and as the Psalmist says, I will confess my iniquities and acknowledge all my sin. We find that Mary Magdalen had seven devils, and she came to Christ and obtained mercy: and if thou break thy league with the devil, and make a covenant with God, thou mayest also obtain mercy. If thou hast any thing to speak, speak thy mind.

Mary. I have spoke the very truth, and can speak no more: Mr. H. I would desire they may come by me, and confess as I have done.

H. Temperance Lloyd, Have you made
any contract with the devil ?-Temp. No.
H. Did he ever take any of thy blood?
Temp. No.

H. How did he appear to thee firstor where in the street? in what shape?

Temp. In a woful shape.

H. Had he ever any carnal knowledge of thee?-Temp. No, never.

H. What did he do when he came to thee?
Temp. He caused me to go and do harm.
H. And did you go?

Temp. I did hurt a woman sore against my conscience: he carried me up to her door, which was open: the woman's name was Mrs. Grace Thomas.

H. What caused you to do her harm? what malice had you against her? did she do you any harm?

Temp. No, she never did me any harm: but the Devil beat me about the head grievously because I would not kill her: but I did bruise her after this fashion [laying her two hands to her sides.]

H. Did you braise her till the blood came
out of her mouth and nose ?—Temp. No.
H. How many did you destroy and hurt?
Temp. None but she.

H. Did you know any mariners that you or your associates destroyed by overturning of ships and boats?

Temp. No; I never hurt any ship, bark, or boat in my life.

H. Was it you or Susan that did bewitch the children?

Temp. I sold apples, and the child took an apple from me, and the mother took the apple from the child; for the which I was very angry but the child died of the small pox.

H. Do you know one Mr. Lutteril about these parts, or any of your confederates? did you or them bewitch his child?-Temp. No.

H. Temperance, How did you come in to hurt Mrs. Grace Thomas? did you pass through the key-hole of the door, or was the door open?

Temp. The Devil did lead me up stairs, and the door was open: and this is all the hurt

I did.

H. How do you know it was the Devil?
Temp. I knew it by his eyes?

H. Had you no discourse or treaty with him?

Temp. No; he said I should go along with him to destroy a woman, and I told him I

would not: he said he would make me; and
then the Devil beat me about the head.
H. Why had you not called upon God?
Temp. He would not let me do it,

H. You say you never hurted ships not boats; did you never ride over an arm of the sea on a cow?

Temp. No, no, master, it was she, meaning Susan.

When Temperance said it was Susan, she said she lied, and that she was the cause of her bringing to die for she said when she was first brought to gaol, if that she was hanged, she would have me hanged too; she reported I should ride on a cow before her, which I never did.

H. Susan, Did you see the shape of a bullock? at the first time of your examination you said it was like a short black man, about the length of your arm.

Sus. He was black, Sir.

H. Susan, Had you any knowledge of the bewitching of Mr. Lutteril's child, or did you know a place called Tranton Burroughs? Sus. No.

H. Are you willing to have any prayers?

Then Mr. H. prayed, whose prayer we could not take; and they sung part of the 40th Psalm, at the desire of Susanna Edwards: as she mounted the ladder, she said, The Lord Jesus speed me; though my sins be as red as scarlet, the Lord Jesus can make them as white as snow: the Lord help my soul. Then was executed.

Mary Trembles said, Lord Jesus receive my soul; Lord Jesus speed me; and then was also executed.

Temperance Lloyd said, Jesus Christ speed me well: Lord forgive all my sins; Lord Jesus Christ be merciful to my poor soul.

Mr. Sheriff. You are looked on as the woman that has debauched the other two: did you ever lie with Devils ?-Temp. No.

Sh. Did not you know of their coming to gaol Temp. No.

Sh. Have you any thing to say to satisfy

the world?

Temp. I forgive them, as I desire the Lord Jesus Christ will forgive me. The greatest thing I did was to Mrs. Grace Thomas; and I desire I may be sensible of it, and that the Lord Jesus Christ may forgive me. Devil met me in the street, and bid me kill her; and because I would not, he beat me about the head and back.

The:

Mr. Sh. In what shape or colour was he?
Temp. In black, like a bullock.

Sh. How do you know you did it? how went you in, through the key-hole, or the door?-Temp. At the door.

Sh. Had you no discourse with the Devil?
Temp. Never but this day six weeks,

Sh. You were charged about 12 years since, and did you never see the Devil but this time?

Temp. Yes, once before: I was going for brooms, and he came to me and said, This poor woman has a great burthen; and would help

ease me of my burthen: and I said, The Lord | to the Case of the Essex Witches, ante, vol. 4, had enabled me to carry it so far, and I hope I shall be able to carry it further. Sh. Did the Devil never promise you any thing?-Temp. No, never.

Sh. Then you have served a very bad master, who gave you nothing. Well, consider you are just departing this world: do you believe there is a God?-Temp. Yes.

Sh. Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Temp. Yes; and I pray Jesus Christ to pardon all my sins. And so was executed.

The severity with which witches had in Scotland been treated, may be seen in the Notes

p. 817, and to the Trial at Bury, vol. 6, p. 647. Fountainhall (Decisions, vol. 1, p. 304), notices a Case which occurred very shortly after this trial of Lloyd, Trembles, and Edwards; and from his report, it seems, that the wretched prisoner in that case was exempted from the operation of any active cruelty. "Oct. 1st, 1684, one Marion Purdy, dwelling at the West Port of Edinburgh, once a milk-wife, and now a beggar, is apprehended as a witch, and many delations of malifices, by laying on diseases, frenzies, &c. come in against her. She died of cold and poverty in prison about the Christmas; the king's Advocate giving no great notice to such informations against witches."

287. Proceedings between the KING and the CITY of LONDON, on an Information in nature of a QUO WARRANTO,* in the King's Bench: 33-35 CHARLES II. A. D. 1681-1683. Mich' 33 Car. 2, in B. R. Rot. 137. Sir Robert Sawyer, knt. his Majesty's Attorney General, against the Lord Mayor, and Commonalty, and Citizens of London.

The Information in nature of a Quo Warranto sets forth,

THAT the mayor, and commonalty, and citizens of the city of London, by the space of a month then last past, and more, used, and yet do claim to have and use, without any lawful warrant, or regal grant, within the city of London aforesaid, and the liberties and privileges of the same city, the liberties and privileges following, viz.

I. To be of themselves a Body Corporate
and Politic, by the name of Mayor and
Commonalty, and Citizens of the City of
London.

II. To have Sheriffs Civitat' et Com' Lon.
don' et Com' Midd'. and to name, elect,
make, and constitute them.
III. That the Mayor and Aldermen of the
said City should be Justices of the Peace,
and hold Sessions of the Peace.

All which Liberties, Privileges, and Fran chises, the said Mayor and Commonalty, and Citizens of London, upon the King did by the space aforesaid usurp, and yet do usurp.

students and barristers: But that had been laid aside ever since Hale's time.

the whole city, and that the two points set forth in the pleadings were just grounds for the forfeiting of a Charter. Upon which premisses the proper conclusion seemed to be, that there fore the city of London had forfeited their Charter: But the consequences of that were so much apprehended, that they did not think fit to venture on it: So they judged, that the king might seize the liberties of the city. The st torney general moved, contrary to what is usual in such cases, that the judgment might not be recorded. And upon that new endea vours were used to bring the common council to deliver up their Charter: Yet that could not be compassed, though it was brought much nearer in the numbers of the voices than was imagined could ever be done." 10wnTimes, 534

"The court," says Burnet," finding that the city of London could not be wrought on to surrender their Charter, resolved to have "The judgment now given was, that a city it condemned by a judgment in the King's- might forfeit its charter; that the male-ver bench. Jones had died in May: So now Pol-sations of the common council were the acts of lexphen and Treby were chiefly relied on by the city in this matter. Sawyer was the attorney general, a dull hot man, and forward to serve all the designs of the court. He undertook by the advice of Sanders, a learned but a very immoral man, to overthrow the Charter. When the matter was brought near judgment, Sanders, who had laid the whole thing, was made chief justice. Pemberton, who was not satisfied in the point, being removed to the common pleas upon North's advancement. Dolben, a judge of the King's-bench, was found not to be clear: So he was turned out, and Withins came in his room. When sentence was to be given, Sarders was struck with an apoplexy: So he could not come into court: But he sent his judgment in writing, and died a few days after. The sentence was given without the solemnity that was usual upon great occasions : The judges were wont formerly in delivering their opinions to make long arguments in which they set forth the grounds of law on which they went, which were great instructions to the

Roger North is very copious upon this subject. From his connection with sir Dudley North, it was natural that he should feel a lively interest in the proceedings concerning the city of London, during the latter part of the reign

Plea.

The mayor and commonalty, and citizens, appear by their attorney, and plead,

J. As to their being a Body Politic and Corporate, they prescribe, and say,

1. That the city of London is, and time out of mind hath been, an ancient city, and that the citizens of that city are, and by all that time

r

of Charles the Second, and wherever he mentions them in his Examen," his partiality is displayed in a degree which very much weakens his testimony, though certainly the force of his arguments such as they are is not affected by it. "Testimony," says Boyle, is like the shot of a long-bow, which owes its efficacy to the force of the shooter; argument is like the shot of the cross-bow, equally forcible, whether discharged by a giant or a dwarf. North's account (abusive as usual of Kennet) is as follows:

thor and his fellow libellers suggest; but from the counties where the abuses where agrievance insufferable. And for redress of them, the gentlemen of the counties applied to the king by such means as they had. The mischief lay in towns that had justices of their own with clause that the justices of the country' ne intromittant;' so, by excluding the country justices, they were become the ordinary asylums for all sorts of rogues that fled from the justice of the sessions, and particularly those that were tumultuous and seditious, and there found "I know no transaction, in this reign, more protection. And particularly, the town of Pool disingenuously traduced, than that known by in Dorsetshire was of this order, and, if I misthe word Charters; which mean the Quo take not, Taunton Dean another. Others there Warrantos brought against some corporations were in the West of England complained of; for seising their franchises into the king's and so much in earnest, that the grand juries hands for abuser of them. Whereupon, and in Dorsetshire and Devonshire, or one of them upon voluntary surrenders of some, diverse (for I do but just recollect some particulars) prenew Charters were granted, with some altera-sented these places as common nuisances. tions and restrictions. The author here distinguisheth neither things, times, manners, or intentions, but supposeth the worst of all alike. And then he transcribes, out of a cankered libel, an hellish parcel of invectives against the government, upon that occasion; wherein all orders are scandalized, the holy scriptures and religion brought in to compliment the infernal sarcasm, and then concludes with panegyric; but it is bestowed upon attainted rebels and rebellion. This frustrum of a libel is grafted into bis pious History, as an account of that remarkable proceeding, where every one may read what I care not to repeat.

"But, as to the matter itself, I think I may distinguish it into three orders, which I term 1. Quo Warranto's. 2. Surrenders. 3. Regulations. Which partition may be marked. 1. good, 2. indifferent, and 3. bad. First, by Quo Warranto's I mean such as were ordered against those corporations that had enormously offended by breach of his majesty's laws, and who set up the authority of their trust, not for the due execution of, but for the protecting from, the law, persons that were notorious of fenders against it; and out of this list I will not except the great city of London itself, as may appear with good reason afterwards. And, within this view, and going no farther, I must affirm that there never was a piece of more necessary justice in the English state, nor more beneficial to all the people in general, than the prosecuting those Quo Warranto's was. And to shew there was absolute need of it, I affirm also that the first overture was not from the court, nor from such black designs as the auVOL. VIII.

And, upon the application of the gentlemen to the judges of assize, the matter was laid before the king, and Quo Warranto's ordered to be prosecuted against the chief of them. And, upon that some were reduced, others, knowing themselves to be obnoxious, submitted; and then their Charters came to be surrendered, and new ones granted in lieu of them. In which no alterations were made, but such as respected the law, and the good government of the country; such as laying the towns open to the justices of the counties, if they found cause to interpose there, and to act with the justices of the place, and sometimes to be of the body, and capable of the offices of authority in the corporations. And if any honest Englishman can be of opinion that such changes were not much for the better, especially as to diverse factious, or rather mercenary, corporations, I must crave leave to differ from him. And this method was observed in most instances of that reign, without any of the hideous characters which the faction, now in our latter times, have bestowed upon it. And I limit this division of a laudable proceeding, without any abuse at all, until the time that sir George Jefferies was Lord Chief Justice of the King's bench, and sworn of the privy council, which let him into the means, as his way was, to push things beyond their due bounds.

"And, after that time, the abuse began to grow, but not to any great inconvenience, and, for that reason, I give this class the character of indifferent. Divers inducements then brought in charters to be surrendered in order to the renewal of them. For it being observed 3 X

and by authority of the same parliament, hav-authority aforesaid, That the same citizeng ing recited that the same citizens, at the time of the making Magna Charta, and also in the time of Edward the Confessor, William the Conqueror, and other his progenitors, had diyers liberties and customs, wills and grants by

shall have their liberties according to Magna Charta.-And that for any personal trespass alicujus ministri ejusdem civitatis, libertas 'civitatis illius in manus ejusdem Domini Regis Edw. 3, vel heredum suorum, non saw or knew, as we did, how his majesty was affronted by faction fastening upon the populace of those abused towns, would think neither his honour, government, or person safe without it.

that such compliments of the towns were graciously accepted, and the prevailing with others to come in, was accounted good service, and, by a sort of mode or custom, the tendency of loyalty itself was that way; this circum- “Thus far the alteration of charters, how stance was the occasion that many towns came ever growing into abuse (I mean as to the ma in and took the opportunity to be remunerated nagement in the country; for the court, to də with considerable privileges, respecting their right, was very just and careful of the towns) common profit and trade, which were com- were of no desperate ill consequence. I know monly granted as they desired. And as to the it hath been in every one's mouth to object that changes made, with respect to the law and all was done to influence elections to the pargovernment of the country, the inhabitants liament; and, as the way of objectors is, they were commonly not very solicitous, but sub- run the consequences to extremity, and called mitted those matters to the king's pleasure. it packing a parliament, and corrupting the But the worst inducement was when pick-very fountain of the laws. Now if we will prothank courtiers, for ostentation of merit, fright- fess any ingenuity, we must own that, at that ed the people with the law and charges, and time, the crown had need of a better interest procured summons of Quo Warranto to be than it had in the choice of members, to mainserved upon them; and having, by such un-tain a due balance; that an adverse party due means, brought in the charters, set a value might not carry every thing in their model upon themselves at court, as for so much good against the crown, as was most notoriously the service done. There was a memorable passage case of the Oxford and Westminster parlia of this nature. When the Lord Chief Justice ments. And it was better if it had, or could Jefferies went the Northern circuit, he had have, been done thus, than by setting up new taken upon him, and accordingly valued him- boroughs, which the king might do at pleasure. self to the king for doing great matters towards I would have folks, that object this, consider bringing in of charters, as it was called; and, what is the consequence of splitting freeholds by his own contrivance (as I have very good and suborning unqualified countrymen to for reason to guess) to procure for himself as great swear themselves to vote in a party; and whe an authority in the Northern circuit (which he are the greatest traitors to the public? But what was appointed for) as was possible, the king was the harm if the best of those, interested in was persuaded to present him with a ring, pub-the county elections, had also voices in the bo licly taken with his own finger, in token of his roughs, whereby they might shew the deluded majesty's acceptance of his most eminent ser- not to say bribed towns, a better choice than vices. And this by way of precursor; which they could, or at least would, have found for being blazoned in the Gazette, his lordship themselves? I say if this had been generally went down into the country as, from the king done, as it was not, what cause was there to Legatus a Latere, esteemed a mighty favorite: grumble? But it could not be done in the way which, together with his lofty airs, made all of renewals of charters, for these seldom touch the charters, like the walls of Jericho, fall down the right of election that goes most upon prebefore him and he returned laden with sur- scription, and is the same as in London, what renders, the spoils of towns; which, with cer- ever becomes of the corporation. And admit the tain other performances in that voyage, not a advantage in the election of a chief magistrate subject here, advanced his pretensions to favour is gained to the court side by a renewal, which at court. The process was indeed pleasant: they may say will incline to his party in the the king by public favours arms a man with management and return: and will not they do power by which he doth great things, and then the same, if they come in by a faction, for fa those great things entitle him to favour, as flow-vour of that? On which side should the ba ing from him, which indeed flowed from the king's authority and favour shewed him. And so in the city, upon the strength of an old drunken acquaintance, he seemed, and thereupon pretended to have an interest, which procured him the countenance of his majesty's favour at court; and that turned to a real interest in the city; which in truth was the king's authority, and not his, although, (as a personal merit) he assumed it. But to conclude; we are to consider here, none could blame the king for desiring to put the corporations in a better order; for whoever

lance turn? But hath not the king the nomi nation of all the sheriffs of counties (except one) in England? And yet no complaint was then heard of injustice, nor is the parliament the more packed for all that. Extremes are never to be argued against the sacred trust of government; for then we must have no power to keep the peace, trust nor government at all, that is, no liberty, property, nor security for either. For a power to do right always includes a power to do wrong. I cannot but conclude this reflection with observing that, as

the government, at that time, had gained a vast persons, who had been concerned in the sur strength by popular reputation, if it had gained renders and renewals of charters, from voting also a firmer legal dependance and alliance be- in elections of members to serve in parliament. tween the crown and people, so as both should These carried a retrospection into that king's have need the good will of each other, and fac-reign long before the abuses justly complained tion have had no encouragement to work the mischief of both by creating distrusts, fears, and jealousies to divide them, a better service had been done to the people of England, than when the Capite Tenures of estates were taken away, and a common nuisance, the excise, planted in the room of them.