The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1860-07-28
judicial Puzzles.


"Know thyseif," said the drectan philoso-
pher. and the Roman poet said the precept
descended from Heaven. II is what no man
ever vet thoroughly did, and he whose self
knowledge is greatest, may fairly be accounted
the wisest OF his kind. "The proper study OF
mankind" says Pore, ais man." tits Also
the hardest and most extensive OF all o'neI
studies. For If no man can know himself
how can any man know othersi !" Ell "'e ~
inspired penman exclaim, after the se
determination, probably IN despair '.
ing the mysteries OF his own meh'N -
ton, Lord, am fearfaiiy Nh"
made
.s.nuss. is that in which II impels the
,,o.ssssor 10 accuse himself and others Of the
d.rke.t imaginary crimes. In this form IL
has often led 10 the shedding of innocent
blood. as the records of many judicial trials
amp,v testify. In the last number Of Black
srood', Magasine number of cases of this
kind are entioned. The list might be ex-
tended almost indefinitely. In one case. a man
suddenly disappeared. He was believed to
have been murdered by another, who was
proved to have been sent in search of him,
and the accused man, in his turn, accused his
stated that he was present, and detailed all the
circumstances with mnuteness which II was
almost impossible to resist Examined seve-
raj times, he persisted in his tale, without the
shadow Of apparent variation or equiyoca-
ton. All three were condemned and exeeu-
ted-the aecuser last. On the scaffold his
mother and brother appealed TO him to de
their memories justice, since he had destroyed
h,.
wards, the missing man returned, safe and
sound. No murder had been perpetrated-the
aecuser aud his victims were. alike, entirely
innocent. This was two hundred years ago,
when nobody, except the greatest of all poets,
seems 10 have comprehended the mysterious
nature of mental diseases, or to have mace
them, in any respect, their study. Otherwise
it is impossible that within a very few years
after that period, a witch should have been
iudicialIy murdered in England, and that Sir
MATHEW HALE should have presided at the
trial.
The witch mania itself forms one OF the
darkest chapters in the history of human ma
ture. 1t is not at all strange that ignorant
and superstitious people should have believed
in the existence OF witches, or that they
sbould have sought to rid the earth of them,
when we find such a man as HALE presiding
at such a trial. The wonder is that, in many
instances these poor wretehes should have
voluntarily become their own accusers. Two
wars after the execution of the PERRYs, in
England the case of ISABEL GowDIB, re-
puted a witch came on in Scotland. This
woman made a voluntary confession of her
crimes to certain gentlemen of her parish
among them the minister and sheriff. The
con fession was extremely minute. She detail
ed the incidents of her first interview with
the Devil, and of her solemn compact with
that individual, whereby she renowned her
salvation in exchange for the power of riding
ON brooms ticks, raising storms, poughing up
sowed grounds with a yoke of frogs, thereby
destroying the crops, scattering disease among
human beings and cattle, and for the privilege
OF attending witch dances, the revels of the
fairies, &c. This ceremony took place in the
church. "auld NICK was mounted on the
readers desk, where he sat with a book in
his hand, and prescribed the oath of renuncia-
ton to ISABEL and a crony of hers, one MAR
GARET BRoDIE afterwards baptizing them in
his own fashion and with his own imperial
hands. The manner in which she made the
transfer was peculiar, if not editying. She
put one hand on the top Of her head and the
other on the sole of her foot, and conveyed all
between to his Majesty, whose liege she thence
became, carrying out his will on all occasions,
and, among other exploits, perpetrating an
nnheard of amount of murders. The strangest
part of the whole affair was, that she named
several persons as her GOWNS or company,
and that some of them ackno wledgeG the
fact. On one occasion she visited fairy land,
and found the King quite a different person
from the Oberon of SHAKESPEARE. She de-
scribed him, "a Draw man, well favored, and
broad faced" The confession of this poor,
demented creature, was taken for q Gospel by
those who listened to it; and, although the
fact is not mentioned, there is little doubt that
she was burned at the stake for the commission
of crimes which at this day every body knows
TO be impossible.
The sge of belief in witchcraft has passed
away, but man is still the same. A few years
ago an application tor divorce was made to
the House # Lords, on the ground Of alleged
infldelity on the part of the wife. The poor
woman, hitherto of an irreproachable reputa-
ton, was driven to insanity by the distress of
her situation. But there was no evidence
against her until clergyman was introduced,
who n ade upon oath, number of astound-
ing disclosures, all tending to establish her
guilt. The narrative of this man was calm,
crcumstantial, consistent, and to the point
Ii had the effect intended, and no one doubted
that it was perfectly true until a few years
af.er, when the same person, under the in1lu-
ence OF violent terror went volun tarily before
magistrate and accused himself of forging
promssory notes TO an enormous amount
He made the disclosure, he said, in order to
anticipate discovery, the notes rapidly ap-
preaching maturity He was taken I'M Gus
tody, and upon examination it was found that
there were no such notes as those he desc ribed
i'll existence. The accusation of the poor
woman and OF himself had both been false
The man was mad upon this subject
Another case singularIy resembles that of
the pirate HICKS, who was hung in New York
week or two ago for piracy and murder and
VINO, While In confinement, accused himself of
multitude of crimes, which it is well known
ae never committed. During the wars of the
French Revolution, the crew of the English
frlgate Hermone murdered their Can.
tain, whose name was PIGoT, and car.
ried the ship into an enemy's port. Many
OF me criminals were afterwards taken. iden-
uhed, tried. convicted and hung. DR.. SourH.
WORTH SMITH in his Lectures on Forensic
medicine, says he has known no less than six |
saiiors 70 confess that they were participants |
oi ms bloody deed, every one of whom was
pio'eo never 10 have been in the Hermione, or
10 have seen Captaia PisoT.
The Three Princes.
There are now two seions of ROYALTY upon