pleased to acquaint his Majesty in
Council with the account received from New England, from Sir W^m
Phips, the Governor there, touching proceedings against several
persons for Witchcraft, as appears by the Governor's letter
concerning those matters."

The foregoing document, I repeat, indicates the kind of talk with which
Phips was accosted, when stepping ashore. Exaggerated representations of
the astonishing occurrences at Salem Village burst upon him from all,
whom he would have been likely to meet. The manner in which the Mathers,
through him, had got exclusive possession of the Government of the
Province, probably kept him from mingling freely among, or having much
opportunity to meet, any leading men, outside of his Council and the
party represented therein. Writing in the ensuing October, at the moment
when he had made up his mind to break loose from those who had led him
to the hasty appointment of the Special Court, there is significance in
his language. "I have grieved to see that some, who should have done
their Majesties, and the Province, better service, have so far taken
counsel of passion, as to desire the precipitancy of these matters."
This refers to, and amounts to a condemnation of, the advisers who had
influenced him to the rash measures adopted on his arrival. How rash and
precipitate those measures were I now proceed to show.

V.

THE SPECIAL COURT OF OYER AND TERMINER. HOW IT WAS ESTABLISHED. WHO
RESPONSIBLE FOR IT. THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE CONCENTRATED IN ITS
CHIEF-JUSTICE.

So great was the pressure made upon Sir William Phips, by the wild panic
to which the community had been wrought, that he ordered the persons who
had been committed to prison by the Salem Magistrates, to be put in
irons; but his natural kindness of heart and common sense led him to
relax the unjustifiable severity. Professor Bowen, in his _Life of
Phips_, embraced in Sparks's _American Biography_, [_vii., 81._] says:
"Sir William seems not to have been in earnest in the proceeding; for
the officers were permitted to evade the order, by putting on the irons
indeed, but taking them off again, immediately."

On Tuesday, the twenty-fourth of May, the Council met to consider the
matter specially assigned to that day, namely, the nomination and
appointment of Judicial officers.

The Governor gave notice that he had issued Writs for the election of
Representatives to convene in a General Court, to