I shall die contented.” The King laughed heartily, assured the girl he quite forgave her, shook her hand, into which he slipped a golden keepsake, and sprang up-stairs, intensely amused by the adventure.
Christian, for his private use, had caused a very extensive credit to be opened in his favour with a City tradesman, under the name of “Fredericksen.” His drafts were so frequent, and for sums so large, that the citizen at length suspected Mr. Fredericksen must be one of the Danish courtiers, in attendance on the royal guest, and that the money was for the King’s use. One day, when Mr. Fredericksen called for money, he asked him if such were the case. The Dane assented to the truth of his suspicion. The citizen inquired if Christian VII. were not one of the most extravagant and thoughtless young fellows living.
The King allowed that he feared such was the case. The tradesman then artfully proposed a scheme, by which the supposed Mr. Fredericksen and himself might purchase the royal gifts (for which he learned the money was required), and make a large per-centage on the transaction. Just at this moment, a page from the Princess Dowager of Wales entered the shop, and, recognising King Christian, greeted him with the reverence due to his rank. The citizen, utterly dismayed, stood as if petrified, looking at the King; but Count Holckte (whom the wife had also been questioning) smiled, and assured him that Christian VII. would not remember a confidential proposal made to Mr. Fredericksen.
It was the custom of this spoilt child of fortune to carry in his pockets diamond rings, and other costly ornaments, to give away whenever the whim of the moment directed; and Count Holckte carried for him a quantity of loose coin, which he gave or scattered as caprice suggested. Thus, notwithstanding the regal hospitality of England, which supplied lodgings and table for all his suite, as well as himself, Christian VII. drew on his Court banker at Hamburg for 100,000 dollars—that is, 25,000l. of our money—a month! This drain of specie was sufficiently large to be felt in Copenhagen, where a stagnation of trade was also caused by the absence of the King and Court; and long afterwards, no pleasant memories were suggested to Danish minds by the mention of the King’s visit to England.
We will not follow him on his return to his northern home, to grieve over the extinction of his brilliant youth, and the deplorable end of his reign; but leave in our readers’ fancy the bright image of the gallant, light-hearted, kindly boy, who visited our English shores—a royal and beloved Dane—one hundred years ago.
TOBACCO.
Now that the annual alterations in our tariff consist only in the removal or lessening of one or two of the few vestiges which remain of that cumbrous machinery by which a large portion of the revenue was collected, the public is able to comprehend somewhat more of the nature of such changes as the Chancellor of the Exchequer introduces during each recurring session. Such opportunities are useful for drawing attention to the history of those products of nature which, by their cultivation or manufacture, constitute the material wealth of nations.
At present, thousands of persons not initiated in all the mysteries of tobacco, are reading, for the first time in their lives, elaborate propositions regarding the duties on “Negrohead and Cavendish,” “home-made and foreign,” and are doubtless puzzled to account for the jumbling of a woolly pericranium with the name of a noble family. Should they attempt to gain any further information by a perusal of the Act for the alteration of the existing customs duties upon these articles, we fear their perplexity will only be increased, and their profit from the perusal will be incalculably small.
Still the question of the tobacco duty is one of vast importance, and is worthy of the attention not only of the political economist, but of every philosophical mind. To the politician, the fact that the revenue raised on this material is counted by millions (5,604,032l.) is sufficient to stamp it with vast importance; but the causes which lead to this vast consumption in our small kingdom, and to a much greater one generally through the rest of the world, are worthy of the earnest consideration of every thinking mind. How came such an unpromising weed to exercise such an immense interest on human affairs?—and is its influence for good or for evil?—are questions of importance which have never yet been satisfactorily settled.
The general assumption is, that tobacco was first introduced to Europe by Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1586, and this idea has been fostered by the well-known sign, once common in our tabacconists’ shops, of the servant of Raleigh throwing water over his master, under the fear that he is in a state of alarming combustion. It is true that the custom of smoking tobacco was introduced at that time, and was adopted by Sir Walter Raleigh and other courtiers, who received it from Sir Francis Drake and his followers on their return from Virginia; but it was at that time known, and even cultivated, in France, Spain, and Portugal, seeds having been sent to the two latter countries by Hernandez de Toledo, and to France by Joan Nicot, from whose name has been derived its scientific designation, Nicotiana. If this was its first use in Europe, the habit may be regarded as of purely transatlantic origin, as far as we are concerned; but it is by no means certain that it was not in use in Asia at very remote periods; and if we believe in an emigration from that quarter of the globe leading to the peopling of the American continent, and also in the theory of the “Origin of Species,” it may be held probable that it was carried from the East originally, for several species of tobacco are indigenous to Asia, and the difference is not very great between them and those of the American continent. One species, known to botanists as Nicotiana rustica, is indigenous, probably, in each of the quarters of the globe, at least it is found growing wild in America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.
We learn from Herodotus that the Assyrians and Scythians intoxicated themselves by smoking; this, however, may have been by means of the hemp plant, still used in Asia and Africa for purposes of
