moderately provided for, and a sensible content with the situation of life in which men are born-this through the week, and at the end of it the "Cotter's Saturday Night "--the homely family gathered reverently and peacefully together and irradiated with a sacred presence. Happiness! such happiness as we creatures are likely to know upon this world will be found there if anywhere.

The author of the "History of Civilization" makes a naïve remark in connection with this subject. Speaking of the other country, which he censures equally with Scotland for its slavery to superstition, he says of the Spaniards that they are a well-natured, truthful, industrious, temperate, pious people, innocent in their habits, affectionate in their families, full of humor, vivacity, and shrewdness, yet that all this "has availed them nothing "—" has availed them nothing," that is his expression-because they are loyal, because they are credulous, because they are contented, bccause they have not apprehended the first commandment of the new covenant: Thou shalt get on and make money and better thy condition in life;" because therefore they have added nothing to the scientific knowledge, the wealth, and the progress of mankind. Without these it seems the oldfashioned virtues avail nothing. They avail a great deal to human happiness. Applied science, and steam, and railroads, and machinery, enable an ever-increasing number of people to live upon the earth, but the happiness of those people remains, so far as I know, dependent very much on the old conditions. I should be glad to believe that the new view of things will produce effects upon the character in the long run half so beautiful.

There is much more to say on this subject were there time to say it, but I will not trespass so far upon your pa

tience; and I would gladly have ended here had not the mention of Spain suggested one other topic which I should not leave unnoticed. The Spain of Cervantes and Don Quixote was the Spain of the inquisition. The Scotland of Knox and Melville was the Scotland of the witch trials and the witch burnings. The belief in witches was common to all the world. The prosecution and punishment of the poor creatures was more conspicuous in Scotland when the Kirk was most powerful; in England and New England when Puritan principles were also dominant there. It is easy to understand the reasons. Evil of all kinds was supposed to be the work of a personal devil; and in the general horror of evil this particular form of it, in which the devil was thought especially active, excited the most passionate detestation. Thus, even the best men lent themselves unconsciously to the most detestable cruelty. Knox himself is not free from reproach. A poor woman was burned when he was living there and when a word from him would have saved her. It remains a lesson to all time, that goodness, though the indispensable adjunct to knowledge, is no substitute for it; and when conscience undertakes to dictate beyond its province the result is only the more monstrous.

It is well that we should look this matter in the face; and as particular stories leave more impression than general statements, I will mention one, perfectly well authenticated, which I take from the official report of the proceedings: Toward the end of 1593 there was trouble in the family of the Earl of Orkney. His brother laid a plot to murder him and was said to have sought the help of a "notorious witch" called Alison Balfour. When Alison Balfour's life was looked into no evidence could be found connecting her either with the particular offence or with witchcraft in gen

eral; but it was enough in these matters to be accused. She swore she was innocent; but her guilt was only held to be aggravated by perjury. She was tortured again and again. Her legs were put in the caschilaws,—an iron frame which was gradually heated till it burned into the flesh,-but no confession could be wrung from her. The caschilaws failed utterly and something else had to be tried. She had a husband, a son, and a daughter, a child seven her own sufferings did not work upon her she might be touched perhaps by the sufferings of those who were dear to her. They were brought into court and placed at her side; and the husband first was placed in the "lang irons"

years old. As

-some accursed instrument; I know not what. Still the devil did not yield. She bore this; and her son was next operated on. The boy's legs were set in "the boot,"-the iron boot you may have heard of. The wedges were driven in, which, when forced home, crushed the very bone and marrow. Fifty-seven mallet strokes were delivered upon the wedges. Yet this too failed. There was no confession yet. So last of all the little daughter was taken. There was a machine called the piniwinkies-a kind of thumb-screw which brought blood from under the finger-nails, with a pain successfully terrible. These things were applied to the poor child's hands and the mother's constancy broke down and she said she would admit anything they wished. She confessed her witchcraft, so tried, she would have confessed to the seven deadly sins,-and then she was burned, recalling her confession and with her last breath protesting her innocence.

It is due to the intelligence of the time to admit that after this her guilt was doubted, and such vicarious means of extorting confession do not seem to have been tried again.

No

Yet the men who inflicted these tortures would have borne them all themselves sooner than have done any act which they consciously knew to be wrong. They did not know that the instincts of humanity were more sacred than the logic of theology, and in fighting against the devil they were themselves doing the devil's work. We should not attempt to apologize for these things, still less to forget them. martyrs ever suffered to instill into mankind a more wholesome lesson-more wholesome or one more hard to learn. The more conscientious men are the more difficult it is for them to understand that in their most cherished convictions when they pass beyond the limits where the wise and good of all sorts agree they may be the victims of mere delusion. Yet after all and happily, such cases were but few and affected but lightly the general condition of the people.

The student running over the records of other times finds certain salient things standing out in frightful prominence. He concludes that the substance of those times was made up of the matters most dwelt on by the annalist. He forgets that the things most noticed are not those of everyday experiences but the abnormal, the extraordinary, the monstrous. The exceptions are noted down, the common and usual are passed over in silence. The philosophic historian studying hereafter this present age, in which we are ourselves living, may say that it was a time of unexampled prosperity, luxury, and wealth; but, catching at certain horrible murders which have lately disgraced our civilization, may call us a nation of assassins. It is to invert the pyramid and stand it on its point. The same system of belief which produced the tragedy which I have described, in its proper province as the guide of ordinary life, has been the immediate cause of all that is best and greatest in Scottish character.

TILLEY

SIR

IR SAMUEL LEONARD TILLEY, a Canadian statesman, was born at Gagetown, New Brunswick, May 8, 1818. He attended for a few years the grammar school in his native town, but at the age of twelve was apprenticed to an apothecary, and subsequently set up in business for himself. At seventeen he joined a debating society and was early a warm advocate of temperance, remaining a total abstainer all his life. In 1850 he entered the New Brunswick legislature as member for St. John, and for the remainder of his career was almost never out of public life. From 1857 to 1865 he was premier of the province of New Brunswick, and after the union of the British provinces in the Dominion of Canada he was made the first minister of customs in the Dominion cabinet. He subsequently held the posts of minister of public works and minister of finance, and was lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick, 1873-78. During the administration of Sir John Macdonald he was again minister of finance, 1878-85, and in 1879 received the honor of knighthood from the Marquis of Lorne. On account of ill health he retired from the cabinet in the summer of 1885, but in the following November was persuaded to accept the post of lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick for the second time, holding office until 1893. His death took place at St. John, New Brunswick, June 25, 1896. Sir Leonard Tilley during his long public career instituted many public measures of importance, the chief of which was the act relating to the readjustment and reorganization of the customs tariff. See Rose's "Canadian Biography."

M

ON NATIONAL POLICY

DELIVERED MARCH 14, 1879

R. CHAIRMAN,-It is only recently that I have quite realized the great changes that have taken place throughout the Dominion of Canada since I last had the honor of a seat in Parliament. To-day I fully realize them, and the increased difficulties devolving upon me as finance minister, compared with the position of affairs when I submitted my financial statement in 1873. Then my work was a very easy one indeed. Honorable ministers on the opposite benches were pleased on that occasion to compliment