A few of the English cases will not be found uninstructive as illustrative of the prejudice and persecution levelled at those accused of witchcraft in that country, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The celebrated case of the Witches of Warbois, in 1594, is especially worthy of mention. The good old Mother Samuel lived in the neighborhood of Sir Samuel Cromwell and a Mr. Throgmorton and the latter had several daughters and among them a Miss Joan, who was a melancholy girl, whose head was filled with stories of ghosts and witches and she conceived the idea that poor old Mother Samuel had bewitched her, as she felt sudden pains in her limbs and strange sensations, when she went near her. Her parents believed her and after a few family casualties the poor old woman was arrested upon a charge of witchcraft filed against her by the family of Sir Samuel Cromwell, after the death of his wife, as she had confessed, upon different persecutions that she had afflicted them with pains and fits and turned their milk sour in the pans, prevented their ewes and cows from bearing and that she had caused Lady Cromwell’s death. She also confessed that her husband and daughter were leagued with her in witchcraft and all three were found guilty and hanged on April 7’, 1593. In Scotland, during the ninth Parliament of Queen Mary, witchcraft was made a crime punishable by death, and after this statute, the superstition and fear of the people brought frequent accusations against different people, many of whom were prominent in Government and social circles. The case against Dr. Fian and his accomplices will illustrate the feeling obtaining in Scotland about this period. Gellie Duncan implicated Agnes Sampson and when she was put to the torture, she also implicated Dr. Fian, Marion Lincup and Euphemia Macalzean, the daughter of Lord Cliftonhall. They were charged with having attempted the king’s life, through witchcraft and sorcery. It was charged that they had raised a fearful storm at sea, to attempt to wreck a ship on which the king, James VI., and his bride had sailed. Several of the accused were subjected to the torture and finally confessed to the crime and implicated the rest, and on June 25’, 1591, Barbara Napier, Gellie Duncan, Agnes Sampson, Dr. Fian and twenty-five others were hanged for witchcraft and Euphemia Macalzean was “bound to a stake, and burned in ashes, _quick_ to the death.”[24] After this conviction in Scotland, the renown of King James as an enemy to witchcraft and sorcery, preceded him to England and when he ascended the English throne in 1603, he was ready for a new crusade against this obnoxious class of criminals. The first statute upon witchcraft, in England, was that of 1541, which defined the offense and affixed the punishment.