the
volume formerly belonged, has been at the pains of chronicling the
superstitions connected with a family, ranking amongst the more
opulent yeomen of Cliviger, of the name of Briercliffe, on the
execution of one of whom for murder the tract was published. The
Briercliffe's, from the curious anecdotes which the Doctor gives with
great unction, appear to have been one of those gloomy and fated
races, dogged by some unassuageable Nemesis, in which crime and horror
are transmitted from generation to generation with as much certainty
as the family features and name.]

[Footnote 37: We yet want a full, elaborate, and satisfactory history
of witchcraft. Hutchinson's is the only account we have which enters
at all at length into the detail of the various cases; but his
materials were generally collected from common sources, and he
confines himself principally to English cases. The European history of
witchcraft embraces so wide a field, and requires for its just
completion a research so various, that there is little probability, I
fear, of this _desideratum_ being speedily supplied.]

With all his habitual tautology and grave absurdity, Master Potts is,
nevertheless, a faithful and accurate chronicler, and we owe his
memory somewhat for furnishing us with so elaborate a report of what
took place on this trial, and giving us, "in their own country terms,"
the examinations of the witnesses, which contain much which throws
light on the manners and language of the times, and nearly all that is
necessary to enable us to form a judgment on the proceedings. It will
be observed that he follows with great exactness the course pursued in
court, in opening the case and recapitulating the evidence separately
against each prisoner, so as most graphically to place before us the
whole scene as it occurred. The part in which he is felt to be most
deficient, is in the want of some further account of the prisoners
convicted, from the trial up to the time of their execution. To Master
Potts, a man of legal forms and ceremonies, the entire interest in the
case seems to have come in and gone out with the judge's trumpets.

As most of the points in the trial which appeared to require
observation, have been adverted to in the notes which follow the
reprint, it is not considered necessary to enter into any analysis or
review of the evidence adduced at the trial, which presents such a
miserable mockery of justice. Mother Demdike, it will be seen,