nsolidated, some of its
members are apt to show more zeal than discretion. No sect who are
regular and useful should have an ill name for the improprieties
committed by a few of them."

Our "pious forefathers," we must confess, were too apt to be a little
hard towards those who annoyed them with their tongue and pen upon
Church doctrine and discipline or the administration of the
government. As early as 1631, one Philip Ratclif is sentenced by the
Assistants to pay L40, to be whipped, to have his ears cropped, and
to be banished. What had he done to merit such a punishment as this?
He had made "hard speeches against Salem Church, as well as the
Government." "The execution of this decision," Mr. Felt says, "was
represented in England to the great disadvantage of Massachusetts."
Jeffries was not yet on the bench in England.

In 1652 a man was fined for excess of apparel "in bootes, rebonds,
gould and silver lace."

Mr. Charles W. Palfrey contributed in 1866 to the "Salem Register" the
following interesting item on the Salem witchcraft trials:

Among the many attempts to remedy the mischiefs caused by the
witchcraft delusion, the subjoined is not without interest. About
eighteen years after the memorable year, 1692, four members, a
committee of the Legislature, were sent to Salem to hear certain
parties and receive certain petitions, and the following is the
record, in the Journal, of their Report:--

October 26, 1711. Present in Council, His Excellency Joseph
Dudley, Esqr., Governor, John Hathorne, Samuel Sewall, Jonathan
Corwin, Joseph Lynde, Penn Townsend, John Higginson, Daniel Epes,
Andrew Belcher, etc., etc.

Report of the Committee appointed, Relating to the Affair of
Witchcraft in the year 1692; viz.--

We whose Names are subscribed in Obedience to your Honours' Act at
a Court held the last of May, 1710, for our inserting the Names of
the several Persons who were condemned for Witchcraft in the year
1692, & of the Damages they sustained by their prosecution; Being
met at Salem, for the Ends aforesaid, the 13th Septem., 1710, Upon
Examination of the Records of the several Persons condemned,
Humbly offer to your Honours the Names as follows, to be inserted
for the Reversing their Attainders: Elizabeth How, George Jacob,
Mary Easty, Mary Parker, Mr. George Burroughs, Gyles Cory & Wife,
Rebecca Nurse, John Willa