1055-1G50.] FURTHER PROCEEDINGS THEREON. 207 



Mayors, Sheriffs, Justices, Bayliffs, Constables, and other 

 Ministers of Justice herein. 



Given at White-Hall the 24 day of February 1654. 



London, Printed by Henry Hills and John Field, Printers 

 to His Highness. MDCLIV.* 



On the 22nd of August it was ordered, " To keep 

 a strict eye on the carriage of the disaffected, and 

 suppress their meetings, allowing no horse- 



1655. 



races, cock-fighting, bear-baitings, or unlawful 

 assemblies, as rebellion is usually hatched on such 

 occasions." 



And on the 31st of October, Cromwell, in his 

 famous Declaration in Council, showing the reasons 

 of their proceedings for securing the peace of the 

 Commonwealth, vindicated his action in suppressing 

 race meetings, because the royalists " resolved to rise 

 at the horse-races, where they and their servants would 

 come well horsed and armed, but were prevented by 

 the prohibition of horse-races," f 



At a meeting of the Council held at Whitehall, 

 January 8, 1665-6, Major-General Desborow received, 

 among^ other instructions, " to observe the 



. , 1655-56. 



behaviour of all the disaffected, and what 

 meetings they hold, and to suppress such as are 

 dangerous ; also to suppress all horse-races, cock- 

 fighting, bear-baiting, stage-plays, or other unlawful 

 assemblies, by seizing the persons met on such occa- 



sions. ;j: 



* State Papers, Interregnum, Entry Books, vol. Ixxv. (red label), pp. 

 696-7. MS., P. R. O. Proclamations, King's Lib. B. M. 



t " Parliamentary History of England," vol. xx., pp. 435-460. 



% Calendar of State Papers, Dom., Interregnum, 1655-6. Edited by 

 Mrs. M. A. Everett Green, p. 103. 



