Sir Wm. Robinson, Governor of Trinidad, has written a treatise on the culture of tobacco in the West Indies, from which the following is an extract:

"The history of tobacco in England is both interesting and somewhat amusing. As every one knows, or ought to know, we are indebted to Sir Walter Raleigh for this popular product. In 1585 he introduced it into England, and having an eye to business he persuaded ' Good Queen Bess ' to give him a patent for the possession of Virginia, from which excellent supplies have been, and are still procured. The first tobacco plant grown in Great Britain was imported from Virginia. Raleigh, not satisfied with his property in America, obtained from the Virgin Queen, in addition thereto, 12,000 acres of forfeited land in Cork and Water-ford, on a portion of which the tobacco plant was afterwards regularly cultivated.

" Raleigh was a courtier - a gentleman of position and great influence - and it is not surprising that the habit of smoking which he adopted became very fashionable; We accordingly read in one of his biographies that the ' ladies and great and noble men' of Queen Elizabeth's Court 'would not scruple to blow a pipe sometimes very sociably.' At Sir Walter's house in Islington, he frequently entertained his guests with a ' mug of ale with grated nutmeg and a pipe,' and I hare no doubt that when in less prosperous times he was confined in the Tower of London, he had recourse to the grateful weed, though he may-have been robbed of his beer. Elizabeth's successor, James I., ' was a Goth,' or, what to us smokers is the same thing, an anti-tobacconist. He was disgusted with the ' precious stinke' of the pipe and cigar, and did his 'level best' to put down the habit of smoking amongst his long-suffering subjects.

"In 1604 (let this be a warning to colonial governors), in a most unconstitutional manner, without the consent of Parliament, he issued a warrant raising the tax on tobacco from 2d. to 6s. 10d. for every pound value.

" But if the memory of James I. is anathematised by all smokers, his action was absolutely mild when compared with that of Pope Urban VIII., and that of the King of Persia and Czar of Moscovy. The Pope threatened excommunication to all using tobacco in churches - certainly an unseemly and intolerable practice, but the King and Czar forbade its use under pain of death, with the pleasant alternative of having the nose cut off for enjoying it in the form of snuff.

" But these potentates could not stem the tide. James soon found this out, and, with an eye to the main chance, cannily changed his tactics. He saw there was ' a tide in the affairs of man, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune,' so he took to himself the pre emption of all tobacco imported. He also decreed, with a view of putting money in his purse, that only those holding his letters patent should be allowed to import.

" It is perhaps not generally known that Charles the Martyr began his reign in 1625, to all intents and purposes, as a tobacco merchant and monopolist. The fact remains, however, that all tobacco not grown in Virginia and Bermuda was seized for his benefit, and that 50,000 pounds of Spanish tobacco were bought by himself and resold to his subjects.

"Camden, in his 'Annals,' asserts that in the reign of the first Charles tobacco was highly prized, 'both as a recreation and a health restorative.'"

"We smokers are much indebted to Lord Baltimore for the fillip he gave to tobacco cultivation. In 1633 he emigrated to Maryland with 200 persons, who were specially encouraged to cultivate the industry which has been maintained there ever since. Great quantities were grown in England in the middle of the seventeenth century, but of course the psalm-singing Rump Parliament prohibited its growth. The smokers, however, were too strong for Cromwell, and also for Charles II., who was too vicious to permit his loyal subjects to indulge in the little vice of smoking, if it is one.

"In l65o, by 12 Carl. II., chap. 34, Charles, simply to increase his own pocket money and to furnish means for his expensive habits, issued a legal prohibition against the cultivation of tobacco. Smokers were not to be daunted, however. He could not put their pipes out, for the Yorkshiremen pursued the industry with characteristic stubbornness, and notwithstanding persecution and prosecution, tobacco and smokers gallantly held their own.

"In 1782 a descent was made on the York cultivators. All their stock of tobacco was seized and publicly burnt, and the dealers were mulcted in penalties to the amount of L30,000. Even so late as 1831 were tobacco cultivators harrassed. William IV., of whom better things might have been expected, in that year prohibited its growth in Ireland. I think I am right in saying that at the present moment great efforts are being made to restore its cultivation in the United Kingdom. Truly it may be said, in reference to the "noxious weed" - Tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis.

"Curiously enough, in the reign of George III. the practice of smoking was well-nigh superseded by the practice of snuff-taking.

"With reference to snuff, at that period, Wesley, in his 'Poems on Several Occasions,' observes : - ' To such a height with these is fashion grown They feed their very nostrils with a spoon.'