as irresolute,
and wavering from day to day as to her plan of conduct. She made some
clothes for the preservation of her child (a circumstance which was in
her favour), and she hired a bed-room in an adjacent street, to be ready
to receive a woman in labour at a moment's notice. Her scheme was, when
taken in labour, to have run out to that house, to be delivered by a
midwife, who was to have been brought to her. She was to have gone home
presently after, and to have made the best excuse she could for being
out. She had heard of soldiers wives being delivered behind a hedge, and
following the husband with the child in a short time after; and she
hoped to be able to do as much herself. She was taken ill of a cholic,
as she thought, in the night; put on some cloaths, both to keep her
warm, and that she might be ready to run out, if her labour should come
on. After waiting some time, she suddenly fell into such racking pain
and terror, that she found she had neither strength nor courage to go
down stairs, and through the street, in that condition, and in the
night. In despair she threw herself upon the bed, and by the terror and
anguish which she suffered, she lost her senses, and fainted. When she
came to a little recollection, she found herself in a deluge of
discharges, and a dead child lying by her limbs. She first of all
attended to the child, and found that it was certainly dead. She lay
upon the bed some time, considering what she should do; and by the time
that there was a little day-light she got up, put all the wet cloaths
and the child into her box, put the room and bed into order, and went
into it. The woman of whom she hired the room and who had received a
small sum of money as earnest, though she did not know who she was,
swore to her person, and confirmed that part of her story. Mr. Pinkstan
and I declared that we thought her tale very credible, and reconciled it
to the circumstance of the swimming of the lungs, to the satisfaction of
the jury, as we shall hereafter do to the reader. She was acquitted; and
I had the satisfaction of believing her to be innocent of murder.

In most of these cases we are apt to take up an early prejudice; and
when we evidently see an intention of concealing the birth, conclude
that there was an intention of destroying the child: and we account for
every circumstance upon that supposition, saying, why else did she do so
and so? and why else did she not do so and so? Such questions