, the shepherd 10s., the oxherd 6s. 8d., the
swineherd 6s., a woman labourer 6s., a dey 6s., a driver of the plough
7s. at the most, and every other labourer and servant according to his
degree; and less in the country where less was wont to be given, without
clothing, courtesy, or other reward by covenant. If any give or take by
covenant more than is above specified, at the first that they shall be
thereof attained, as well the givers as the takers, shall pay the value
of the excess so taken, and at the second time of their attainer the
double value of such excess, and at the third time the treble value of
such excess, and if the taker so attained have nothing whereof to pay
the said excess, he shall have forty days imprisonment."

Our puritan fathers had the same paternal solicitude as all other
tyrants. They made it a crime to disregard the Sabbath, or to deny
Scripture, or the truth of Christianity or of the Trinity. In the
records of the colony for September 1639 it is written: "For as much as
it is evident unto this court that the common custom of drinking one to
another, is a mere useless ceremony, and draweth on that abominable
practice of drinking healths, and is also an occasion of much waste of
the good creatures, and of many other sin," etc. Then it declares that
such is a reproach to a Christian commonwealth, "wherein the least evils
are not to be tolerated."

In the instructions of the Massachusetts Company to Endicott and his
Council, the trade in tobacco is only allowed to the "old planters," "if
they conceive that they cannot otherwise provide for their livelihood."
It is left to the discretion of Endicott and his Council "to give way
for the present to their planting of it, in such manner and with such
restrictions" as they may think fitting. "But," it is added, "we
absolutely forbid the sale of it or the use of it by any of our own
particular (private) men's servants, unless upon urgent occasion, for
the benefit of health, and taken privately." In the Records of the
Colony of Massachusetts for September 3, 1634, "it is ordered that
victuallers or keepers of an ordinary shall not suffer any tobacco to be
taken into their houses, under penalty of 5s. for every offence to be
paid by the victualler, and 12d. by the party that takes it." "Further
it is ordered that no person shall take tobacco publicly under the
penalty of 2s. 6d., nor privately in his own house or in the house of
another before strangers