STATE OP ENGLAND IN 1685 .

417

same when he is a rude and thoughtless school-boy and whenhe is a refined and accomplished man. It is pleasing to reflect'that the public mind of England has softened while it hasripened, and that we have, in the course of ages, become,not only a wiser, but also a kinder people. There is scarcelya page of the history or lighter literature of the seventeenthcentury which does not contain some proof that our ancestorswere less humane than their posterity. The discipline ofworkshops, of schools, of private families, though not moreefficient than at present, was infinitely harsher. Masters,well born and bred, were in the habit of beating their ser-vants. Pedagogues knew no way of imparting knowledge butby beating their pupils. Husbands, of decent station, werenot ashamed to beat their wives. The implacability of hostilefactions was such as we can scarcely conceive. Whigs weredisposed to murmur because Stafford was suffered to die with-out seeing his bowels burned before his face. Tories reviledand insulted Russell as his coach passed from the Tower tothe scaffold in Lincoln’s Inn Fields.* As little mercy wasshown by the populace to sufferers of a humbler rank. If anoffender was put into the pillory, it was well if he escapedwith life from the shower of brickbats and paving stones.** Ifhe was tied to the cart’s tail, the crowd pressed round him,imploring the hangman to give it the fellow well, and makehim howl.*** Gentlemen arranged parties of pleasure to Bride-well on court days, for the purpose of seeing the wretchedwomen who beat hemp there whipped.f A man pressed todeath for refusing to plead, a woman burned for coining, ex-cited less sympathy than is now felt for a galled horse or anoverdriven ox. Fights compared with which a boxing match

* Burnet, i. 568.

** Muggletpn’s Acts of the Witnesses of the Spirit.

*** Tom Brown describes such a scene in lines which I do not ventureto quote.

+ Ward's London Spy.

Macaulay, History. 1. 27

CHAP.

III.