THE SUFFOLK WITCHES. -173 



license ran riot ; one the force and complexion of whose intel- 

 lect are attested on better evidence than traditionary repute. 

 Sir Matthew Hale published much ; his Contemplations Moral 

 and Divine, History of Pleas of the Crown, and The Original 

 Institution, Power, and Jurisdiction of Parliament, proclaim at 

 once the broad range of his perceptive faculties, and the 

 general soundness of his judgment. 



Many curious accounts of witch trials and condemnations 

 exist, and are accessible ; but the fault too commonly prevails, 

 that their matters-of-fact are so thickly overlaid with a crust 

 of religious polemics, with exhortation, pious imprecation, &c., 

 that any one coming to investigate the circumstances without 

 favour or repugnance, absolved from influences that biassed 

 minds in a past age, incurs no small amount of trouble in 

 clearing away rubbish to attain the ore. 



From all objection of this kind the printed record of the 

 witch-trial in question is free. It is drawn-up in a terse and 

 unimpassioned style ; being a plain record of evidence given, 

 without any straining after sensational effect. On the title- 

 page no author's name appears ; but from contemporary re- 

 cords the fact comes out, that the particulars were written 

 down by the marshal of Sir M. Hale's own court, and com- 

 mitted to print, after some delay, by an appreciative friend. 



Let us imagine that the chariot of time has been made 

 to retrograde over near two centuries. We are at Bury St. 

 Edmunds, county of Suffolk, on the 10th day of March, in 

 the sixteenth year of the reign of our sovereign lord King 

 Charles II. 



Matthew Hale, knight, lord chief -baron of his majesty's 

 Court of Exchequer, is criminal judge of assize. Amy Duny 

 and Rose Cullender, both widows, and both of Leystoff, are 

 at the bar, severally indicted that they had bewitched Eliz. 

 and Ann Durent, Jane Bocking, Susan Chandler, William 

 Durent, and Elizabeth and Deborah Pacy. , It is the solemn 

 moment when the judge sums-up to the jury. 



