Science, Art, And The Drama.

Science , Art , and the Drama .

NICOTIANA . ( Continued ) . The pipes , at first employed by Sir Walter Raleigh and other young men of fashion , were exceedingly rude and simple , consisting of half a walnut-shell , with a straw inserted . The first clay pipes were made in this country about 1585 , copied from those used by the natives of Virginia , while to a Hungarian shoemaker , named Kaval Kowates , is accredited the

manufacture of the first meerschaum pipe in 1723 , which has been . preserved in the museum at Pesth . Means of rendering tobacco harmless to the con - sumer have been given to the world at frequent intervals . As long ago as 1670 glass globules were attached to pipes to intercept the tobacco juice and nicotine , and in 1629 Jacob Francis Vicarius , an Austrian physician , recommended the insertion of a small piece of sponge in the tube for a like

purpose . Vizier recommended citric acid , which , however , has the serious disadvantage of spoiling the taste of the tobacco . Dr . Gautrelet , of Vichy , asserts that a piece of cotton-wool steeped in a solution ( 5 to 10 per cent . ) of pyrogallic acid , and inserted in the pipe or holder , will neutralise all possible effects of the nicotine , while the number of patented pipes designed with a like view is continually increasing . And now , on the principle thai

prevention is better than cure , a smoker conies to the rescue of slaves to the weed . He says that chewing calamus root ( a large reed ) allays the craving for tobacco ; further , that it is a harmless substance and a beneficial tonic . Another ascribes a like virtue to a plentiful consumption of watercress two or three times a day ; but doubtless many feeling with Hamlet's father that" Diseases desperate grown ,

By desperate appliances are relieved , Or not at all . " will prefer the disease to the suggested remedies . Like all innovations , the introduction of tobacco met , at first , with much opposition , our King James I . being one of its chief enemies . He used to call tobacco " the Devil's weed , " and its smoking " the breath of Hell " ; throughout Europe

severe penalties and punishments were inflicted on those who ventured to indulge in the blowing of it ; and , in 1624 , Pope Urban VIII . issued a decree of excommunication against any person found taking snuff in church . However , its charms , sung by Lord Byron : " Divine in hookahs , glorious in a pipe When tipped with amber , mellow , rich , and ripe * ,

Like other charmers , wooing the caress More da / . Amgly , when daring in full dress ; Yet thy true lovers more admire , by far , Thy naked beauties—Give me a cigar , " have proved too strong for its opponents ; and what a firm hold the habit gets on its devotees is forcibly illustrated in the following case : "When I

was an officer , writes a naval man , " in Messrs . Money Wigram s ship the Kent , in 1857 , on a voyage to Melbourne and back , we found that by some mistake no tobacco had been shipped , so being on the high seas , the men could get none till we fell in with some vessel" ( meeting other ships was rarer then than now ) . " A curious thing happened . First

the topmen , and then the rest of the crew , lost in a great measur-j the use of their hands , which trembled as if palsied—they grew so nervous that we were quite afraid to order them to do anything . On a strict enquiry being made , we found cut they had been smoking their rations of tea . Old rope being substituted they recovered , and falling in with a Dutchman , after we got round the Horn , we were able to get some tobacco from her . " The

plant has afforded abundant food for legislation , and its adulteration must have been rampant during the reigns of the Georges to call for the stringent laws that were enacted , one example of which will suffice : " If any person shall mix any fustic , or other wood , or any leaves , herbs , or other plants ( other than tobacco ) , or any earth , clay , or tobacco sand with any snuff work , or snuff ; or shall colour the same with any sort of colouring ( water

tinged with colour , only excepted ) , he shall forfeit , £ 200 . And if any manufacturer or dealer in snuff shall sell or expose for sale , or have in his entered premises , any fustic , yellow ebony , touchwood , logwood , red or Guinea wood , Braziletto , or Jamaica-wood , Nicaragua wood , or Saunders-wood ; or any walnut tree , hop , or sycamore leaves ; or shall have in his possession any of the aforesaid articles ; or any other wood , leaves , herbs , plants , earth , clay , or tobacco sand , mixed with any snuff work , or snuff , he shall forfeit / . so ,

and the same shall be forfeited and may be seized " ( 29 Geo ., 3 c , 08 ) The following epigram may fitly find a place in the stray notes : " Of lordly men how humbling is the type A fleeting shadow , a tobacco pipe , His mind the fire , his frame the tube of clay , His breath ' the smoke , so idly puffed away , His food the herb , that fills the hollow bowl , Death is the stopper—Ashes end the whole . "

At least , once , in history , the " devil ' s weed" as our King James called it , played an important part in a political movement . When the revolution of 1848 came on , the Austrian Government enjoyed a monopoly of the manufacture and sale of tobacco in those parts of Italy under its control . The Liberals resenting the tyranny of the Austrians , and disliking to see so large a revenue pouring into the Austrian treasury from the sale of cigars

and tobacco left off smoking—a patriotic method of resenting the Austrian domination . The Austrian Government thereupon supplied its troops with cigars , and the men of the garrison , went about the streets of the Italian towns pulling smoke into the faces of the non-smoking Italians . The insult was warmly resented . The Milanese rose in rebellion and expelled the Austrians ; Venice did the same ; and thus was the revolution begun , which ended in the loss to Austria of all the Italian possessions .

Minor Artists And Architecture In The Reign Of Elizabeth.

MINOR ARTISTS AND ARCHITECTURE IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH .

( Continued ) . The taste of all these stately mansions was that bastard style which intervened between Gothic and Grecian architecture , or which , pet haps , was the style that bad bet-n invented for the houses of the nobility when they first ventured on the Settlement of the kingdom after the termination of the quarrel between the Roses , to abandon their fortified dungeons , and

Minor Artists And Architecture In The Reign Of Elizabeth.

consult their convenience and magnificence ; for what we call Gothic archi

lecture was confined solely to religious buildings , and never entered into the decoration of private houses . Thorpe ' s ornaments on the balustrades , porches , and outsides of windows are barbarous and ungraceful , and some of his vast windows advance outwards in a sharp angle ; but there is judgment in his dispositions of apartments and offices , and he allots most ample spaces for halls , staircases , and chambers of state . He appears to have

resided at Paris , and even seems to have been employed there ; at least , he gives alterations for the Queen Mother ' s house , Faber St . Germans , which , no doubt , means the Luxembourg , in the Fauxbourg St . Germain , and a plan of the house of Mons . Jammet ( Zamet ) . There are several other smaller seats and houses in the book " , some with the names of the gentlemen for whom they were built . One which he calls Cannons , his

Father Fakes , house , and another is a whimsical edifice , designed for himself , and forming the initial letters of his name , I :::::: T , conjoined by a corridor ( expressedby the dotted lines above ) , and explained by this curious triplet" These two letters , I and T , Joined together , as you see ,

Is meant for a dwelling house for me , John Thorpe . " The volume , however , is a very valuable record of the magnificence of our ancestors , and preserves memorials of many sumptuous buildings , of which no other monument remains . The honour of being the first royal collector of pictures has been given exclusively to Charles I . without due

examination into the fact . A reference , however , to a catalogue of Henry ' s pictures vill show that he had a large collection of fine paintings ; it is an allowable conjecture that many of them were fine specimens of the Flemish and Italian schools , exclusively of those by Holbein and other eminent artists who were resident in England , and enjoyed the royal patronage . I'he whole number of pictures in the several palaces amounted in the inventory

to 153 . We find in his collection numerous portraits of himself , repetitions of those of his contemporary princes , particularly those of the E nperor Charles V . and F ' rancis I ., with whom he was perpetually conversant , of his predecessors , two of the Duchess of Milan , who refused to marry him . but not one of his six wives . This is the last of our papers on Painting and Art in the reign of Elizabeth .

The National Sorrow.

THE NATIONAL SORROW .

The surest relief in the keenest sorrow , and the highest tribute tha afflicted can pay to the memory of their beloved dead , is to be faithful to every observance of life and duty that would have given pleasure and satisfaction to the departed . This is the consolation of both prince and peasant . " One touch of nature makes the whole world kin . " Royalty has no monopoly of joy , and grief is very democratic . Queen Victoria was acquainted

with the one and the other . The bliss of her earlier years was unclouded . When sorrow came , it came " not in single spies , but " in battalions . '' In her happy days she never forgot her people , and she remembered them in her griefs , going among them with a tender simplicity , and mingling her tears with theirs . Nor in this feminine sensibility did she bate one jot of her stern duties to the State . Remembering

that she was a woman , she never forgot that she was a Q ueen , nor , being every inch a Queen , did she ever forget that she was a woman . None of the dead Queen ' s eulogists have described her dual character of queenliness and womanhood with a more beautiful directness thin the present King himself— " She united the virtues of a supreme domestic guide with thi patriotism of a wise and peace-loving monarch . " Scarcely had the bells

done tolling when the blare of the heralds' trumpets proclaimed th-j new Sovereign . This is the every-day drama of life and death . And it is well that duty calls for action on the part of the living , how greit soever may be the mortal who is called from the field . It is at this point of our national loss that we find , in the King ' s touching address to the Council , the true

spirit of a loving son . In any important work which the Prince of Wales was called upon to advance he never missed an opportunity to rever « ntly recall , by way of example , the memory of his illustrious fatner . As King , his first words announced an act of obedience to the wishes of his mother , and his next were an affectionate reference to the O ueen ' s devotion to her

wise and loving consort . It will not be difficult for a Prince whose affection for his mother was one of his characteristic traits to find consolation for the Queen ' s death in a manful regard for her precepts and example . Hecomes into his high office with a large knowledge of its duties and its responsibilities . He will do his utmost to be worthy of his great position , and the nation trusts his Majesty with a full assurance that he will succeed .

General Notes.

GENERAL NOTES .

Mr . Benson has decided to make alterations in the programme for hia season atthe Comedy Theatre , in consequence of having to close the theatre owing to the lamented death of the Queen . When the theatre re-opens , ic will be with the continued performance of " The Merchant of Venice , " until 13 th February , the date on which " Coriolanus" will be produced .

One of . the most charming comedies which used to draw large and profitable audiences to a London theatre , was "A Royal Family , " atthe Court . Not only a wholesome and entertaining play , but it was admirably acted . We are glad to learn that it is having a great success in New York .

Mrs . Patrick Campbell will re-open the Royalty Theatre on Tuesday , the 5 th instant , with " The Happy Hypocrite , " and " Mr . and Mrs . Daventry . " The souvenirs of the 100 th performance will be given away .

BRAHMINISM AND FREEMASONRY . —At Madura , the other day ( says a Calcutta newspaper ) , some members of the Viceroy ' s party were told that when H . R . H . the Prince ot Wales visited the temple during his Indian tonr , he was admitted everywnere , even into the Brahmin holy of holies , and all because his Royal Highness is the Grand Master ot British Freemasonry . " Brahminism , " it wasstated , had some suotle itfi . iity with Freemasonry , inasmuch as it is a religion of signs and symbols , and , ab ne all , a religion of esoteric secrets . Une of the Viceroy ' s party , who claimed to be a Freemason , afterwards stated that he was induced on hearing the story to give a Masonic token ( which was instantly recognised and returned by the attendant priests .