of all my preaching. Surely a just Nemesis had overtaken me at last, for I felt I had not been strictly true to my knight,- errant vow. That extraordinary fertility of resource, to which I have before alluded, did not however fail me at this critical moment. "Madam," said I, sternly, "I am no more Wilkins than you are. I am an officer on leave from the fastest cavalry regiment in the service, but I have shaved off my mustache to complete the disguise necessary to enable me to escape from my creditors." Then suddenly changing my tone, and dropping on one knee, "But, lovely Jemima, I will sacrifice my prospects and attach myself to you for life, if, dearest, you will only pay my debts." Miss Jones did not scream, she uttered no word of reproach, but sank slowly into a heap on the floor. I propped her up with a footstool at her back, and left Miss Robinson sitting on it administering sal volatile.

I am not ashamed to say that when I look calmly back upon this episode, I feel a certain satisfaction. Of course I am not a cavalry officer, and have not a debt in the world, but I am sure Miss Jones is a wiser and a better woman in consequence of having known me. She has been what she would call "chastened," and I have been the rod. Poor dear! with a very little encouragement she would have kissed it. So, perhaps, I did her an injustice, and she has a heart after all.

Now, I know you will say what an unprincipled scoundrel this is, going about under false pretences, and calling himself a knight-errant. Don Quixote, indeed! how differently would that pink of chivalry have behaved under the circumstances! Not so, dear friends: I appeal confidently to Miss Smith, the Miss Browns, Jenny, and even Miss Jones herself. My object has been to show these good creatures how far they benefit the human species, and how far they bore it. Not for the world would I throw ridicule on the sublime religion to which I have had to allude in the case of the last. Miss Jones monopolises this task, and what I could I did to neutralise her influence I am afraid, to judge by a letter which I saw from her the other day in the 'Record,' with very little effect. Still there is no reason why others should not be more successful than I have been. My simple motive for narrating these experiences of my knight-errantry is to suggest an object to my male readers who are fond of travelling, and who little know the satisfaction they will receive from protecting, befriending, and assisting these excellent ladies in the trials and dangers which their mode of life must necessarily involve. In a word, to the Englishman I leave it "to point the moral;" for has not "the Englishwoman" sufficiently "adorned the tale?"

IF King James of pious memory, the first who swayed the double sceptre of Britain, could revisit this terrestrial sphere, great would be his exultation at finding that, in the present year of grace, his original theories upon the subject of witchcraft and demonology have, after the neglect of centuries, obtained a wide recognition and acceptance. Well indeed might he exult; for the doctrine which he so strenuously maintained has, in our days, not only been enforced by argument, but illustrated by positive demonstration. Wizards, and men who are served by familiar spirits, make open avowal of their powers, and exhibit their cantrips before the public at a fixed moneytribute for admittance. The necromancer of the olden time was a sneaking fellow, who hid himself in dingy garrets or fetid cellars, practising his occult arts with as much secrecy and precaution as are observed by the coiner and the forger. The witch who molested our ancestors by her incantations-torturing them by virtue of pins thrust into waxen images, or subjecting those sympathetic effigies to the slow action of a fire fed with wolfs'bane and the fat of murderersavoided the public ken, and admitted no spectators to that mysterious séance, where her succubi hopped around her in the semblance of toads, and Beelzebub himself, in the figure of a satyr, preached blasphemous sermons to the beldames. Our modern sorcerers are fellows of a different kidney. They affect publicity, exhibit before Imperial Courts, claim acquaintance with and become the instructors of men of rank and science, and are hand-in-glove with the spirits of departed heroes, who most obligingly obey their summons, impart communications, and playfully condescend to pinch the legs of the

incredulous spectators. Let but the Yankee Prospero command, and the ghost of Washington will play on the banjo, Socrates jingle the tambourine, and Byron perform with the bones. Realised to the full extent, and sworn to as an undoubted fact by a whole cloud of Cockney witnesses, is the vaunt of Faustus, as told by Christopher Marlowe :

"Have I not made blind Homer sing to

me

Of Alexander's love, and Enon's death?
And hath not he that built the walls of
Thebes

With ravishing sounds of his melodious harp,

Made music with my Mephistophiles?"

Nay, more. To prove the unrivalled and still undecayed vigour of the ancient athletes, Milo of Crotona will bind the Brothers Davenport with ropes, and the indomitable Achilles will sustain Mr Home while sprawling, like a gigantic spider, at the ceiling!

We suspect, however, that King James, if included in the troop of revenants, would feel both indignant and disgusted at the laxity of the civil magistrate, in permitting witchcraft and sorcery to be openly practised as a branch of lucrative traffic. Upon this head our British Solomon entertained very decided opinions, not mincing the matter as regards either the principals or their abettors. Touching magicians and witches, he says "They ought to be put to death according to the law of God, the civil and imperial law, and the municipal law of all Christian nations." As also-“All them that are of the counsel of such crafts; for, as I said, speaking of Magie, the consulters, trusters-in, overseers, entertainers, or stirrersup of these craft-folks, are equally guilty with themselves that are the practisers." And this infliction of punishment he held to be so paramount a duty, that any leniency

shown by the magistrate was equivalent to participation in the crime. "The prince or magistrate, for further trial's cause, may continue the punishing of them such a certain space as he thinks convenient: but in the end to spare the life, and not to strike when God bids strike, and so severely punish in so odious a fault and treason against God, it is not only unlawful, but doubtless no less sin in that magistrate nor it was in Saul's sparing of Agag; and so comparable to the sin of witchcraft itself, as Samuel alleged at that time." It was in accordance with such views that the celebrated statute entitled 'An Act against Conjuration, Witchcraft, and dealing with evil and wicked Spirits,' had been framed by Parliament; and reenacted with even more stringency in the fifth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Multitudes of convictions ensued; but in process of time the British public sickened at the spectacle of wretched old women consumed to ashes at the stake, on the accusation of having bewitched their neighbours' cows, diabolically abstracted their milk, or terrified their children into fits by nocturnal visitations under the form of enormous cats; and some philosophers ventured even to hint a doubt whether the Prince of Darkness had so much spare time as to permit of his indulging in familiar intercourse with the dregs and offscourings of society. So, by chapter fifth of 9th George II. it was enacted, that thereafter "no prosecution, suit, or proceeding shall be commenced or carried on against any person or persons for witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment, or conjuration, or for charging another with any such offence, in any court whatsoever in Great Britain." This humane statute put an end to the atrocities of the faggot and the tarbarrel; but it neither gave nor was intended to give full licence and immunity to the professors of the occult sciences, insomuch as it provided that, "if any person shall

pretend to exercise or use any kind of witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment, or conjuration, or undertake to tell fortunes," &c., he or she shall for such offence suffer imprisonment for the space of a whole year, and shall be exposed once every quarter in the pillory, at a public marketplace. Though modern squeamishness has led to the disuse of that fine old English institution, the pillory-an engine which we venture to think was especially suited for the exposure and chastisement of villanous quacks, impostors, and other detestable miscreants-there can be no doubt that wizards, real or pretended, may still be punished by imprisonment; and it is high time that the penalties of the law should be enforced. We write this in sober earnest; for the insolent and blasphemous pretensions of those mountebanks, made bold by impunity, have now swollen to such an extent, and have so affected the minds of many weak and credulous people, that a strong example has become necessary. Nay more-if equal-handed justice is to be administered in the British Islands, the officers of the law have no excuse for allowing those audacious quacksalvers to escape. Every now and then we learn, from the newspapers, that some tattered gypsywoman or prowling mendicant has been sent to the treadmill for cozening an unfortunate servant-girl of her hoarded silver, under the pretext of telling her fortune; and such paragraphs usually contain an expression of pity for the deplorable ignorance and superstition of the lower orders which render them a prey to such impostors. Whereas, in London, the better-clad pretenders to witchcraft openly advertise their séances, at which spirits of the illustrious departed will favour the company with manifestations, and perform divers miracles; they inveigle crowds of noodles and ninny-hammers to pay down their money at the door-exhibit some hocus-pocus of a kind so ineffably

childish, that the weakest imp of Erebus would be ashamed of participating in the game-and, instead of being sent to join the gypsy in her wholesome exercise and diet of diluted gruel, are fed, pampered, and puffed by crazy enthusiasts, who believe that they have had communication with the ghosts of their grandfathers, and that the Bounding Brothers, whom no network of ropes can fetter, are, upon the whole, much deeper adepts in necromancy than the celebrated Witch of Endor!

If, however, we are to believe the statements of their disciples, the imprisoning of these eminent magicians would be of very little use, seeing that the spirits, who are their familiars, and constantly wait upon them, are able to set them free. Perhaps the most revolting feature in the books of pseudo- magic and spiritualism which have recently issued from the press, is the reiterated assertion that miracles, similar to those recorded in the New Testament, are wrought by, or in favour of, the fellows who, like Simon Magus, use sorcery and bewitch the people. Those of our readers who are fortunately ignorant of the tone, nay, possibly of the very existence of this corrupted literature, will be slow to credit that such daring impiety could be committed without meeting with immediate reprobation. Yet such is the fact. One of the books before us, purporting to be a biography of the Brothers Davenport-a book, by the way, containing more absolute rubbish than any volume of a similar size which it ever was our fate to encounter-contains an account of a pretended miracle, which is neither more nor less than a deliberate parody of Saint Peter's deliverance from prison, as narrated in the Acts of the Apostles. These Davenports, who have recently been exhibiting in London, claim to be attended by spirits, the most potent of whom announced himself

to be the ghost of Henry Morgan the buccaneer. In some respects those spirits had not altogether divested themselves of their former attributes of humanity. They, according to Mr Rand, who acted as the Davenports' showman, and doubtless took the money at the doors, "have spoken with audible voices, in the light, without a trumpet, as we have rode or walked by the way, and exhibited hands, placing them upon our persons, and handling us freely"-(had Mr Rand been a fellow of any pluck, he would have resented such a scandalous liberty by tweaking the nose of the apparition). "Spirits have also eaten food in our presence; cake, fish, boiled corn, pineapple, and other fruits!!" Did they not also partake of mint-juleps, brandy cocktails, phlegm cutters, and other approved Yankee restoratives for the delectation of the inner spirit? Why not? Spirits are often afflicted by thirst-a phenomenon which undoubtedly leads to a most melancholy conclusion. Honest William Howitt, who is more intimately acquainted with Pandemonium than any of his literary compeers, gives us, in his 'History of the Supernatural,' a singular instance of this, which occurred at the Castle of Slawensick, in Silesia. It seems that venerable fortalice (the existence of which we are content to assume) was haunted by divers frolicsome spirits, who persisted in pitching knives, spoons, candlesticks, snuffers, and padlocks at the worshipful company present. "What was strangest of all, the terror-stricken inhabitants saw a jug of beer raise itself, pour beer into a glass, and the beer drunk off; on seeing which John, the servant, exclaimed, 'Lord Jesus! it swallows!"" On which anecdote, and his implicit belief in its authenticity, we congratulate friend William, and dismiss him with a hearty wish that his swallow may never be less.

To the economic mind such phe

"At

miracle. It appears that the Masters Davenport, accompanied by their showman Rand, arrived in the course of their peregrinations at Oswego, and as usual advertised an exhibition, with the view of extracting some dollars from the pockets of the soft-heads. this place," says our ridiculous Plutarch, "while giving a private séance, they were arrested at the instigation of some persons whom Mr Rand describes as 'legal bigots and persecutors,' who, with fiendish exultation,' conducted them before the village magistrate, where they were charged with violating a municipal law, which provides that persons exhibiting shows, circuses, menageries, &c., should procure a licence." Rand, who seems, like his compatriot Barnum, to be an adept in stump oratory, undertook his own defence and that of his interesting protegés. "He made a speech filled with scriptural quotations, and resting upon the facts of the case." But his eloquence was of no avail. The Rhadamanthus of Oswego found the charge proven, and imposed a fine of thirteen dollars thirty-nine cents; or in default, one month's imprisonment at the county jail.

nomena must suggest topics of considerable alarm. According to the modern doctrine, we are surrounded by the disembodied spirits of the whole progeny of Adam; and as the number of the dead is infinitely greater than that of the living, such symptoms of unearthly appetite, sharpened doubtless by longcontinued fast, are, to say the least of it, sufficiently alarming. The Red Indians were wont to provide some small viaticum for a deceased brother, in the shape of a handful or so of maize and a little dried venison, to sustain him on his way to the happy hunting-grounds; but it never entered into the head of either Cherokee or Choctaw that the defunct Bald Eagle or Snapping Turtle of their tribe would haunt, for all time to come, the wigwams of themselves and their children, laying violent invisible hands on their stock of buffalomeat and beaver-tail, and causing it to disappear as swiftly as though it had been engulfed in the maw of some monstrous anaconda! If this new manifestation should become general, and Lar and Lemur should take possession of our larders, we must look for a universal famine. In the natural course of events it is not unusual that the substance of the parents should be devoured by the children; but what is that to the curse of being compelled to find food for countless generations of ancestors, whose sharp-set spirits crowd ravenously into the diningroom at the cheerful summons of the bell, prepared to do fuller justice to the comestibles than any horde of aldermen that ever flocked to a City banquet? Upon one point alone we require further information. According to Howitt and Rand, the spirits have a decided predilection for articles of food and drink. As many of them have admitted their Yankee origin, it would be interesting to know whether they continue to chew tobacco.

But to recur to the parody of the

VOL. XCVII.-NO. DXCII.

Martyrs, as a matter of course, resist payment of fines. That they act wisely in preferring imprisonment to a divorce from their dollars, is evidenced by the notorious fact that the consolations which they receive from friends, not merely in the shape of empty sympathy, but in the more substantial form of silver teapots and donations, amply recompense them for their sufferings, and far exceed the amount they could have earned by honest industry within the period of their durances. Such resistance is a favourite device of Dissenters when called upon in any legal form to contribute to the maintenance of the Established Churches; and not a few pigheaded shopkeepers have been rewarded for their contumacy by a large measure of notoriety, increased custom, and a handsome