There is a public opinion even in Persia, and it
can be effective on occasion. The Shah recently sold a monopoly of tobacco to a European Company, from which great benefit to the revenue and great profits to the Company were expected. The measure, however, raised the price of tobacco, and created
general discontent, which the Chief Moollah solidified by ordering all Moollahs to prohibit the use of tobacco, which, though universal in all Mussulman countries, is considered in all of doubtful morality. Is it not, ask the stricter sort, a kind of drinking, this swallowing of smoke ? The edict was obeyed ; and so great was the discontent and the loss of revenue, that the Shah, who dared not execute the Chief Moollah for giving a religious opinion, abolished the monopoly. The Company is to have compensation some time, probably after the Greek Kalends, and a monopoly of the right of export, which may turn out very valuable. Have not the Persians an art of sweetening tobacco ?
