as the only delight that drunkards love any
weak or sweet drink, so are not those (I mean the strong heat and fume)
the only qualities that make tobacco so delectable to all the lovers of
it? And as no man loves strong heavy drinks the first day (because _nemo
repente fuit turpissimus_), but by custom is piece and piece allured,
while in the end a drunkard will have as great a thirst to be drunk as a
sober man to quench his thirst with a draught when he hath need of it;
so is not this the true case of all the great takers of tobacco, which
therefore they themselves do attribute to a bewitching quality in it?
Thirdly, is it not the greatest sin that all of you, the people of all
sorts of this kingdom, who are created and ordained by God to bestow
both your persons and goods for the maintenance both of the honor and
safety of your King and commonwealth, should disable yourself to this
shameful imbecility, that you are not able to ride or walk the journey
of a Jew's Sabbath, but you must have a reeky coal brought you from the
next poorhouse to kindle your tobacco with? whereas he cannot be thought
able for any service in the wars that cannot endure ofttimes the want of
meat, drink, and sleep; much more then must he endure the want of
tobacco."

A curious tractate on tobacco, by Dr. Tobias Venner, was published at
London in 1621. The author was a graduate of Oxford, and a physician at
Bath, and is mentioned in the _Oxoniae Athenienses_.

The amount of tobacco imported in 1619 into England from Virginia, being
the entire crop of the preceding year, was, as before said, twenty
thousand pounds. At the end of seventy years there were annually
imported into England more than fifteen million of pounds of it, from
which a revenue of upward of one hundred thousand pounds was derived.

In April, 1621, the House of Commons debated whether it was expedient to
prohibit the importation of tobacco entirely; and they determined to
exclude all save from Virginia and the Somer Isles. It was estimated
that the consumption of England amounted to one thousand pounds _per
diem_. This seductive narcotic leaf, which soothes the mind and quiets
its perturbations, has found its way into all parts of the habitable
globe, from the sunny tropics to the snowy regions of the frozen pole.
Its fragrant smoke ascends alike to the blackened rafters of the lowly
hut and the gilded ceilings of luxurious wealth.

JOHN M. LUDLOW

The first negro slaves w