CORRESPONDENCE.

Evening Star, Issue 12399, 12 January 1905, Page 8

CORRESPONDENCE.

Every letter must be accompanied by the name and of the writer, not necessarily for publication, bat as a guarantee of good faith. Rejected letters cannot be re> irned under any dreninst&nces whatever. Correspondents are advised to keep copies of their letters, as this rule will be adhered to nristly. FURIOUS BICYOLK RIDING. • TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—The time, surely, has arrived for the City Corpontion to frame a by-law lor the better regulation of the speed at which bk yclos—-more especially motor ones—should be run through tie prirdpal streets of the City. It was only last Tuesday that a prominent and well-known gentleman connected with the Law Department of the colony attracted considerable attention at the furious railway express speed he was going when guiding his noisy motor .along Princes ■ street. Even although the greater part of Princes and George streets is asphalted, daring cyclists have the happy knack of “ scorching” along on. the tram line, greatly to the discomfort of the car mdtormen. Express waggons, cabs, and hansomapay an annual license fee to the Corporation,' but whether it would be advisable to tax cycles, eta, by way of raising the City dust,* I am not at present prepared to say. Cabs, I know, are licensed to cany a certain number of passengers, and if overloaded they run the risk of hav. nig an official interview with the SAL; and os for the City cars, they are supposed to seat a given number, and if there should be an excess, the conductor is held responsible to be “had up" before the tramway “boss,” which seems to he a red-tape farce. It is well known that daring certain hours of the day and evening passengers are packed or compressed nrto these high-speed cars like red bering into a barrel.—l am, eta, Omko. January 12. ECCLESIASTICAL WITCHCRAFT. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Theological scientists pursued this branch of metaphysical snpematnralism with terrible vengeance, and so recent as 1712 we had a remarkable trial at their instigation of one Jane Wenham. Your space cannot afford the whole of the evidence oven, but that of the Rev. Mr Strutt and the Rev. Mr Gardiner will show upon what ridiculous assumptions they based their reason. The case was an ordinary one of bewitching others. Anne Thome was the victim. “I was present,” said the Vicar of Ardley, “and saw the girl in several of her grievous fits, out of which she was recovered by prayer.” He goes on to say; “ I tried the prisoner often to see whether she could say the Lord’s Prayer, and she could not do it.” When he was talking of the recovery of Anne Thorn© out of her fits by prayer my Lord Powell, the Judge, asked him what prayers were used. He answered: “Several out of. the office for the visitation of the sick and other parts of the Common Prayer.” My Lord was pleased to say “ that he had heard "Vhere were forms of exorcism in the Romish liturgy, but knew nob that we had any such in onr church. However, he was glad to find there! was such virtue in onr prayers.” Mr Gardiner’s evidence was much on the same lines, with the addition of burning witches - ' sticks, and confessing the prisoner with Mr Strutt. The Judge treated the trial with merry humor, and exerted himself to obtain a free pardon from the Crown. There was ample evidence to show that she was a pious, sober woman. If there is one thing more than another that inspires a feeling of disgust in these trials it is the profession of profanation of their high and holy office by ministers of religion. Nothing is too sacred to escape pollution. There seems to be no sanctity to guard them from the profanation of superstition and the worse profanation of cruelty. Scotland, however, is the happy mental hunting ground for metaphysical and dreamers’ witchcraft. Castle Hill must have been a veritable witches’ shamble. It was there. Dr Fian and his associates were burnt (I think in 1591), after being put tp the torture of the boot, crushing the legs enclosed in iron by means of the screw, and tearing away the nails from the hands with pincers, and then driving hot needles through th© finger tips. The doctor and his associates attended a devils’ service at North Barrick Kerke, and because they were late in coming to hear his Satanic sermon he (the devil) enjoined them to a very severe penance. This was testified to by Agnes Sampson under the confessional torture. The letters of the “ very reverend dear brothers” to each other on the increasing numbers of witches, and the means for their suppression, is very interesting reading. “Though we have it expressly contained in the Word of God that there was a witch at Endor that Saul in his distress resorted to and communed with.” It seems to have been usual for witches to confess themselves before a whole congregation of people on the Sabbath Day. These confessions fire very amusing, and they implicate all and sundry, even the Clergy who were denouncing them. It appears the witch of lona was once consulted by Scotland’s king, and she in turn, was found consulting with her spirits.—l am, etc., F.M. January 11,