Scarcely anything indicates so accurately the predominant traits and condition of a people at any given period, as do the laws by which they are governed and the mode in which those laws are administered. Hence, in studying the early history of Massachusetts much important aid may be derived from the records of the courts and magistrates of that time. These give us a tolerable correct idea of the laws then in force which were designed to regulate the conduct of men in the various relations of life and show what was the practical administration of those laws. This is quite as true (perhaps more so), of the laws concerning what may be termed minor offences or breaches of social duty, for which men were held legally accountable, as it is of the graver crimes. Some of the laws relating to this class of minor offences have undergone changes within the last two hundred years, particularly since our separation from the Mother Country. These changes have been not so much in regard to the nature and description of the offence itself, as in regard to the penalty. They have in Massachusetts at the present time, and have had ever since the American Revolution, laws against drunkenness, vagrancy, petty larceny, libel and slander, profane cursing and swearing, Sabbath breaking, unlawful games or plays, lewdness, common railing and brawling, and idle and disorderly conduct generally. Our Colonial ancestors had laws substantially like those in force so far as relates to the offences themselves. In fact, the present statutes on these subjects are many of them copies of the provincial statutes. But the penalties are quite different. They now punish breaching of these laws by a small fine or by imprisonment for a short term, or by both. For similar breaches of the statute and common law in the early history of Massachusetts some very different penalties were provided. These were actually enforced in frequent instances, which is hardly true of similar cases at the present day. The Magistrates and Courts that administered the laws in Massachusetts during the first century and a half after its settlement were full believers in the propriety and efficacy of corporal punishment for a certain class of transgressions. Having based their criminal code largely upon that of Moses, they were well persuaded that, if in no case they exceeded the Hebrew limit of forty stripes, they would have the Divine sanction. With this illustrious precedent constantly in view as a rule of action, they did not hesitate to apply the rod whenever it seemed to them appropriate and adequate penalty for the offence. Crimes of a graver character were dealt with by tribunals of larger jurisdiction and punished by imprisonment or death. But for a large class of misdemeanors, particularly such as were considered scandalous or tending to disorder and of evil example, the rod was a very frequent instrument of punishment.