SUMPTUARY LAWS AND THEIR SOCIAL INFLUENCE. 35 



people of this Realm : for the great men by these excesses have 

 been sore grieved, and the lesser people who only endeavor to 

 imitate the great ones in such sorts of meats are much impover- 

 ished, whereby they are not able to aid themselves nor their liege 

 lord in time of need as they ought, and many other evils have 

 happened as well to their souls as to their bodies, our Lord the 

 King, desiring the common profit as well of the great men as of 

 the common people of his Realm, and considering the evils, griev- 

 ances, and mischiefs aforesaid, by the common assent of the prel- 

 ates, earls, barons, and other nobles of his said Realm and of the 

 commons of the said Realm, hath ordained and established that no 

 man, of what state or condition soever he be, shall cause himself 

 to be served in his house or elsewhere, at dinner-meal or supper, 

 or at any other time, with more than two courses and each mess 

 of two sorts of victuals at the utmost, be it of flesh or fish, with 

 the common sort of pottages without sauce or any other sort of 

 victuals. And if any man choose to have sauce for his mess he 

 may, provided it be not made at great cost ; and if flesh or fish be 

 to be mixed therein it shall be of two sorts only at the utmost, 

 either flesh or fish, and shall stand instead of a mess except only 

 on the principal feasts of the year, on which days every man may 

 be served with three courses at the utmost, after the manner 

 aforesaid." 



But laws and proclamations were of no avail, though they 

 continued to be issued and passed down to the reign of Queen 

 Elizabeth ; and in the reign of James I all sumptuary laws were 

 repealed. Since then the people of England have been allowed to 

 wear, to eat, and to drink what they pleased. 



In our own country the experiment has been tried with as 

 much thoroughness and with practically as little result as has 

 attended the attempt by other nations. As early as the year 1639 

 we have the prototype of that curious law enacted a few years 

 ago in the State of Iowa, which prohibits one person from invit- 

 ing another to take a drink, or treating, as it is called. 



In the records of the colony of Massachusetts for the year 

 mentioned we find as follows : 



" Forasmuch as it is evident unto this Court that the common 

 custom of drinking one to another is a mere useless ceremony, 

 and draweth on that abominable practice of drinking healths, 

 and is also an occasion of much waste to the good creatures and 

 of many other sins," such things are declared to be a reproach 

 to a Christian commonwealth and are not to be tolerated. How- 

 ever, invectives of the council appear to have been of little effect, 

 notwithstanding the severity of the punishments which were 

 meted out to those who infringed the laws. Drunkenness, which 

 is at most only a vice, was made a crime ; and in 1636 one Peter 



