being either tributary to, or in some way controlled by, the British. In every part of India the males exceed in number the females-one significant testimony to the prevalence of infanticide. The whole of British India, for administrative purposes, is divided into about 180 districts, each on an average larger than any county in England except Yorkshire. The public revenue varies from £42,000,000 to £48,000,000 annually-a great sum, certainly, to be raised by taxation; the land-tax is by far the largest item. Great as it is, the revenue barely equals the expenditure, so large is the outlay for armies and public works. It is believed, however, that almost every pound spent under the last-named heading will be reproductive eventually, in developing roads, railways, postal communications, telegraphs, irrigation, and improved culture. One dark tint in the picture is the existence of an Indian debt of more than £100,000,000; the interest of which must be paid wholly out of Indian revenues, the home revenues being shielded from the responsibility. The vessels that enter and leave India ports with cargoes exceed 4,000,000 tons annually; denoting a large import and export trade: more than three-fourths of these belong to the United Kingdom. The imports now far exceed £50,000,000 annually; while the exports in some years (especially during what was called the 'Cotton Famine,' due to the Civil War in America) reached nearly £70,000,000. In such years the settlement of the balance requires a large shipment of bullion and specie from England to India. The total exports to the United Kingdom are twice as great in amount as those to all other countries combined; and about the same ratio is observable in the imports shewing how vast is the trade always going on between England and India. If India sells to England a large quantity of raw cotton (£16,000,000 even in the year after the Cotton Famine had ceased), she, on the other hand, buys of us enormously in cotton yarn and manufactured goods (£14,000,000 in that same year). Opium is the next article in value among the exports from India, generally exceeding £10,000,000 per annum. Nearly the whole of this goes to China; the merchants derive so much profit from it, and the government so much revenue, that this trade is fostered in every way-whether or not it leads to 'opium wars' between England and China.

N the present day, we look back with a degree of wonder on the belief in witchcraft, which may be said to have formed an article of religious faith in every European country throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A notion was universally entertained, that the devil and subordinate evil spirits, in pursuance of their malevolent ends, went about, sometimes in visible shape, seducing poor human nature. To gain their wicked designs, they were supposed to tempt men, but more particularly aged women, by conferring on them supernatural powers; as, for example, that of riding through the air, and operating vengefully and secretly on the health and happiness of those against whom they had any real or imaginary cause of offence. Such trafficking with the powers of darkness,' as it was technically called, was witchcraft, and, according both to the letter of Scripture and of the civil law, was a crime punishable with death. Like all popular manias, the witchcraft delusion had its paroxysms.

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It rose, existed for a time with great energy, then declined into insignificance. What was exceedingly remarkable, the frenzy never lacked victims: it followed the well-known law of supply and demand. As soon as witches were in request, they made their appearance. Any severe denunciation, followed by a rigorous scrutiny, brought them prominently into notice. Nor, what was still more curious, did the newly discovered witches in all cases deny the accusations against them. Many acknowledged, with a species of pride, that they had entered into a compact with the devil. They seem, on occasions, to have gloried in being the objects of so much interest, and hastened to confess, although death at the stake or on the gallows was the consequence. It must be considered as in some degree explanatory of this self-condemnation, that torture was always at hand to enforce confession; and as there was little chance, therefore, of escape after accusation, the wish to die on the speediest terms had probably no small share in inducing the alleged witches to boast of their mysterious crimes. In the majority of cases, however, there was stout denial; but this generally served no good purpose, and we are painfully assured, that many thousands of individuals, in almost every country, were sacrificed as victims to the petty spite and vengeance of accusers. At the height of the successive paroxysms, no one, whatever his rank or character, was safe from an accusation of trafficking with evil spirits. If he lived a profligate life, he was of course chargeable with the offence; if he lived quietly and unobtrusively, and was seemingly pious in character, he was only hypocritically concealing his diabolical practices; if he had acquired wealth somewhat rapidly, that was a sure sign of his guilt; and if he was poor, there was the greater reason for believing that he was in league with the devil to become rich. There was only one means of escaping suspicion, and that was to become an accuser. The choice was before every man and woman, of acting the part of accusers, or of being themselves accused. result may be anticipated. Perceiving the tremendous danger of affecting to disbelieve witchcraft, people readily assumed the proper degree of credulity; and to mark their detestation of the crime, as well as secure themselves from attack, they hastened to denounce acquaintances and neighbours. Nothing could be more easy than to do so in a manner perfectly satisfactory. Pretending to fall sick, or to go into convulsions, or to have a strange pain in some part of the body or limbs, people were doubtless bewitched! Any sudden storm at sea, causing the wreck of vessels, was another evidence that witches were concerned; and so far did these allegations descend, that even so small a matter as a failure in churning milk for butter, was a sure sign of diabolical agency. On the occasion of every unforeseen catastrophe, therefore, or the occurrence of any unaccountable malady, the question was immediately agitated: Who was the witch? Then was the time for querulous old men or women

The

in the neighbourhood to tremble. Long suspected of carrying on a correspondence with demons, they were seized and brought to trial. The accusations, as is now clearly understood, were for the most part spiteful, or wantonly mischievous. In making these charges and testifying to them, children and young women appear to have in many places excelled; the probability being that, besides a mere spirit of mischief, they enjoyed amusement from the consternation they were able to produce.

Strange how all this prejudice, imposture, and cruelty should have received the solemn sanction of the most learned and devout men: clergymen of every degree, from popes to presbyters; kings, legislators, and judges; and private citizens of every quality and profession! The folly, while it lasted, was complete.

It only excites the greater horror to know, that the belief in witchcraft-essentially mean and vulgar in all its details-has been a reproach to religious profession; and that, while seemingly founded on scriptural authority, it really rested, in its main features, on the visionary superstitions of the pagan world. Historians make it clear to the understanding, that the popular fancy respecting the bodily aspect of the great Spirit of Evil is drawn from the description of satyrs in the heathen mythology-a malicious monster, with the hide, horns, tail, and cloven feet of a beast of the field, which roamed about in the dark or in retired places, performing idle and wicked tricks, and undoing schemes of benevolence. Sometimes, as was alleged, this great enemy of man assumed disguises that were exceedingly difficult to penetrate. It is recorded by an author of talent, that the devil once delivered a course of lectures on magic at Salamanca, habited in a professor's gown and wig. Even Luther entertained similar notions about the fiend; and in fact thought so meanly of him, as to believe that he could come by night and steal nuts, and that he cracked them against the bedposts, for the solacement of his monkey-like appetite.

That the delusion originated, to a great degree, in a misconception of the real purport of allusions to the so-called witchcraft in various parts of the Old Testament, is now universally acknowledged. By biblical critics, as we understand, the term translated witch, properly signifies a person who by vile deceptions practised on popular credulity, and by means of poisoning, accomplished certain wicked designs. 'Leaving,' as Sir Walter Scott remarks, 'the further discussion of this dark and difficult question to those whose studies have qualified them to give judgment on so obscure a subject, it so far appears clear, that the Witch of Endor was not a being such as those believed in by our ancestors, who could transform themselves and others into the appearance of the lower animals, raise and allay tempests, frequent the company and join the revels of evil spirits, and, by their counsel and assistance, destroy human lives, and waste the fruits of the earth, or perform feats of such magnitude as to

alter the face of nature. The Witch of Endor was a mere fortuneteller, to whom, in despair of all aid or answer from the Almighty, the unfortunate king of Israel had recourse in his despair, and by whom, in some way or other, he obtained the awful certainty of his own defeat and death. She was liable, indeed deservedly, to the punishment of death, for intruding herself upon the task of the real prophets, by whom the will of God was in that time regularly made known. But her existence and her crimes can go no length to prove the possibility that another class of witches, no otherwise resembling her than as called by the same name, either existed at a more recent period, or were liable to the same capital punishment, for a very different and much more doubtful class of offences, which, however odious, are nevertheless to be proved possible before they can be received as a criminal charge.' *

Originating in ignorance, a love of the marvellous, along with the religious misconceptions to which we have referred, a belief in witchcraft may be traced through the early ages of Christianity; but the modern prevalence of the delusion may be said to date from the promulgation of an edict of Pope Innocent VIII. in 1484, declaring witchcraft to be a crime punishable with death. This fixed the subject deeply in the public mind, and the effect was deepened by the prosecution of witches which followed. It is a curious law of human nature, of which we have seen many modern illustrations, that even crimes, real or imputed, when they excite much public attention, tend to produce repetitions of themselves. In this way, offences sometimes assume a character approaching that of epidemical diseases. It was found, as has been remarked, that the more energy there was displayed in seeking out and prosecuting witches, the more apparent occasion for such prosecutions was presented. In 1515, during the space of three months, 500 witches were burned in Geneva; in a single year, in the diocese of Como, in the north of Italy, 1000 were executed; and it is related that, altogether, more than 100,000 individuals perished in Germany before the general mania terminated. In France, the belief in witchcraft led to a remarkable variety of superstition, known in French law as lycanthropy, or the transformation of a witch into a wolf. It was currently believed by all classes, that witches assumed at pleasure the wolfish form in order to work mischief-by ravaging flocks of sheep. Many unfortunate persons, the victims of petty prejudice, were tried and executed for this imaginary crime. At length, by an edict of Louis XIV., all future proceedings on the score of witchcraft were prohibited; and from that time no more was heard of village dames assuming the forms and habits of wolves.

In England, to which we now turn, a belief in witchcraft was of

* Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft.