As soon as the tax was fairly in operation, all or most of those who had been arrested were liberated, and subsequent arrests by the Major-Generals themselves were only of vagabonds or suspicious persons.

The only appeal from the Major-Generals was to his Highness himself and the Council.[1] [Footnote 1: Godwin, 223-242; Carlyle, III.

101.] What with the vigilance of the Major-Generals in their districts, what with the edicts of the Protector and the Council for the direction of the Major-Generals, the public order now kept over all England and Wales was wonderfully strict.

At no time since the beginning of the Commonwealth had there been so much of that general decorum of external behaviour which Cromwell liked to see.
Cock-fights, dancing at fairs, and other such amusements, were under ban.

Indecent publications that had flourished long in the guise of weekly pamphlets disappeared; and books of the same sort were more closely looked after than they had been.