New Delhi, April 29 -- In 1604, James I of England anonymously published a small book titled A Counterblaste to Tobacco. He called smoking "a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless." Within a year, he had raised the import duty on tobacco by 4,000%.

The duty did not work. Smoking spread from court to coffeehouses. Four centuries later, his constitutional descendants have decided to finish the job he started.

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill, passed by the British Parliament earlier this month, prohibits the sale of tobacco to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.

This c...