en he withdrew from the former, he did also from the
latter. The date indicates that his action, in withdrawing, was
determined by the import of the _Advice_.

If a gentleman of his position and family, a grandson of an original
Patentee, Sir Richard Saltonstall, and sitting as a Judge at the first
trial, had the independence and manly spirit to express, without
reserve, his disapprobation of the proceedings, the expression of Calef
is explained; and the Court felt the obstacle that was in their way.
Hence the immediate adjournment, and the resort to some extraordinary
expedient, to remove it.

This may account for the appeal to the Ministers. Great interest must
have been felt in their reply, by all cognizant of the unexpected
difficulty that had occurred. The document was admirably adapted to
throw dust into the eyes of those who had expressed doubts and
misgivings; but it did not deceive Saltonstall. He saw that it would be
regarded by the other Judges, and the public in general, as an
encouragement to continue the trials; and that, under the phraseology of
what had the aspect of caution, justification would be found for the
introduction, to an extent that would control the trials, of spectral
evidence. The day after its date, he left his seat at the Council Board,
withdrew from the Court, and washed his hands of the whole matter.

The course of events demonstrates that the _Advice_ was interpreted, by
all concerned, as applauding what had been done at the first trial, and
earnestly urging that the work, thus begun, should be speedily and
vigorously prosecuted. Upon the Ministers, therefore, rests the stigma
for all that followed.

There may have been, at that time, as there was not long afterward, some
difference of opinion among the Ministers; and the paper may have had
the character of a compromise--always dangerous and vicious, bringing
some or all parties into a false position. Samuel Willard may have held,
then, the opinion expressed in a pamphlet ascribed to him, published,
probably, towards the close of the trials, that spectral evidence ought
only to be allowed where it bore upon persons of bad reputation. The
_fourth_ Section conciliated his assent to the document. This might have
been the view of Increase Mather, who, after the trials by the Special
Court were over, indicated an opinion, that time for further diligent
"search" ought to have been allowed, before proceeding to "the execution
of the most