d as chewing is
not polite, and smoking in a mill not allowed, the only
resource left to the operative is his snuff. A singular
feature connected with this is, we believe, the fact that
spinners in very few instances use snuff-boxes, they prefer
having their supply of snuff screwed up in a piece of paper.
One retail shop-keeper in a busy spinning town in Lancashire
assured us that he retailed over four hundred weight of
snuff a week in pennyworths.

"It is impossible to state the exact quantity of snuff used
in this country; but, as far as we can arrive at it from
statistics at hand, we should say it cannot be less than
five hundred tons per annum. This seems an enormous
quantity, considering the comparatively small number of
persons who now use snuff; but the great bulk of snuff seems
to be consumed by particular communities, such as the
Lancashire operatives, and the consumption of it is
therefore not generally observable; and further it should be
remembered that those who do take snuff, individually use
large quantities."

Snuff-manufacturing has in some cases been attended with considerable
affluence. One instance is the London manufacturer already mentioned,
whose profits accumulated to the extent of nearly a quarter of a
million; another is the Lundy Foote business, and the third a Scotch
manufacturer (Gillespie), who by the way, practised a bit of
benevolence, in the shape of building an hospital, in return for the
good things fortune had sent him. Of course an hospital, like many
other things, may have a doubtful origin, as witness the famous Guy's,
which stands as a lasting monument to the wonderful profits that used
to be made out of the iniquitous advance note system. But we do not by
any means wish to make comparisons which must be odious and although
the profits of snuff-manufacturing are for a variety of
reasons--amongst others the decreased consumption of the manufactured
article--not nearly as large as they were fifty years ago; yet we are
sure that the fortunes accumulated by some of the old snuff-makers
were the result of honest, upright industry.

Of European tobacco used in the manufacture of snuff that of Holland
and France (St. Omer) is considered to be equal to any grown in
Europe. Of the varieties grown in America, Virginia leaf is used quite
extensively for some grades of snuff and "good stout ric