_To make one Wake or Sleep._--You must cut off dexterously the head of a toad alive, and at once, and let it dry, in observing that one eye be shut, and the other open; that which is found open makes one wake, and that shut causes sleep, by carrying it about one. _Preservative against the Plague._--Take three or four great toads, seven or eight spiders, and as many scorpions, put them into a pot well stopp'd, and let them lye some time; then add virgin-wax, make a good fire till all become a liquor, then mingle them all with a spatula, and make an ointment, and put it into a silver box well stopp'd, the which carry about you, being well assured that while you carry it about you, you will never be infected with the plague. We give the above as indicating the delusions which prevailed with respect to certain nostrums as late as the year 1711. EXECUTION OF GOVERNOR WALL IN 1802. As the following account, by a gentleman who witnessed the scene, avoids all disgusting details, we give it as containing a description of some of the circumstances which attended the execution, at the commencement of the present century, of a criminal of the higher class. The wretched man was hung for murder and barbarity: his victims were the men he had under his charge as Governor of the Island of Goree:-- "As we crossed the Press-yard, a cock crew; and the solitary clanking of a restless chain was dreadfully horrible. "The prisoner entered. He was death's counterfeit, tall, shrivelled, and pale; and his soul shot so piercingly through the port-holes of his head that the first glance of him nearly petrified me. I said in my heart, putting my pencil in my pocket, God forbid that I should disturb thy last moments! His hands were clasped, and he was truly penitent. After the yeoman had requested him to stand up, 'he pinioned him,' as the Newgate phrase is, and tied the cord with so little feeling that the governor, who had not given the wretch the accustomed fee, observed 'You have tied me very tight;' upon which Dr. Ford, the chaplain, ordered him to slacken the cord, which he did, but not without muttering, 'Thank you, sir,' said the governor to the doctor: 'it is of little moment.' He then observed to the attendant, who had brought in an immense iron shovel-full of coals to throw on the fire, 'Ay, in one hour that will be a blazing fire,' then turning to the doctor, questioned him: 'Do tell me, sir: I am informed I shall go down with great force; is it so?' After the construction and action of the machine had been explained, the doctor questioned the governor as to what kind of men he had at Goree:--'Sir,' he answered, 'they sent me the very riff-raff.' The poor soul then joined the doctor in prayer; and never did I witness more contrition at any condemned sermon than he then evinced.