GOVERNMENT AND LAW. 



115 





persons who are not laborers desiring to visit 

 this country are obliged to bring with them 

 from the Chinese Government (or any other 

 Government of which they may at the time be 

 subjects) certificates of identification, giving 

 their names in full, description, statement of 

 business, place of residence, etc., the certifi- 

 cates to be also indorsed by the American 

 diplomatic representative in the country where 

 issued, and the forgery or substitution of any 

 name for the correct one in such certificates 

 shall render the perpetrator thereof liable to 

 a fine of $1,000 and an imprisonment of five 

 years. A master of any vessel bringing into 

 a United States port any such Chinese per- 

 sons, not laborers, is required to give a list of 

 them to the Collector of Customs of the port. 

 Any master of a vessel who violates any of 

 these provisions against admitting the Chinese 

 forfeits his vessel to the Government, and any 

 person aiding or abetting a Chinaman not 

 lawfully entitled to visit this country to land 

 here renders himself liable to a fine of $1,000 

 and one year's imprisonment. Further, any 

 Chinese person found traveling in the United 

 States without a proper certificate shall be re- 

 moved to the country from whence he came at 

 the cost of the United States, any person who 

 may have been instrumental in bringing such 

 Chinese to the United States being liable for 

 all the expenses of his removal ; and all peace 

 officers of the several States and Territories 

 are invested with the powers of a United 

 States marshal for the purpose of carrying the 

 law into effect. The only Chinese persons ex- 

 empted from the action of this law are diplo- 

 matic officers traveling on the business of their 

 Government, their retinue of servants, and 

 Chinamen who arrived within ninety days 

 after the passage of the act. The law also re- 

 quires Chinese already established in the coun- 

 try to take out certificates, if they leave the 

 United States, in order to prove their identity 

 in the event of return. 



Massachusetts Blue-Laws. In re- 

 gard to the so-called "blue-laws " of Massa- 

 chusetts it is difficult to determine just where 

 the line between fact and fancy is to be drawn. 

 It is claimed that the founders of Connecticut 

 borrowed most of their laws and judicial pro- 

 ceedings from Massachusetts. Many of these 

 laws were enacted previous to 1640, and a 

 number were the orders and sentences of the 

 Massachusetts Court of Assistants and Gen- 

 eral Court. For instance, one order we find 

 is as follows: "It is ordered, that all Rich. 

 Clough's strong water shall presently be seazed 

 upon, for his selling greate quantytie thereof 

 to several men servants, which was the oc- 

 casion of much disorder, drunkenes, and mis- 



demeanor." Another record, in March, 1631, 

 is to the effect that " Nich. Knopp is fyned 5 

 for takeing upon him to cure the scurvey, by a 

 water of noe worth nor value, which he solde 

 att a very deare rate, to be imprisoned till hee 

 pay his fine or give securitye for it, or else to 

 be whipped ; and shal be lyable to any man's 

 action of whome he hath receved money for 

 the said water." In September, 1634, a num- 

 ber of restrictions regarding the fashions of 

 dress were enacted. One of them was as fol- 

 lows : " The court, takeing in ro consideration 

 the greate, superflous, and unnecessary ex- 

 penses occasioned by reason of some newe and 

 immodest fashions, as also the ordinary weare- 

 ing of silver, golde, and silke laces, girdles, hat- 

 bands, etc., hath therefore ordered that noe 

 person, either man or woman, shall hereafter 

 make or buy apparell, either woollen, silke or 

 lynnen, with any lace on it, silver, golde, silke, 

 or threed, under the penalty of forfecture of 

 such cloathes." That there was restraint put 

 upon the tongue is shown by the following, 

 under date of September, 1636: "Robert 

 Shorthose, for swearing by the bloud of God, 

 was sentenced to have his tongue put into a 

 cleft stick, and to stand so by the space of 

 haulfe an houre." And here is one against 

 cakes and buns : " It is ordered, also, that no 

 person shall sell any cakes or buns, either in 

 the markets or victualing houses, or elsewhere, 

 upon paine of 10s. fine ; provided that this 

 order shall not extend to such cakes as shal 

 be made for any buriall, or marriage, or such 

 like spetiall occasion." 



Prohibitory t/aws. - The firstactual pro- 

 hibitory law was enacted in Maine in 1851 . This 

 was the famous Maine Liquor Law, and it is still 

 in force in that State, and in 1884 its specifica- 

 tions were put in the form of a constitutional 

 amendment, and adopted by a large popular 

 majority. Vermont enacted a prohibitory law 

 in 1852, its provisions, however, being much 

 less stringent than those of the Maine law. It 

 was strengthened by the passage in 1869 of a 

 civil-damage act, which provided that damages 

 might be collected from the liquor seller for 

 injuries inflicted by his customers, while in a 

 state of intoxication, upon themselves or 

 others. A oiild prohibitory law was also 

 passed by New Hampshire in 1855, which has 

 been strengthened by enactments since adopted. 

 Damages are assessed on the liquor seller for 

 the acts of drunkards in that state also, by an 

 act passed in 1870. In Massachusetts the 

 temperance excitement of 1852 resulted in the 

 passage of a prohibitory law by the legislature, 

 but the courts decided the law was unconstitu- 

 tional, and in 1853 it was repealed. In 1855. 

 the Know Nothing party being in power in the 



