whose unaccountable defection, in such an emergency, must notwithstanding have been a cruel and unexpected blow to the powers of darkness.

Then arose throughout Europe that strange and fearful monomania, which has so often seemed to impart a mysterious fascination to crimes of a new and shocking character; and which can only be compared to the suicidal impulse said to be felt by those who gaze for the first time from the brink of a precipice. It was fortunate for mankind that the crime of sorcery, being morally and physically impossible, could not become common; or the world would really have become what a terrified Demonologist called it, a large madhouse for witches and devils "to play their antics in.' But every thing that could be done, under such discouraging circumstances, was done most zealously and perseveringly, both by witches and witch destroyers. more enthusiastic sorcerers scrupulously performed all the approved ceremonies for raising the Devil, and generally finished by becoming convinced that their object had been fully attained.

The

The more artful and incredulous satisfied themselves with terrifying and robbing their neighbours, by the help of false pretensions to witchcraft. On the other hand, hypochondriac squires, terrified clowns, hysterical girls, and mischievous children, united in ascribing their sufferings and mishaps to enchantment; and usually fixed at random upon the nearest old woman as their tormentor. These accusations were so readily heard, and so unsparingly acted upon by the legal authorities, that the number of executions shocked and startled even the thoughtless and excited mob. The poorer classes began to look forward with natural alarm to the time when age and deformity might qualify. themselves for the fate which they daily saw overtaking their neighbours; and, in many places, the inquisitors of the law were compelled by popular violence to abandon their researches. But Churchmen and Kings felt no such apprehension, and the fury of the persecution became daily more unsparing.

For nearly two hundred years after the bull of Innocent, the mania continued with scarcely any symptoms of abatement. Throughout the sixteenth century it was chiefly confined to France and Germany; in which countries the number of its victims must be reckoned by hundreds of thousands. Their total amount, indeed, can only be calculated from those which remain on record; but some idea of its magnitude may be formed from the fact, that many districts and large towns burnt two, three, and four hundred witches every year; and that in some, the annual executions destroyed nearly one per cent of the whole population! The

accusations were of the usual kind; except in the south of France, where the crime of lycanthropy, which consisted in self-transformation into a wolf-or, as such enchanted animals were called, a loup-garou-was believed to be very prevalent. The Reformation, which swept away so many superstitions, left this, the most odious of all, in full activity. The Churchmen of England, the Lutherans of Germany, the Calvinists of Geneva, Scotland, and New England, rivalled the most bigoted Papists in their severities. Indeed, the latter sect, though the most opposite of all to the Church of Rome, were in this respect perhaps the most implicit imitators of her delusions.

The contagion was late in making its appearance in Great Britain; though its presence, when once it became general, was not less destructive than in other countries. It was not until 1562, that the legislature formally recognised the practice of magic as felony, though used for objects not in themselves unlawful. After this time, however, the panic gradually arose ; and, towards the end of Elizabeth's reign, the increase of witchcraft had become a favourite subject of lamentation and warning with the court preachers. At length, in 1593, occurred the wellknown and disgraceful tragedy of the witches of Warbois; which ended in the public murder of a whole family, upon no better evidence than the ravings of a delirious girl. Still, this was for some time almost a solitary instance. The superstition, though certainly on the rise, was not yet at its height; and the shrewd though homely ridicule of Reginald Scott-a man who well deserves the high praise of having struggled against a whole generation in the cause of reason and humanity-had some effect in checking its progress. But the pestilence broke out afresh upon the accession of James I. That vain and worthless pedant had always looked upon witchcraft with peculiar horror; and had moreover been greatly delighted by the fatal flattery, which asserted that he was the most dreaded enemy of their fraternity. A Scottish Act of Parliament for the suppression of sorcery had been passed in 1563; but, during the reign of Queen Mary, the executions under it, though more frequent than in England, were comparatively few. James, however, speedily increased them to four hundred annually;-a number more than quadruple their previous amount; though, as we have seen, not greater than was furnished by many single towns on the Continent. He presided at the famous trial of Euphemia Macalzean, and her accomplices, in 1591-a trial which terminated in the execution of thirty persons at once, many of them with circumstances of unusual and shocking barbarity. He also signalized himself by publishing a trea

tise on Demonology, in which he maintained the most puerile superstitions of the witch-finders, and openly accused Reginald Scott of Sadducism for denying the possibility of the crime.

Accordingly, in 1604, the very year after the accession of James to the English throne, a new act was passed for the detection and punishment of sorcerers; and from this time the persecution may be said to have fully commenced. During the seventeenth century, 40,000 persons are said to have been put to death for witchcraft in England alone! In Scotland, the number was probably, in proportion to the population, much greater; for it is certain that, even in the last forty years of the sixteenth century, the executions were not fewer than 17,000. In 1634 the madness may be said to have reached its highest pitch; for in that year occurred the celebrated case of the Lancashire witches, in which eight innocent persons were deprived of their lives by the incoherent falsehoods of a mischievous urchin. The civil war, far from suspending the persecution, seems if possible to have redoubled it; for the English Puritans and Scottish Covenanters were, like all of their religious persuasion, most rigorous and unscrupulous in exterminating sorcery. In 1644-5, the infamous Matthew Hopkins was able to earn a comfortable subsistence by the profession of witch-finder, which he exercised, not indeed without occasional suspicion, but still with general success. And even twenty years later, the delusion was still sanctioned by the most venerable name of the English law; for it was in 1664 that the excellent Sir Matthew Hale, after a trial conducted with his usual patience and impartiality, though not perhaps with his usual good sense, condemned two women to death as witches, both of whom were executed accordingly.

At length, however, soon after the middle of the seventeenth century, the superstition began to show signs of decline. In some countries, its fall was hastened by the belief that the powers of darkness had used the general panic as a means of destroying the innocent; and that the witch-finders were either witches themselves, or subject to diabolical delusion. The conjecture excited general attention; for the most zealous Demonologist could not deny that Satan would have found, in such a deception, a far easier and more effectual means of tormenting mankind, than in the petty mischief usually ascribed to him. This fortunate counter-delusion produced a great effect in many parts of Germany, and also in New England; in which colony the mania broke out with sudden violence about the year 1670, and, after costing nineteen lives, as suddenly and unaccountably disappeared. In other countries, a strong impression was made by

a dexterous employment of the usual means of conviction against the Demonologists themselves; sometimes in order to justify revenge for their inhumanity, and sometimes merely by way of a reductio ad absurdum. The death of the English impostor Hopkins was the consequence of such a proceeding. The people of Suffolk, who had been long tormented by his presence, insisted upon trying him by his own favourite test of the water ordeal; and the chance being unfavourable to him, they put him to death on the spot-an exercise of Lynch law which the most humane reader will scarcely regret. A very successful experiment of the same nature was tried about the same time by the Duke of Brunswick; who, being compelled to preside at the examination of a supposed witch, induced her, by a skilful succession of leading questions, to accuse as her accomplices two Jesuits who had been active and bigoted Demonologists. The two priests, who were honest and well-meaning men, were greatly alarmed by their danger, and still more afflicted by the conviction of their past injustice; and one of them, named Spee, published a treatise upon criminal proceedings for sorcery, which had a most salutary effect throughout Germany.

In England, the first moment of comparative repose occurred under the Protectorate. Sir Walter Scott-too lively and too loyal a writer to judge of the gloomy republicans of those days with entire impartiality has humorously conjectured that, among so infinite a variety of sectarians, even the direct worship of the Evil Principle may well have been held permissible. But we think it only fair to ascribe this beneficial change to the strong sense and humanity of Cromwell himself; who, though his memory is deeply stained by some few acts of ruthless severity, showed in most cases a regard for human life which was very rare among his contemporaries. The improvement continued after the Restoration; for the persecution of witches, like many better things, was associated with the memory of Presbyterianism, and was therefore universally unpopular. Trials still continued to take place, but the judges were rationally strict in the proof they required, and therefore convictions were comparatively rare. The same good effect was produced in Scotland by the exertions of the celebrated Sir George Mackenzie-too well known among the poor persecuted Covenanters by the odious title of the Bloody Mackenzie.' But this unscrupulous lawyer, though a bitter and unsparing enemy of religious liberty, was too acute and rational a man to mistake nursery fables for criminal indictments. He laboured with signal ability, industry, and success, to remove the iniquities, and reduce the number of trials for witchcraft; and his courage and activity not only saved

many innocent lives, but gave the superstition a blow from which it never recovered. We are sorry to say, that the party who are justly regarded as the fathers of the Scottish Church showed themselves less enlightened than their tyrannical enemies. They did not hesitate to cast the imputation of magic upon their political opponents; and that with a bitter sincerity, which showed that they would gladly have enforced it with the most deadly penalties. Not only Mackenzie himself, but Lauderdale, Rothes, Middleton, Archbishop Sharpe, and almost every other leading Episcopalian, were steadfastly believed by the Western Presbyterians to be the confidential servants of the Evil One. none of our readers can have forgotten the still more popular fables of the diabolical charm against steel and lead possessed by General Dalziel; and of the coal-black horse presented by the Enemy of Mankind to the renowned Grahame of Claverhouse.

And

Still the disease was not finally healed without more than one painful relapse. In 1669, seventy persons were put to death at a small village of Dalecarlia in Sweden, upon the evidence of some insane or malicious children; but fortunately the contagion did not spread any further in that country. An equally sudden and absurd, though less destructive, panic occurred, as has been already noticed, in the Anglo-American provinces about the same time. And so late as 1697, five persons were executed together at Glasgow, upon the evidence of a sick girl aged eleven! But these were the expiring effects of the delusion. In 1680, France set the example to Europe of its final and absolute suppression. In that year Louis XIV., with unwonted sense and humanity, issued a proclamation prohibiting all future prosecutions for witchcraft; and directing that even those who might profess the art should only be punished as impostors. A solemn remonstrance by the parliament of Rouen was wisely disregarded; and the benefits of the step were speedy and conspicuous. The good example was followed, though less readily than it ought to have been, by other nations. In Germany the punishment of death had been already disused, and even that of imprisonment was daily becoming more rare. In England and Scotland the exertions of enlightened and humane judges, among whom Chief-Justice Holt and Dundas of Arniston are honourably conspicuous, generally succeeded in drawing a verdict of not guilty from the jury, or a pardon from the Crown. At length the long list of murders was brought to its close in both countries. In the former, the last execution was at Huntingdon in 1716; in the latter, at Dornoch, in Sutherlandshire, six years later. Two or three instances of popular violence against suspected witches met with just and exemplary punishment;