UNDER CHARLES THE SECOND.

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given, where no conjugal right was violated, was made a mis-demeanour. Public amusements, from the masques whichwere exhibited at the mansions of the great down to the wres-tling matches and grinning matches on village greens, werevigorously attacked. One ordinance directed that all theMaypoles in England should forthwith be hewn down. An-other proscribed all theatrical diversions. The play-houseswere to be dismantled, the spectators fined, the actors whippedat the cart’s tail. Rope-dancing, puppet-shows,bowls, horse-racing, were regarded with no friendly eye. But bear-baiting,then a favourite diversion of high and low, was the abomi-nation which most strongly stirred the wrath of the austeresectaries. It is to be remarked that their antipathy to thissport had nothing in common with the feeling which has, inour own time, induced the legislature to interfere for the pur-pose of protecting beasts against the wanton cruelty of men.The'Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to thebear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators. Indeed,he generally contrived to enjoy the double pleasure of tor-menting both spectators and bear. *

* How Iitile compassion for the bear had to do with the matter is suf-ficiently proved by the following extract from a paper entitled. A perfectDiurnal of some Passages of Parliament, and from other Parts of theKingdom, from Monday July 24th, to Monday July 31st, 1643. “Upon thequeen’s coming from Holland, she brought with her, besides a companyof savagelike ruffians, a company of savage bears, to what purpose youmay judge by the sequel. Those bears were left about Newark, and werebrought into country towns constantly on the Lord’s day to be baited,such is the religion those here related would settle amongst us; and, ifany went about to hinder or but speak agaiHst their damnable profana-tions, they were presently noted as Roundheads and Puritans, and sureto be plundered for it. But some of Colonel Cromwell’s forces coming byaccident into Uppingham town, in Rutland, on the Lord’s day, foundthese bears playing there in the usual manner, and, in the height of theirsport, caused them to be seized upon, lied to a tree and shot." This wasby no means a solitary instance. Colonel Pride, when Sheriff of Surrey,ordered the beasts in the bear garden of Southwark to be killed. He isrepresented by a loyal satirist as defending the act thus: — “The firstthing that is upon my spirits is the killing of the bears, for which the

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