving way to his rage, he instantly began belabouring the shoulders of the sleeper with the stick he carried.

“Och, be quiet wid ye, what the devil’s the matter, master, that ye be playing that game,” shouted the astounded Larey, as he sprung up and capered about under the influence of the other’s walking cane.

“You infernal scoundrel, I’ll teach you to get drunk, fall asleep, and suffer my property to get spoilt,” uttered the enraged manufacturer, as each word was accompanied by a blow across the dancing Mr. Larey’s shoulders.

“Stop! stop! wid ye, now; sure you wouldn’t be afther spaking to ye’r ould sarvant that way,—the snuff’s only a little dryer, or so, may be,” exclaimed ‘the boy,’ trying to soften matters.

“You big blackguard you, didn’t you get drunk and fall asleep?” interrogated his master, as he suspended his arm for a moment.

“Och by all the saints, that’s a good’un now, where can be the harum of slaaping wid a drop or so; besides—but hould that shilelah—hear a man spake raison.”

Just as Lundy Foot’s wrath had in some degree subsided in this serio-comic scene, and he had given the negligent watcher his nominal discharge, who should come in but a couple of merchants. They instantly gave him a large order for the snuffs they were usually in the habit of purchasing, and requested to have it ready for shipping by the next day. Not having near so large a quantity at the time by him, in consequence of what had happened, he related the occurrence to them, at the same time, by way of illustration, pointing out the trembling Larey, occupied in rubbing his arms and back, and making all kinds of contortions.

Actuated by curiosity, the visitors requested to look at the snuff, although Lundy Foot told them, from the time it had been drying, it must be burnt to a chip. Having taken out the tins, they were observed to emit a burnt flavour, anything but disagreeable, and on one of the gentlemen taking a pinch up and putting it to his nose, he pronounced it the best snuff he had ever tasted. Upon this, the others made a similar trial, and all agreed that chance had brought it to a degree of perfection before unknown. Reserving about a third, Lundy Foot sold the rest to his visitors. The only thing that remained now, was to give it a name: for this purpose, in a facetious mood, arising from the sudden turn affairs had taken, the master called his man to him who was lingering near, “Come here, you Irish blackguard, and tell these gentlemen what you call this snuff, of your own making.”

Larey, who did not want acuteness, and perceived the aspect of things, affected no trifling degree of sulky indignation, as he replied. “And is it a name ye’r in want of, Sir? fait I should have thought it was the last thing you couldn’t give; without indeed, you’ve given all your stock to me already. You may even call it ‘Irish blackguard,’ stidd of one Michael Larey.”

‘Upon this hint he spake,’ and as many a true word is spoken in jest, so was it christened on the spot. The snuff was sent to England immediately, and to different places abroad, where it soon became a favorite to so great a degree, that the proprietor took out a patent and rapidly accumulated a handsome fortune. Such are the particulars connected with the discovery of the far-famed Lundy Foot or Irish Blackguard—for which we are indebted to a member of the Irish bar, who was a resident in Dublin at the time.

With regard to the numerous varieties of snuffs that exist, we shall say nothing at present, merely observing that the principal kinds of their manufacture are under three classes. The first is the granulated, the second an impalpable powder, and the third the bran, or coarse part, remaining after sifting the second part.

 

 

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TOBACCO.

[From a Book Published in 1618, called Texnotamia, or the Marriage of the Arts.]

Tobacco’s a musician—and in a pipe delighteth It descends in a close, thro’ the organs of the nose, With a relish that inviteth. This makes me sing so-ho!—so-ho! boys— Ho! boys, sound I loudly— Earth ne’er did breed such a jovial weed, Whereof to boast so proudly. Tobacco is a lawyer—his pipes do love long cases, When our brains it enters, our feet do make indentures, While we scale with stamping paces. This makes me sing, &c. Tobacco’s a physician—good, both for sound and sickly, ’Tis a hot perfume that expels cold rheume, And makes it flow down quickly. This makes me sing, &c. Tobacco’s a traveller, come from the Indies hither,— It passed sea and land, ere it came to my hand, And scaped the wind and weather. This makes me sing, &c. Tobacco is a critticke, that still old paper turneth— Whose labour and care is as smoke in the aire, That ascends from a ray when it burneth. This makes me sing, &c. Tobacco is an ignis fatuus—a fat and fyrie vapour, That leads men about till the fire be out, Consuming like a taper. This makes me sing, &c. Tobacco is a whyffler, and cries huff, snuff, with furie; His pipes, his club, once linke—he’s the wiser that does drinke,— Thus armed I fear not a furie. This makes me sing so-ho!—so-ho!—boys— Ho! boys sound I loudly; Earth ne’er did breed such a jovial weed, Whereof to boast so proudly.

SNUFF.

—A delicate pinch! oh how it tingles up The titillated nose, and fills the eyes And breast, till, in one comfortable sneeze The full collected pleasure bursts at last! Most rare Columbus! thou shalt be, for this, The only Christopher in my kalendar. Why but for thee the uses of the nose Were half unknown, and its capacity Of joy. The summer gale, that, from the heath, At midnoon glittering with the golden furze, Bears its balsamic odours, but provokes, Not satisfies the sense, and all the flowers, That with their unsubstantial fragrance, tempt And disappoint, bloom for so short a space, That half the year the nostrils would keep Lent, But that the kind tobacconist admits No winter in his work; when nature sleeps, His wheels roll on, and still administer A plenitude of joy, a tangible smell. What is Peru, and those Brazilian mines, To thee, Virginia! miserable realms; They furnish gold for knaves, and gems for fools; But thine are common comforts! to omit Pipe-panegyric and tobacco-praise, Think what a general joy the snuff-box gives Europe, and far above Pizarro’s name Write Raleigh in thy records of renown! Him let the school-boy bless if he behold His mother’s box produced, for when he sees The thumb and finger of authority Stuffed up the nostrils, when hot head and wig Shake all; when on the waistcoat black, the dust Or drop falls brown, soon shall the brow severe Relax, and from vituperative lips, Words that of birch remind not, sounds of praise And jokes that must be laughed at must proceed. Anthology, Vol. II. p. 115.

THOU ART A CHARM FOR WINTER.

Nor here to pause—I own thy potent power, When chilling blasts assail our frigid clime, While flies the hail or rudely beats the shower, Or sad impatience chides the wings of time. Come, then, my pipe, and let thy savoury cloud, Now wisdom seldom shews her rev’rend mien, Spread round my head a bland and shelt’ring shroud, When riot mingles mischief with the scene. Shield me at evening from the selfish fool, The wretch who never felt for human woes, And while my conduct’s framed by virtue’s rule, Let only peace and honour interpose. Shield me by day from hatred’s threat’ning frowns, Still let thine aromatic curtains spread, When bold presumption mounts to put me down, And hurls his maledictions round my head. Do this, my pipe, and till my sand’s run out, I’ll sing thy praise among the sons of wealth, Blest weed that bids the glutton lose his gout, And gains respect among the drugs of health. No shrew shall harm thee, no mundungus foul Shall stain thy lining, as the ermine white; My choicest friends shall revel o’er thy bowl, And charm away the terrors of the night. From ample hoards I’ll bring the fragrant spoils, The richest herb from Kerebequa’s shores, That grateful weed, that props the British Isles, And Sussex,[6] England’s Royal Duke adores. The Social Pipe.

ALL NATIONS HONOR THEE.

’Tis not for me to sing thy praise alone, Where’er the merchant spreads his wind-bleach’d sails; Wherever social intercourse is known, There too thy credit, still the theme prevails. The bearded Turk, majestically grand, In high divan upholds the jointed reeds; And clearer reasons on the case in hand, Till opposition to his lore concedes. Thy potent charms delight the nabob’s taste, Fixt on his elephant (half reasoning beast); He twines the gaudy hookah round his waist, And puffs thy incense to the breezy east. The grave Bavarian, midst his half year’s frost, Delights to keep thy ruby fins awake; And as in traffic’s maze his fancy’s tost, Light skims the icy surface of the lake. The Indian Sachem at his wigwam-gate, By chiefs surrounded when the warfare ends, Seated in all the pomp of savage state, Circles the calumet[7] to cheer his friends. The Frenchman loves thee in another way, He grinds thy leaves to make him scented snuff; Boasts of improvements, and presumes to say, France still the polish gives and we the rough. Still let him boast, nor put John Bull to shame, His Gascon tales shall Englishmen divert; France for her trifles has been dear to fame, From her the ruffle sprung, from us the shirt. The lib’ral Spaniard and the Portuguese, Spread richest dainties brought from realms afar; Nor think their festive efforts form’d to please, Unless redundant breathes the light cigar. So when our Druids inspiration sought, They burnt the misletoe to fume around; Th’ inspiring vapours gave a strength to thought, They dealt out lore impressive and profound. Methinks I see them with the mental eye, I hear their lessons with attention’s ear; Of early fishing with the summer fly, And many a pleasing tale to anglers dear. The while they draw from the inspiring weed, They boast a charm the smoker owns supreme; And now diverted with the polish’d reed, Forego the little fish-house by the stream. Tho’ this be fancy, still it serves to shew, That Wisdom’s sons have lov’d Columbia’s pride; And shall, while waters round our island flow, Tho’ fools and fops its healing breath deride. Mem’ry still hold me in thy high esteem, For lonely setting upon the day’s decline; Visions sublime, before my fancy gleam, And rich ideas from her stores combine. The Social Pipe.

WALTON AND COTTON.[8]

Our sires of old esteemed this healing leaf, Sacred to Bacchus and his rosy train; And many a country squire and martial chief, Have sung its virtues mid a long campaign. Methinks I see Charles Cotton and his friend, The modest Walton from Augusta’s town; Enter the fishing house an hour to spend, And by the marble[9] table set them down. Boy! bring me in the jug of Derby ale, My best tobacco and my smoking tray; The boy obedient brings the rich regale, And each assumes his pipe of polish’d clay. Thus sang young Cotton, and his will obey’d, And snug the friends were seated at their ease; They light their tubes without the least parade, And give the fragrance to the playful breeze. Now cloud on cloud parades the fisher’s room, The Moreland ale rich sparkles to the sight; They draw fresh wisdom from the circling gloom, And deal a converse pregnant with delight. The love-sick Switzer from his frozen lake, Lights thee to cheer him thro’ the upland way; To her who sighs impatient for his sake, And thinks a moment loiter’d, is a moon’s delay. The hardy Scot amidst his mountain snow, When icy fetters bind the dreary vale, Draws from his muse the never-failing glow, And bids defiance to the rushing gale. The honest Cambrians round their cyder cask, In friendship meet the moments to solace; Tell all thy worth as circles round the ask, And cheerly sing of “Shenkin’s noble race.” The hardy tar in foamy billows hid, While fiery flashes all around deform; Clings to the yard and takes his fav’rite quid, Smiles at the danger and defies the storm; And when the foe with daring force appears, Recurrent to the sav’ry pouch once more, New vigour takes and three for George he cheers, As vict’ry smiles, and still the cannons roar. The soldier loves thee on his dreary march, And when in battle dreadful armies join; ’Tis thou forbids his sulphur’d lips should parch, And gives new strength to charge along the line. Thy acrid flavour to new toil invites The ploughman, drooping ’neath the noon-day beam; Inspir’d by thee, he thinks of love’s delights, And down the furrow whistles to his team. Thus all admire thee: search around the globe, The rich, the poor, the volatile, the grave; Save the SWEET fop, who fears to taint his robe, The smock-fac’d fribble, and the henpeck’d slave. Thus all esteem thee, and to this agree, Thou art the drug preferr’d in ev’ry clime; To clear the head, and set the senses free, And lengthen life beyond the wonted time. The Social Pipe.

ON A PIPE OF TOBACCO.

BY ISAAC HAWKINS BROWN, ESQ.

Pretty tube of mighty power! Charmer of an idle hour; Object of my hot desire, Lip of wax and eye of fire; And thy snowy taper waist, With my fingers gently brac’d; And thy lovely swelling crest, With my bended stopper prest; And the sweetest bliss of blisses, Breathing from thy balmy kisses; Happy thrice and thrice agen— Happiest he of happy men! Who, when again the night returns, When again the taper burns; When again the crickets gay, Little crickets full of play; Can afford his tube to feed, With the fragrant Indian weed; Pleasure for a nose divine, Incense of the god of wine! Happy thrice and thrice agen— Happiest he of happy men!

MY LAST CIGAR.

The mighty Thebes, and Babylon the great, Imperial Rome, in turn, have bowed to fate; So this great world, and each ‘particular star’, Must all burn out, like you, my last cigar: A puff—a transient fire, that ends in smoke, And all that’s given to man—that bitter joke— Youth, Hope, and Love, three whiffs of passing zest, Then come the ashes, and the long, long, rest.

 

 

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During the reign of Elizabeth, a facility had been afforded to the dissemination of tobacco, that was soon destined to receive a check, on the accession of her successor, James the First, to the throne. This arose from a prejudice, that, with many others, rendered this weak and vacillating monarch remarkable. Whether it arose, as many have supposed, from his dislike to Sir Walter Raleigh, so despicably and cruelly shown, and that the source of his peculiar feelings turned with bitterness to the plant of that great man’s adoption, can only be left to the imagination to decide; but that he exerted all the powers of his mind for its entire suppression, is certain.

In the first place, the importation duty had been, up to this period, but 2d. per lb., and this, by the first law James passed, was increased to 6s. 10d., thus adding the comparatively enormous sum of 6s. 8d. to the previously existing trifle. In consequence of this, nearly a stagnation of the trade took place; and Stith informs us, that so low was it reduced in 1611, that only 142,085 lbs. weight were imported from Virginia, not amounting to one-sixth of the previous annual supply.

One of two things now only remained to be done, as the traders could have no interest to gratify in shipping it under the existing law; they were either compelled to give it up or cultivate it at home. The latter alternative was adopted, and till the year 1620, the tobacco-plant was cultivated to a very considerable extent. But the obduracy of its royal enemy was not to be so eluded, an act was passed especially prohibiting its culture at home. The crisis of the plant’s fate seemed now to approach. Determining on the other hand, not to forfeit an indulgence, that habit in a great degree had made necessary, it was examined and found in the reading of the act made in 1604, that though it particularly provided 6s. 10d. duty should be levied on all tobacco from Virginia, no mention was made of its importation from any other colony.

Taking advantage of this omission, recourse was immediately had to the Spanish and Portuguese districts, and the consequence was an influx of the favorite herb at the old duty of 2d. The only real sufferers through adopting this new channel of commerce, were the planters of Virginia, who made a representation of their loss to the throne, when another law was passed, lessening the duty and prohibiting the importation from any other place.

To this effect an act was passed in 1624, and though it was some time previous to the trade regaining any thing like its pristine vigour, it had but just began to do so, when, as if the sight was doubly hateful to James, he had a new law passed. This was to the effect, that none, under very heavy penalties, should deal in the article without holding letters patent from himself. A blow so sudden and unexpected, occasioned the ruin, we are told, of many thousands, and the trade went rapidly to decay.

So uncertain and precarious did the law at this period seem with regard to tobacco, and so well was the irritable monarch’s antipathy to it known, by the celebrated “Counterblaste” he had written against it, of which we shall treat hereafter, that few cared to speculate in the traffic. Although the act James had made in 1620 was not repealed, the cultivation of the plant was still carried on clandestinely to a very great extent. Most of the laws, indeed, since James’s time, have an evident tendency to banish tobacco from the kingdom. An act was made 12th Car. II. cap. 34. This law, embracing the prohibitory portions of the preceding acts, confiscated the tobacco so found, with a fine of 100 shillings for every pole of land so planted.

Another shortly followed after this, the 15th Car. II. cap. 17, wherein the previous one was enforced, and the penalty fixed at 10l. for every rod. By this we may infer, that the former of these acts had not, in the estimation of the legislature, been sufficiently powerful to restrain the practice of the secret culture of the plant at home.

Turning aside from the perusal of these laws, which probably arose from the pique of a learned though imbecile monarch, we cannot but reflect with a feeling of surprise, that our own enlightened regulations have their origin distinctly traced to them. This is an assumption I think we may fairly maintain, when we state that the duty is now 3s.[10] per lb. on the importation of the raw material; a sum that forms no less than fifteen times its prime cost in the countries where it is produced. On the leaf manufactured it is immense, the duty on cigars being 9s. the lb. (5th Geo. IV. cap. 48,) and on snuff 6s.

That tobacco, as a luxury, is a fit article for taxation we are not disposed to deny, but a little reflection must convince any one, that a tax so exceedingly high, instead of adding to the revenue, can but have an opposite effect; for what can be a greater incentive to the contraband trade that is notoriously known to exist in this article of home consumption?

If the duty were lowered, the great cause of smuggling in this line would no longer remain, and at the same time a much greater quantity would doubtless be consumed. If we but look back in other instances of a similar kind, we shall generally find it so. The duty on spirits in Ireland and Scotland was decreased from 5s. 6d. the wine-gallon down so low as 2s., which instead of lowering the amount of the annual tax, very considerably added to it. Then again, in regard to the duty formerly levied on French wines, it was lowered from 11s. 5½d. down to 6s. the gallon, a reduction that also greatly tended to increase the amount of the year’s revenue. The duty on coffee is another proof we shall cite: in 1823 it was 1s. per lb. and the goverment derived from it that year 393,708l. Whereas when half of the amount levied was taken off, leaving it but 6d., in 1825 the gross receipt amounted to 426,187l. Thus may we see, with very numerous other instances that might be named, the advantages arising from a low tax, which we affirm, with few exceptions, will ever be found to benefit the country at large.

Nor is this the only evil we have to complain of as regards the tobacco regulations; while the whole system is defective, there is one that more imperatively calls for the attention of the legislature. What we allude to is, the glaring impolicy of obliging our merchant service to traverse different portions of the globe, at a consequently large expence, in search of an article we have the means of producing at home, and whose very production would furnish constant employment to some of the millions now a burthen to the country.

Perhaps it would scarcely be credited, that in 1826, no less a quantity of tobacco and snuff was imported than 40,074,447 lbs. Now out of this, only 18,761,245 lbs. paid duty; yet to the serious amount of 3,310,375l. sterling. The rest we suppose sought a market elsewhere.

As a proof of the evident want of policy in our regulations concerning tobacco, we shall give our readers a slight abstract to judge for themselves.

No tobacco shall be imported but from America on pain of forfeiture, with the vessel and its contents, except from Spain, Portugal, and Ireland, from which it may be imported under certain regulations. (29 Geo. III. c. 68.) But tobacco of the territories of Russia or Turkey may be imported from thence in British-built ships and warehoused, and may be exported or entered for home consumption on payment of the like duties as tobacco of the United States of America; and on its being manufactured in Great Britain and exported, shall be entitled to the drawbacks. (43 Geo. III. c. 68.)

By the 45 Geo. III. c. 57, tobacco the production of the West Indies or the continent of America, belonging to any foreign European state, may be imported into certain ports specified in the act, and exported to any port of the United Kingdom subject to the regulations of the act; and such tobacco shall pay the same duties as that which is the growth of the British West Indies, or of the United States of America.

By the 49 Geo. III. c. 25, unmanufactured tobacco may be imported from any place in British vessels navigated according to law, or in foreign ships navigated in any manner whatever belonging to any state in amity with Great Britain; and such tobacco shall be liable to the same regulations as tobacco from the British plantations. But no tobacco or snuff shall be imported in any vessel of less burthen than 120 tons; nor any tobacco-stalks, tobacco-stalk flower, or snuff work in any vessel whatever; nor any tobacco or snuff in casks less than 450 lbs. on the like penalty; except loose tobacco for the crew not exceeding five lbs. for each person; nor shall the vessel be forfeited, if proof be made, from the smallness of the quantity, that such tobacco or snuff was on board without the knowledge of the owner or master. (29 G. III. c. 68.)

And no tobacco or snuff shall be imported, except at London, Bristol, Liverpool, Lancaster, Cowes, Falmouth, Whitehaven and Hull, (and by 31 Geo. III. c. 47, Newcastle-upon-Tyne), on the like forfeiture.

Every manufacturer of tobacco or snuff shall take out a licence from the officers of excise, for which he shall pay, if the quantity of tobacco and snuff-work weighed by him for manufacture within the year ending the 10th of October, previous to his taking out such licence did not exceed

			20,000	lbs.	£.	2	0	0
Above	20,000,	and under	30,000			3	0	0
	30,000		40,000			4	0	0
	40,000		50,000			5	0	0
	50,000		60,000			6	0	0
	60,000		70,000			7	0	0
	70,000		80,000			8	0	0
	80,000		90,000			9	0	0
	90,000		100,000			10	0	0
	100,000		120,000			12	0	0
	120,000		150,000			15	0	0
	150,000		———			20	0	0

Every person who shall first become a manufacturer of tobacco or snuff, shall pay for every such licence 2l., and within ten days after the 10th of October next, after taking out such licence, such further additional sum as, with the said 2l., shall amount to the duty hereinbefore directed to be paid, according to the quantity of tobacco and snuff-work weighed for manufacture.

And every dealer in tobacco and snuff shall take out a licence in like manner, for which he shall pay within the liberties of the chief office in London 5s., elsewhere 2s. 6d. (43 Geo. III. c. 69.) But persons licensed as manufacturers who shall not sell tobacco in a less quantity than four pounds, nor snuff than two pounds, need not be licensed as dealers. (29 Geo. III.)

Every person who shall manufacture or deal in tobacco or snuff without taking out such licence, or shall not renew the same ten days at least before the end of the year, shall forfeit, if a manufacturer 200l., and if a dealer 50l.

Persons in partnership need not take out more than one licence for one house. Every manufacturer and dealer shall make entry in writing of his house or place intended to be made use of for manufacturing, keeping, or selling tobacco or snuff, three days previous to his beginning, on pain of forfeiting 200l., and also the tobacco and snuff there found, together with the casks and package which may be seized by the officers of the customs or excise.

 

 

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Hail! inspirers of the profoundest and the brightest things that have been said and done since the creation, and, in the strength and plenitude of our recollections of thy divine virtues, aid us to sing thy praises! What though there be those, who, in the whim, caprice or ignorance of thy merits, would run ye down in the plenitude of their prejudices—have ye not stood the test of time, that criterion of excellence? Are ye not, most sublime of pleasures, independent of your other numerous claims upon public and private favour—are ye not immortalized by the hallowed names of the great, the good, the wise, the witty and the learned, whose encomiums of your worth shall descend with you, through the future ages of unborn posterity.

What! shall it ever be said that the disaffected to the great public cause, the innovators upon common taste, shall be allowed to progress in their rash undertaking, of seeking to undervalue the importance of those gentle consolers through life, the snuff-box and pipe. Never! while there’s a Woodville—nay, even a Dhoodeen,[11] to smoke them to defiance, or a pinch of ‘high dried,’ to father a witty reply.

Much-injured and defrauded of habits—friends of past and present learning and genius—of every land and every clime—sought by rich, as well as poor, and alike soothing to the king as slave, how have ye not been calumniated by the weak and designing! As the poet saith, “Envy doth merit as its shade pursue,” and so is it with you. Oh that those standing highest in the popular favour—the ‘tried and trusty’—should ever be the objects of attack to the discontented!

Most delectable of companions! how many tender reminiscences and recollections are associated with you, from the last pipe of the murdered Raleigh in Newgate, to the dernier pinch of the equally unfortunate Louis XVI, ere they mounted scaffolds, it is hoped, for a better world. If we turn to the imagination, how many endearing recollections connected with our subject throng upon us, even from the once happy days of our boyhood, when in secret we pored over the pages of genius in preference to scholastic lore. Rise up before us, thou soul of philanthropy, and humorous eccentricity, my uncle Toby! with thy faithful and humble serviteur the corporal.[12] Methinks, indeed, we now see ye together in the little cottage parlour, lighted up by the cheerful fire, discoursing of past dangers and campaigns under the soothing influence of the narcotic weed, whose smoke, as it rises in fantastic curls from either pipe, harmonizes together like your kindred souls. And thou, too, poor monk,[13] offspring of the same pervading mind, yet picturing many a sad reality, must thou be forgotten, absorbed as thou art from all the grosser passions of our nature? Our memory paints thee, impelled by the courtesy of thy gentle nature, proffering thine humble box of horn, thy pale and intellectual face, so sensitive, half-shrinking from the fear of ‘pride’s rebuff:’ whilst thou thyself, from the sneers of the affluent, seekest consolation in—a pinch of snuff!

Good Vicar of Wakefield![14] man of many sorrows, we greet thee in our reminiscences, sitting in thine happier days beneath the elm that shades thy rustic roof, as, under the influence of thy much loved pipe, thou inculcatest to the youthful circle around thee maxims of truth and piety. What peculiar feelings of veneration must we attach to these pipes and snuff-boxes. Without them, indeed—with such a true knowledge of life are they introduced—the stories would lose half their force, and nearly all their effect. How naturally do we associate with a smoker, a blandness and evenness of voice and gesture, which we can by no means ascribe to men in common. The same almost in regard to the snuff-box: the mind seems to acquire a polish and fire at its very sight. Nay, absolutely such is our profound respect for the sympathising herb, that even the quids of poor Lieutenant Bowling[15] himself would appear venerable in our eyes were they but in existence.

Lowering our Pegasus a peg or two from the loftier flights of conception, we will proceed more immediately to analyze the merits of these legitimate offsprings of the parent plant, smoking and snuff-taking; first of all, however, having recourse to a pinch of Welsh, to clear our head for so arduous an undertaking. That smoking and snuff-taking have, as habits pernicious to the health, been attacked repeatedly by the heads of science, is no less true than that they have escaped each intended flagellation, and thrived under the fostering lip and nose of a discerning public. Previous, however, to proceeding further, we shall take a review of the different enemies arrayed against the good old customs we have had handed down to us from our fathers. These may most generally, we think, be divided into three classes—the ladies,—physicians, and a certain class of thin and pallid gentlemen, remarkable for the delicate susceptibility of their noses.

The ladies of England designate smoking and snuffing, filthy and dirty habits. If you chance, dear reader, to ask why—because—because—they are vile and dirty habits, and thereby—‘hangs a tale.’ Then, as a matter of course, comes to be cited a list of the most gentlemanly men, young and old, who are never guilty of committing the sin. Now, what does all this come to?—that they do dislike the habits, and therefore none but brutes, among the more refined orders, would think of annoying them by practising either in their sweet presence. The understandings of women generally, in comparison with those of men, are proverbially weak. Following the erratic course of the first of their sex, who brought misery and woe upon the devoted head of man, they in turn would fain deprive him of his two cheapest comforts, left to console him in this vale of sorrow.

Reader, if thou should’st chance to be a married man, when thy rib—so vulgarly called in epitome, though perchance the better half of thyself—rails against thy only consolation in domestic broils,—smoking—answer not, we beseech thee. No, not a word of the volume of eloquence we fancy rising indignantly in thy throat, against the cruel calumnies levelled at thy favorite Virginia, as thou valuest the safety of thy tube, whether Dutch or Merschaum. The voice of an angel would not avail thee in thy cause.

With reference to the faculty, though divided in opinions, we shall only notice those arrayed against the plant divine. Indeed, the enmity of a physician dependent upon his profession for support may be always known; he detests anything cheap and soothing, conducive to health, and thence his frequent antipathy to tobacco in smoking. In regard to snuff he is wisely meek; for what were he himself without the stimulating dust in his pocket? In former times, indeed, its influence perhaps was greater and more respected than the wig and cane together, as Swift says:—

“Sir Plume, of Amber snuff-box, justly vain,
And the nice conduct of a clouded cane.”

Well, and what do the faculty say with reference to smoking? Some will tell you it is hurtful to the lungs; others, that the head and heart are more particularly affected by it; very few of them agreeing precisely as to ill effects to be attributed to it.

Grant us patience to bear such ingratitude! While they are indebted for their consequence and fluency of discourse, to the wit-inspiring influence of the herb in grain, they are running it down in another and not less delightful preparation and form. Then, by way of conclusion, like a crier of last dying speeches, comes to be related the death of some very promising young man, who, through the frequent habit of smoking, which he practised against the continued advice of the grave Monitor—made his exit in a consumption. So if a man habituated to the pleasures of a pipe goes off in a consumption, the anti-smokers must immediately assert it was brought on by the use of tobacco. How do we know, indeed, but that its magic influence kept him alive much longer than he would have been, without it: supposing—and we suppose it only for the sake of argument, that one or two, nay, say twenty in the thousand, suffer in their health through smoking,—the abuse and not the use of which we candidly admit may slightly impair some peculiar constitutions,—where is the recreant who does not, feeling the joys of smoking, say with us, a “short life and a merry one!” What, after all, are a few years in the scale of human existence! Is the fear of losing one or two of their number, to deter us from availing ourselves of innocent pleasures within our reach?—if so, London, methinks, would soon be deserted by the scientific and intelligent portion of its inhabitants, merely because the Thames water chances to be a little poisonous, or so, and the air of the town notoriously unhealthy.

By the same silly fear, too, the gourmand must abstain from the pleasures of the table,—fashionables from late hours, and the army and navy from hard drinking; in all of which the aforesaid, like true spirits, exclusively delight and take a pride; doubtless, inspired in seeking to indulge in what our own bard, Byron, says:

“aught that gave,
Hope of a pleasure, or peril of a grave.”

An evident proof, if any be wanting, that beings of a pacific disposition are as careless of facing death as those who have served an apprenticeship to it. Once more, taking the most virulent of the medical enemies of smoking, on their own assertions, and supposing people are killed outright by smoking, why should this deter others from practising it? What is more common, than that each year presents us with numerous deaths in every department of recreation, whether riding, sailing, shooting or bathing; and yet we should be surprised to learn that ever it deterred others from following similar pursuits; then, wherefore, on their own shewing, should the harmless happy recreation (that to the poor comprehends all the above amusements) be excepted?—Why, indeed?—O! ye sons of the ‘healing art,’ we throw reason away upon ye, and we have too much reason to fear that the true lights of science are lost to ye for ever, when ye attack that which is so beneficial to man.

The next, and in fact the most excusable of the triumvirate confederacy against smoking and snuff-taking, the former more particularly, that now calls for our attention, are the gentlemen of weak palates. These, first caught by the look of the thing, from perceiving the mild serenity ever attendant upon a smoker, and marking the sententious discourse of wisdom flowing like honey from his lips, have essayed the practice, without effect. At length, finding their nerves could never sustain the delightful fumes, without certain inward admonitions, that were not to be neglected or trifled with, they gave up all thoughts of that, which seemed to make so many happy. Now, nothing is more common in metaphysics, than to know that when a fancy or love is not returned by the object of affection, it generally turns into as great a hatred. Nothing, therefore, is more easily exemplified than the violence of the dislike expressed by this order of ‘tobacco’s foemen.’ Although the efforts of the above, with the exception of an occasional treatise against the pernicious effects of tobacco from the medical department, are confined to oral discussion of the subject; the genial herb has enemies of a more aspiring and determined cast. These parties are not contented with throwing their antipathies on the sympathy of their own friends, but they must even occasionally cast them upon the public in the awful form of a printed sheet. Some of these, though written in a very grave style, are really amusing, and we shall note a couple of them, among many other originals before us, in proof. The first of these is the celebrated Counterblaste by King James the First, written apparently in all the rancour of prejudice, and occupying rather a curious place among his learned works. The second is a tract (published in 1824) entitled, “An Appeal to Humanity, in behalf of the Brethren of the Heathen World: particularly addressed to Snuff-takers and Tobacco-smokers in all Christian Lands.—Second Edition.”

The application and tendency of this most facetious of pamphlets is, neither more nor less, than to induce the world at large to abstain from tobacco and snuff-taking altogether, and bestow the money formerly applied for that purpose, to the promotion of the missionary society to convert our ‘heathen brethren.’

Such is the benevolent object of this barbarian himself—for what else can we, in the indignation that almost overwhelms us at his audacious attempt, call him. When we reflect but for a moment, if he succeeded by the powerful and charitable arguments he uses, the national wealth, powers, and consequences of the kingdom would be undermined. For what, we say, were Englishmen without tobacco?—no more than a Turk without his opium, a Frenchman without his snuff, or any man without an agreeable stimulant to the mind. Had he now only sought to deprive us of a meal in the day, our dinner even, for instance, we could have borne patiently with him; but to seek,—to conceive,—to attempt, banishing one of the most soothing,—sympathising, and truest friends from the mansions of John Bull, is an atrocity we scarcely can credit; did not the identical barbarous proposition glare us in the face in good long-primer. Write of the heathen, indeed! he wants converting himself to a just and proper sense of the darkness in which he walks, or rather we should say, writes, when he could conceive such an enormity. However, after thus premising, we shall allow him an opportunity of speaking for himself.

In the first instance, he states, that he had long seriously thought, that the abuse of tobacco in every form is altogether inconsistent with the grand rule of the inspired volume—“Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” (I Cor. x. 31.)

After stating what truly astonishing large sums of money are annually expended in tobacco and snuff, he details the following anecdote.

“Travelling some time ago in a stage-coach, an elderly lady and a gentleman sat opposite to me. It was not long before the old gentleman pulled out his snuff-box, and, giving it a tap with his finger as the manner is, asked the lady if she would take a pinch; but she declined. As the lady particularly eyed me, I could scarcely refrain from smiling.—(most facetious!) ‘Perhaps, ma’am, you do not decline taking a pinch, because you think there is any sin in snuff-taking?’ ‘Oh no. I do take snuff: do YOU think there is sin in it, Sir?’ ‘Yes ma’am,’ said I, ‘I think in some cases it is sinful,’ (as cases are in italics we should feel happy to know whether they are of tin or composition he alludes to, but to proceed.) At this, the lady expressed great surprise (as well she might) and would not be satisfied, unless I would assign some reason for thinking that snuff-taking was sinful. At length, for she teazed me, I said to her, ‘Pray ma’am, (cannot he drop the field-preacher and write Madam) how much in the week may you spend in snuff?’ ‘Perhaps 7d.’ ‘And how many years have you been in the habit of taking snuff?’ ‘Well, I suppose,’ she replied, ‘upwards of forty years.’ ‘Seven-pence a week, you say,—that is something more than thirty shillings in the year,—and if you have taken snuff at this rate for forty years, the same will amount to more than 60l.’ ‘You surprise me,—you must be mistaken, Sir.’ ‘No, Ma’am,’ said I, ‘I am not mistaken. It amounts to more than 60l. without the interest (profound calculation!) Now, do you think that God will reward you for taking snuff?’ ‘Reward me for taking snuff!’ said she, ‘No, Sir, I do not expect that.’ ‘But suppose, instead of spending this 60l. in snuff, you had spent it in feeding the hungry, clothing the naked;’”—we really can follow these opinions no further, as we have more than one old maiden lady within our ken, that would have actually fainted outright at such a want of modesty.

Trusting our reader will bear with us, we shall notice a little more of this self-created minister’s appeal in favour of the heathens, who, doubtless, if favoured with the knowledge, could not but feel highly indebted for the exertions of so powerful an advocate in their cause. At the same time we strongly suspect, from the love he has of showing his knowledge of the tables of pence, that the writer was formerly an officiating deputy in a huckster’s or chandler’s shop, until seduced by the influence of the “spirit that moves” for a nobler call of action. The following is another specimen of his figurative powers.

“A few days ago, I mentioned the above anecdote in the house of a farmer. ‘Why,’ said the farmer, ‘I could never have thought that 7d. a week would have come to so much.—Do you know my wife and I can assure you, that awhile back, we smoked an ounce a day.’ ‘An ounce a day,’ said I, (the echo!) ‘What is tobacco an ounce?’ (ignoramus!—we thought he knew not the value of what he attempts to depreciate). ‘Four-pence,’ said he. ‘Four-pence an ounce, and an ounce in the day, that is 2s. 4d. per week, and 52 weeks in the year will be the sum of 6l. and 4d. annually.—O Sir!—I am very sorry for you.’”—(kind hearted soul!)

Pursuing his system, apparently, of poking his head into the affairs of country farmers, he gives us another trite anecdote, too rich a morceau to be passed in silence; since it so admirably serves to shew the estimation the pipe is held in by the true representatives of John Bull.

“Since I commenced writing of this, I had occasion to call upon a respectable farmer, who is a member of your society—(we smell a rat)—and a leader I suppose, greatly esteemed by his neighbours, who certainly have the best opportunity of knowing him as a truly pious, and useful man. Almost immediately after we were seated, he called for his pipe (for some people cannot be cheerful or make a wise bargain—symptoms of the shop)—unless their heads are enveloped in smoke. ‘Now, Sir,’ said he, ‘can you smoke any, will you have a pipe?’ ‘No, Sir,’ said I, ‘I never smoked a pipe in all my life;’—(miserable man! this he says doubtless by way of shewing his Christian self-denial). ‘I have for a long time considered it sinful, and therefore I never smoke.’ ‘Sinful,’ said he, laughing—(jolly fellow!)—‘how can it be sinful?’ ‘Because,’ said I, ‘it wastes our power of doing good. Did you never consider that.’ Upon this his wife who was sitting by, pleasantly observed, ‘Our John is a terrible smoker’—(worthy man!)—‘For goodness sake don’t make him believe that it is sinful to smoke. If he can’t get his pipe, we shall have no peace: he’ll be quite out of temper.’ ‘Nay,’ said I, ‘surely not out of temper.’ ‘Yes, for sure, out of temper enough,—quite peevish and fretful.’ ‘Now,’ said John, ‘how thou talks my dear.’ ‘Talk! why is it not true? Thou wants it first thing in the morning—then again at breakfast time—then again at noon, and then again at night—just as it happens. Why, I’ll warrant you (turning to me) he has seven or eight pipes in a day, and sometimes more,’—(sensible man!)—‘Perhaps,’ said I, ‘he’s sick, and smokes for his health.’ ‘Nay, nay, sick, bless him! he’s none sick, he has got a habit of it you see, and so he thinks he wants it. Oh, he must have his pipe—he can’t do without his pipe—sin in it! nay, surely it cannot be sinful.’ (He concludes with his favorite computation). Upon inquiry, I found, that though the only smoker in the family, yet at a moderate reckoning, he contrives to consume about 5l. worth of tobacco every year.”

This would, doubtless, have been better employed in the hands of the good promoter of the Missionaries, of whom we now take our leave; and to whom, we wish no further punishment for his cruel attempt at seeking to banish the cheerful companionship of the pipe from mansions of peace, than being compelled to the smoking of a pipe of the oldest shag himself.

In reference to King James’ Counterblaste, although, from its antiquity, as well as the rank and learning of the author, it occupies a serious claim upon our attention, yet, upon the whole, it may be termed nearly as ridiculous as the foregoing, although not in its application. It, indeed, fully bears the stamp of those antipathies that, once conceived, the monarch was seldom or never known to waive. This is more singular, as they were formed against a plant, received into the greatest favour and esteem among all ranks, and, as a medicine, was in far greater request than it is even now. Facts like these plainly establish, that James’ dislike, however acquired, proceeded from prejudice and prejudice alone.

In the first paragraph, he tells us, that it was first introduced into England from the Indians, who used it as an antidote against “a filthy disease, whereunto these barbarous people (as all people know) are very much subject.”

After bestowing a volley of abuse upon smoking, not of the most elegant description, he refers to the acquiring of the fashion that certainly generally applies in all things now, as well as it did in his own times.

“Do we not daily see, that a man can no sooner bring ouer from beyond the seas any new forme of apparell, but that he cannot be thought a man of spirit that would not presently imitate the same? and so, from hand to hand it spreads, till it be practised by all; not from any commodity that is in it, but only because it is come to be the fashion.”

Of the popularity of smoking in his time, he says himself, “You are not able to ride, or walk, the journey of a Jew’s Sabbath, but you must have a reekie cole brought you from the next poor-house, to kindle your tobacco with?”

“It is become in place of a care, a point of good fellowship, and hee that will refuse to take a pipe of tobacco among his fellowes, though by his owne election he would rather not feel the savor of the stinke, is accounted peevish and no good company; even as they do tippling in the COLD Eastern countreys.”

Of the consequences then often attending the habit of smoking, he observes, “Now how you are by this custome disabled in your goods, let the gentry of this land beare witness; some of them bestowing THREE, some FOUR HUNDRED POUNDS A YEERE upon this precious stinke, which I am sure might be bestowed upon far better vses.”

Than the assertion of the above individual enormous expenditure, nothing perhaps is better calculated to display James’s exaggeration, which actually here can only be considered hyperbolical. The idea, the bare possibility, is scarcely conceivable for a moment, that in those days, three hundred pounds, at least equal to nine hundred of our present money, was ever laid out by a single individual in smoking; excepting, indeed, perhaps, as a very rare and singular occurrence. King James concludes his Counterblaste in the following piece of declamation.

“Have you not reason then to be ashamed, and to forbeare this filthie noveltie so basely grounded, so foolishly received, and so grossly mistaken, in the right use thereof? In your abuse thereof, sinning against God, harming yourselves both in persons and goods, and raking also thereby, the markes and vanities vpon you: by the custome thereof, making yourselves to be wondered at by all forreinne civill nations, and by all strangers that come among you, to be scorned and contemned: a custome loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomlesse.”

What a pity it is, James never smoked; instead of this long tirade against the most cheerful of all pastimes, we should have had an eulogy, glowing with the warmth and feeling of truth from the head and heart. From the very gall perceivable at times, one could easily know he was an utter stranger to the gentle sympathy of a pipe. He ridicules and condemns that, which, like many others, he knows not, and therefore cannot appreciate. Had he but put the pipe fairly upon its trial, and found it guilty of the mischiefs ascribed to it, then could we have excused him; but to conceive ideas not founded upon truth and justice and the welfare of the kingdom he was called upon to govern, and to act upon those ideas, by the framing of arbitrary laws, repressing the tastes of the nation at large, raises in its remembrance an indignation in our mind, that takes repeated whiffs of our ‘German’ to quell.

Now the truly immense extent of the benefits Europe is indebted to for the introduction of the tobacco-plant, is by no means generally known. For the instruction of our fellow creatures—we say instruction, because probably our numerous readers may never have met with them before,—we shall proceed to enlighten the world upon the subject. If we look backward to the earlier periods of History, what barbarous and savage manners do we not mark characterizing the people and the times. Rapine and murder stalking hand in hand among them, and scarce at all repressed by laws, divine or human. Now mark, sweet readers, especially if true lovers of the invaluable herb, whose praises we are about singing! Mark what “great effects from little causes spring.” No sooner did tobacco make its appearance and get into notice and use, than the passions of all men wooing its soothing influence, gradually began to receive a change. As it got more generally diffused, its influence might almost be termed magical; the sword, in a great degree, was exchanged for the quill, the wine-cup for the coffee-cup (thence its use in Turkey always with smoking), and letters began to flourish—the first grand step towards that civilization I shall prove it was gradually destined to effect in the world. Doubtless, like many other great writers, who open out a new light to the world, we shall have enough of sceptics, as opponents, to contend with; but we are sanguine from the facts we shall clearly establish, that far more is to be attributed to the powers of tobacco, than millions dream of.

In the first place, it is too well known to admit of much doubt, that tobacco, whether smoked or taken as snuff, exercises a very considerable power upon the mind, more especially when taken in considerable quantities. When such is the case, the faculties are refined and exalted to a degree of spirited buoyancy, that forms a strange and pleasing contrast to the usual unstimulated lethargic state of the mind. We can only compare it, though in a much milder, and more inoffensive degree, to the species of delirium the Turks so vividly describe, when labouring under the effects of opium. The intellectual senses, more particularly that part of them forming the imagination, become so much more powerful and pervading, that its conceptions receive a warmth and strength of colouring they never can, under common excitement.

Now tobacco, as we have recorded, was first brought to England in the reign of Elizabeth, who greatly patronized it among the nobles and poorer orders, by whom it came speedily into general use. Most mighty herb!—the effects of thy worship were soon visible, for where do we find a reign so great and glorious either for victories by land and sea, or the distinguished talent and genius, whether in the camp or cabinet, it fostered at home. Then was it, that Shakespeare—the magnificent Shakespeare, (blest and honored was the reign in which he drew life) burst forth like a star destined to excite the astonishment of the world he came to throw the effulgent light of his genius upon. He was a smoker.

Then, to sketch forth the gigantic march of intellect, in the ages of which we write, came forth those luminaries of the world; Hobbes, the parent of Locke’s philosophy, the profound philosopher Lord Bacon, the most illustrious mathematician and philosopher, Sir Isaac Newton, and the singularly talented metaphysician Locke, each and all of whom were celebrated for their devotion to the soothing and stimulating powers of a pipe! It is related of Hobbes, who was one of the most profound thinkers of his time, that as soon as the dinner was over, he used to retire to his study and had his candle with ten or twelve pipes of tobacco laid by him; then shutting the door he fell to smoking, thinking and writing for several hours together. Locke and Bacon smoked much for recreation; the latter of whom probably was indebted to the practice for the preservation of his life in the plague of 1665, from whose contagious influence in London he sought safety in the country and his pipe.

Now, to what, we should like to know, are to be attributed the mighty and successful efforts of these wonderful men, who may justly be considered the founders of modern civilization and literature, but the all—the far pervading fumes of the sovereign tobacco-leaf they worshipped with such devotion. To its exhilarating influence and invigorating aid, exciting the imagination to realms of undiscovered beauties, are we indebted for those works that shall live, while time is,—the wonder of this and all future ages.

Are we singular in our opinion? Mark, learn, and inwardly digest, ye unbelievers, what the learned Dr. Raphael Thorious says on the subject:—

“Of cheering bowls I mean to sing the praise, And of the herb that can the poet’s fancy raise; Aid me, O! father Phœbus I invoke, Fill me a pipe (boy) of that fragrant smoke, That I may drink the God into my brain; And so enabled, write a noble strain. For nothing great or high can come from thence, Where that blest plant denies its influence.”

Smile on, ye critics; but let us ask ye, if those works that have so strong a claim to our respect, would ever have come into existence had there been no tobacco, to rarify and stimulate the mind. No!—must be your candid answer, if only in verification of the old saying, ‘No pipe, no Parr.’ Then, what mighty blessings are we not indebted for to the much-aspersed, calumniated, and insulted herb. Nor is the fact of its consequence in regard to these first great discoverers in science, the only proofs that exist of its reputation; successive generations, under the weed’s cheering auspices, have but continued what they so ably began.

Dr. Johnson,[16] Dr. Thorious, Dr. Aldrich, Dr. Parr, Pope, Swift, Addison, Steele, and a host of other approved writers of celebrity, independent of those of the present day, are all similarly indebted to the genial influence of tobacco, under one preparation or another, for the stimulus of their inspiration. The fact is incontrovertible. Where was transcendant literary ability before the introduction of tobacco?—Nowhere—it was unknown:—but, no sooner, we repeat, did IT become known and in use, than its generative powers became quickly visible: the minds of men, though previously barren, became fructified by its influence, and letters flourished. With truth it is observed, we formerly were a nation of readers; but, who is so ignorant as not to know, that as tobacco has become diffused, with knowledge, we are now a nation of smokers and writers. It may, indeed, be fairly set down as an axiom we may rely upon, that nearly every one occasionally gets a penchant for scribbling who smokes or snuffs; from the cobler, whose “soul on higher things is bent,” that composes a ditty to the measure of some admired production gracing his stall, to the peer of the realm, who, lounging on an ottoman under the inspiration of prince’s mixture, dictates a sonnet, or a novel, to his secretary, as the humour may chance to be of the moment. That tobacco has effected wonders in the promotion and promulgation of knowledge, we flatter ourselves we have plausibly shown; that it is equally distinguished in diplomacy and war, is a fact we shall now proceed to demonstrate. To commence then: who ever knew or heard of a plenipotentiary without his jewelled snuff-box?—The thing were out of nature: without it, indeed, he were but an automaton—a body without a head—a mere ‘cypher in the great account,’ unbacked and unsupported. So well aware, indeed, are civilized governments of this fact, that snuff-boxes set with brilliants to the value of a thousand pounds are given them, that they may be stimulated to business; diving into the cabals and intrigues of the state,—concealing their own, and, in a word, never be deserted at a PINCH. Nay, so much is snuff the fashion, that a courtier in most European countries without it were a sort of curiosity. Many of the greatest of men, have been remarkable for the snuff they took. Napoleon was among this number; he (acute and penetrating) was up to snuff, disdaining your common methods of worshipping that “spirit stirrer” of the human mind, he took it out of his waistcoat-pocket, and when vexed or thwarted by any unexpected occurrence, was always observed to have recourse to it, previous to exerting his mind on the subject. The greatness of his fortunes was commensurate with the quantity he consumed: the greatest snuff-taker in the French territories, it is by no means singular to relate, he became the first in grandeur and consequence, as well as the most idolized of men. At the same time, he was by no means insensible of the powers of smoking, for we find it recorded, that his greatest relief from extreme fatigue (as he used to declare) arose from “a CIGAR, a cup of coffee, and a warm bath;” three things, we affirm, highly creditable to the taste of so great a genius. Nor did Buonaparte confine the use of it solely to his own person: fully impressed with its powers, he ordered its use throughout the whole of the French army. The immediate consequence was, that under his influence and that of the stimulating weed, they conquered all before them, and became renowned throughout Europe for their discipline and determined bravery. This may, by those who dive no further than the surface, be attributed to the ability of their general, to a certain degree we in our candour acknowledge; but the grand secret and mover of it was tobacco—sovereign tobacco! What sceptic so rash, dares breathe a doubt of the truth of this statement? Does he require additional evidence?—If so! let him turn his eyes to the British navy. What is it, ever since the time of Elizabeth, from the defeat of the Spanish Armada up to the victory at Trafalgar, has rendered them invincible and the terror of the world?—what, we exclaim, but tobacco! To quids! quids! alone is their success to be attributed; but deprive them of these, and you take the spirit of the men away. Immortal, godlike pigtail! And well too does government know this fact, and wisely institute an allowance to each man. Hunger, thirst, and every hardship is borne without a murmur by each gallant tar, so long as there is pigtail in the locker. Go seek the man, whether topman, afterguard, or idler, who has ever been upon a seven or three years’ station, and ask him whence his chief consolation in the watch of safety, or peril, and he, if a true sailor, shall answer with an indescribable roll of the jaw—“Pigtail!!!” ’Tis the essence, in fact, the very quintessence of the man, and its consideration in his mind may be sufficiently gleaned from the following well-known epistle—at once an irrefutable proof, if any be needed.

Treating of the milder virtues of tobacco, who ever knew a smoker—one of your twenty years’ standing,—ill tempered; or a veteran snuff-taker, who did not occasionally give utterance to witty sayings?—the thing were against reason. In conclusion, what can we say more for thee, omnipotent, prolific herb! than in the inspired lines of thy true admirer Byron?

Sublime tobacco, which from east to west, Cheers the tar’s labours or the Turkman’s rest; Which on the moslems’ ottomans divides His hours, and rivals opium and his brides: Magnificent in Stamboul, but less grand, Though not less lov’d, in Wapping or the Strand. Divine in hookas; glorious in a pipe, When tipped with amber, mellow, rich and ripe; Like other charmers, wooing thy caress, More dazzling fair and glaring in full dress; Yet thy true lovers more admire, by far, Thy naked beauties—give me a cigar?

 

 

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Of the properties attributable to the plant in the Materia Medica, a variety of opinions prevail, and have done, indeed, since its first appearance in the civilized portion of the globe. It certainly cannot but strike the reader as a fact to be very greatly lamented, that science should be so unfixed, even in this much boasted-of-enlightened æra, that some medical men should be found to ascribe every bad and pernicious quality to the use of tobacco; and others, equally celebrated for their professional knowledge, recommend it as a panacea for many ills. Reflection makes this still more dreadful, when we consider these are the men to whose abilities we are frequently compelled to look up, for the preservation of our healths and lives. It would be well, indeed, if this lamentable difference of opinion among the facult existed only in reference to our present subject.

We shall now, however, proceed to note some of the ideas of the learned that have been expressed concerning the qualities of the herb, in pharmacy, and quote our first specimen in the following poem, by the famous Dr. Thorious, who most sagely recommends it as an antidote for every evil under the sun.

A LATIN POEM,

By Raphael Thorious.

(Translated into English by the Rev. W. Bewick.)

The herb which borrows Santa Croce’s name, Sore eyes relieves and healeth wounds; the same Discusses the kings evil, and removes Cancers and boils; a remedy it proves For burns and scalds, repels the nauseous itch, And straight recovers from convulsive fits; It cleanses, dries, binds up, and maketh warm; The head-ach, tooth-ach, cholic, like a charm It easeth soon; an ancient cough relieves, And to the reyns and milt and stomach gives Quick riddance from the pains which each endures, Next the dire wounds of poison’d arrows cures; All bruises heals, and when the gum once sore, It makes them sound and healthy as before: Sleep it procures, our anxious sorrows lays, And with new flesh the naked bone arrays; No herb hath greater pow’r to rectify All the disorders in the breast that lie; Or in the lungs. Herb of immortal fame, Which hither first by Santa Croce came; When he (his time of nunclature expir’d) Back from the court of Portugal retir’d, Even as his predecessors, great and good. All Christendom now with its presence blesses, And still the illustrious family possesses The name of Santa Croce, rightly given, Since they in all respects resemble heaven: Procure as much as mortal men can do, The welfare of our souls and bodies too.

Dr. Cullen observes, that tobacco is generally recognized for its narcotic powers, as well as being a very considerable stimulant, with respect to the whole system, but more especially the stomach and intestines, and acts even in small doses as an emetic and purgative.

The editors of the Edinburgh Dispensary also remark, that of late, tobacco under the form of a vinous or watery infusion, given in small quantities, so as to produce little effect by its action on the stomach, has been found a very useful and powerful diuretic.

Dr. Fowler published some cases of dropsy and dysury, in which its application was attended with the best effects, and this has been confirmed by the practice of others. Beaten into a mash with vinegar or brandy, it has sometimes proved highly serviceable for removing hard tumours of the hypochondres. Two cases of cure are published in the ‘Edinburgh Essays.’

Considerable reliance has also been placed upon it, by some of the most eminent practitioners, as an injection by the anus of the smoke, in cases of obstinate constipation, threatening Ileus, of incarcerated hernia, of spasmodic asthma, and of persons apparently dead from drowning or other causes.

Dr. Strother speaks of its being beneficial in smoking, to persons having defluxions on the lungs. By long boiling in water, its deleterious power is said to be neutralized, and at length destroyed: an extract made by long decoction, is recommended by Stubb and other German physicians, as the most efficient and safe aperient detergent, expectorant and diuretic.—Lewis Mat. Med.

Bates and Fuller give many encomiums on its powers in asthmatic cases.

Boyle asserts the juice and the plant to be very excellent in curing ulcers and mortifications, although its operation, in this respect, is stated by numerous other authorities, to be deleterious in the extreme. As regarding, indeed, many of the virtues attributed to its use by Lewis and others, in decoctions and poultices, candour obliges us to declare, though with great deference to those opinions which have been expressed by the most eminent of the medical profession, that we cannot consider it of any particular efficacy. We shall, therefore, forbear tiring our readers with recipes of the different forms in which it is prescribed for many illnesses.

Taken as snuff, tobacco is generally allowed to be a mild and inoffensive stimulant, which, indeed, in many cases, is prescribed as a most effectual errhine for clearing the nostrils and head. When taken, however, as it frequently is, in excessive quantities, its consequences become often visible, and tumours and secretions in the nose are said to be the result. It is likewise said by some, when taken immoderately, to greatly tend to weaken the sight and bring on apoplexy.

Revenus and Chenst likewise wrote against the habit of smoking; but like more modern writers, among whom may be named Dr. Adam Clarke, with little or no effect; for it may be set down as a fact, proved in many other instances, as well as this illustrates,—that where a people have the facilities of judging for themselves, they invariably will do so. In this case, practice and precept peculiarly go together.

Of the medical qualities of tobacco, as an antidote against contagion, its inestimable efficacy was never better proved, than in the period of the plagues[17] that have at times visited England.

Dr. Willis says, in his very able treatise, that its power in repelling the infectious air during the plague of 1665 was truly astonishing; so much so, that the shops of the tobacconists remained quite uninfected.

It is also very favourably mentioned by Richard Barker, a physician, at the period of the pestilence, who gives it in the following recipe against the plague: “Carry about with you a leaf of tobacco rolled up in tiffiny or lawn, so dipt in vinegar. Smell often to it, and sometimes clap it to the temples for some few minutes of time. For those that smoke tobacco, let them use it with one-fourth part of flower of sulphur, and seven or eight drops of oil of amber for one pipe.”

Among very many celebrated physicians, who have also recorded and recommended the use of tobacco against the poisonous influence of the plague, may be mentioned Gideon Hovey, M.D.,[18] Dr. Fowler,[19] and Diemerbroek, a distinguished Dutch medical practitioner; besides numerous pamphlets that have been published on the subject of the plague.

One account, published in 1663 by W. Kemp, professing to recommend the best means to the public to avoid the infection, mentions tobacco in a way, that reminds us somewhat of its warm panegyrist, Dr. Thorious, and is too facetious to be here omitted. The following is the literal transcript:—

“The American silver weed[20] or tobacco, is an excellent defence against bad air, being smoked in a pipe, either by itself or with nutmeg shred, and rew seeds mixed with it; especially if it be nosed, for it cleanseth the air and choaketh and suppresseth and disperseth any venemous vapour; it hath both singular and contrary effects; it is good to warm one being cold, and will cool one being hot. All ages, all sexes and constitutions, young and old, men and women, the sanguine, the choleric, the melancholy, the phlegmatic, take it without any manifest inconvenience; it giveth thirst, and yet will make one more able and fit to drink; it chokes hunger, and yet will give one a good stomach; it is agreeable with mirth or sadness, with feasting and with fasting; it will make one rest that wants sleep, and will keep one waking that is drowsy; it hath an offensive smell, and is more desirable than any perfume to others; that it is a most excellent preservative, both experience and reason teach; it corrects the air by fumigation, and avoids corrupt humours by salivation; for when one takes it by chewing it in the leaf, or smoking it in the pipe, the humours are brought and drawn from all parts of the body to the stomach, and from thence rising up to the mouth of the Tobacconist, as to the helm of a sublunatory, are voided and spitted out.”

Of the poisonous qualities of tobacco, we are informed that a drop or two of the chemical oil of tobacco, being put upon the tongue of a cat or dog, produces violent convulsions, and death itself, in the space of a few minutes; yet, the same oil used on lint, applied to the teeth, has been found of the utmost service in the tooth-ach.[21]

A very common opinion prevails among those who do not smoke, that it is bad for the teeth: a belief founded upon any thing but experience, and resulting generally from prejudice. For preserving the gums and the enamel of the teeth, in a healthy and sound state, few remedies can operate better than the smoke of tobacco. In the first instance, it renders nugatory the corruptive power of the juices that invariably set into the interstices of the teeth, and unless brushed away, remain after meals; and, in the second place, it destroys the effluvia arising at times from the breath that, in some constitutions, so quickly brings about a corrosion of the outer surface or enamel. The benefits that have resulted from smoking, in cases of the tooth-ache, have been too commonly experienced to admit of doubt. In a pamphlet that was published some thirty years ago, detailing the adventures of the Pretender; an anecdote is related of its excellence. While taking refuge in the mansion of Lady Kingsland, in the Highlands of Scotland, from his enemies, after having had recourse to many things, he smoked a pipe to free himself from this ‘curse o’ achs;’ and after a short time, received the wished-for relief.

As another and concluding instance of the preservative power of tobacco upon the teeth, it is related in the life of the great Sir Isaac Newton, who was remarkable for the quantity of tobacco he smoked, that though he lived to a good old age, he never lost but ONE TOOTH.

 

 

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Tobacco is a genus of the class pentandria. Order monogynia; natural order of luridæ (solaneæ, Juss.)—Generic characters—Calyx; perianthium one-leafed, ovate, half five-cleft, permanent. Corolla: one-petalled funnel-form.—Essential Character—Corolla funnel-form, with a plaited border, stamina inclined; capsule two-valved and two-celled.

There are six kinds of tobacco peculiar to America: which we shall proceed to notice in their relative order.

1. Nicotiana Fruticosa, or shrubby tobacco: leaves lanceolate, subpetioled, embracing; flowers acute, stem frutescent. This rises with very branching stalks, about five feet high. Lower leaves a foot and a half long, broad at the base, where they half embrace the stalks, and about three inches broad in the middle, terminating in long acute points.

2. Nicotiana Alba, or white-flowered tobacco. This rises about five feet high: the stalk does not branch so much as that of the former. The leaves are large and oval, about fifteen inches long and two broad in the middle, but diminish gradually in size to the top of the stalk, and with their base half embrace it. The flowers grow in closer bunches than those of the former, and are white: they are succeeded by short oval obtuse seed-vessels. It flowers and perfects seeds about the same time with the former. It grows naturally in the woods of Tobago, whence the seeds were sent to Mr. Philip Miller by Mr. Robert Miller.

3. Nicotiana Tabacum or Virginian tobacco: leaves lanceolate, ovate, sessile, decurrent, flowers acute. Virginian tobacco has a large, long annual root; an upright, strong, round, hairy stalk, branching towards the top; leaves numerous, large, pointed, entire, veined, viscid, pale green; flowers in loose clusters or panicles.

4. Nicotiana Latissima, the great broad-leaved or Oroonoko; formerly, as Mr. Miller says, sown in England, and generally taken for the common broad-leaved tobacco of Caspar Bauhin, and others, but is very different from it. The leaves are more than a foot and a half long, and a foot broad; their surfaces very rough and glutinous, and their bases half embrace the stalk. In a rich moist soil the stalks are more than ten feet high, and the upper part divides into small branches, which are terminated by loose bunches of flowers, standing erect: they have pretty long tubes, and are of a pale purplish colour. It flowers in July and August, and the seeds ripen in autumn. This is the sort which is commonly brought to the market in pots.

5. Nicotiana Tabacum, broad-leaved, or sweet-scented. The stalks of this, which is the broad-leaved tobacco of Caspar Bauhin, seldom rise more than five or six feet high, and divide into more branches. The leaves are about ten inches long, and three and a half broad, smooth, acute, sessile; the flowers are rather larger, and of a brighter purple colour.

6. Nicotiana Angustifolia, or narrow-leaved Virginian tobacco; rises with an upright branching stalk, four or five feet high. The lower leaves are a foot long, and three or four inches broad: those on the stalks are much narrower, lessening to the top, and end in very acute points, sitting close to the stalks.

Besides these, it must be remarked, there are many other kinds of tobacco peculiar to different countries.

Nicotiana undulata, or New Holland tobacco: radical leaves obovate, obtuse, somewhat wavy; stem-leaves sharp-pointed. It came to Kew in 1800, and is perennial in the green-house, flowering all summer long. The settlers at Port Jackson are said to use this herb as tobacco.

Nicotiana plumbaginifolia, or lead-wort-leaved tobacco: radical leaves ovate, contracted at the base; stem-leaves lanceolate, clasping the stem; all undulated; corolla salver-shaped, acute. The native country of this species is unknown. It has been cultivated in some Italian gardens, and there were flowering specimens in May 1804, in the store of the late lady Amelia Hume.

Nicotiana axillaris, or axillary tobacco: leaves opposite, ovate, flat, nearly sessile; stalk axillary, solitary single-flowered; corolla obtuse; segments of the calyx deep, spatulate. Gathered by Commerson at Monte Video, and communicated by Thouin to the younger Linnæus. Leaves rather above an inch long, and near an inch wide, downy, and apparently viscid, like the rest of the herbage. Fruits unknown.

Nicotiana tristis, or dull-purple tobacco: leaves lanceolate, wavy, clasping the stem; corolla salver-shaped, its tube not twice the length of the calyx, and scarcely longer than the obtuse limb. Gathered also by Commerson at Monte Video.

Nicotiana rustica, common English tobacco: leaves petioled, ovate, quite entire; flowers obtuse. The stalks of this seldom rise more than three feet high. Leaves smooth, alternate, upon short foot-stalks. Flowers in small loose bunches on the top of the stalks, of an herbaceous yellow-colour, appearing in July, and succeeded by roundish capsules, ripening in the autumn. This is commonly called English tobacco, from its having been first introduced here, and being much more hardy than the other sorts, insomuch that it has become a weed in many places.

Nicotiana rugosa of Miller, rises with a strong stalk near four feet high; the leaves are shaped like those of the preceding, but are greatly furrowed on their surface, and near twice the size, of a darker green, and no longer on footstalks.

Nicotiana urens, or stinging tobacco: leaves cordate, crenate; racemes recurved; stem hispid, stinging. Fructification in racemes directed one way and revolute, with bell-shaped corollas, and cordate leaves like those of Nicotiana rustica; but crenate, and the whole tree prickly. Native of South America.

Nicotiana glutinosa, or clammy-leaved tobacco: leaves petioled, cordate quite entire; flowers in racemes, pointing one way, and ringent. Stalk round, near four feet high, sending out two or three branches from the lower parts. Leaves large, heart-shaped, and a little waved.

Nicotiana pusilla, or primrose-leaved tobacco: leaves of oblong oval, radical; flowers in racemes, acute. This has a pretty thick taper root that strikes deep in the ground; at the top of it come out six or seven leaves spreading on the ground, about the size of those of the common primrose, but a deeper green. This kind was discovered by Dr. Houstoun at Vera Cruz, and he sent the seed to England.

Tabacum Minimum (Gen. Em. 358.) appears to be another species, hitherto unsettled, with a branched leafy stem, a span high; leaves ovate on footstalks, opposite; and stalked acute, greenish-yellow flowers. The N. minima of Molina (Poir. in Lum. Diet. iv. 481.), is probably another species, or perhaps the same.

Culture.—Tobacco thrives best in a warm, kindly rich soil, that is not subject to be over-run with weeds. In Virginia, the soil in which it thrives best is warm, light, and inclining to be sandy; and, therefore, if the plant is to be cultivated in Britain, it ought to be planted in a soil as nearly of the same kind as possible. Other kinds of soil might probably be brought to suit it, by a surface of proper manure; but we must remember, whatever manure is made use of, must be thoroughly incorporated with the soil. The best situation for a tobacco plantation is the southern declivity of a hill, rather gradual than abrupt, or a spot that is sheltered from the north winds: but at the same time it is necessary that the plants enjoy a free air; for without this they will not prosper.

As tobacco is an annual plant, those who intend to cultivate it ought to be as careful as possible in the choice of the seeds; in which, however, with all their care, they may sometimes be deceived. The seed should be sown in the middle of April, or rather sooner in a forward season, in a bed prepared for this purpose, of such soil that has been already described, mixed with some warm rich manure. In a cold spring, hot beds are most eligible for that purpose; and gardeners imagine that they are always necessary: but Mr. Carver[22] tells us, that he is convinced, when the weather is not very severe, the tobacco seeds may be raised without-doors: and for this purpose gives us the following directions:

“Having sown the seed in the manner above directed, on the least apprehension of a frost after the plants appear, it will be necessary to spread mats over the beds, a little elevated from the ground by poles laid across, that they may not be crushed. These, however, must be removed in the morning, soon after the sun appears, that they may receive as much benefit as possible from its warmth and from the air. In this manner proceed till the leaves have attained about two inches in length and one in breadth, which they will do in about a month after they are sown, or near the middle of May, when the frosts are usually at an end. One invariable rule for their being able to bear removal is, when the fourth leaf is shrouded, and the fifth just appears. Then take the opportunity of the first rains or gentle showers to transplant them into such a soil and situation as before described; which must be done in the following manner:—The land must be ploughed or dug up with spades, and made as mellow and light as possible. When the plants are to be placed, raise with the hoe small hillocks at the distance of two feet or a little more from each other, taking care that no hard sods or lumps are in it; and then just indent the middle of each, without drilling holes, as for some other plants.

“In some climates the top is generally cut off when the plant has fifteen leaves; but if the tobacco is intended to be a little stronger than usual, this is done when it has only thirteen; and sometimes, when it is designed to be remarkably powerful, eleven or twelve are only allowed to expand. On the contrary, if the planter is desirous of having his crop very mild, he suffers it to put forth eighteen or twenty.

“This operation, called topping, is much better performed by the finger and thumb than with any instrument, because the grasp of the fingers closes the pores of the plant: whereas, when it is done by instruments, the juices are in some degree exhausted. Care must also be taken to rip off the sprouts that will be continually springing up at the junction of the leaves with the stalks. This is termed succouring or suckering the tobacco, and ought to be repeated as often as occasion requires.

“When the plantation comes to a proper growth, it should then be cut down and placed in a barn, or covered house, where it cannot be affected by rain or too much air, thinly scattered over the floor; and if the sun does not appear for several days, they must be allowed to milt in that manner; but in this case the quality of the tobacco is not so good.”

“Cure.—After the plants have been transferred, and hung sometime, pressing or SMOKING, as it is technically termed, they should be taken down, and again laid in a heap and pressed with heavy logs of wood for about a week: but this climate may probably require a longer time. While they remain in this state it will be necessary to introduce your hand frequently into the heap, to discover whether the heat be not too intense; for in large quantities this will sometimes be the case, and considerable damage will be occasioned by it. When they are found to heat too much, that is, when the heat exceeds a moderate glowing warmth, part of the weight, by which they are pressed, must be taken away; and the cause being removed, the effect will cease. This is called the second or last sweating; and when completed, the leaves must be stripped from the stalks for use. Many omit this last sweating; but Mr. Carver thinks it takes away its remaining harshness, and makes it more mellow. The strength of the stalk is also diffused by it through the leaves, and the whole mass becomes equally meliorated. When the leaves are stripped from the stalks, they are to be tied up in bunches or hands, and kept in a cellar or other damp place. At this period the tobacco is thoroughly cured, and as proper for manufacturing as that imported from the colonies.

 

 

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NEW WORDS TO AN OLD TUNE.

A COMIC DITTY.

Lieutenant Fire was fond of smoke, And cash he ow’d a deal; Tho’ some said he’d a heart of OAK, For others it could feel: With wit he was,—not money stor’d,— His landlord thought it meet, As he’d liv’d free so long on board, Why he should join the Fleet. The station he lik’d not at all, And wish’d the duty o’er; He saw some fights, and many ball, But ne’er saw such before. To banish care, he sought a rod, And smok’d like any mid, But unlike some,—altho’ in quod,— Disdain’d to take a QUID. And though a man, both short and stout, All knew him in a crowd; For oh, he never mov’d, without His head was in a CLOUD: In pris’n he met a friend he’d known Full many years ago, In ‘four in hand’ his cash had flown, And now he’d come to WOE. Poor Brown, alas! he had been GREEN, And so his hopes had marr’d; But thought it strange in turn, I ween, He should be driven HARD. Now he took snuff, in quantum suff., He thought it calm’d his woes,— While one friend blew the light cigar, The other blew his NOSE. “As we have bask’d in fortune’s calm, Now squalls come we’ll not flinch,” Thus spoke the tar, and gave his arm, And Brown gave him a PINCH. “Now, Fire, all snuffs are good, we know, Except when ill-prepar’d, I love a BOX and you a BLOW, But keep me from Blackguard. At Lundyfoot I am no hand, Seldom its dust I take, ah! Each day or so, by turns, I go From Strasburg to Jamaica.” “’Tis well, my boy,” return’d the tar, “Such journeys you can wend, For fuel here don’t go so far, Here’s plenty of WALLS-END.” Of future scenes of happiness, The tar he often spoke; But they, indeed, as you may guess, But ended all in SMOKE. At length there money came one day,— Each left the walls unkind; The tar went out—yet strange to say, His ASHES left behind!

ODE ON TOBACCO.

Gently o’er my senses stealing, Indian-weed, I love thee well; Raising, soothing, passion’s feeling, Who can all thy magic tell: Who can paint the soft entrancing, All thy virtues who can know? Moving visions, sweetly glancing, Giving joy and calming woe. Tell me, do the proud ones scorn ye, Does the monarch on his throne, In the countries where are born ye, In the lands of either zone; Prince and beggar, both caress thee, And to thee their homage pay; From Ind to Lapland, myriads bless thee, All bow to thy sovereign sway. True, there are some soft ones ever, Like a drop within the sea; Weak in nerves, yet vastly clever, Who have vainly ’countered thee: But thy strength, their own excelling, Moves the wrath they cannot quell; Envy makes their breast its dwelling, And the grapes are sour as[23]——

STANZAS TO A LADY.

IN DEFENCE OF SMOKING.

What taught me first sweet peace to blend, With hopes and fears that knew no end, My dearest, truest, fondest friend? My pipe, love! What cheer’d me in my boyhood’s hour, When first I felt Love’s witching power, To bear deceit,—false woman’s dow’r? My pipe, love! What still upheld me since the guile, Attendant on false friendship’s smile, And I in hope, deceiv’d the while? My pipe, love! What cheer’d me when misfortunes came, And all had flown me?—still the same, My only true and constant flame, My pipe, love! What sooth’d me in a foreign land, And charm’d me with its influence bland, Still whisp’ring comfort, hand in hand? My pipe, love! What charm’d me in the thoughts of past, When mem’ry’s gleam my eyes o’ercast, And burns to serve me to the last? My pipe, love!

THE LAST QUID.

He seiz’d the quid,—’twas hard and dry, The last one in its nook; The beggar’d sailor heav’d a sigh,— Despair was in his look. And have I fought, and bled in vain, Are all my comforts o’er— When shall I see thy like again, Thou last one of my store. High and dry I’ve kept thee here, In hopes of getting aid; My cruise, alas, is lost, I fear— Oh why was BACCE made! I’ve borne all weathers, wind and rain, And patiently I bore— When shall I see thy like again, Thou last one of my store. His gaze was on the muddy ground, And mis’ry in his eye; Sudden he sprang with eager bound, On something glitt’ring nigh: A sovereign’s aid, ’tis very plain, Thank heaven, I ask no more; Soon shall I see thy like again, Thou last one of my store.

 

 

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The Precious Pipe.—Napoleon greatly patronized the habit of smoking in the French army, so that it soon became actually indispensable for the continuance of that gaité du cœur, for which his troops were remarkable, even in the moments of severest peril. Under the cheering influence of the pipe, they surmounted all difficulties; and, under its consoling power, bore fatigue, and hunger, and thirst with a fortitude and philosophy, remarkable in the annals of military record. During the latter end of their march to Moscow, and after the burning of the Russian capital, they endured severe privations from the loss of their favourite herb, the stock of which was all expended: nor was this all; they suffered exceedingly through want of food and the inclemency of the weather, with many other evils, the smoking of tobacco had hitherto consoled them for. Such was the general state of the army, when a private of the Garde Imperiale, being out with a detachment on a foraging party, chanced to stray from the rest, and, in the skirt of a wood, came upon a little low deserted hut. Overjoyed in the hopes that he might find something to relieve his necessities, he stove in the door with the butt end of his musquet, and instantly commenced a scrutiny, to see if anything had been left behind by those who had evidently lately quitted it. The few articles of comfort it had formerly contained seemed, however, all to have been carried away in the flight of its late inmates, and he was about abandoning his search, when he perceived something stuffed up between the rafters of the ceiling. Thrusting it with his bayonet, a dark bundle fell at his feet: his joy may be better imagined than expressed, when, on untying the rag that bound it, he found a quantity of coarse tobacco. After filling his pouch with it, and stowing the rest of the (to him) invaluable treasure about his person, he pulled forth a short clay pipe, whose late empty bowl he had so often contemplated with melancholy regret, and, having struck a light, filled it with his darling herb, and commenced smoking immediately. “Never,” said the soldier, who himself narrated the tale to us in Paris, “since the campaign began, when we started with the certainty, almost, of returning with plunder to enrich the rest of our lives, did I feel half the pleasurable emotions I did, the hour I spent, sitting in the darkened room of that hut, whiffing the grateful fumes from my short pipe. Indulging in visions that for a long time had been a stranger to me, the much-boasted pleasures of the opium eaters, were nothing in comparison to mine.—I seemed in heaven, sir.”

After having regained the camp, it soon became a subject of remark and discussion, how Faucin (the soldier’s name) got his tobacco to smoke, and looked so cheerful, when his comrades would have given all they were worth for the same luxury. Knowing his extreme danger if it should be discovered he had any quantity of tobacco in his possession, he took every opportunity, when questioned, as he often was closely on the subject, to state that it was only a trifling remnant he had preserved. Under this pretence, he refused the numerous applications that were made him for portions, however small. At length, as his short pipe was still perceived week after week, emitting its savoury steam, on their toilsome march homewards, it was generally suspected, and he was openly told, he had plenty of tobacco in his knapsack, and he was threatened, in case of his refusal to divide a share. Firmly believing he should be robbed, if not murdered, by some of his comrades, who watched him with selfish eyes for the sake of the tobacco he carried, he was obliged by prudence to confess the secret to two corporals and a serjeant, and divide a quantity among them. While their line of march was daily and nightly strewed with the dead and dying, and many a gallant fellow breathed his last on the cold beds of snow, they were wonderfully sustained by the tobacco, that kept up their spirits throughout the scene of famine and desolation, and he reached France with the few wretched remnants of the fine troops, who had quitted it with the eagle’s flight, amid the shouts of vive Napoleon.

An old Quiddist.—A late messenger in a certain public law-office had rendered himself remarkable for the very excellent economy he pursued in the consumption of tobacco. In term time he had always plenty to do, and picked up a sufficient sum to supply the deficiency of business in the short vacations, which enabled him to obtain as much shag as he could well chew at those times, but he never lost sight of the ‘rainy day.’ He frequently got drunk but never forgot the miseries of the ‘LONG VACATION,’ and accordingly acted upon the following plan, which, for its genius, has never been equalled in the annals of chawing:—He would begin, for instance, the first day of Michaelmas term, which succeeds the long vacation, with a NEW QUID, which he would keep only about half the usual time in his mouth, and extract only a portion of its nectarine sweets. This quid, instead of casting it at his feet, he would then transfer to a certain snug little shelf in the office, with the most reverential caution, and obtain another. This practice he would repeat five or six times in the course of the same day, and every day during the times before mentioned, and what was the result? When the long vacation commenced, and he had nothing to do, he had collected the amazing quantity of between 14 and 1500 quids!!! These he worked upon, de novo, during the long recess, and ‘rich and rare’ indeed was the collection; it was the poor messenger’s only comfort.

Dr. Aldrich.—His excessive love for smoking was well known to his associates; but a young student of his college, finding some difficulty to bring a fellow collegian to the belief of it, laid him a wager that the Dean Aldrich was smoking at that time (about ten o’clock in the morning). Away went the latter to the deanery; when, being admitted to the dean in his study, he related the occasion of his visit. The dean, instead of being disconcerted, replied in perfect good humour, “You see, sir, your friend has lost his wager, for I am not now smoking, but only filling my pipe!”

Chinese Arrogance.—As a precursor to the following, it will only be proper to relate, that in China the use of smoking and snuff-taking is general, although buildings are not thought requisite for curing tobacco, as in the West Indies, there being little apprehension of rain to injure the leaves when plucked. Thus the Chinese grow tobacco enough for their own consumption, and will not allow any to be imported, so as to discourage their own cultivation. This prohibition, which has long existed in that country, was some years ago notified to Mr. Wilkodes, the American consul, then at Canton, in the following manner:

“May he be promoted to great powers! We acquaint you that the foreign opium, the dirt which is used for smoking, is prohibited by command. It is not permitted that it shall come to Canton. We beg you, good brother, to inform the honoured president of your country of the circumstance, and to make it known, that the dirt used for smoking is an article prohibited in the celestial empire.”—Paunkbyquia Mowqua, &c. Kai Hing, 22nd year, 5th Month, 22nd day, Canton, May 22nd, 1818.

Sir Isaac Newton.—This illustrious individual was remarkable for smoking and temporary fits of mental abstraction from all around him; frequently being seized with them in the midst of company. Upon one occasion, it is related of him, that a young lady presenting her hand for something across the table, he seized her finger, and, quite unconsciously, commenced applying it as a tobacco-stopper, until awoke to a sense of his enormity by the screams of the fair one.

Extraordinary Match.—Some years ago, in a public room at Langdon Hills, in Essex, the conversation chancing to turn on smoking, a farmer of the name of Williams boasting of the great quantity of tobacco he could consume at a sitting, challenged the room to produce his equal. Mr. Bowtell, the proprietor of the great boot-shop, Skinner-street, and remarkable for smoking “pipes beyond computation,” travelling his round at that time, chanced to be present, and immediately agreed to enter the lists with him for five pounds a-side. A canister of the strongest shag tobacco was placed by the side of each at eight o’clock in the evening, when they began the match. Smoking very fast, by the time the clock had struck twelve, they had each finished sixteen pipes, when the farmer, through the dense atmosphere, was observed to turn pale. He still continued, however, dauntlessly on, but, at the end of the eighteenth pipe, fell stupefied off his chair, when the victory was adjudged to his opponent, who, calling for an extra glass of grog, actually finished his twentieth pipe before he retired for the night!

 

 

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Nor ball, nor concert, nor theatre can boast, With all their frippery and senseless fun; Nor broiling taverns, when they shine the most, By hot unruly spirits overrun;— In dance, or song, or drunken laugh, and toast, With elegance and comfort, cheaply won,— To cheer the spirits and to refine the man: Hail! books and mocha,—cigars and the divan!

It is with feelings of pleasure we have remarked of late years the change that has gradually taken place in regard to places of public nightly amusement. Formerly, the metropolis had no other allurements than were comprised in the theatre or the tavern,—the former of these being but too frequently a precursor to the latter; and that latter, in its turn, among young men in general, to scenes of a worse, and, in the end, more fatal description. As a preventative in a great degree to the above incentives to dissipation, must we welcome the appearance of divans amongst us, forming, as they do, in their quiet and elegant seclusion, a pleasing and intellectual contrast to their more boisterous contemporaries. Divan, or more properly speaking, Diwan, by some writers is said to be of eastern origin, and the plural of diw, a devil. The appellation, says a Persian lexicographer, was first bestowed by a sovereign of Persia, who, on observing his crafty counsellors in high conclave, exclaimed, Inan diwan end—“these men are devils.” Mutato nomine de te fabula narratur, may be pertinently applied, in this instance, to the councils of more sovereigns than those of Ispahan. Another derivation, and a more probable one, perhaps, is the Turkish word for sopha,—a luxury abundantly supplied in every divan in Turkey. In that country it is a chamber of council held by the Grand Seignior, his pashas, or other high tributaries, in which all the councillors assembled smoke their chibouques during the debate in all the sedate pomp of eastern magnificence. The interiors of these divans are represented by travellers as superbly grand, falling little short of the far-famed description of their harems. Coffee, it must be remarked, is the common beverage used by the Turks whilst smoking, and is commonly handed round with little or no milk or sugar, in small china cups. Taken thus, perhaps, nothing harmonizes with smoking so well on the palate; as the Rev. Dr. Walsh says, in his Travels in Turkey, speaking of tobacco, and in whose judicious remarks we cannot but concur, “I do not wonder at the general use of this most indispensable of Turkish luxuries; it is always the companion of coffee (mocha), and there is something so exceedingly congenial in the properties of both, that nature seems to have intended them for inseparable associates. We do not know how to use tobacco in this country, but defile and deteriorate it with malt liquor. When used with coffee, and after the Turkish fashion, it is singularly grateful to the taste, and refreshing to the spirits; counteracting the effects of fatigue and cold, and appeasing the cravings of hunger, as I have experienced.”

The popularity of divans in England may be best known by the rapid increase of their numbers since their first adoption here.

At the present period there are no less than six popular divans (independent of several obscure ones) in London.

These are,—

The Oriental Divan, Regent-street.
The Private Subscription Divan, Pall Mall.
The Royal City Divan, St. Paul’s Churchyard.
The Royal Divan, King-street, Covent Garden.
The Royal Divan, Strand.
The Divan, Charing Cross.

The whole of these divans are fitted up in a style of Asiatic splendour and comfort, that produces to the uncultivated eye a very novel and pleasing effect; while, upon a closer examination, the other senses are no less delighted.

The Journals of every nation in Europe are a general attraction to linguists and foreigners, while the cream of our own ever fertile press leaves the English reader nothing to wish for in the way of literature. Indeed, no means of entertainment are found wanting at these delightful soirées; chess invites the player, pictures the eye, and occasional music the ear; while lounging on a sopha with a cigar in the mouth, the gazer might almost fancy himself in the land of the crescent.

The divans in Regent-street and Pall Mall, are considered the most oriental of any in town, though the saloon in the Strand is perhaps the largest.

A refinement that peculiarly distinguishes the divan in King-street, is an admirably laid-out garden; at night lit by numerous parti-coloured lamps; in the day during the summer-time it forms a pleasing attraction to all lovers of the cooling shade.

Of the Royal City Divan, of whose elegant interior our frontispiece engraving presents so correct a view, we can only say that its allurements are peculiarly attractive. In the first place, the saloon has an advantage in being situated—unlike all the other divans—on the first-floor, and is fitted up in a very superior manner. It likewise possesses, from the extent and spaciousness of the premises, the additional advantage of private refreshment rooms, to which parties of friends can retire from the busy hum of the grand saloon, and enjoy the pleasures of a convivial glass.

Altogether, we cannot help observing, ere we conclude, that great merit is due to the several proprietors of the divans for the tasteful and expensive way in which they have furnished their different saloons; while, from the extreme moderation of their charges, they cannot but have strong claims to the patronage of a discerning public.

 

 

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Cigars.—The best and most approved cigars consumed among our nobility and gentry, are those brought from the Havanah in the West Indies. The Woodville, so called from the name of the importer, are held in the greatest estimation. In form, these should gradually decline from the middle to long and tapering ends. Color, a clear raw sienna brown, variegated with bright brown yellow spots. In flavour they should be light and spicy, draw free, leaving a firm white ash. An excellence too, that should distinguish these cigars from the common kind, independent of their taste, should be the length of time they are capable of retaining their light without being drawn.

The strong flavoured Cuba, by smokers of long standing, when indeed a pipe has not altogether superseded the cigar, are in the greatest request. These vary in color from black to brown, according to the strength or age of the leaf; and like the Woodville, are also distinguished when properly seasoned, and kept by mildew spots, though of a darker hue.

The tobacco of the Cubas growth is very frequently made up into cheroots, a form some prefer to the cigar, and are sold under the denomination of Manilla.

Without entering into a description of the numerous kinds of cigars vended in the United Kingdom, we can only remark, as a fact well authenticated, that the greater and more common part, sold from eight to thirteen shillings the hundred; are prepared from the cabbage-leaf, soaked in a strong solution of tobacco-water. Cigars, so composed, are generally passed off under the names of Hambro’, Maryland, and Virginia. The same deceptions may be said to exist, in respect to the small cheroots, whether scented or not: they are, with comparatively trifling exceptions, nearly all of British make.

The reason is obvious, why these deceits are practised: in a former part of this little work, we stated the duty on the imported raw leaf of tobacco to be three shillings per lb., while on the manufactured, it is just thrice that amount: at once a reason why a good price must needs be given for the genuine foreign article.

A great saving is effected in purchasing cigars by the weight or box as imported, while from a respectable shop you may be always sure of their being made abroad, as they are sent under seal in boxes from the West Indies.

Tobaccos.—An idea prevails among young smokers, that tobacco, independent of its fancied vulgarity, is always much stronger than cigars; an error that is very common. Like cigars, indeed, it is of various growth and quality, and like them, may be had weak, or strong. The smoker, if he desires it, can have tobacco as weak as the mildest Havanahs. The only difference in their manufacture is, the leaf is cut into shreds to form the one, and wrapt up to form the other. The Persian, Turkish, and Maryland tobacco, are the mildest. The shag and twists, the strongest; the latter of which, as its name implies, is manufactured uncut; its excellence may always be told by a shining cut and an agreeable smell. Besides these, we have tobaccos under an infinite number of appellations, with all the variations in their nature, incident to climate, growth, age, and method of being prepared for use.

The tobacco held in the greatest esteem in the East, is the Persian. The Turks, notwithstanding their own excellent growth of the plant, give very high prices to possess it; especially that which comes from, Shiraz. This is accounted the best. The moslems are also much in the habit of smoking a composition of opium and rose leaves with their tobacco through scented waters. A similar practice is common in India among the higher class; the same materials are made into a thick consistency and rolled into balls, which they term Jugeny. To the unpractised palate, the smoking of this composition has a strangely exhilarating and intoxicating effect.

A singular habit also prevails in the island of Ceylon. Some of the natives wrap the leaf of a strong tobacco they call Kapada into a lengthened form, and then covering it with the leaf of the Wattakan tree, light one end of it, and smoke by the other, till the whole is consumed.

Besides the tobacco of the West Indies, Persia and Turkey, considerable quantities are cultivated in the Levant, the coasts of Greece, the Archipelago, the island of Malta, and Italy.

Pipes.—In reference to these essentials to smoking tobacco, a great variety of tastes are displayed, while that of each country forms an amusing contrast to that of its neighbour. In the Eastern portion of the globe, the gorgeous hookah or superb chibouque with their serpent train are caressed: in France, the short twisted pipe: in Germany, the merschaum: in Holland, the long slender black pipe: in America, the short red clay pipe, or the ingeniously manufactured, yet murderous tomahawk, bears the tube of comfort; while in England—happy England—all, or any of these, are attainable.

The portable pipes the Turks are in the habit of using have their bowls generally made of a peculiar kind of red clay; and the tube part of jasmine and cherry sticks. The most expensive and those which from their exceeding size, and costliness, are regarded as the most sumptuous furniture of the mansion, are composed of a variety of materials.

The tubes, which sometimes have been known to exceed twenty yards in length, are commonly made of leather covered with the richest velvets, and bound with gold or silver wire; this is generally terminated at the one end by a gold, silver, or amber mouth-piece; while the other (when used as it almost always is with scented water) tipped with a reed of a foot long, is placed in a decanter containing the water, through which the smoke is to be drawn; it is then met and joined by a similar reed, bearing the chafing dish; this is of silver, very large, with a fretwork cover of the same metal, through which the fumes of the aromatics used arise.

It is by no means an uncommon thing in the East to have these tubes (which are remarkably flexible) carried through the wall of one apartment into another, that the apparatus may not be in the way of the smoker.

The merschaum or German pipes, in Europe, are celebrated for the virtues of their bowls, which are of a very porous quality. These are composed of a substance thrown upon the shore by the sea in Germany, and being called Ecume de Mer form the origin of the word Merschaum. In Germany they are commonly set in copper, with leather and horn tubes, but in England they are variously formed and ornamented with chains and tassels.

Tubes, when they are used for cigars (whose flavour we think they greatly tend to spoil) should be short, and composed of amber.

Lights for Smoking.—The advantage of obtaining an instantaneous light, is perhaps seldom more appreciated than by smokers. The articles used until lately for the purpose of igniting cigars, when out, or travelling, were the Amadou, with the flint and steel—the phosphorus box, and pneumatic cylinder:—all of which were, more or less, uncertain or inconvenient, until the ingenious invention of Jones’s Prometheans. These may very fairly be said to possess a never-failing facility in producing an instantaneous light.

The Promethean is composed of a small bulb of glass, hermetically sealed, containing a small part of sulphuric acid, and surrounded by a composition of chlorate of potash and aromatics. This is enclosed in paper prepared for the purpose. The light is simply effected by giving the promethean a smart tap that breaks the bulb, when the acid, coming in contact with the composition, causes instant ignition. It must be remarked however, the Lucifers or chlorate matches that ignite, by drawing the match through sand paper, introduced by the same inventor, is decidedly bad for a cigar; the fumes arising from the combustion being offensive, are too apt to spoil the flavour of the leaf.

In divans, burners called Jos-sticks, are generally used for lighting cigars, as they smoulder in their light, like the promethean.

FINIS.

London: Printed by Littlewood and Co. Old Bailey.

 

 

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Footnotes:

[1] Memoires Philosophiques, Historiques, Physiques, concernant lá Decouverte de l’Amerique, &c. Par Don Ulloa. Traduit avec des observations par M——. Paris, 1787. Vol. II. p. 58.

[2] M. Valmont de Bomare, formerly director of the cabinets of Natural History, Medicine, &c. to the prince of Conde.

[3] The British Historian.

[4] A well-known perfumer in his day who resided in Beaufort’s Buildings, London, A. D. 1740.

[5] Scrows are the untanned hides of buffaloes, sewed with thongs of the same, and made up into bags or bales for the exportation of several kinds of American produce, as indigo, snuff, tobacco, &c. &c. The fleshy side of the skin is turned outwards, whilst the hairy side, partly scraped, comes into anything but an agreeable contact with the commodity.

[6] Independent of His Royal Highness’s attachment to the Columbian weed, the Duke has a repository where are to be seen, in curious arrangement, all the smoking tubes in use by the civilized inhabitants of the world, from the slender pipe used by the Hollander, to the magnificent Hookah used by the Indian prince in his Court, or on the back of his elephant; and so attentive is the prince to this healthy amusement, that even in his travelling carriage a receptacle is formed for the pipe, the tinder, the flint, and the steel.

[7] The Pipe of Peace.

[8] The two celebrated anglers.

[9] See Walton’s complete Angler. Charles Cotton of Beresford Hall, his little Fishing House.

[10] Except from British possessions in America, and then it is 2s. 9d.

[11] A short pipe smoked by the lower orders, and generally rendered black by time and the frequent use of the commonest shag tobacco.

[12] Sterne’s Tristram Shandy.

[13] Sterne’s Sentimental Journey.

[14] By Goldsmith.

[15] Smollett’s Peregrine Pickle.

[16] Antiquarian fact: The identical Pipe and Chair used by the celebrated author of the Rambler are still in being, and are exhibited as relics of no ordinary value, at the house he used formerly to frequent in Bolt-court, Fleet-street. It now goes under the very appropriate appellation of Dr. Johnson’s Coffee-house.

[17] We more particularly refer to this fact from the reports concerning the Cholera Morbus that are now in circulation.

[18] Discourse on the Plague, A. D. 1678—recommends tobacco smoked in a pipe.

[19] Physician to the General Infirmary of the county of Stafford, A. D. 1785.

[20] At that time frequently so called.

[21] Vide Experiments on the Effects of Oil of Tobacco on Pigeons, &c. &c.—Phil. Trans. Vol. xx. Part I. Append, p. 38. Fonbine sur les poissons, Florence. Quarto.

[22] Treatise on the Culture of Tobacco.

[23] I am sorry to say our leading black primer is all out; I have been down below, but they cannot spare any there.—Printer’s Devil.