PRESENT WISDOM VERSUS PAST FOOLISHNESS.
By H. E. Simkin
All will doubtless agree with the writer of the following clipping in calling such police duties “absurd.” The singular thing is that men can so easily see absurdities in the actions of past generations, but can not recognize them in the same conditions in their own time. In the time of Christ the Pharisees quoted the prophets with great zeal, and condemned those of their ancestors who persecuted the seers, while they themselves were persecuting the greatest Prophet the world ever knew. Even so in our own times. Men see the absurdities connected with an attempted enforcement of religious duties by the State two hundred years ago, but will work with all their power to again bring about a similar condition of affairs by seeking legislation upon matters of conscience and individual accountability to God. All history teaches that the sowing of such seed begets the same kind of a harvest. Such will do well to heed the timely instruction given by Jesus of Nazareth in the words, “My kingdom is not of this world,” and, “Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.” A somewhat absurd side of the police duties of the time of Anne and the early Georges related to the observance of Sunday. In this matter the church wardens became, as it were, semi-constables, and had power to fine every one one shilling who kept away from church on Sunday without sufficient reason. By the act of indulgence, those who chose might go to “meeting or conventicle” instead of church. No unnecessary work might be done on Sunday, nor might any goods, except milk and mackerel, be sold. If they were, the constables or church wardens could seize and sell them, one third of the penalty going to the informer, and the rest to the poor. The oath of one witness was sufficient, and the Christian spirit engendered by the system must have been truly edifying. Attendance at any sports or games on Sunday, or at bull-baiting, or “interludes and common plays,” subjected the evil doer to a five-shilling fine. Carriers might not travel, nor butchers kill meat, on Sunday, lest a justice fine them on a constable’s “presentment” (report). In other ways, too, the police were almost as much concerned with religion as with vagrancy. They had to look out sharply for unlawful conventicles; that is, those held in unregistered places, and to see that non-conformists did not lock or bar their chapel doors during the service. If they did, they became an unlawful meeting, and either constables, church wardens, or overseers of the poor had to levy the fine imposed on them by justice’s warrant. “Popish recusants” also gave authorities a good deal of trouble. They had to keep a register of names and addresses, as well as those of their children and servants, and see that they did not move more than five miles from home after being acknowledged to be “recusants.” Infringement of this law meant forfeiture of all goods and land. They were not allowed to possess arms or ammunition, nor horses worth more than five pounds apiece, and by warrant from the lieutenants of militia the constable or his deputy could search any recusant premises for such things, and seize them for the king’s use. — London Gentleman’s Magazine.