man Baker gave to the poor dupes to wear as a charm against witchcraft, also the recipe or direction for breaking the charm, of which the following is a copy verbatim et literatim :

"The Gar of Mixtur is to be Mixt with half pint of Gen” (i. e. gin) “and then a table spoon to be taken Mornings and at Eleven O clock four and Eight. and four of the Pills to be taken every Morning fasting and the Paper of powder to be divided in ten parts and one part to be taken every Night going to bed in a little Honey."

"The paper of Arbs" (i. e. herbs) "is to be burnt, a small bit at a time, on a few coals, with a little hay and rosemary, and while it is burning read the two first verses of the 68th Salm, and say the Lord's prayer after.

(Signed) "B. BAKER.."

The time at which all this was to be was midnight, and with other attendant ceremonies and circumstances, of which he gave instructions. The verses with which the incantation was to be completed are the following, which, it will be agreed, are well chosen for effect:

Exurgat Deus, &c. "Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered; let them also that hate him flee before

him.

"Like as the smoke vanisheth, so shalt thou drive them away; and like as wax melteth at the fire, so let the ungodly perish at the presence of God."

As the preparations were taken by the ignorant creatures, it could not be ascertained what they were, whether medicinal, or mere rubbish, as is most probable. But we are positively assured, that after the rites had been all performed, such was the effect upon the imagination of the girl (aged 22) who fancied herself possessed, that she has not had a fit since. The act of

drawing blood from the supposed witch remained to be performed in order to break the charm entirely, and prevent it from returning. That horrible ceremony was soon performed in the manner stated.

CAPTAIN NICHOLAS B. BULL FOR LIBEL IN THE JOHN BULL NEWSPAPER AGAINST MR FYSHE PALMER, M. P.

Sheriff's Court, Surrey, April 7.

A writ of inquiry was executed before the under-sheriff and a jury of the county of Surrey, for the purpose of assessing the damages in an action brought by Mr Fyshe Palmer, member for Reading, against Captain Nicholas B. Bull, formerly commander of the King of the Netherlands steampacket, for a libel published by him in the John Bull newspaper of the 18th of August, 1822, and in which action the defendant had suffered judgment to go by default. The plaintiff's damages were laid at 2007.

Mr Charles Phillips stated the case for the plaintiff. The present action was brought by Mr Palmer, to recover damages in consequence of a wanton and libellous attack made upon his character by the defendant; and it was not easy to say, considering Mr Palmer as a human being, a Christian, or a legislator, in which capacity that attack was the most gross upon him. Appearing, as he then did, in the character of representative for Mr Palmer, he would still say, without hesitation, that if he thought it possible that a gentleman of his rank and education, and of the habits which that rank and that education naturally induced, could be guilty of such disgraceful and inhuman conduct as the defendant had attributed to him, he should be ashamed in his heart to represent him on the pre

sent occasion. He would now state to them the circumstances out of which this action had arisen. In the course of last year an event had occurred, which caused at the time a very considerable ferment, which, he believed, had scarcely even yet subsided. That event was the death of the late Lord Londonderry. Considering the suddenness with which it came upon the public, and the mournful circumstances by which it was accompanied, few circumstances had ever created a stronger sensation in this country. Different persons viewed it in different lights; but there was no man-he spoke it to the honour of the country-let his political prejudices be what they might let him detest as strongly as possible the political principles of the late Lord Londonderry-who did not join in expressing sorrow at the distress in which the manner of that distinguished nobleman's death had plunged his surviving relations. Unmindful of political feelings, friend and foe had joined in a sincere, and, he believed, well-merited tribute to his virtues. Few men had had the good fortune to possess a greater number of private friends; and in proportion to their number must have been the pain and disgust which they felt on hearing of the conduct which had been falsely imputed to his honourable client by the defendant in the present action. When the news of Lord Londonderry's death arrived at Reading, his client was in a public billiard-room. (It was here intimated to Mr C. Phillips that it was a private billiard-room.) He was mistaken-it was a private billiardroom; but whether it was private or public made no matter, as great care had been taken to give the utmost publicity to what was stated to have taken place in it. The news became the topic of conversation; and in a few days afterwards the feelings of Mr Palmer were horrified at reading this paragraph in the John Bull newspaper, which he

should distinctly trace to Mr Nicholas Boys Bull. The learned gentleman then read from the John Bull the following paragraph:

"Mr C. Fyshe Palmer was in the billiard-room at Reading, between twelve and one o'clock on Tuesday morning, when he said to Dr Midford, of that town, that He should have a dinner at the Crown on the occasion, with a haunch of venison, and turtle, and lots of punch! This he repeated several times, adding, that, it should be a regular jollification.'"

Now what kind of person must the world suppose Mr Palmer to be, if, filling the station in society that he does fill, he could, after hearing of the mournful death of a distinguished individual, express himself in the barbarous and inhuman phrases that were imputed to him-if he could make the death of that distinguished individual, with whom he had never had any quarrel, and who was, besides, the favoured minister of his Majesty, not merely a subject for indecent remark, but even a subject for merriment and regular jollification? The libeller went on"Mr Fyshe Palmer subsequently addressed himself to an individual present, and asked him to make one of the party." It was worth the while of the jury to observe the minuteness of the particulars to which the libeller had adverted; it shewed the art and cunning of the man; he added the particulars in order to lead the reader of them to this conclusion-that they were so many and so minute, that it was impossible that all of them could be false. But to return to the paragraph; it went on

"This person feeling himself to be insulted," (and, said Mr Phillips, well he might,)" by such an invitation, told Mr Palmer that he as much detested him as he did his character and politics."" Mr Palmer, it was well known, differed in politics, no doubt

conscientiously, from the late Lord Londonderry; upon the politics of that nobleman, he (Mr Phillips) had neither time nor place, nor intention at that moment, to dilate; all that he claimed was, that the same credit might be given to his client for purity of intention, as the defendant seemed so anxious to demand for the late Lord Londonderry. The defendant went on to state, that the gentleman who received the invitation, told Mr Palmer that he wished his punch might choke him. Mr Fyshe Palmer incensed at this rebuke, required an apology, which was refused." These words, continued the learned gentleman, form ed part of the paragraph complained of; but these words were not all: they were accompanied by comments, which he should also prove to have been written by Mr Nicholas B. Bull. In those comments, Mr Palmer was described as a miscreant, who in intellect and feeling was below the brutes, as a man who had disgraced himself by the use of expressions that ought never to have escaped the lips of a Christian and a gentleman. Those comments, be it recollected, were written by Mr N. Bull on a libel of which he was the sole creator and inventor. Let the jury attend to them

"One could hardly believe, if one did not know it, that such expressions could have escaped a Christian and a gentleman, (as Mr Palmer we presume to be, as being in Parliament,) even though he were a Whig; but true it is, that in this most extraordinary display of patriotic feeling, Mr Fyshe Palmer thus publicly indulged."

They might, perhaps, be inclined to ask how these paragraphs got into the newspaper in question. He would tell them: Mr Bull went to the King's Bench prison, where Mr Shackell, the editor of the John Bull, was at that time confined for a libel, of which he had been found guilty. He dined with

the editor, and told him the circumstances which he (Mr Phillips) had just detailed to them. The editor, on hearing them, felt considerable astonishment, and said, "It's impossible that they can be true!"-"Oh !" replied Mr N. Bull, "I'll give you my honour, or my oath, if you like, that they're all true!" The editor then asked him-" What is it you want me to do ?" "I want to write them," said Mr Bull, as a paragraph for your paper." The editor then desired him to sit down and write them. He wrote them accordingly. Mr Shackell was still struck with the improbability of the story, and again asked the ques tion, how was its truth to be vouched for? Mr Bull replied, " I, for one, am willing to vouch for it; besides, I'll give you the names of the persons who were present."" Well then," said Mr Shackell," if such be the case, I think it only right that his constituents should know what sort of person they have got to represent them." The libel was, in consequence, put to press; and if the matter had rested there, it might, perhaps, have been somewhat excusable from the haste with which it was composed. Unfortunately for the defendant, he could not even have the benefit of this excuse. It was on the Thursday that the conversation which he had just detailed took place. On the Saturday following Mr Shackell again sent for Mr N. Bull. He had then got the proof or revise of the paragraph in question. He gave it to Mr N. Bull, saying, "Here is the proof-look it over, and if you are not quite sure of what you state, we'll leave the paragraph out altogether.""No," said Bull, " don't do that-it's true as gospel-put it in ;" so that, instead of cancelling it, he gave it his deliberate approbation, after he had had two whole days to reflect upon it, Not only did he approve of the statements, but also of the comments by

which they were accompanied. It was almost unnecessary to inflame their minds with a repetition of them; but there was one to which he could not refrain from drawing their attention. It was this

"A Whig of eminence may be allowed some excuse for rejoicing at the fall of a great Tory, because his ruling passion' the hope of place-may be flattered by such an event; but this apology cannot be allowed to men whose talents and pretensions are so extremely humble as those of Mr Palmer, who, except, perhaps, as deputy. assistant clerk to Mr Creevey, would never be employed by any administration upon earth."

That was one of the comments: but let them listen to what came next. After abusing Mr Palmer in every pos. sible manner, on he goes—

"Lest the incredibility of the above statement should make it doubtful with our readers, we beg to observe that there were in the room, amongst other witnesses to the affair, the Hon. Colonel Anstruther, Captain Price, Mr Tuppin, Mr Thomas Tanner, Mr Bull, and Captain Rich."

It would strike the jury with horror to hear, that of the gentlemen thus vouched by the libeller to have been the witnesses to this affair, one was in France, another in Brighton, another confined to his bed by ill-health, and the fourth absolutely unknown in the town of Reading; and yet it was on the authority of such persons that Mr Bull avouched a libel to be true, which he himself positively knew to be false. Perhaps, however, Mr N. Bull laboured under some mistake. He would therefore examine whether there was any ground for such an idea; and here he would say that he was willing to give up his case if it could be shewn that any person had spoken a disrespectful word of the late Lord Londonderry, or that Mr Palmer had de

manded, or that any person had refused to give, an apology for any language that was uttered upon that occasion. There was no ground for stating that Mr N. Bull had acted under a mistake; the whole story was a pure invention of his own; nothing had occurred that was at all like it. He would produce the gentlemen who were present in the billiard-room, and they would declare upon their oaths, that so far from the facts being as Mr Bull had stated, they were directly the reverse-that, in place of the conversation imputed to Mr Palmer, he had expressed before Mr Bull the regret which he felt at the manner of Lord Londonderry's death, had stated his sorrow at seeing the people about Wokingham rejoicing at his death, and had added, that he had gone out of his inn there on purpose to rebuke them for so doing. He should prove, he repeated, that this was said in the presence of Bull himself; what, then, must that individual be, who after hearing Mr Palmer express his regret at the manner in which Lord Londonderry had died, and his indignation at the savage joy with which the people received the tidings of it-what must he be, who under such circumstances could go to the public press of the country, and impute to his honourable client conduct diametrically the reverse of that which he had actually followed? He would tell the jury what Mr Bull was. He was the son-in-law of Mr Tanner, one of the persons said to be present at the conversation, and one of the most violent opponents of Mr Palmer at his different elections in Reading. That circumstance might afford them some clew to the malice which had led the defendant to write the libel for which he was now called upon to answer. He would bring before them individuals of great influence in the town of Reading, who would tell them, that if his honourable client had not taken

this method of vindicating his character, the electors of Reading would never again have returned him to Parlia. ment; for, feeling as men and Christians ought to feel, they would have spurned a man who could make the death of a political opponent a fit subject for merriment and revelry. He had said that Bull had had time sufficient for reflection before he published this libel. He would now examine, whether since its publication he had done anything to atone for the injury which he had wantonly inflicted on the character of his client. For a few days after its publication he might not know that it had hurt Mr Palmer's feelings. He (Mr Phillips) would not therefore complain of his having offered no atone ment for some days afterwards. But it was not long before the club, in whose room this conversation was said to have occurred, assembled to take notice of it. The persons who were present whilst Mr Palmer was in the room were all examined as to it. Every one of them declared, upon his honour, first of all, that he did not hear one word of the imputed conversation, and secondly, that he had not given any information of it to the John Bull newspaper. Colonel Anstruther, the president, then wrote to Mr Nicholas Bull, who was the only person present who had not been examined, and informed him of what had occurred in a letter, which was quite proper for the occasion, and which no man could be offended at receiving from another. The letter was as follows:

"Reading Billiard Club, Sept. 8, 1822. "SIR,

"At a general meeting of the members and subscribers of the Billiard Club, held on Thursday the 5th instant, to take into consideration certain most offensive paragraphs in the John Bull newspaper, detailing a pretended and disgusting conversation of Mr

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Fyshe Palmer in the Reading Billiard Rooms, relative to the death of the Marquis of Londonderry, and imputing to him language derogatory to the character of a Christian and a gentleman, I am requested, as president and chairman of the said meeting, to inform you, that every gentleman present when the above conversation was supposed to take place, denied, either that such conversation took place, or that he was anywise instrumental in communicating to the editors of the John Bull newspaper the libel against Mr Fyshe Palmer's character contained in the report of such supposed conversation.

"I am requested, also, in order to give you the same opportunity of denying the two matters above-mentioned, to ask you whether you ever heard Mr Fyshe Palmer use the words imputed to him-namely, that he would have a jollification on the death of Lord Londonderry, or words to that effect; and whether you have been anywise instrumental in the propagation, or in the communication to the editors of the John Bull newspaper, of any such conversation?

"Not doubting but that you will duly appreciate the honourable and candid feelings of the meeting towards you in making this application to you, and that you will readily comply with their request in a matter where so sacred a thing as character is concerned, I wait in confidence of having from you a speedy answer, and remain, Sir, your obedient servant,

"DD. ANSTRUTHER, President, &c. Captain N. Bull."

The Colonel Anstruther who wrote that letter was the Colonel Anstruther to whom reference was made for the truth of the story in the John Bull newspaper. Now he thought that Mr Bull, under these circumstances, seeing that every gentleman present denied