ds estate. (Several acts
governing the attire of the subjects.)

There was an ancient law in Massachusetts that ladies' dresses should be
made long enough to hide their shoe-buckles. In 1660 an act of the General
Court prohibited short sleeves, and required garments to be lengthened so
as to cover the arms to the wrists and gowns to the shoe-buckles;
"immoderate great breeches, knots of ribbon, broad shoulder bands, and
they be, silk roses, double ruffs and cuffs" were forbidden. In the same
colony, in 1653, I. Fairbanks was tried for wearing great boots, but was
acquitted.

Laws governing marriage and the marriage relation were rigorous.

When parents refuse their children convenient marriages, the
magistrate shall determine the point. (Reenacted with
alterations.)

The selectmen finding children ignorant may take them from
their parents and place them in better hands at the expense
of their parents. (Record.)

A wife shall be deemed good evidence against her husband.

Married persons must live together, or be imprisoned.

No man shall court a maid in person or by letter without
first obtaining consent of her parents; five pounds penalty
for the first offense; ten pounds for the second; and for
the third, imprisonment during the pleasure of the court.

A man that strikes his wife shall be fined ten pounds. A
woman that strikes her husband shall be punished at the
court's discretion.

Puritan New England was not alone among the colonies in adopting harsh
laws. Virginia went to extremes, as appears in the following extract from
"Laws of Virginia, at a Grand Assembly held at James City, 23d March,
1662":

In every county the court shall cause to be set up a
pillory, a pair of stocks, and a whipping-post near the
courthouse, and a ducking stool; and the court not causing
the said pillory, whipping-post, stocks, and ducking-stool
to be erected, shall be fined five thousand pounds of
tobacco to the use of the public.

Among commercial restrictions we find an enactment prohibiting the
planting of tobacco after July 10, which was done for "the improvement of
our only commodity, tobacco, which can no ways be effected but by
lessening the quantity and amending the quality."

Another object that the government had in view was to compel the people to
become silk-growers against their will. "Be it therefore enacted," says
the Le