LIQUOR LAWS NOT SUMPTUARY. 769 



* to wear, to eat, and to drink what they please "]. " 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 inviting another to take a drink, or treating, as it is called." 



A citation is then made from the records of the colony of Mas- 

 sachusetts of a statute for which four reasons are alleged, one of 

 them being " much waste to the good creatures." This, and this 

 alone, is a sumptuary reason. But the law cited — if it be one — is 

 not simply and distinctively sumptuary, though such laws were 

 passed by that and other colonies. For example, Virginia, in 

 1662, enacted the following : 



" An Act * prohibiting the importation of unnecessary Commod- 

 ities. Whereas, the low price of tobacco will hardly supply the 

 urging and pressing necessities of the country, etc., ... Be it en- 

 acted that no strong drink of what sort soever, nor silke stuffe in 

 garments or in peeces (except for whoods and scarf es), nor silver 

 or gold lace, nor bone lace of silk or thread, nor ribbands wrought 

 with silver or gold in them, shall be brought into this country to 

 sell, after the first of February next ; under penalty of confisca- 

 tion," etc. 



So Massachusetts enacted in 1634 as follows : 



" The Court, taking into consideration the greate, superfluous, 

 and unnecessary expences occasioned by reason of some newe and 

 immodest fashions, as also the ordinary weareing of silver, golde, 

 and silke laces, girdles, hatbands, etc., hath therefore ordered that 

 noe person, either man or woman, shall hereafter make or buy 

 any apparell, either woollen, silke, or linnen, with any lace on it, 

 silver, golde, silke or threed, under the penalty of forfeiture," 

 etc. Subsequent provisions forbid any one to make " slashed 

 cloathes," but allowed men and women "to weare out such ap- 

 parell as they are nowe provided of (except the immoderate 

 greate sleeves, rayles, longe-wings, etc.)." In 1636 a law was passed 

 against making or selling any bone lace. In 1641 the General 

 Court, noting excesses prevailing against enactment, ordered the 

 constables of every town to see to its enforcement, f 



Upon the face of them these are characteristically, simply, 

 and only sumptuary prohibitions. Their one, immediate, and 

 sole object is the prevention of private waste and expense. So 

 Dr. Johnson, a century and a half ago, defined this class of 

 statutes : " Sumptuary [sumptuarius, Lat.] : Relating to ex- 

 pense ; regulating the cost of life." He quotes Bacon, a century 



* Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull says : " This law is crossed with a pen on the MS. record : 

 Jefferson ' conjectured it was negatived by the Governor.' " 



f That notorious liar, Rev. Samuel Peters, in his Blue Laws declares the penalty in Con- 

 necticut for wearing lace was " at £300 estate " — about as true history as the rest of his 

 writings. 



vol. xxxvii. — 56 



