LITERARY NOTICES. 



277 



three leading principles: (1) Freehold land 

 regulated by the best usage of many cent- 

 uries. (2) A meeting, the local and social 

 expression of religious life and family cult- 

 ure. (3) A representative democratic gath- 

 ering, corresponding to the old folk-mote of 

 the Germanic races." We find town regu- 

 lations affecting all the affairs of daily life, 

 even some of the most minute and personal. 

 Many of them had to be repealed almost as 

 soon as made ; yet the fact that others were 

 allowed to stand and were tolerably observed 

 shows in the colonists a great reverence for 

 the wisdom of the majority. The ap- 

 proved method for dividing the land in a 

 town was that each grantee should have a 

 home lot near the "place for Sabbath as- 

 sembly," and a field for cultivation farther 

 away. There were also tracts for pasturing 

 the cattle in common herds. The holding 

 and transfer of real estate were among the 

 matters closely regulated. Dorchester, in 

 1634, enacts that "no man within the Plan- 

 tation shall sell his house or lott to any man 

 without the Plantation, whome they shall 

 dislike off." In Nahant, colonized by Lynn 

 in 1657, the householders are to have lots 

 of equal size, "noe man more than another." 

 The co-occupation of the country with the 

 Indians had its influence on the customs of 

 the colonists, and the trespasses which the 

 latter committed upon their red-skinned 

 brethren reveal some weaknesses of the Puri- 

 tans' character that their religion did not 

 save them from. Church and civil govern- 

 ment were closely interwoven. In Massa- 

 chusetts and Connecticut the franchise de- 

 pended on connection with the church ; on 

 the other hand, ministers were commonly 

 chosen in open town meeting, and marriages 

 were performed only by magistrates. The 

 trade in beaver-fur and that in cured fish 

 were of much importance. Permission to 

 keep taverns was voted as early as 1630, but 

 inn-keepers must not force meals at 12c?. 

 and above on " pore people." The sale of 

 wines and liquors was wholly prohibited in 

 the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1637, but 

 the very next year licenses began to be 

 granted. Ship-building and commerce had a 

 rapid growth, and the colonial merchants 

 were soon able to build "fair and stately 

 houses." Many industries were early estab- 

 lished ; the first saw-mill was set up at Pis- 



cataqua (Portsmouth, N. II.) in 1631. Grist- 

 mills were already in use. Nicholas Easton 

 established a tannery at Ipswich in 1634. 

 Goodman Fitt, a tailor, is empowered by 

 Charlestown " to set up a salt pan, if he can 

 live upon it, and upon his trade." In 1639 

 John Hull notes in his diary, " We began to 

 print at Cambridge." Iron-works were es- 

 tablished at Lynn in 1643, and at Braintree 

 soon after. Among the colonial laws none 

 seem now so quaint and preposterous as 

 those regulating manners and morals. The 

 " blue laws " of Connecticut are proverbial. 

 In that colony no food or lodging could be 

 given to a Quaker, Adamite, or other heretic. 

 Whoever brought cards into the dominion 

 paid a fine of five pounds. No one could read 

 common prayer, keep Christmas or saints' 

 days, make mince pies, dance, play cards, or 

 play on any instrument of music except the 

 drum, trumpet, and jew's-harp. Tobacco must 

 not be taken " publiquely in the street, high- 

 wayes, or any barne-yards, or uppon traine- 

 ing days in any open places." Massachusetts 

 made rules no less meddlesome. Sunday ob- 

 servance and economical dress were strictly 

 enforced. Class distinctions were strong, 

 and often caused much bitterness. They 

 ruled the seating of the people in church; 

 thus Stamford, Conn., in 1673 votes to seat 

 its people according to " dignity, agge, and 

 estate in this present list of estate." At 

 Saco, in 1669, two men were voted into the 

 first seat, and their wives into the third. 

 Tithing-men with long staffs, having a knob 

 at cne end and a fox-tail at the other, rapped 

 or tickled the sleepers in meeting. The 

 above is a sample of the material that fills 

 Mr. Weeden's nine hundred pages. Among 

 the other topics upon which he gives infor- 

 mation are means of travel and communi- 

 cation, agriculture, forced service of Indians 

 which was followed by negro slavery, cur- 

 rency of wampum, coin, and paper, priva- 

 teers and pirates, whaling, the East India 

 trade, the lives of notable men of the time 

 such as Hull, the Pepperells, Sewall, Amory, 

 the Faneuils, Edwards, Franklin, and Derby 

 and the effects of England's regulations 

 upon colonial life and commerce. The 

 sources from which Mr. Weeden has drawn 

 his material include the archives and pro- 

 bate records of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, 

 and Connecticut, manuscripts and newspapers 



