Rome with the blood of her best
citizens, would have been agreed to? Again, can any one
imagine Charles the Ninth and his evil counsellors plotting
the massacre of St. Bartholomew over pinches of the soothing
dust? Is it probable that the High Court of Justiciary would
have entitled its royal martyr to a special service in the
Book of Common Prayer, if its deliberation had been inspired
by the kindly snuff which since that time has so often
softened the rigor of the law? My hypothesis may seem an
absurd one, but history supports it.

"When Charles the Second introduced snuff into general use,
men's hands had scarcely adapted themselves to more
peaceable occupations than cutting their neighbors' throats,
and the ashes of a long and bitter civil war needed little
fanning to break into a blaze again; and yet, for forty
years of misgovernment the nation kept its temper. How can
this forbearance be accounted for? Was it that circumstances
no longer called for as stern and as effectual remedies as
before? No. Was the second Charles one whit more desirable
than the first of that ilk? Was Clarendon more liked than
Stafford? Was Russell's head of less consequence than
Prynne's ears? No. Again, wrongs as grievous as those which
Hampden had died in resisting were to be avenged, but in a
milder, better fashion; for mankind had in the meantime
learned to take snuff. Much of the haste and irritation
which had previously led to blows discharged itself in a
good-natured sneeze. Snuff made men forbearing, even jocular
over their wrongs. Who can doubt that the revolution which
ended in placing William of Orange on his father-in-law's
throne owed its bloodless character not a little to the
influence of snuff. We read of difficulties in its course,
which, fifty years previously, would inevitably have led to
bloodshed, being easily, almost humorously surmounted. The
plagued nation effected a revolution over its snuff-boxes in
the happiest conceivable manner.

"Having ventured so far I am inclined to put forward a yet
higher claim which snuff has upon our gratitude, and to hint
that the great deeds of great men who were snuff-takers may
be traced by a chain of reasoning--slight, yet
conclusive--to this dearly prized luxury. The hackneyed
s