VARIOUS ENACTMENTS. 205 
of those introduced at this time, regarded the 
education or discipline of the children, and was 
designed to counteract the fugitive habits in 
which they indulged, prior to the establishment of 
regular schools. Formerly the children were ac- 
customed to resist all parental restraint, and, 
whenever they chose, to leave their parents’ abode, 
and associate with other children, or take up their 
residence in any other part of the island. 
The facility with which the means of support 
might in general be obtained, rendered it a matter 
of little or no inconvenience to the parties to whom 
such children might, at the age of eight, ten, or 
twelve years, attach themselves. The person with 
whose establishment they might unite, exercised 
no guardianship over them; and their distance 
from the dwelling of their own parents, removed 
them from the restraint and superintendence of 
those on whom naturally devolved the preservation 
of their morals and the formation of their character. 
To prevent the sanction and support which chil- 
dren absconding from their homes had been accus- 
tomed to receive, and to promote a more general 
attention to the reciprocal duties of parents and 
children, this regulation was introduced. 
Another enactment prohibited the revival of 
those amusements and dances which were immoral 
in their tendencies. 
A third prohibited husbands from ill-treating 
their wives. 
The fourth referred to their fisheries, and, by 
fixing the proportion of fish taken which should be 
given to the king and governors was adapted to 
prevent dissatisfaction. 
The most advantageous regulation, however, 
introduced at this period, for the first time in any 
