PERSECUTION OF

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5584, 6 June 1896, Page 2

PERSECUTION OF

(Gentleman's Magazine.) In Persia, where but recently jealous strife raged for sole possession of the tobacco industry, Abbas 1., of dread memory, cut off the lips of those who smoked, and the noses of any who ventured to snuff. On one occasion he threw an unforrunate man whom he discovered selling tobacco into a fire along with his goods. Yet, by-and-by, this' demon of cruelty himself wasenthralledbyNicotiana's charms, and became one of her most fervent devotees. The Turks, under Amurath IV., were similarly punished for infringing his edict against smoking. Sir- Edwin Sandys, of Pontefract, in his travels in 1610, bears testimony to similar acts of cruelty by Mahomet IV. During his stay in Constantinople he witnessed the punishment of a sturdy Turk who had been caught solacing the burden of life with THE VAPOUR OP HIS NEW FOUND JOY. Short-lived however was his happiness ; he was dragged before the tribnnal and condemned to the torture of having a hole pierced through the cartilage of his nose and a pipe inserted therein. Then, in order to render the punishment more impressive to the multitude, he was seated on the back of an ass with his face to the tail, and driven through the streets of the city, while criers proclaimed his offence and its merited punishment, according to the law of the Sultan. Not less cruel were the barbarities inflicted upon Russian subjects, who, under the Tsar Michael Fedorowitz, were publicly knouted for using tobacco in any form — in some instances their nostrils were split open. If guilty of a second offence,' death alone could wipe out the crime. The ambassadors of the Duke of Holstein who visited Moscow in 1634 relate that they were eye-witnesses of a public exhibition of this kind, where eight men and one woman were punishocl. with the knout for selling tobacco and brandy. By way of palliating this Russian atrocity they were informed that houses in Moscow had been set on fire by. smokers falling asleep and dropping their lighted pipes. Oppression, however, . like persecution in another sphere, brought succour to the plant, for, despite every form of opposition and punishment, men quietly went on comforting themselves with the woed, until at last their bitterest foes became their best friends, and gratefully acknowledged THE feENIGN SWAY OP NICOTIANA. There is a peculiar interest, not without instruction (for it strikingly illustrates the far-seeing sagacity of King James), in observing the change which came over Governments with regard to the consumption of tobacco. One after another they began to recognise in the Indian idol virtues which to them had, unfortunately, too long remained hidden. Straightway they took her under their paternal protection, and handsomely did Nicotiana reward their tardy acknowledgment of her value to mankind. By-and-by, many an anxious custodian of an empty treasury came to look to her as a divinity . ♦ * * that cures, a Tftpour that atford3 Content more solid than the smiles of lords, - and as they gathered in their golden harvest of taxation, BLESSED THE NAME OP THEIR BENEPAC- ' TRESB. . In illustration of this change may be mentioned the action which Peter the Great took with the view .of establishing^ tobacco culture and its manufacture in his. dominions. In the tenth volume of M. de Martin's magnificent work on the treaties and conventions concluded by Russia with other nations from 1710 to 1801, there is a paragraph which states that Peter the Great, having determined that tobacco should be cultivated and manufactured, in Russia, sought in England tl;> necessary workmen, machinery, implements, &c, for transmission to Moscow. Englishmen knew little at that time of the remote Tsardom of Muscovy, but or. learning the wants and wealth of the monarch, enterprising lnerchantK were not slow to undertake the performance of all that war. required of them. Accordingly, a party of skilled workmen, with engineers, was soon on its way to Moscow, with all necessary material for setting up and WORKING A TOBACCO FACTORY. When, later, the English Government was apprised of what had been done, "Her Majesty Queen Anne, in Council was pleased to manifest her profound dissatisfaction, especially in that they proceeded

to the realm of Moscow to the cultivation of the native products of Her Majesty's dominions, and in that they have brought to Moscow for this purpose the requisite English workmen and material, which is contrary to the interests and usages of the Kingdom of Great Britain." Orders were immediately sent to our envoy at Moscow to not only return the workmen to their homes, but to privately and secretly destroy all the materials, machines and instruments of production !