tenderly begged her not to take too much snuff; strong evidence that a moderate quantity may be allowed a pretty, juvenile, 'maiden gentlewoman, just as she may enjoy wine, beef, exercise, learning, and love" soberly;" without trenching on the license of the "chartered libertine" she is in duty bound to honour and obey, as her superior in all things.

We shall now, in a few words, endeavour to prove that tobacco, reduced to powder, was known long before it was smoked in Europe.

As far back as the year of grace 1518, a Spaniard, called Grijalva-blessings upon his name!— held a friendly conference with the Cacique of Tobasco, and first beheld the clouds of incense rising from the smoked weed. Cortez, the renowned general, sent to his sovereign, Charles, a specimen of the transatlantic luxury. The seeds of this novel importation were eagerly sought after by merchants trading to the Levant. Genoa and Venice soon beheld the green leaves of yet untasted happiness; Turkey was next favoured; Araby, then indeed, "the blest," soon possessed this "foreign wonder;" Persia rejoiced at its coming; and the continent of Asia was gladdened by its verdant beauty.

Monsieur Nicot (Lord of Villemain), who, in the year 1560, was the ambassador of Francis II. to the Portuguese court, received, from a Dutch planter, newly returned from " the long voyage," some seeds of tobacco. These precious grains Monsieur Nicot sent to Queen Catherine (de Medicis). Her Majesty, with infinite good taste, took them under her royal protection; they were cultivated, and the pulverised leaves used as a medicine, under the appellation of Herbe à la Reine, until Catherine died.

Linnæus has immortalised the fact, by bestowing on this American produce, the generic name of Nicotiana.

Santa Croce, a cardinal, and, moreover, a nuncio, carried with him, from Madrid to Rome, some tobacco plants. He had gained name and fame previously, from having transported from the Holy Land to the Eternal City, a portion of the true Cross. We will make no comment as to these contrasted claims on the gratitude of posterity.

Popular tradition gives to the gallant and unfortunate Sir Walter Raleigh, the glory of having introduced tobacco in our own dear island. Camden, on the contrary, asserts that Sir Francis Drake, on his return to England, in 1585, smoked

a plant called tabacca, of which he had learnt the use from the Indians, as a cure for dyspepsia.

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Doctor Cotton Mather, in his "Christian Philosopher," says, that "in 1585, one Mr. Lane carried over some tobacco from Virginia, which was the first that had ever been seen in Europe." Now, it is possible that this one Mr. Lane," might have been one of Sir Francis's gallant crew; still the testimonies are conflicting, as it is elsewhere most positively asserted, that tobacco was not introduced into Virginia until 1616. Sir Walter Raleigh on his first visit to Trinadad, found the plant in a state of cultivation, as early as 1593.

Leaving to the antiquarian the settlement of this knotty point, let us proceed with our darling theme.

Titilating pulvilios might be, and, we believe, were used, ere the introduction and pulverisation of Raleigh's fragrant weed. Shakspere's phrase, "took it in snuff," proved nothing; since, after the verb to snuff, was our theme called; a very old, nay, even scriptural verb: (vide Malachi, chapter ii., verse 13); "Ye said-what a weariness is it, and ye have snuffed at it." But "Pouncet Box," shews that it was not, like our

vinaigrettes, the case for a sponge saturated in essence. "A certain lord" need only have nasally inhaled the odour of such. There is a vast difference between sniffing and snuffing; one sniffs with unloving caution, as he did the "slovenly unhandsome corses, borne betwixt the wind and his nobility." One snuffs with eagerness, as did "his nose when angry," at having its delectation "given and ta'en away again."

Shakspere frequently committed the anachronism of lending his own time's habits to the dates of his plays. Ergo, he most probably thought of the American new fangled dainty when writing of Henry IV.

Since heads have grown upon shoulders, they have been subject to aching, and the powdered leaves of this herb, when newly discovered, were constantly prescribed by the physicians as an errhine.*

As mankind have long admitted that prevention is better than cure, those persons who had received benefit from the administration of the

"Errhina: remedies taken by the nose, to enliven the spirits, stop bleeding, &c., but principally to clear the humidities of the head. Of these, some are taken in powder, as Betony, Marjoram, Iris, White Hellebore, Tobacco, &c."-CHAMBERS, 1738.

powder, did not hesitate to make use of it, under the slightest symptoms of their besetting malady. Sneezing Powder was hailed as a specific, and treasured by those whose heads suffered either from neuralgic or other causes. It would prove a gratifying counter-irritation to the throbs created by a rush of system, to the brain, unless caused by deranged digestion; in qualmish headaches, snuff, especially if the slightest degree scented, would do more harm than good.

We have not been able to trace an earlier date than 1620, as the period when legitimate snuff-taking began to flourish, Louis XIV., whose reign occupied so long a portion of time, had a personal distaste to snuff, but the objection of the Grand Monarque, did not prevent the increased use of the luxury, amongst the gallants, as well as the ladies of his court.

The king's physician, Monsieur Fagon, anxious to substantiate the justice of his Majesty's antipathy, once held forth in a violent oration, against the pernicious effects of the newly introduced and abominable custom; but, in the midst of his tirade, drew from his pocket, a box filled with the obnoxious powder; and, taking a lusty pinch, resumed the thread of his argument with fresh