the indulgence is the merest trifle compared with the price paid for it in, say, Jacobean time, when paternal governments, out of a too tender regard for the interests of their loving subjects of mean estate, levied a tax upon tobacco which if converted into the coinage of the present day would be equivalent to six or seven times the sum for which it may now be purchased from the tobacconist. Curiously enough, another Michael (Drayton), well-nigh three hundred years ago (_Polyolbion_, 1613), raised his voice more in sorrow than in anger against the extravagance of his times, as compared with the days Before the Indian weed so strongly was embrac’t, Wherein such mighty summes we prodigally waste. In this love of the weed, and the extravagant sums expended upon it, is to be found the key to Robert Burton’s high praise and vigorous condemnation, uttered in one breath, of tobacco. As an example of Elizabethan nervous vigour the passage is worth quoting: Tobacco! divine, rare, super-excellent tobacco! which goes far beyond all the panaceas, potable gold, and philosopher’s stones; a sovereign remedy to all diseases; a virtuous herb, if it be well qualified, opportunely taken, and medicinally used; but as it is commonly abused by most men, who take it as tinkers do ale, ’tis a plague, a mischief, a violent purge of goods, lands, health, hellish, devilish, and damned tobacco, the ruin and overthrow of body and soul. Democritus Junior did not mince matters, either in writing or when indulging in lusty banter with bargemen on the Thames. Of more vital importance than the price paid for it is the consideration of its effects on health and character, and, if we would view the subjects in its larger bearings, on our physical and moral organisation it is obviously necessary that we should Survey the whole nor seek slight faults to find Where nature moves, and rapture charms the mind. At the outset, however, it cannot be too strongly emphasised that there is no question as to the baneful action of tobacco in any form on growing youths. Until the age of adolescence is safely passed, or till the riper age of one and twenty has been attained, there should be no thought of smoking. The tests and experiments of physiologists, the untrained observation of laymen, and the accumulated experience of civilised nations are agreed in this conclusion. Remarks pointing to the rapid growth of the smoking habit among youths were made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his recent Budget speech, where, commenting upon the augmented revenue from tobacco, he said it was mainly due to the vast consumption of cigarettes, which were specially attractive to our youthful population. ‘I am told,’ Sir Michael added, ‘of one manufacturer who makes two millions of cigarettes a day who hardly made any a few years ago.’