Mon,k, so often mentioned, commanded this army, and
was, besides, member of a Council of State, to whom the
executive government was committed. Lord Broghill
was President of this body, and out of nine members, two
only, Swinton and Lockhart, were natives of Scotland,
To regulate the administration of public justice, four
English, and three Scottish judges, were appointed to
hear causes, and to make circuits for that purpose. The
English judges, it may be supposed, were indifferent law-
204 HEAVY TAXES.
yers ; but they distributed justice with an impartiality, to
which the Scottish nation had been entirely a stranger,
and which ceased to he experienced when the native
judges were again restored after the Restoration. The
peculiar rectitude of the men employed by Cromwell being
pointed out to a learned judge, in the beginning of the next
century, his lordship composedly answered, " Devil thank
them for their impartiality ! a pack of kinless loons for
my part, I can never see a cousin or friend in the wrong."
This shameful partiality in the Scottish courts of justice
revived, as just .noticed, with the Restoration, when the
judges were to be gained, not only by the solicitation of
private friends, and by the influence of kinsfolks, but by
the interference of persons in power, and the application
of downright bribery.
In point of taxation, Oliver Cromwell's Scottish gov-
ernment was intolerably oppressive, since he appears to
have screwed out of that miserable country an assessment
of 10,000 per month, which, even when gradually di-
minished to 72,000 pounds yearly, was paid with the
utmost difficulty. Some alleviation was indeed introduced
by the circulation of the money with which England paid
her soldiers and civil establishment, which was at one time
calculated at half a million yearly, and was never beneath
the moiety of that sum.
With regard to the church, Cromwell prudently fore-
saw, that the consequence of the preachers would gradu-
ally diminish if they were permitted to abuse each other,
but prevented from stirring up their congregations to arms.
They continued to be rent asunder by the recent discord,
which had followed upon the King's death. The majority
were Resolutionists, who owned the King's title, and would
not be prohibited from praying for him at any risk. Tiie
Remonstrants, who had never been able to see any suffi-
cient reason for embracing the cause, or acknowledging
the title, of Charles the Second, yielded obedience to the
English government, and disowned all notice of the King
in their public devotions. The Independents treated both
CHURCH AFFAIRS. 205
with cr niemptuous indifference, and only imposed on them
the necf ssity of observing toleration towards each ether.
But trough divided into different classes, Presbyterian-
ism continued on the whole predominant. The temper
of the Scottish nation seemed altogether indisposed to
receive any of the various sects which had proved so
prolific in England. The quiet and harmless Quakers
were the only sectaries who gained some proselytes of
distinction. Independents of other denominations made
small progress, owing to the vigilance with which the
Presbyterian clergy maintained the unity of the Church.
Even Cromwell was compelled to show deference to the
prevailing opinions. He named a commission of about
thirty ministers from the class of Remonstrators, and de-
clared that without certificates from three or four of these
select persons, no minister, though he might be called to
a church, should enjoy a stipend. This put the keys of
the Church (so far as emolument was concerned) entirely
into the hands of the Presbyterians ; and it may be pre-
sumed, that such of the Commissioners as acted (for many
declined the office, thinking the duties of the Ecclesias-
tical Commission too much resembled Episcopacy) took
care to admit no minister whose opinions did not coincide
with their own. The sectaries who were concerned in
civil affairs, were also thwarted and contemned ; and on
the whole, in spite of the victories of the Independents
in the field, their doctrines made little progress in Scot-
land.
During the four years which ensued betwixt the final
cessation of the Civil War, by the dispersion of the roy-
alist army, and the Restoration of Monarchy, there oc-
curred no public event worthy of notice. The spirit of
the country was depressed and broken. The nobles, who
hitherto had yielded but imperfect obedience to their na-
tive monarchs, were now compelled to crouch under the
rod of an English usurper. Most of them retired to their
country seats, or castles, and lived in obscurity, enjoying
such limited dominion over their vassaJs as the neighbour
206 TRIALS FOR WITCHCRAFT.
hood of the English garrisons permitted them to retain
These, of course, prevented all calling of the people to
arms, and exercise of the privilege, on the part of the
barons, of making open war on each other.
Thus far the subjection of the country was of advan-
tage to the tenantry and lower classes, who enjoyed more
peace and tranquillity than had been their lot during the
civil wars. But the weight of oppressive taxes, collected
by means of a foreign soldiery, and the general sense of
degradation, arising from their subjugation to a foreign
power, counterbalanced for the time the diminution ol
feudal oppression.
In the absence of other matter, I may here mention a
subject which is interesting, as peculiarly characteristic of
the manners of Scotland. I mean the frequent recurrence
of prosecutions for witchcraft, which distinguishes this
period.
Scripture refers more than once to the existence of
witches ; and though divines have doubted concerning
their nature and character, yet most European nations have
retained in their statutes, laws founded upon the text of
Exodus, " Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." The
Reformers, although rejecting the miracles of the Catho-
lic Church, retained with tenacity the belief of the ex-
istence of such sorceresses, and zealously enforced the
penalties against all unfortunate creatures whom they be-
lieved to fall under the description of witches, wizards,
or the like. The increase of general information and
common sense, has, at a later period, occasioned the an-
nulling of those cruel laws in most countries of Europe.
It has been judiciously thought, that, since the Almighty
has ceased to manifest his own power by direct and mi-
raculous suspension of the ordinary laws of nature, it is
inconsistent to suppose that evil spirits should be left at
liberty to form a league with wretched mortals, and impart
to them supernatural powers of injuring or tormenting
others. And the truth of this reasoning has been proved
by the general fact, that where the laws against witch-
TRIALS FOR WITCHCRAFT. 207
craft have been abolished, witches are rarely heard of
or thought of, even amongst the lowest vulgar.
But in the seventeenth century, the belief in this im-
aginary crime was general, and the prosecutions, espe-
cially in Scotland, were very frequent. James VI., who
often turned the learning he had acquired to a very idle
use, was at the trouble to write a treatise against witch-
craft, as he composed another against smoking tobacco ;
and the Presbyterian clergy, however little apt to coincide
with that Monarch's sentiments, gave full acceptation to his
opinion on the first point of doctrine, and very many per-
sons were put to death as guilty of this imaginary crime
I must, however, observe, that some of those executed
for witchcraft well deserved their fate. Impostors of both
sexes were found, who deluded credulous persons, by
pretending an intercourse with supernatural powers, and
furnished those who consulted them with potions, for the
purpose of revenging themselves on their enemies, which
were in fact poisonous compounds, sure to prove fatal to
those who partook of them. Among many other instances,
I may mention that of a lady of high rank, the second
wife of a northern earl, who, being desirous of destroy-
ing her husband's eldest son by the former marriage, in
order that her own son might succeed to the lather's title
and estates, procured drugs to effect her purpose from a
Highland woman, who pretended to be a witch or sorcer-
ess. The fatal ingredients were mixed with ale, and set
aside by the wicked countess, to be given to her victim on
the first fitting opportunity. But Heaven disappointed her
purpose, and, at the same time, inflicted on her a dreadful
punishment. Her own son, for whose advantage she med-
itated this horrible crime, returning fatigued and thirsty
from hunting, lighted by chance on this fetal cup of liquor,
drank it without hesitation, and died in consequence.
The wretched mixer of the poison was tried and exe-
cuted ; but, although n one could be sony thatthoa.ii>
in such a deed was brought to pur-rrn ent, i^is clea sh*
deserved death, not as a witch, bu: as one who was an
accomplice in murder by poison.
208 TEIALS FOR WITCHCRAFT.
But most of the poor creatures who suffered death for
witchcraft were aged persons, women in general, living
alone, in a poor and miserable condition, and disposed,
from the peevishness of age and infirmity, to rail against
or desire evil, in their froward humour, to i.oighbours by
whom they were abused or slighted. When such had
unwittingly given vent to impotent anger in bad wishes or
imprecations, if a child fell sick, a horse became lame, a
bullock died, or any other misfortune chanced in the fam-
ily against which the ill-will had been expressed, it sub-
jected the utterer instantly to the charge of witchcraft,
and was received by judges and jury as a strong proof
of guilt. If, in addition to this, the miserable creature
had, by the oddity of her manners, the crossness of her
temper, the habit of speaking to herself, or any other signs
of the dotage which attends comfortless old age and pov-
erty, attracted the suspicions of her credulous neighbours,
she was then said to have been held and reputed a witch,
and was rarely permitted to escape the stake.
It was equally fatal for an aged person of the lower
ranks if, as was frequently the case, she conceived her-
self to possess any peculiar receipt or charm for curing
diseases, either by the application of medicines, of which
she had acquired the secret, or by repeating words, 01
using spells and charms, which the superstition of the
time supposed to have the power of relieving maladies
that were beyond the skill of medical practitioners.
Such a person was held a white witch ; one, that is,
who employed her skill for the benefit, not the harm, oi
her fellow-creatures. But still she was a sorceress, and,
as such, was liable to be brought to the stake. Such a
doctress was equally exposed to such a charge, whether
her patient died or recovered ; and she was, according to
circumstances, condemned for using sorcery to cure or to
kill. Her allegation that she had received the secret from
family tradition, or from any other source, was not admit-
ted as a defence ; and she was doomed to death with as
.'ittle hesitation for having attempted to cure by mysterious
a.ud unlawful means, as if she had been charged, as in the
TRIALS FOIl WITCIICHAFT. 209
instance already given, with having assisted to co nmit
murder.
The following example of such a case is worthy ol
notice. It rests on tradition, hut is very likely to he true.
An eminent English judge was travelling the circuit, when
an old woman was hrought heibre him for using a spell to
cure dimness of sight by hanging a clew of yarn round
the neck of the patient. Marvellous things were told by
the witnesses, of the cures which this spell had perform-
ed on patients far beyond the reach of ordinary medicine.
The poor woman made no other defence than hy protest-
ing, that if there was any witchcraft in the ball of yarn,
she knew nothing of it. It had been given her, she said,
thirty years before, hy a young Oxford student, for the
cure of one of her own family, who having used it with
advantage, she had seen no harm in lending it for the re-
lief of others who laboured under similar infirmity, or in
accepting a small gratuity for doing so. Her defence was
little attended to by the jury ; but the judge was much
agitated. He asked the woman where she resided when
she obtained possession of this valuable relic. She gave
the name of a village, in winch she had in former times
kept a petty alehouse. He then looked at the clew very
earnestly, and at length addressed the jury. " Gentle-
men," he said, " we are on the point of committing a
great injustice to this poor old woman ; and, to prevent
it, I must publicly confess a piece of early folly, which
does me no honour. At the time this poor creature
speaks of, I was at college, leading an idle and careless
life, which, had I not been given grace to correct it, must
have made it highly improbable that ever I should have
attained my present situation. 1 chanced to remain for
a day and night in this woman's alehouse, without naving
money to discharge my reckoning. Not knowing what to
do, ami seeing her much occupied with a child who had
weak eyes, 1 had the meanness to pretend that I could
write out a spell lhat would mend her daughter's sight, if
she v^ould accept it instead of her bill. The ignorant
893
TRIALS FOR WITCHCRAFT.
woman readily agreed ; and I scrawled some figures on
a piece of parchment, and added two lines of nonsensi-
cal doggrel, in ridicule of her credulity, and caused her
to make it up in that clew which has so nearly cost her
her life. To prove the truth of it, let the yarn be un-
wound, and you may judge of the efficacy of the spell."
The clew was unwound accordingly ; and this pithy
couplet was found on the enclosed bit of parchment
" The devil scratch out both thine eyes,
And spit into the holes likewise."
It was evident that those who were cured by such a
spell, must have been indebted to nature, with some as-
sistance, perhaps, from imagination. But the users of
such charms were not always so lucky as to light upon
the person who drew them up ; and many unfortunate
creatures were executed, as the poor ale-wife would have
been, had she not lighted upon her former customer in the
character of her judge.
Another old woman is said to have cured many cattle
of the murrain, by a repetition of a certain verse. The
fee which she required, was a loaf of bread and a silver
penny ; and when she was commanded to reveal the mag-
ical verses which wrought such wonders, they were found
to be the following jest on the credulity of her custom-
" My loaf in my lap, and my penny in my purse,
Thou art never the better, and I never the worse."
It was not medicine only which witchery was supposes
to mingle with ; but any remarkable degree of dexterity
in an art or craft, whether attained by skill or industry,
subjected those who possessed it to similar suspicion.
Thus it \vas a dangerous thing to possess more thriving
cows than those of the neighbourhood, though their su-
periority was attained merely by paying greater attention
lo feeding and cleaning the animals. It was often an ar-
ticle of suspicion, that a woman had spun considerably
more thread than her less industrious neighbours chose to
TRIALS FOR WITCHCRAFT. 21 J
think coulu be accomplished by ordinary industry ; and
to crown these absurdities, a yeoman of the town of Mai-
ling, in Kent, was accused before a Justice of Peace as
a sorcerer, because he used more frequently than his
companions to hit the mark which he aimed at. This
dexterity, and some idle story of the archer's amusing
himself with letting a My hum and buzz around him, con-
vinced the judge, that the poor man's skill in his art was
owing to the assistance of some imp of Satan. So he
punished the marksman severely, to the great encourage-
ment of archery, and as a wise example to all Justices ol
the Peace.
Other charges, the most ridiculous and improbable,
were brought against those suspected of witchcraft. They
were supposed to have power, by going through some
absurd and impious ceremony, to summon to their pres-
ence the Author of Evil, who appeared in some mean or
absurd shape, and, in return for their renouncing their
redemption, gave them the power of avenging themselves
on their enemies ; which privilege, with that of injuring
and teazing their fellow creatures, was almost all they
gained from their new master. Sometimes, indeed, they
obtained from him the power of flying through the air on
broom-sticks, when the Foul Fiend gave public parties ;
and the accounts given of the ceremonies practised on such
occasions are equally disgusting and vulgar, totally foreign
to any idea we can have of a spiritual nature, and only fit
to Jje invented and believed by the most ignorant and bru-
tal of the human species.
Another of these absurdities was, the belief tljat the
evil spiiits would attend if they were invoked with certain
profane ceremonies, such as reading the Lord's Prayer
backwards, or the like ; and would then tell the future
fortunes of those who had raised them, as it was called, or
inform them what was become of articles which had been
lost or stolen. Stories are told of such exploits by grave
authors, which are to the full as ridiculous, and more so,
than anything that is to be found in fairy tales, invented
for the amusement of children. And for all this incred-
< TRIALS FOR WITCHCRAFT.
il!e nonsense, unfortunate creatures were imprisoned
tortured, and finally burnt alive, by the sentence of their
judges.
li is strange to find, that the persons accused of this
imaginary crime in most cases paved the way for their
own condemnation, by confessing and admitting the truth
of all the monstrous absurdities which were charged
against them by their accusers. This may surprise you j
but yet it can be accounted for.
Many of these poor creatures were crazy, and infirm
in mind as well as body ; and, hearing themselves charged
with this monstrous enormity by those whom they account-
ed wise and learned, became half persuaded of their own
guilt, and assented to all the nonsensical questions which
were put to them. But this was not all. Very many
made these confessions under the influence of torture,
which was applied to them with cruel severity. It is true,
the ordinary courts of justice in Scotland had not the
power of examining criminals under torture, which was
reserved for the Privy Council. But this was a slight
protection ; for witches were seldom tried before the or-
dinary Criminal Courts, because the lawyers, though they
could not deny the existence of a crime for which the
law had laid down a punishment, yet showed a degree of
incredibility respecting witchcraft, which was supposed
frequently to lead to the escape of those accused of this
unpopular crime, when in the management of profess-
ional persons. To avoid the ordinary jurisdiction of {lie
Justiciary, and other regular criminal jurisdictions, the trial
of witchcraft in the provinces was usually brought before
commissioners appointed by the Privy Council. These
commissioners were commonly country gentlemen and
clergymen, who, from ignorance on the one side, misdi-
rected learning on the other, and bigotry on both, were
as eager in the prosecution as the vulgar could desire.
By their commission they had the power of torture, and
employed it unscrupulously, usually calling in to their
assistance a witch-finder ; a fellow, that is, who made
m jney by preloading to have a peculiar art and excellence
TRIALS FOR WITCHCRAFT. 2! 3
n discovering these offenders, and who sometimes under-
took to rid a parish or township of witches at so much a-
head, as if they had been foxes, wild cats, or other ver-
min. These detestable impostors directed the process
of the torture, which frequently consisted in keeping the
aged and weary beings from sleeping, and walking them
forcibly up and down their prison, whenever they began
to close their eyes, and in running needles into their flesh,
under pretence of discovering a mark, which the witch-
finders affirmed the devil had impressed on their skin, in
token that they were his property and subjects. It is no
wonder that wretched creatures, driven mad by want of
sleep and pain, confessed anything whatsoever to obtain a
moment's relief, though they were afterwards to die for it.
But, besides the craziness of such victims, and the
torture to which they were subjected, shame and weari-
ness of life were often a cause of their pleading guilty to
accusations in themselves absurd and impossible. You
must consider, that the persons accused of witchcraft were
almost always held guilty by the public and by their neigh-
bours, and that if the court scrupled to condemn them, it
was a common thing for the mob to take the execution
into their own hands, and duck the unhappy wretches to
death, or otherwise destroy them. The fear of such a
fate might determine many of the accused, even though
they were in their sound mind, and unconstrained by bodily
torture, to plead guilty at once, and rather lose their
wretched life by the sentence of the law, than expose
themselves to the fury of the multitude. A singular story
is told to this effect.
An old woman and her daughter were tried as witches,
8t Haddington. The principal evidence of the crime
was, that though miserably poor, the two had contrived to
look " fresh and fair," during the progress of a terrible
famine, which reduced even the better classes to straits,
and brought all indigent people to the point of starving,
nnd all the while these two women, without either begging
or complaining, lived on in their usual way, and never
seemed to suffer by the general calamity. The jury were
214 TRIALS FOU WITCIICKAFT.
perfectly satisfied that this could not take place by anj
natural means ; and, as the accused persons, on under-
going the discipline of one Kincaid, a witch-finder, readily
admitted all that was asked ahout their intercourse with
the devil, the jury, on their confession, brought them in
guilty without hesitation.
The King's Advocate for the time (I believe Sir George
Mackenzie is named) was sceptical on the subject of
witchcraft. He visited the women in private, and urged
them to tell the real truth. They continued at first to
maintain the story they had given in their confession.
But the Advocate, perceiving them to be women of more
sense than ordinary, urged upon them the crime of being
accessory to their own death, by persisting in accusing
themselves of impossibilities, and promised them life and
protection, providing they would unfold the true secret
which they used for their subsistence. The poor women
looked wistfully on each other, like people that are in
perplexity. At length, the mother said, ' : You are very
good, rny lord, and I dare say your power is very great,
but you cannot be of use to my daughter and me. If you
were to set us at liberty from the bar, you could not free
us from the suspicion of being witches. As soon as we
return to our hut, we will be welcomed by the violence
and abuse of all our neighbours, who, if they do not beat
our brains out, or drown us on the spot, will retain a ha-
tred and ill-will, which will show itself on every occasion,
and make our life so miserable, that we have made up
our minds to prefer death at once."
" Do not be afraid of your neighbours," said the Ad-
vocate. " If you will trust your secret with rne, 1 will
take care of you for the rest of your lives, and send you
to an estate of mine in the north, where nobody can know
anything of your history, and where indeed, the people's
ideas are such, that, if they thought you witches, they
would rather regard you with fear than hatred."
The women, moved by his promises, told him, that, il
he would cause to he removed an old empty trunk which
stood n the corner of their hut, and dig the earth where
TRIALS FOR WITCHCRAFT. 2/5
I e saw it had been stirred, he would find the secret by
ineans of which they had been supported through the
famine ; protesting to Heaven, at the same time, that they
were totally innocent of any unlawful arts such as had
been imputed to them. Sir George Mackenzie hastened
to examine the spot, and found concealed in the earth two
firkins of salted snails, one of them nearly empty. On
this strange food the poor women had been nourished
during the famine. The Advocate was as good as his
word ; and the story shows how little weight is to be laid
on the frequent confessions of the party in cases of witch-