between them over a stile; and several witnesses deposed, that on the evening of the 29th of January, they saw a miserable-looking woman, on the same road, enquiring her way to London. These periods corresponded with the abduction and the return of Canning. Then are called more than twenty witnesses, who swear positively to their knowledge of Squires, and to their having seen" and spoken with her at various periods, at and in the vicinity of Enfield, between the first and twenty-fourth days of January, on which latter day, according to the story of her own witnesses, she arrived at Mrs. Wells's. Several old women were put into the box, to prove the presence of Squires at Enfield, whose ignorance would not bear cross-examination, and whose testimony, where so much depended on accuracy of dates, was not to be greatly relied on. Margaret Richardson was cross-examined by Mr. Willes.

"Do you know which is Old Christmas-day, and which is New Christmas-day?—You must tell me; my memory is not so good.

"Which comes first? Why, the New Christmas-day.

"How many days difference?-Some call it nine; but it may be more.

"How old are you, good woman?—I don't know justly.

"What day of the week was Old Christmas

day? It was of a Tuesday or Wednesday; I can't remember which.

"Is Christmas-day Holy Thursday or Good Friday?—I can't resolve no such thing; I am no scholar; I can't pretend to know such things..

"What month is Christmas-day in ?—I can't say that neither, because you put me to a stop. "Is it the 25th of February-I don't know justly, indeed.

Mr. Nares." You put the poor old woman in a hurry.

Recorder. "Don't be affrighted. Can you tell what month Christmas is in ?—I cannot.

"In what season of the year is it?-To be sure I can tell that; it is in winter."

Such are the main points of this most perplexing case, which gave rise to a prodigious popular clamour. The pamphlets published on each side of the question would almost compose a library, and were written in a spirit of the utmost virulence and exasperation. Families were divided on the subject. It became a source of division between husbands and wives, children and parents. The trial, as was observed by the Recorder, was carried on by different sets of people, who interested themselves in it with uncommon zeal, and whose passions led them into the greatest extremities and highest extravagances. And this singular trial had as singular a termination, for

the Jury, who had certainly a knotty point to determine, seem, after all, to have given a verdict contrary to their real intention. The leaning of the Recorder, in his address to the Jury, is evidently against the prisoner. At twenty minutes past twelve in the morning, the Jury withdrew to consider their verdict, and returned at fifteen minutes after two, bringing in their verdict, "Guilty of perjury, but not wilful or corrupt." The Recorder told them, that he could not receive their verdict, because it was partial, and they must either find her guilty of the whole indictment, or else acquit her; upon which they retired again. for twenty minutes, and then returned their verdict, Guilty of wilful and corrupt perjury." A new trial was moved for, on the ground that two of the Jury dissented from the verdict. These two men made affidavits, that they considered Canning to have been mistaken in some points; but not to have wilfully perjured herself, and at their instigation the first verdict was carried in. When the Jury were directed to reconsider it, they would have acquitted her; but the foreman told them, that after having once found her guilty of perjury, they could not return a verdict of not guilty. And the deponents say, that they would not have joined in the verdict had they known that it is the act of the mind, and not an undesigned mistake, that constitutes the crime of per

jury! The application for a new trial was, however, rejected, and, notwithstanding the Jury recommended her to mercy, Canning was transported, in August, 1754, to New England. After her conviction she persisted in her story, "aud did, in the most serious manner, and with the strictest regard to truth, declare, that she remained fully persuaded, and well assured, that Mary Squires was the person who robbed her, and that the house of Susannah Wells was the place where she was confined twenty eight days." In the Gentleman's Magazine for August, 1773, it is stated, that Canning died at Weathersfield, in Connecticut, on the 22d July, in that year. The account of her death in the Magazine, is accompanied with the observation," that, notwithstanding the many strange circumstances of her story, none is so strange, as that it should not be discovered in so many years, where she had concealed herself during the time she had invariably declared she was at the house of Mother Wells." (State Trials, vol. xix. p. 283.)

SPECIAL PLEADING.

Lord Mansfield was an avowed enemy to Special Pleading; or, perhaps, more correctly speaking, to Special Pleaders; but it is only fair to acknowledge, that another very great man is a warm advocate for it. Sir William Jones, in his Prefatory Dis course to the Translation of Isæus, thus expresses

himself: "I shall not easily be induced to wish for a change of our present forms, how intricate soever they may seem to those who are ignorant of their utility. Our science of Special Pleading is an excellent logic; it is admirably calculated for the purpose of analysing a cause, of extracting, like the roots of an equation, the true points in dispute, and referring them, with all imaginable simplicity, to the court or jury; it is reducible to the strictest rules of pure dialect; and if it were scientifically taught in our public seminaries of learning, would fix the attention, give a habit of reasoning closely, quicken the apprehension, and invigorate the understanding, as effectually as the famed peripatetic system; which, however ingenious and subtle, is not so honourable, laudable, or profitable, as the science in which Littleton exhorts his sons to employ their courage and care. It may unquestionably be perverted to very bad purposes; but so may the noblest arts, and even eloquence itself, which many virtuous men have, for that reason, denied; there is no fear, however, that either the contracted fist, as Zeno used to call it, or the expanded palm, can do any real mischief, while their blows are directed and restrained by the superintending power of a court."

THE LAST DAYS OF LORD KEEPER WILLIAMS.

"From the heavy time of the King's (Charles I.)