[58]. The consumption of Tea has greatly increased in England during the last thirty years. In 1787 the total amounted to sixteen millions of pounds, whereas in 1821, it exceeded twenty-two millions.
[59]. Hernandez de Toledo sent this plant into Spain and Portugal in 1559, when Jean Nicot was Ambassador at the Court of Lisbon from Francis II, and he transmitted, or carried either the seed, or the plant to Catherine de Medicis: it was then considered as one of the wonders of the new world, and was supposed to possess very extraordinary virtues; this seems to be the first authentic record of the introduction of this plant into Europe. In 1589 the Cardinal Santa Croce, returning from his nunciature in Spain and Portugal to Italy, carried thither with him Tobacco, and we may form some notion of the enthusiasm with which its introduction was hailed, from a perusal of the poetry which the subject inspired; the poets compare the exploit of the holy Cardinal with that of his progenitor who brought home the wood of the true cross.
————————————————————“Herb of immortal fame!
Which hither first with Santa Croce came,
When he, his time of nunciature expired,
Back from the Court of Portugal retired;
Even as his predecessors, great and good
Brought home the cross.”——
In England, it is said that the smoking Tobacco was first introduced by Sir Walter Raleigh on his return from America. James the First wrote a philippic against it, entitled a “Counterblaste to Tobacco,” in which the royal author, with more prejudice than dignity, informs his loving subjects that ‘it is a custome loathsome to the eye, hatefull to the nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the lungs; and in the blacke stinking fume thereof, neerest resembling the horrible Stigian smoake of the pit that is bottomlesse.’ In 1604 this monarch endeavoured by means of heavy imposts to abolish its use in this country, and in 1619 he commanded that no planter in Virginia should cultivate more than 100 lbs. It must be confessed that some legislative enactment was necessary at this period for restricting the custom of smoking Tobacco; for we are told in the Counterblaste, that many persons expended as much as five hundred pounds per annum in the purchase of this article, which in those days was an enormous amount.
In 1624 Pope Urban the VIIIth published a decree of excommunication against all who took snuff in the church. Ten years after this, smoking was forbidden in Russia, under the pain of having the nose cut off; in 1653 the Council of the Canton of Appenzel cited smokers before them, whom they punished, and they ordered all innkeepers to inform against such as were found smoking in their houses. The police regulations of Bern made in 1661 was divided according to the Ten Commandments, in which the prohibition of smoking stands immediately beneath the command against adultery; this prohibition was renewed in 1675, and the Tribunal instituted to put it into execution—viz.; Chambre au Tabac—continued to the middle of the eighteenth century. Pope Innocent the XIIth, in 1690 excommunicated all those who were found taking snuff or tobacco in the church of St. Peter at Rome; even so late as 1719 the Senate of Strasburgh prohibited the cultivation of Tobacco from an apprehension that it would diminish the growth of corn; Amurath the IVth published an edict which made smoking Tobacco a capital offence; this was founded on an opinion that it rendered the people infertile. Those who are curious to learn more of the history of this extraordinary plant, I beg to refer to a very interesting paper by ‘Medicus,’ in the 24th volume of the ‘London Medical and Physical Journal,’ page 445.