236 SUNDAY LEGISLATION AND ITS OBSERVANCES. 



Among other festivals extinguished by the sectaries was that of 

 Friday, which, as commemorating the passion of the founder of 

 Christianity, was ever held in great reverence by the church. 

 Robert of Brunne, the poetical translator of Langtoft, tells us that 

 in the penance laid upon William Rufus by the bishop, " Sir Ode of 

 Wynchestere," the monarch is particularly enjoined, 



" That neuer on Friday to wod thou go to chace ; 

 The riuer salle thou forsake on Friday elka dele ; 

 That penance, I the take, Sir Kyng, thou kepe it wele." 



Chron. p. 94. 



Their suppression of the Friday-fast created a re-action, and Charles 

 II. issued a proclamation for its revival, equal in bigotry to any of 

 the puritanical acts, prohibiting victuallers from dressing suppers, 

 and butchers from killing and selling meat on this day ;* and by 

 statute of the 29th of this reign no person is allowed to work on the 

 Lord's day, or use any boat or barge, or expose any goods to sale, 

 except meat at public-houses, milk at certain hours, and works of 

 necessity or charity, under forfeiture of five shillings ; nor shall any 

 drover, carrier, or the like, travel on that day on pain of twenty 

 shillings. This statute is unrepealed, and a moderate man might 

 think it sufficient to satisfy a very inordinate appetite for pains and 

 penalties upon trivial occasions. Probably when the people of Eng- 

 land are reduced to such an observance of Sunday as is related in 

 Le Breton, a Nantes paper of 30th July last, the rage for legislating 

 on this subject may cease. It appears that two men were buried 

 alive in the shaft of a coal-mine, 430 feet deep, at Martelais, and 

 that their companions, instead of working without the pause of a 

 moment to relieve them from their horrible and dangerous situation, 

 discontinued their labour from Sunday morning till Monday morn- 

 ing ! " Sunday interrupted their labour, which they recommenced on 

 Monday morning at 8 o'clock." One man, strange to say, was saved, 

 but the other perished ! So much for Sunday legislation. There 

 has been no lack of law givers in all ages, are we better or wiser ? 

 or are the saintly Solons of the present day to effect that which the 

 " wisdom of our ancestors" failed to accomplish ? 



* Fosbr. Encyc. Antiq. Vol. II. p. 541. 



