32 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH RURAL HISTORY 



were overworked and their health, in consequence, im- 

 paired even before the establishment of the factory system. 

 But amusements were not lacking. In the country, 

 dancing, archery, leaping, wrestling, masques, wakes, the 

 setting up of maypoles on May Day, and hockey were 

 the chief forms of recreation. Young people danced on 

 the village green, and on May Day the maypole was set up 

 there, and the prettiest girl in the village was chosen as 

 queen. An aggressive form of Puritanism sought to destroy 

 the innocent mirth of the times during the first half of the 

 century. Sunday amusements were forbidden by law ; 

 but the peasants continued to enjoy their usual recreations 

 on week-days, especially at certain seasons. After the 

 Restoration (1660), all forms of amusement again became 

 common. 



Rise of Indirect Taxation. 



It is well to remind ourselves, however, that .the lot of 

 the peasant was not improved during the seventeenth 

 century. Poverty was slowly but steadily on the increase. 

 Hitherto, all taxation had been " direct," and had been 

 levied by the king upon the holders of land. But at the 

 Restoration, Charles II agreed to forego this royal right 

 in return for a sum of 100,000 a year, such sum to be 

 raised by a tax on land. Parliament, consisting as it did 

 of landowners, naturally resented this proposal, and resolved 

 that the sum should be raised by a general excise duty. 

 By such a tax, the price of many commodities is increased. 

 As these are mostly procured by working-people (because 

 they are most numerous), the bulk of the tax falls upon 

 the poor. Almost a century later the elder Pitt, when 

 addressing the House of Lords, was reported thus : " By 

 the method of indirect taxation, you can tax the last rag 

 off a man's back, the last mouthful of food from his mouth, 

 and he won't know what is injuring him ; he may grumble 

 about hard times, but he will not know that the hard times 

 have been produced by taxation." 



Changes in the Poor Law. 



The increasing poverty of the peasant class rendered the 

 administration of the Poor Law difficult. It was the rule 

 that each parish should be responsible for its own poor. 

 But it was not easy to decide which parish was responsible. 

 At one time, the pauper's place of birth was responsible. 



