Note Back to Main Text — Chapter XIV

Early in the Seventeenth Century began the persecution by royal haters of the plant, others, however, had denounced the weed and its use and users, but venting nothing more than a tirade of words against it, had but little effect in breaking up the trade or the custom.[44] James I. sent forth his famous "Counterblast" and in the strongest manner condemned its use. A portion of it reads thus: