Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1870-05-18
From BlacLlroOCrS Magazine,
BLUE LAWS,

From BlaeklroOdS Magazine.
BLUE LAWS.
Though the world-especially that
part of it which speaks English
must, according to all present appear
ance, resign itself, as best it may, to
the government of mere numbers,
there is no reason why the minority
should worship the majority, or extol
its DEGREES as the perfection of wis
dom. Tor pOpUli, UOr Del, never
was true saying, and never will be,
unless the multitudes become very
much wiser and less selfish than they
have ever yet shown themselves, in
any part of the world, since the be-
ginning of time. The voice of the
people was for Barabbas, not for
Jesus. Punch and judy is 2 more
attractive performance to our mas
! ters-" the masses than Ham
let or Macbeth; and if the whole
world were counted, Christianity
itself would"he found to be in a mi
nority as compared with Moham-
mechanism or Buddhism. There is
sometimes a chance under the rule
of a single despOt that the many may
| escape oppression-fOr a despot may
be mild, equitable, and cOnscien-
tious; but mere majorities, however
much it may be in our day the fash
ion to defer to them, are often very
virulent and unjust, and, worst defect
of all, are either wholly unendowed
with a conscience, or, possessing a
conscience, consider it their duty to
consign to the stake or the scaffold
all the wiser people who disagree
with them. And when a minority
that has ever been prosecuted or
savagely treated finds itself, in the
course of time and by the progress of
events, converted into a majority, it
is very apt to better the lessons which
it. has been taught in the days of its
tribulation, and to do to others even
worse than it has been done by. All
history is full of the struggles and
sufferings of minOrities, and of the
insolent oppression of majorities, and
will probably continue to be so until
the happy days, which DIR. Cumming
expects to see so soon, when the lion
shall lie down with the lamb, and
when men, studying war no more,
and turning their swords into plough
shares and their spears into pruning
hooks, and every one shall be as wise
as Solomon, and as innocent as Adam
on the day of his creation.
In England and America, imme-
diately after the Reformation had
gone through its first phases, the
tyranny of majorities took a turn
that was mostly religious, and to a
smaller extent political. The Puri-
o. IN in ~
fered, there can be no denial of the
fact, great amount of injustice for
conscience sake, and made the world
their debtors for very much of the
subsequent liberty which it has en-
jOyed but they nevertheless, when
it came their turn to be in the ma
jOrity, inflicted upon their opponents
fully as much persecution as they
themselves had endured. They had
their first great triumph in England
and their second in America, and in
both countries did their utmost to
draw upon themselves not only the
hatred but the ridicule of the nom
PuTitanic community. But though
they might incur ridicule, it was i'm
possible, in those who suffered from
their ascendency, to despise people
with such fiery zeal, and such grim
and disagreeable earnestness as they
manifested in all their dealings with
their opponents. Lord Macaulay, in
a well-known passage of his His
tory, very graphically describes their
doings in Old England, before New
England was handed over to their
meTcies:
Against the lighter vices the
ruling faction waged war with a
zeal little tempered by humanity or
by common sense. Sharp laws were
passed against betting. 1t was en-
acted that adultery should be pun
ished with death. The illicit in
tercOurse of the sexes, even where
neither violence nor seduction was
imputed, where no public scandal
was given, where no conjugal right
was violated, was made a misde-
meanour. Public amusements, from
the masques which were exhibited
at the mansions of the great down to
the wrestling matches and grinning
matches on village greens, were Wig
OTously attacked. One ordinance di-
rected that all the Maypoles in Eng
land should forthwith be hewn down.
Another prescribed all theatrical di-
versions. The playhouses were to be
dismantled, the spectators fined, the
the actors whipped at the carts tail.
Rope-dancing, puppet-shOws, bowls,
horse-racing, were regarded with no
friendly eye. But bear-bating, then
a friepdly diversion of high and low,
was the abomination which most
strongly stirred the wrath of the aus
tere sectaries. 1t is to be remarked !
that their antipathy to this sport had /
nothing in common with the feeling |
which has, in our own time, induced |
the Legislature to interfere for the |
purpose of protecting beasts against |
the wanton cruelty of men. The /
Puritan hated bear-bdting, not be- |
cause IL gdUe pain to the bear, but |
because it gdUe pleasure to the Spectd- !
tors. Indeed he generally contriyed |
to enjoy the double pleasure of tor
menting both spectators and bear"
When the reaction against Puri- |
tanism in England had set in so |
as to threaten to bring about |
the persecution of the prosecutors, |
these sturdy Zealots bethought them
selves of the New World, whittier
many of their co-religionists had I
long preceded them. They resolved. |
when they could no longer have their
own way at home, to shake the dust /
of their native land from their feet,
and try their fortune on that new soil |
where they were unlikely to find any
other enemies than the savages and
the wild animals of the forest. So
packing up their worldly goods, and
r -
with them, they settled
IN various s swarlns upon the rugged
cut, and Rhode Island, and resolved
to govern themselves on principles
more thoroughly theocratic than had
ever been brought into practice since
the days when the Jews got weary
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