The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser. — 1825-12-02 (London, England)

THE BRITSII PRESS.  produce conviction, and the ahstirtliti,,s of a (!!,on'ercd imagination sunk to their real worth. Ili succ svr, Parker, put a stop to the trial by water, by hie declaration, at the Essex Summer Atomizes in 17151, that, if it occasioned the death of the suspected witch on whom the experiment was made, all the parties concerned were guilty of wilful murder. It is laid down In Winn's Cousfry Justice that— . " Spectral evidence. 1. e. the afflizted eeries thinking they sea the persons that torment them, may itexiven in evideacc--that in. sensible parts and teats are si.ttni of witchcraft—that the devil's mark may he like a gea.kite_gitat imps may be kept in pots, or other vessels; and that the rots and places where tbsy are kept stink detestably ; and that therefore such stiakiag places is their hoses are signs that they haws iin. a." One of the most infamous perverelnns of evidence occurred in the trial of the witches of Werbeis, before Mr. Justice Fenner, at Huntington, in 1.593. An old man, his wife, and daughter, were accuse' of bewitching the five children of Mr. Throgmorton, sect ral servants, the lady of Sir Samuel Cromwell, and other persons. A confession was ebtained...iradietwalese—ektivomaii, -1116 was about fourscore yesrs old, by persuading her to retest a charm, in a form prescribed to her, on which the children, who were the principal witnesses, came out of the fits, which, as they pretended, were occasioned by her arts. To obtain similar proof, rue.) as it was, against the old man, the judge told him on his trial, " that if he would not speak the words of the charm, the court would hold him guilty of the crimes he was accused of." After some browbeating, he did repeat it, when the child's fit cess,.d, and the judge exclaimed, " You see all she is now well, but not by the music of David's harp;" and the poor fellow Was condemned, as was his daughter upon similar evidence. Some bystanders urged the latter to plead pregnancy as a means of saving her life, or, at least, of deferring her fate. She indignantly replied " that she never would; for it should never be said, that she was both a witch and a whore." They were all executed, and their goods. which were of the value of forty pounds, being escheated to Sir S. Cromwell, as lord of the manor, he gave the amount to the mayor and aldermen of Huntingdon, for a rentcharge of forty shillings yerrly, to be paid out of their town lands for an annual lecture upon the subject of witchcraft, to be preeched at their town every Ludy-day by a Doctor or batchelor of Divinity, of Queen's College, Cambridge. _ _  • These perversions of evidence wrought • their own cure, and thus assisted to disabuse the public mind. As their absurdity and injustice were displayed, it followed either that, if (hey were retained, the decisions of courts of justice would cease to be respected; or, if they were abandoned, that conviction would no longer be obtained ; and, either way, one most impressive testimony to the fact of witchery was withdrawn. Even the statute of James was at length made to afford some protection for the poor creatures who were accused under it; for their accusers could seldom detect them without some means, which were a kind of charm, and for which they were themselves threatened with the penalties of the act.—Retrnepretive Review.