Nothing can be more deliberate than the document resulting from this French investigation on the influence of tobacco on the community; and having read every treatise on the subject, from the earliest printed, the writer of this article is compelled to admit that it is the most conclusive, both as to facts and reasonings, of any yet put forth against the weed! Finally, there is a kind of blindness, which, although occurring in non-smokers, is specially ascribed to the practice of smoking, through one of its consequences-namely, the impairment of nutrition, inducing a state of debility. It is for the last reason that smoking is strictly forbidden to those who are under training for boat-racing or the 'ring.'

Unlike the opponents of tobacco in this country, and indeed of all times, Dr. Jolly seems anxious to commiserate this propensity of our nature, and suggests that we should endeavour to avoid the strong tobaccos of commerce, and adopt those of Turkey, Greece, Arabia, and Havannah. Merciful man, indeed! This reminds us of Lord Lytton's advice, in the mouth of one of the speakers in his novels, that poor men, in order to escape gout, should drink champagne instead of ale.

Dr. Jolly, apparently still convinced of the impossibility of extinguishing the practice of smoking, further suggests that we should get the nicotine extracted from our tobacco! Plausible idea doubtless! How is this to be effected without adding to its cost, and no doubt altering its flavour and savour altogether? No; we believe that the smoker will always say, as other infatuated mortals to their mistress

'I know not, I ask not, if guilt is in that heart; I but know that I love whatever thou art.'

There can be no doubt that in this, as in all other cases, the poison clings too closely to the 'sweet' to admit of a separation.

Another eminent French physician has recently investigated the effects of smoking on the young, having observed it in a great many subjects varying in age from twelve

to seventeen or eighteen; and he invariably discovered in such smokers a most serious alteration in the qualities of the blood, giving rise to specific diseases. It is indeed to the young that the evil of smoking is most likely to be disastrous. Whatever benefit may be derived from smoking in maturity and old age, it is obvious that the young cannot need the factitious aid of a narcotic. Parents should look to this, and prevent the most deplorable physical and moral consequences of the habit in their children. Many a youth may date the ruin of his health and character from the first whiff of tobacco which, by dint of nauseous practice, he was at length able to smoke, in the foolish imitation of manhood. That smoking must impair the digestion and derange the nervous system of the young, seems certain, and that it may lead to drunkenness or excess in drink is more than probable from the thirst which it necessarily occasions.

Such, then, is the present attestation to the woes of smoking; and it is doubtless sufficient to induce every smoker to 'consider his ways.' But if the argument induces our population to give up smoking, what will be the consequence to our revenue? Think of the fact, that it would be the abstraction of more than six millions and a half sterling, hitherto annually increasing, from the grand sum that makes up our national income. The revenue from tobacco is one of the largest, if not the largest of the items, as we have shown.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer the entire working of the machinery of government in this great country-the existence and efficiency of our army and fleet-largely depend upon the financial results of the consumption of tobacco by our truly patriotic smokers. Put a stop to smoking, and then the Chancellor of the Exchequer must 'go to pot' if he knows where that is-to 'bring grist to his mill.' The smokers of England are the greatest supporters of constitutional government, paying literally seventy-five per cent. taxation on the commodity

IT

Tis generally said that the railways have brought all England together, and made all our great towns mere suburbs of London. This may be true; but still, in some provinces, provincialism is picturesque and predominant as ever. In those districts which are remote from the great lines of rail, and left behind in the quickened pace of our day, there are still country places to be found with Squires of the Allworthy or Western type, and where we may be closely reminded of the days of the Stuarts. It ought, indeed, to be noted that provincialism is, in fact, a characteristic and a department of the human mind; and if the phrenologists should map out the brain again, they ough to assign a special bump to the discoverable order of provincialism. It is curious how the idea of a metropolis is too vast an idea to be grasped by multitudes of metropolitans, who sigh for the narrower limits of provincialism. Hence London is broken up into provinces, and the man of parochial mind does not so much consider himself a Londoner as an Islingtonian, or Westbournian; and the W. C. district is altogether a different province to the district N. W. Provincialism is as much a definite emotion as patriotism itself. The man of limited mind, who yet finds that his home and business are not sufficiently large for him, and knows, at the same time, that metropolitan and imperial interests are too large for his mental scope, can very well repose on provincialism as on a satisfying mean.

But though a genuine provincialism may exist in London, for its true undiluted form we must go to the provinces. Sometimes, indeed, it is excessively hard, or even impossible, to get it there. Frequently the country-house reproduces the town-house with the

VOL. XV. NO. XO.

utmost exactitude. There are the same servants and liveries, the same horses and carriages, the same breakfasts and dinners, and the same visitors, though fewer of them, as in town during the season. Improvise a pavement and insert some lamp-posts; dress up some fellows as policemen, and drive a Hansom up and down before the dining-room windows, and we are once more back again in town. For ourselves, we do not profess to be Arcadian, and we are not dissatisfied; but still there is not here the provincialism which we seek. But come down into the country some clear three hundred miles, among families of moderate estate and full expenditure, in districts where there are no railways, or where branch lines have only been

established very recently; where the minor county families, albeit they make an occasional trip to town or to the Continent, still subsist in, and mainly exist for their part of the country, and you get a very genuine kind of provincial life. You may then realize the intense earnestness which it concentrates on matters which, to the unassisted human mind, would appear trivial and petty in the extreme; the rivalries and feuds, the meannesses and the amenities of country life, and the picturesque bits of interest which it possesses for the observer; the long drive of twenty miles through indictable roads to the county ball or some solemn dinner-party; the first meet of the hounds, the first otter-hunt or salmon fishing, the wedding or the funeral, and the local gossip on current scandal and flirtation, the change of servants in families, the prices of poultry and butter, the tales how the village grocer has turned Dissenter to spite the parson, and how the parson always keeps beneath the pulpit-cushion a ser

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