Reverend Mr. Corbitt with falsehood in his doctrine, were ordered
to pay a fine of fifty shillings each, and to make humble
confession in a public meeting at Lynn."

William Hewes and his son were probably only criticising the music and
the preaching in the "meeting-house." If people nowadays were fined
for similar offences, the county would grow so rich that there would
be no necessity for the present heavy tax.

"In 1643 Roger Scott, for repeated sleeping in meeting on the
Lord's Day, and for striking the person who waked him, was, at
Salem, sentenced to be severely whipped."

It must be borne in mind that people in those days were not allowed to
stay at home on the Lord's Day and do their sleeping there. Staying at
home on Sunday is a modern innovation.

From the Massachusetts Colony Records, quoted by Mr. Northend, we
learn that in March, 1761, Sir Christopher Gardner, who had passed
much of his time "with roystering Morton of Merry Mount," and who was
living with a lady he called his cousin, upon receipt by the Governor
of information of two wives in England "whom he has carelessly left
behind," after a long pursuit was captured and sent back to England.

It would seem, then, that there must have been, judging from this
example, in "high places" some "indiscretions" and "unpleasant"
gossip early in our history.

Mr. Northend finds that at "the same date one Nich. Knopp, for
pretending to cure scurvy by water of no value, which he sold at a
very dear rate, was ordered to pay a fine of five pounds or be
whipped, and made liable to an action by any person to whom he had
sold the water."

How would such a decree work in our day, if applied to the makers or
venders of all the "water of no value" which is advertised on the
fences and barns alongside of our railroads and highways?

Mr. Northend, speaking of the severity of the early laws, says:--

"The criminal laws were taken principally from the Mosaic code;
and although many of them at the present day seem harsh and
cruel, yet as a whole they were very much milder than the
criminal laws of England at the time, and the number of capital
offences was greatly reduced."

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CURIOUS PUNISHMENTS IN SCHOOLS.

In some of the old schools in Salem (no doubt it was the same in other
places) the teachers whose business it was to teach youths the "three
R's,"--Reading, 'Riting, and 'Rithmeti