plague, and was the friend and companion of rich and poor. These
statements were met with undisguised contempt, and it was retaliated,
that the practice of using tobacco either by smoke or snuff, was a
nuisance to others, thus infringing the very primary principles of civil
liberty--that it led to drunkenness and debauch--that snuff spoiled the
complexion--stopped the nose to the perception of odours--and that as to
the ladies, they would positively spurn any approach of familiar
friendship from a snuff-taker. This raised the concealed anger of the
snuff-takers, who had hitherto maintained a stubborn neutrality while
the argument was kept to smoke. They replied both by wit and
invective--they affirmed snuff to have a moral use--"Dust to
dust"--would remind them of the brevity of life--that the king and
ministers patronized the habit, and gave away £10,000 worth of
snuff-boxes in every year--that as to the nose being blockaded, that was
a happy circumstance to London residents, and enabled them to acquire
the French accent more naturally--that as to the assumed yellowness of
complexion complained of, it was only studious and Werter-like--and that
as to the ladies refusing to be saluted by snuff-takers, that was a
thing which modesty and prudence required them to sneeze at. The
historian might add by way of reflection, that nothing could more
clearly show the national freedom from anxious cares, when it was
thought that the public took interest in the comparative merits of
blackened teeth or a snuffy pocket-handkerchief.--_The Inspector._

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