e list of commitments
had swelled to a lamentable bulk by June, when the new charter having
arrived, commissioners of oyer and terminer were appointed for the
trial of persons charged with witchcraft. By this court, a
considerable number were condemned, of whom nineteen, protesting their
innocence, were executed. It is observed by Mr. Hutchinson, that those
who were condemned and not executed had most probably saved themselves
by a confession of their guilt.

Fortunately for those who were still to be tried, the legislature,
convened under the new charter, created a regular tribunal for the
trial of criminal as well as civil cases, and the court of
commissioners rose to sit no more. The first session of the regular
court for the trial of criminal cases was to be held in January, and
this delay was favourable to reflection and to the recovery of the
public reason. Other causes contributed to this event. There remained
yet in the various prisons of the colony, a vast number of women, many
of whom were of the most reputable families in the towns in which they
had resided. Allusion had been made to many others of the first rank,
and some had been expressly named by the bewitched and confessing
witches. A Mr. Bradstreet, who had been appointed one of the council,
and was son to the old governor of that name; but who as a justice of
the peace was suspected of not prosecuting with sufficient rigour, was
named by the witnesses as a confederate, and found it necessary to
abscond. The governor's lady it is said, and the wife of one of the
ministers who had favoured this persecution, were among the accused;
and a charge was also brought against the secretary of the colony of
Connecticut.

Although the violence of the torrent of prejudice was beginning to
abate, yet the grand jury in January, found a true bill against fifty
persons, but of those brought to trial, only three were condemned, and
they were not executed. All those who were not tried in January, were
discharged by order of the governor, "and never," says Mr. Hutchinson,
"has such a jail delivery been known in New England. And never was
there given a more melancholy proof of the degree of depravity of
which man is capable when the public passions countenance crime."

* * * * *

NOTE--No. II.--_See Page 291._

The PLAN of the Union was as follows, viz.

"It is proposed that humble application be made for an act of
parliament of Great