By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson. 



279 



up of youth in the principles of inhumanity; besides the many accidents wh. 

 often happen to others from it, and the offence it must naturally give to every good 

 Christian who considers that the animal world was made for his use and not 

 abuse, as such a treatment notoriously is : We therefore, the Bailiff find Bur- 

 gesses at the request of divers of the Inhabitants of this Borough, having taken 

 the s d . affair into our serious consideration, and determined as far as in us lies 

 to prevent the same for the future, do by virtue of our Charter us thereunto 

 empowering, make a Bye-law as follows. To wit : We do order that no person 

 or persons do or shall from henceforth (1756), within this Borough, throw, pelt, 

 squail, shoot at, or expose to be thrown, pelted, squailed, or shot at, any Cock, 

 pullet, Hen or chick, or any feathered fowl of any kind whatsoever while living, 

 under the penalty of 20s., to be paid to the Bailiff of the Borough for the time 

 being by every person or persons so offending in any or either of the Particulars 

 aforesaid. One half of the Penalty to be given to the informer, the other half 

 to be given to the Bailiff for the Poor residing within the Borough and not 

 receiving alms from the Parish." 



Punishment of Rogues. 

 In the old Borough Accounts of A.D. 1598 are these items of 

 expense incurred in improving public behaviour. 



s. d. 



" For canvas iiij ells, to make good a shirt ; and whip 4 0 



For whipping rogues, and making the shirt 0 4" 



From which it seems that by the ancient discipline of Chippen- 

 ham, offenders of a certain class were exhibited on the stage of a 

 pillory, and made to dance to the unpleasant tune of the Bailiff's 

 lash. " Rogues " they are called. The term (somewhat compre- 

 hensive), is now usually limited to those who are known to have 

 committed some act of dishonesty. But in the old language of 

 the law it was, strictly speaking, applied to travelling beggars, or 

 those whom we should now call tramps. The tendency of a tramp's 

 life is certainly not towards honesty : still, in the reign of Queen 

 Elizabeth a man might have been a " rogue " without necessarily 

 being a thief or cheat. 



There was, some years after that reign, a case in the Courts 

 where the precise meaning of the word " rogue" was of import- 

 ance. In the time of Charles L, the celebrated William Prynne 

 wrote a very severe book against theatres, plays, and stage-players ; 

 in which he denounced all stage-players as "rogues." The Attorney 

 General who had to deal with this author and his book, said, " In 

 calling all Stage- players "rogues, Mr. Prynne doth speak falsely: 



