From “Notes and Queries” we learn that “tobacco was first cultivated in this country at Winchcombe in Gloucestershire, and that the natives did suck thereout no small advantage; and before the time of James II. the best Virginia was but two shillings the pound, and two gross of the best glazed pipes, and a box with them, three shillings and fourpence.” Tobacco became almost a necessary among the upper classes; nor could the parliamentary representatives of the city of Worcester be despatched up to town until the “collective wisdom” had smoked and drunk sack at the “Globe,” or some other hostelry. As early as 1621, it was moved in the House of Commons by Sir William Stroud, that “he would have tobacco banished wholly out of the kingdom, and that it may not be brought from any part, nor used amongst us.” And by Sir Grey Palmes, “that if tobacco be not banished, it will overthrow 100,000 men in England, for it is now so common, that he hath seen ploughmen take it as they are at the plough.” At a later period of the same century, so inveterate had the practice become, that an order appears on the journals of the House, “That no member in the House do presume to smoke tobacco in the gallery, or at the table of the House sitting at Committees.” But tobacco did not come into general use in Europe without great and strenuous opposition. All kinds of weapons were called in requisition to stay its progress. Persuasion and force were alike essayed without effect. A German writer has collected the titles of a hundred different works condemning its use, which were published within half a century of its introduction into Europe. The pen was wielded by royal as well as plebeian fingers, and the famous diatribe of the British Solomon, King James I., of blessed memory, defender of the faith, and antagonist of tobacco, keeps his memory still _green_ in the hearts of Englishmen. In Russia, the snuff-taker was ingeniously cured of the habit, by having his nose cut off, while smokers had a pipe bored through the same useful projection. Michael Feodorovitch Tourieff kindly offered a bastinado to the Muscovites for the first offence, cutting off the nose for the second, and the head for the third. In 1590, Pope Innocent XII. took the trouble to excommunicate all who used tobacco in any form in the church of St. Peter’s in Rome. And in 1624, Pope Urban VII., the old woman, fulminated a bull against all persons found taking snuff during divine service; and old women, in the spirit of opposition, have been fond of snuff ever since. The sultans and priests of Persia and Turkey declared smoking a sin against their religion. Amurath IV. of Persia published an edict, making the smoking of tobacco a capital offence. Shah Abbas II. punished such delinquents equally severely. When leading an army against the Cham of Tartary, he proclaimed that every soldier in whose possession tobacco was found, would have his nose and lips cut off, and afterwards be burnt alive. El-Gabartee