Little tube of mighty pow’r, Charmer of an idle hour, Object of my warm desire, Lip of wax, and eye of fire:  And thy snowy taper waist, With my finger gently brac’d; And thy pretty swelling crest, With my little stopper prest, And the sweetest bliss of blisses, Breathing from thy balmy kisses.  Happy thrice, and thrice agen, Happiest he of happy men; Who when agen the night returns, When agen the taper burns; When agen the cricket’s gay, (Little cricket, full of play) Can afford his tube to feed With the fragrant Indian weed:  Pleasure for a nose divine, Incense of the god of wine.  Happy thrice, and thrice agen, Happiest he of happy men.

Imitations three and five praise the leaf in less happy strains, though number five has a line worth noting for our purpose, in which tobacco is spoken of as

      By ladies hated, hated by the beaux.

The sixth sinks to ribaldry.  Number four contains evidence of the distaste for smoking among the beaux in the lines: 

Coxcombs prefer the tickling sting of snuff; Yet all their claim to wisdom is—­a puff; Lord Foplin smokes not—­for his teeth afraid:  Sir Tawdry smokes not—­for he wears brocade.  Ladies, when pipes are brought, affect to swoon; They love no smoke, except the smoke of Town; But courtiers hate the puffing tube—­no matter, Strange if they love the breath that cannot flatter! * * * * * * * * * Yet crowds remain, who still its worth proclaim, While some for pleasure smoke, and some for Fame.

The satirist wrote truly that after all the fashionable abstainers had been deducted, crowds remained, who smoked as heartily as their predecessors of a century earlier.  The populace was still on the side of tobacco.  This was well shown in 1732 when Sir Robert Walpole proposed special excise duties on tobacco, and brought a Bill into Parliament which would have given his excisemen powers of inquisition which were much resented by the people generally.  The controversy produced a host of squibs and caricatures, most of which were directed against the measure.  The Bill was defeated in 1733, and great and general were the rejoicings.  When the news reached Derby on April 19 in that year, the dealers in tobacco caused all the bells in the Derby churches to be rung, and we may be sure that this rather unusual performance was highly popular.  The withdrawal of the odious duty was further celebrated by caricatures and “poetical” chants of triumph.  One of the leading opponents of the Bill had been a well-known puffing tobacconist named Bradley, who was accustomed to describe his wares as “the best in Christendom”; and when the Bill was defeated Bradley’s portrait was published for popular circulation, above these lines: