The Sun.
London, England, 1857-04-07 00:00:00

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This morning our readers are
anoth-r glimpse into the iirte myst i
d rhea of Wile:licraft, as be!ieved., , it
in England in the year of grace 1857. .orahe S
authority of the coratnuniervion we can entirely -
vouch, and its. interest' is considerable, not, merely
as authenticating the nature of the delusions still
current in the country, but more especially as exhi-
biting the phase which these per,suasions assume in
the•case of respectable persons and well-regulated
parishes. The truth is we fear, that .much of the
thaterial out of . •7A tic follies and barbarities cf •
the 17th century were constracted exists to the
present day, and if the results are less deplorable
it is owing rather to better administration than
superior enlightenment. The example now given
is supplied by the evidence and arguments of a
yeoman farmer—well-conducted, pretty well to do,
and possessed of at least as much religious and ge-
neral knewledgi as fills usually to the lot of his
class. His wife being ill, he. betakes himself taa
neighbouring magistrate, relates his affliction, at- •
tributes it-te the machinations of a certain witch,
and applies for the magiStraters warrant to have her
" proved," according to the Use and practice of our
forefathers. The mention of the case in the neigh-
honrhood brings out other allusions, anecdotes, and
confessions, until at length it becomes plain enough
that the applicant's optniona 'on this subject repre-
sent pretty nearly the private creed of the whole
parish.
Mr. Disraeli was certainly wrong in saying that
the Deiert was the only place for purity of tradi-
tion. No Egyptian necromancers could have pre-
served their mysteries more faithfully than the in-
habitants of this British county. The principles and
maxims d'sclosed are of the real genuine stamp,
unimpeachable 'in their antiquity, unimpaired in
their proportions, unadulterated iu their folly.
The " proving" of the witch is tee true old trial,
without cross or blemish—a real Devil's ordeal.
Innocence of ordinary crimes used to be tested in
early days by appeals to the immediate agency of
Providence, so that fire was expected not to burn,
or blows to hurt, in the case of a person unjustly
accused. ._But innocence of witchcraft was proved
by an inversion of the test. The agency here pro-
voked was that of the Devil, and if impunity ensued
the verdict was that of conviction, not of acquittal,
since the Prince of Darkness was held to have be-
trayed his sympathies in the protection of his own.
The unfortunate consequence of these assumptions
was that the incriminated party had no chance of
escape either:, way. In the common ordeal, or
appeal to Heaven, safety in the experiment brought
safety altogether ' • but in the proof of witchcraft
safety in the trial brought destruction afterwards,
and acquittal was only established by death in the
process. A reputed witch was thrown int) the
water: As a human being in such case would
usually sick and perish, it was held as evidence of
diabolical support if the accused was found to
swim, and the stake awaited her accordingly ; if
no such aid was forthcoming she went to the
bottom in the odour of innocence, and there re-
mained. The reader will discern in the stories
now set befere _him with what remarkable fidelity
this theory has been preserved. It is only in the
touches of humanity and public order that the
ideas of the 19. h century peep out. The farmer
still desires to have the witch "swum," but he
applies first far a magistrates's sanction, and would
do it tenderly and with precautions, so as "not to,
hurt her." Another notable persuasion of the.
good old times was to the effect that these pre-
sumed dealers with the Devil were in the habit of
buckling young imps at certain abnormal teats,
presenting the appearance of moles on the skin. .
The method of diagnosis on these occasions consisted
in probing the moles to the quick with- sharp-
pointed bradawls ; and the famous Hopkins, the
Witchfinder, was renowned for the peculiar dex-
terity of his manipulation. • We suspect that the
vitality of this. tradition also -may be detected in
one of the requests preferred by the farmer to the
magistrate. _ _

There is little novelty in any of the symptoms
detailed as evincing the agency in question. As are
the witches, so is their work—the veritable repro- _
duction of ages long past. It would be almost a
starting piece of testimony to find some entirely
new feature or apparition, but, unlu kilt'; nobody
ever sees or hears anything except what tradition.
represents as being seen or heard under such cir-
cumstances. The most curious part of the state-
ments now published consists, we think, in the
evidence of the counterpart traditions—traditions
containing antidotes to witchery, which are hoarded
and handed down like family recipes. In intro-
ducing one of these to the magistrate's notice the
farmer observed, in a philosophic tone, " These,
you see, sir, are little schemes which go from one
generation to another. There is always something•
to be learned out of the weakest and ignorantest. '
The "little scheme' 'pie-educed on the present oc-
casion from Ibis -111}0Sitory-of' lore consisted in
taking some hairs from the "noddle" of the be-
witched woman's neck, some parings of her nails,
and some nails from a horseshoe, and putting the
whole together in a bottle on the fire. Whoa
the bottle bursts the experimenters look out of
window, and there ,the guilty witch or wizard
will be seen standing before them. Nor was this
the only counter spell available. When the evil-
disposed person had been thus identified there
were means of getting rid of her very simply in-
deed. The impulse of the Devil would drive her
to the house she was afflicting, and it was only
necessary to refuse all speech of her 'to send her
backto her own home to die. One case, it will be
seen, was related in which the actual employment of
this method with a full and due result was said to
have occurred. In point of fact, if a household was
but in posse ,lion of the proper knowledge, and re-
solute in applying it, it seems to us as if witches
would get a good deal the worst of the game.
One highly natural but exceedingly striking fea-
ture in the discourse here put before us is the
clashing and discord of ideas produced in the con-
flict between delusions of the 17th century and
realities of the 19th. It is hard to say which ap-
pears the strongest—faith in spells or belief in
parochial government. Witches are spoken of one
minute as if they were born children of the Devil,
end the next as if they were poachers or tramps.
The farmer had argued with the magistrate about
the Witch of Endor and about Jewish demoniacs,
but when it came to the push, and as a last resort,
he asks whether a man who "bas to pay the rates
and taxes, hard and fast," ought to be bothered in
this kind of way ? Satan might be roaring and
ramping about, but he couldn't be stronger than
the Squire. " Sir, if our Squire knew that there
was any such bad things' as witchcraft about, he
would have it altered." Even in the case of the
very witch believed to be at work the final appeal
shows the ratepayer triumphant over the victim of
superstition. He had been pleading very hard for
the swimming and the proving—for the pond and
the rope ; but at last he says, "Couldn't you have
her hit 3ned off to the Union? That might be a
benefit 1" We shouldn't wonder if it proved as
hard a trial as any.
It is horrifying to think of the cruelties which
in former times were practised under the influence
of persuasions like these, when poor unhappy
creatures, almost always aged and helpless, were
liable to treatment of the most barbarous descrip-
tion on charges which could always be made and
could hardly be disproved. In the present case
harmless,oin reasnpteettett,usantldia.ttotoh einaficromusetdo
swtiOrrernanuet
from her cottage, while the woman, thought to be
is evidently labouring under aberration
Yet this, we dare say, is the type of
many a case attended in days gone by with atro-
eities too terrible to be thought of. In this de-
bop
bewitched,
de-
partment, ititn dt
,'however, of the subject matters stand on
a pretty good footing ; nor is there much danger
that witchcraft can involve anytbin worse than
fraud or folly so long as men of charity and intelli-
gence, like our correspondent and his colleagues,
can temper the superstition of their neighbourhoods
by advice and superintendence. For a more radi-
cal cure we must look to education, and such ex-
amples as we have recently given ought to teach us
more strongly than any arguments how urgently
progress is required.

The payment of tea duties under the reduced scale
have already been extremely heavy. At the London
Customhouse alone the amount has been' 320,0001.
THE RATE OF DISOOIINT.—The Bank of England,
which during the recent shutting of tile transfer books
has made its usual quarterly advances on stock at 61
per cent., gave notice yesterday afternoon that the rate
for such advances will now be 7 per cent., and that
they will be limited to seven days. This movement was
not generally known until after businese hours, when it
caused Consols to be sold at a further decline. It is,
however, precisely similar in character to that adopted
at the approach of the dividend payments in January
last. The rate of discount was then 6 per cent., and
the charge for loans on Government securities was put
up to 6c. The step might therefore have been antici-
pated. Within the last five weeks the aggregate amount
taken from the Bank on these securities has been ex-
tremely large, and now that the ostensible reason for
which the assistance was granted no longer exists, it is
right that they should be brought within a compass not
to interfere with the supplies available for regular coat•
mercial operations. The Bank is not bound, either by
precedent or in any other way, to make these advances
after payment of the dividends on any terms whatever,
and supposing an anticipation to have been entertained
of the necessity of increasing the stringency of the pre.
-ent discount arrangements, it may be presumed they
would have been withheld altogether. Whether
whoa
Iwill ultimately be adopted may depend probably upon
the gold movements of the present week.—Thnes.