after the "Swan" was closed, she was
seen beating him and tearing his clothes. Fear for herself--fear of
his supernatural gifts--were both merged in the stronger feeling of
rage; and at last she, assisted by one Stammers, a carpenter, pushed
the old man into a brook. He died at Halsted poorhouse from the
effects of the ill-usage. Emma Smith and Stammers were sentenced to
six months hard labour for their share in this outrage--the judge
excusing the leniency of the punishment on the ground of the woman's
state of mental excitement, and of the man's having pulled Dummey out
of the water when the ducking seemed likely to produce death.

Only a few years ago an example of superstition in England came
prominently before a public court of justice. It appears that in the
neighbourhood of South Molton, North Devon, an old man aged
eighty-six, living at Westdown, near Barnstaple, was charged with
"using certain subtle craft, means, or device by palmistry and
otherwise, to deceive and impose on certain of her Majesty's
subjects." For some time a woman named Elizabeth Saunders, then
residing in an adjacent hamlet, had been ill. Doctors' remedies
failed, and her husband sent for the old man named Harper, generally
called the "White Witch," but who called himself an herbalist. He went
to the house of the woman, and gave her four or five iron rods in
succession, with which she tapped a piece of iron held by her in the
other hand while in bed. At the ends of the rods were the names of
planets, such as Jupiter and Mercury. He asked the age of the woman
and the hour she was born, saying he wanted to find out under what
planet she came into the world. He gave her some bitters to take, but
she died a few days afterwards. The defence was that the rods and
piece of metal were a rude method of using electricity, by which means
the defendant had effected many cures; but no explanation was given as
to the meaning of the names of the planets. It was stated that the
"White Witch" charged the woman 25s. for his services. Several
witnesses, called for the defence, said they had been cured of
complaints in the legs and arms by the defendant's magic rods when
nobody else could cure them. The Bench sentenced him to a month's
imprisonment.

A case of witchcraft came recently to our knowledge from Stonehouse.
Ann Bond, a professed herbalist, stood charged before a bench of
justice with having obtained L1 by means of a subtle device. Mary Ann
Pike sa