but in reality almost line-of-battle ships, as regards scantling and complement; or, as seamen said at that time, sixty-fours in disguise. All the British ships fought most gallantly, and surrendered only after a frightful loss of men, and when their shattered hulls were totally helpless and unmanageable. We need not hesitate to say, indeed, that the defence of the three British frigates against greatly superior antagonists, was at least as honorable to them as the victory to the Americans. But their capture caused unparalleled excitement both in Great Britain and in America. The public did not then know how deadly the odds had been: all they understood was, that three British frigates had, in rapid succession, been taken by American frigates; and they were ready to exclaim, that the prestige of British invincibility at sea was gone for ever: and that the vigorous young navy of the United States was more than a match for the veteran navy of Old England. It was obvious that something must be done to turn the scale in our favor, and that something was promptly done in a brilliant style. Among the many brave and able frigate commanders who burned to retrieve the British name, was Captain P. B. V. | Broke, of the Shannon, 38-gun frigate-a ship thoroughly well disciplined, and in good fighting-trim. In April, he cruised off Boston in company with his consort, the Tenedos frigate, Captain Parker, watching the American frigates lying in that port. Two of them, the Congress and President, managed to put to sea unintercepted; but the Constitution and the Chesapeake yet remained. The former was under repairs, but the latter was nearly ready for sea. Captain Broke sent away the Tenedos to cruise elsewhere for a season, in order that the American should have fair play in the contest he meditated; and then he sent in repeated verbal challenges to Captain Lawrence of the Chesapeake to meet him. Finally, he dispatched a letter of challenge, a full copy of which we have in one of the two accounts of the affair lying before us, but it is much too long to quote entire. Suffice it, that after requesting Captain Lawrence to meet him to fight for the honor of their respective flags, he gives a faithful account of the armament and complement of his own ship, and names a rendezvous for the fight; or offers to sail in company with the Chesapeake, under a flag of truce, to any place Captain Lawrence thinks safest from interruption from British cruisers! He concludes his chivalrous challenge with the following magnanimous passage:-"You must, sir, be aware that my proposals are highly advantageous to you, as you cannot proceed to sea singly in the Chesapeake without imminent risk of being crushed by the superior force of the numerous British squadrons which are now abroad, where all your efforts, in a case of rencontre, would, however gallant, be perfectly hopeless. I entreat you, sir, not to imagine that I am urged by mere personal vanity, to the wish of meeting the Chesapeake, or that I depend only upon your personal ambition for your acceding to this invitation: we have both nobler motives. You will feel it as a compliment if I say, that the result of our meeting may be the most grateful service I can render to my country; and I doubt not that you, equally confident of success, will feel convinced that it is only by repeated triumphs in even combat that your little navy can now hope to console your country for the loss of trade that it cannot protect. Favor me with a speedy reply. We are short of provisions and water, and cannot stay long here." A more extraordinary and manly letter never was written. It does honor alike to the head and the heart of the writer. On 1st June it was given to Captain Slocum, a released prisoner, to deliver; and the Shannon then stood in close to Boston, to await the result. About noon that day, the Chesapeake fired a gun, and set her sails. She was coming out to fight at last! not, however, in consequence of the letter, for Slocum was slow in coming, and had not yet delivered it, but undoubtedly in consequence of the verbal challenges. She was accompanied by numerous pleasure-boats, filled with people eager to see the affair at a safe distance, and flushed with anticipations of success. This, indeed, was thought to be sure, that a grand dinner is said to have been prepared at Boston, to welcome the officers of the Chesapeake on their expected return with the British frigate as a prize. Her A word as to the comparative powers of the antagonists. The Chesapeake rated as a 36-gun frigate, but mounted 25 on a broadside, discharging 590 pounds metal. tonnage was 1135; and her crew-all very fine men-was 381 men and 5 boys, as sworn to by her surviving commanding-officer. The Shannon's broadside-guns were also 25, and the weight of metal discharged by them, 538 pounds: the crew, as stated by Captain Broke himself, consisted of "300 men and boys-a large proportion of the latter--besides 30 seamen, boys, and passengers, who were taken out of recaptured vessels lately." Her tonnage was 1066. Thus we see that in tonnage, weight of metal, and number of crew, the Chesapeake had the advantage. Nevertheless, we may term it a very fair match, all things considered--and now for the result. After some preliminary manoeuvring, the two frigates closed at about six leagues' distance from Boston--the Chesapeake having a large white flag flying at the fore, inscribed with the words, "Sailors' Rights and Free Trade!" The crew of the Shannon greeted this extraordinary symbol with three hearty cheers. We shall not detail the fight itself, beyond saying that the Shannon opened a tremendous fire from her double-shotted guns; and the ships having come in contact, Captain Broke, eleven minutes after the engagement commenced, boarded the Chesapeake with only a score of his men, and in four minutes completely carried the ship. From the time the first gun was fired to the hauling down of the American colors and the hoisting of the British in their place, only fifteen minutes elapsed! Just in the moment of victory, Captain Broke was treacherously assailed and severely wounded by three Americans who had previously submitted, and then resumed their arms. Poor Captain Lawrence of the Chesapeake was mortally wounded. He was a gallant officer, and his death was sincerely lamented by his generous-minded conqueror. Many acts of great individual heroism occurred; and brief as was the battle, we may form some idea of the desperate valor displayed on both sides, from the heavy loss of life mutually sustained. The Shannon has 24 killed, including her first-lieutenant, and 59 wounded. The Chesapeake had, according to the American official account, 47 killed and 99 wounded--14 mortally; but her own surgeon estimated the total killed and wounded at 160 to 170. We believe that such a frightful loss--in the two frigates, 71 killed and nearly 200 wounded--hardly ever before occurred in so brief an engagement. Some of the English seamen serving on board the Chesapeake leaped overboard when Captain Broke boarded her. Poor conscience-stricken traitors! they could not bear to fight handto-hand against their own countrymen. One of them, John Waters, was a fine young fellow, who had deserted from the Shannon only a few months before. Thirty-two English seamen were serving in the American frigate. What must their feelings have been during the engagement? One circumstance deserves notice: no less than 360 pair of handcuffs were found stowed in a cask in the Chesapeake. They were intended for the crew of the Shannon! How the men of the latter ship must have grinned when they put them -for such is the custom-on the wrists of the Chesapeakes own crew! The Shannon and her prize-neither of the vessels materially injured--safely reached Halifax, where poor Captain Lawrence died of his wound, and was buried with full military honors, all the captains in the port following his remains. We have now only to add, that Captain Broke was very deservedly rewarded with a baronetcy, and other honors; that two of his lieutenants were made commanders; and that two of his midshipmen, who had peculiarly distinguished themselves, were promoted to the rank of lieutenants. Take it for all in all, the duel of the Shannon and Chesapeake is one of the most extraordinary on record. From the Leisure Hour. THE LAST TRIAL FOR WITCHCRAFT. THE Scepticism which arose and prevailed so largely in the eighteenth century, had at least one excellent effect-that of uprooting a multitude of popular superstitions, among which, one of the most formidable was the belief in witchcraft. It may not perhaps be generally remembered, that at the time when Steele and Addison were writing the "Spectator," witchcraft was still a capital offence, and that persons accused of it had suffered the penalty of death not many years before. It was in 1691 that Mr. Justice Holt put the first serious check upon prosecutions of this sort in the courts of justice; but we nevertheless find him at Exeter five years later, presiding at the trial of one Elizabeth Horner, who was charged with "bewitching three children of | William Bovet, one of whom was dead." Mrs. Horner was acquitted; and it was afterwards remarked by the good Dr. Hutchinson, that "no inconvenience hath followed her acquittal." Later than this, however, that is to say, in the year 1712, a poor woman in Hertfordshire was tried, and actually "found guilty," upon an indictment charging her with "conversing with the devil in the shape of a cat"-a form accusation which certainly threw ridicule over the whole proceeding; but, in conformity with the verdict, the judge was nevertheless obliged to sentence the prisoner to be hanged, and was able to save her only through the intervention of a ." pardon," which he subsequently obtained in her behalf. As it may serve to give us a glimpse into the condition of rural England nearly a century and a half ago, when the schoolmaster was less abroad than he even is at present, it is here proposed to relate the story of this last of the witchcraft prosecutions. The particulars are drawn from Mr. Wright's lately published "Narratives of Sorcery and Magic," a work well worthy of perusal by such as may be curious respecting the history of popular delusions. Be it known, then, that in the year 1712 aforesaid, there was living at Walkern, in the county of Hertford, a poor woman of the name of Jane Wenham. It is not clear whether she was an old woman or a young one, or a woman of middle age, but in all probability she was "growing into years;" and, being not exactly a person of amiable temper, she had, for that and other reasons, come to be regarded by her neighbors as a witch. When the horses or cattle of the farmers in the parish chanced to die, the ignorant, stupid people ascribed their losses to Jenny Wenham's sorcery. This was particularly the case with a farmer named Chapman, one of whose laborers, Matthew Gilson, told him a strange sort of story, which seemed to imply that he (Matthew) had been wonderously bewitched himself. This man was subsequently examined before the magistrates, and he then made a curious deposition. He declared "that on New-year's day last past, he, carrying straw upon a fork from Mrs. Gardner's barn, met Jane Wenham, who asked him for some straw, which he refused to give her; then she said she would take some, and accordingly took some away from informant. And, further, this informant saith, that on the 29th of January last, when this informant was threshing in the barn of his master John Chapman, an old woman in a riding-hood or cloak, he knows not which, came to the barn door, and asked him for a pennyworth of straw; he told her he could give her none, and she went away muttering. And this informant saith, that after the woman was gone he was not able to work, but ran out of the barn as far as a place called Munder's hill (which was above three miles from Walkern), and asked at a house there for a pennyworth of straw, and they refused to give him any; he went further to some dung heaps, and took some straw from thence, and pulled off his shirt, and brought it home in his shirt; he knows not what moved him to this, but says he was forced to do it he knows not how." A part of this singular statement was corroborated by another witness, who declared that he saw Matthew Gilson returning with the straw in his shirt; that he moved along at a great pace; and that, instead of passing over a bridge, he walked straight through the water. On hearing the story, John Chapman felt confirmed in the suspicions which he entertained against Mrs. Wenham; and on meeting her one day shortly afterwards, he ventured to tell her a bit of his mind, applying to her at the same time several offensive epithets, whereof that of "witch" was one of the mildest and least opprobrious. It would seem however, that he rather " caught a Tartar;" for on the 9th of February, Jane Wenham went to Sir Henry Chauncey, a magistrate, and obtained a warrant against Chapman for defamation. In the sequel, the quarrel between Mrs. Wenham and the farmer was referred to the decision of the parish Clergyman, the Rev. Mr. Gar diner, who, in settling the matter, appears to have spoken somewhat harshly to the woman, advising her to live more peaceably with her neighbors, but nevertheless condemning Chapman to pay her one shilling as a compensation for the injury sustained through his abuse. Here it might have been hoped the business would have ended. But Mr. Gardiner, though a clergyman, was as firm a believer in witchcraft as farmer Chapman; and presently a circumstance transpired which led him to suppose that the old woman was dissatisfied with the kind of justice he had given her, and that, therefore, by way of vengeance, she had determined to perform a stroke of witchcraft in his household. His judgment had been delivered in the parsonage-house kitchen, in the presence of Anne Thorn, a servant maid, who was sitting by the fire, having the evening before "put her knee out,' 66 On hearing the girl's relation, all parties were sufficiently astonished and perplexed; Mrs. Gardiner, however, exclaimed, “We will burn the witch"-alluding to a received notion, that when the thing bewitched was burned, the witch was certain to appear; and accordingly she took the twigs, together with the pin, and threw them into the fire. By a singular coincidence, Jane Wenham immediately came into the room, pretending, it is said, to inquire after Anne Thorn's mother, and "saying she had an errand to do to her from Ardley Bury (Sir Henry Chauncey's house), to wit, that she must go thither to wash next day." Now, according to the depositions of the prosecutors, "this mother Thorn had been in the house all the time that Jane Wenham was there with John Chapman, and heard nothing of it, and was then gone home." Of course it was very likely that Jane Wenham might have forgotten to mention the message, owing to the excitement she was in through her unpleasant affair with Chapman; at any rate, no such charitable excuse was thought of by the wonderfully shrewd people who had her case to deal with. On hearing her statement, Mrs. Gardiner bade Jane Wenham go to Elizabeth Thorn, and tell her there was work enough for her there"-meaning, that she would be required to nurse her daughter Anne-and thereupon the supposed witch departed. Furthermore, the depositions say, that "upon inquiry made afterwards, it was found that she never was ordered to deliver any such errand from Ardley Bury; and so there seemed to be but one reasonable inference left, namely,,that Jane Wenham, being a witch, her presence in Mr. Gardiner's kitchen had been mysteriously enforced by the burning of the twigs and pin aforesaid! and had just then got it set. Jane Wenham | her whether she had e'er a pin. Upon her and Chapman being gone, Mr. Gardiner had answering she had none, the old woman gave returned into the parlor to his wife, in com- her a large crooked pin, bade her pin up the pany with a neighbor of the name of Bragge. bundle, and then vanished away; after which These three persons, according to their seve- she ran home with her bundle of sticks, and ral depositions, had not been seated together sat down in the kitchen stripped as Mr. Garmore than six or seven minutes, when they diner found her." heard a strange yelling noise in the kitchen ;" and on Mr. Gardiner going out to see what was the matter, he "found this Anne Thorn stripped to her shirt sleeves, howling and wringing her hands in a dismal manner,' but quite incapable of uttering any thing articulately. The reverend gentleman called aloud for Mrs. Gardiner and Mr. Bragge, who thereupon sprang up and followed him. Mrs. Gardiner, with a woman's impatience to solve a mystery, asked the girl what was the matter with her; and the latter, "not being able to speak," pointed earnestly at a bundle which lay upon the floor, and which her mistress thereupon took up, and unpinned, and "found it to be the girl's own gown and apron, and a parcel of oaken twigs with dead leaves wrapped up therein." As soon as the bundle was opened, Anne Thorn began to speak, crying out, I'm ruined and undone;" and after she had a little recovered herself, she gave the following relation of what had happened to her. She said, when she was left alone she found "a strange roaming in her hand"-what this might signify we cannot exactly understand-however, she went on to say, that "her mind ran upon Jane Wenham, and she thought she must run some whither; that accordingly she ran up the close, but looked back several times at the house, thinking she should never see it more; that she climbed over a five-bar gate, and ran along the highway up a hill; that there she met two of John Chapman's men, one of whom took hold of her hand, saying she should go with them; but she was forced away from them not being able to speak, either to them or to one Daniel Chapman, whom, she said, she met on horseback, and would fain have spoken to him, but could not; then she made her way towards Cromer, as far as a place called Hockney-lane, where she looked behind her, and saw a little old woman muffled up in a riding-bood, who asked her whither she was going. She answered, to Cromer to fetc.. some sticks to make her fire; the old woman told her there were now no sticks at Cromer, and bade her go to that oak tree and pluck some from thence, which she did, and laid them upon the ground. The old woman bade her pull off her gown and apron, and wrap the sticks in them, and asked Here, at any rate, was an excellent groundwork for a charge of witchcraft. Chapman's two men, and the horsemen, deposed to meeting Anne Thorn on the road, as she related; and others of Mrs. Wenham's enemies came forward to testify that several people had previously been bewitched by her. The clergyman was eager to promote the prosecution; and on his solicitation a warrant was obtained from Sir Henry Chauncey for the woman's apprehension. The examinations were taken in due form before Sir Henry at Ardley Bury, less, a Hertfordshire jury found her "guilty;" and he directed four women to search Jane and Mr. Justice Powell had to put on the black Wenham's person for the customary "witches cap and pronounce sentence of death accordmarks," but none, it seems, were found. ing to the statute for such cases made and proNext day, however, the examination was con- vided. He certainly never intended that the tinued, and the evidence of Mr. and Mrs. sentence should be executed, but that being Gardiner was taken, affirming the particulars the legal penalty for proving witchcraft, he already mentioned. Jane Wenham perceived had no alternative but to go through the forthat the accusation was assuming a formid- mality. A pardon was subsequently obtainable appearance, and in her dread of being ed, and the poor woman was set at liberty, sent to goal, she earnestly entreated Mrs. | much to the horror of her superstitious perGardiner "not to swear against her," and secutors. To save her from any further illoffered to submit to the "trial of swimming in treatment or annoyance, an enlightened and the water"-a common mode of testing the kind gentleman, Colonel Plummer, of Gilston, guilt of suspected witches. Sir Henry, who took her under his protection, placing her in seems to have yielded to most of the preju- a cottage on his own estate, where, it is dices of the prosecutors, refused to allow of agreeable to learn, she "passed the rest of such a mode of trial. But there was another her life in a quiet, inoffensive manner." clergyman, the vicar of Ardley, no less superstitious than the rector of Walkern, who undertook to try her by a still more infallible method, that of repeating the Lord's prayer, a thing which no witch was considered capable of doing. Being submitted to this ordeal, the poor woman, either in her confusion, or through lamentable ignorance, repeated it incorrectly, and hence another proof was obtained in support of the charge against her. The parson, moreover, so frightened her by threats as to induce her to confess that she actually was a witch, and fur-long been an obsolete delusion. One of the ther, to accuse three other women of Walkern with being her confederates in unlawful practices, and more especially with having a direct intercourse with Satan. . Such, reader, is as faithful an account as we can give you of the last trial for witchcraft. It is, perhaps, a story which would scarcely be worth the telling, were it not in some sort calculated to show us the harassing and dangerous persecutions to which the poor and neglected were in former days liable. Whatever may be the difficulties and disasters of the present time, there is certainly ground for congratulation in the fact, that no one can now become the victim of any such ridiculous accusation. Witchcraft has most important results of the trial here in question, was the publication, two or three years afterwards, of the famous "Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft," by the king's The prosecution seemed now in a fair way chaplain in ordinary, Dr. Francis Hutchinson of prospering; and accordingly Jan Wen--a book which gave the last blow to the ham was committed to prison to take her declining superstition; from that time the trial at the assizes. On the 4th of March belief in witchcraft lingered only among the the case came on for hearing before Mr. most ignorant portions of the population; Justice Powell, who was not a little puzzled and now at last there seems reason to conhow to deal with it; for there had been no clude that it is pretty well extinguished. As trial of the kind for several years past, and in any shin-bone of prediluvian creatures the intelligent people had long been sneering at geologist and man of science finds an interest, witchcrafts as a ridiculous incredibility. The and derives from it some hint of the condilawyers refused to draw up the indictment tion of the world when the animal it belongany other charge than that of "convers-ed to was alive, so may the historian of proing with the devil in the form of a cat," as gress not idly or unfitly gather here and stated at the commencement of the present there some figment of departed error, and paper. However, no less than sixteen wit bring it forth in proof, that while, the great nesses, three of them being clergymen, were world spins for ever down the ringing grooves heard against the prisoner, and all the absur- of change," the states and prospects of hudities before set forth were solemnly recapitu- manity are in some particulars ameliorated, lated and affirmed. The poor woman declared and that, as folly dies, the forms of truth her innocence, and the judge did what he appear, with mercy and advancement in their could to damage the proceedings. Neverthe- hands. for |