others, or to a malicious disposition to wreak vengeance upon enemies.  The prisons in Salem, Ipswich, Boston, and Cambridge, were crowded.  All the securities of society were dissolved.  Every man’s life was at the mercy of every other man.  Fear sat on every countenance, terror and distress were in all hearts, silence pervaded the streets; all who could, quit the country; business was at a stand; a conviction sunk into the minds of men, that a dark and infernal confederacy had got foot-hold in the land, threatening to overthrow and extirpate religion and morality, and establish the kingdom of the Prince of darkness in a country which had been dedicated, by the prayers and tears and sufferings of its pious fathers, to the Church of Christ and the service and worship of the true God.  The feeling, dismal and horrible indeed, became general, that the providence of God was removed from them; that Satan was let loose, and he and his confederates had free and unrestrained power to go to and fro, torturing and destroying whomever he willed.  We cannot, by any extent of research or power of imagination, enter fully into the ideas of the people of that day; and it is therefore absolutely impossible to appreciate the awful condition of the community at the point of time to which our narrative has led us.

In the midst of this state of things, the old colony of Massachusetts was transformed into a royal province, and a new government organized.  Sir William Phips, the governor, arrived at Boston, with the new charter, on the evening of the 14th of May.  William Stoughton, of Dorchester, superseded Thomas Danforth as deputy-governor.  In the Council, which took the place of the Assistants, most of the former body were retained.  Bartholomew Gedney had a few years before been dropped from the board of Assistants.  He was now placed in the Council with John Hathorne, Jonathan Corwin, Samuel Appleton, and Robert Pike, of this county.  The new government did not interfere with the proceedings in progress relating to the witchcraft prosecutions, at the moment.  Examinations and commitments went on as before; only the magistrates, acting on those occasions, were re-enforced by Mr. Gedney, who presided at their sessions.  The affair had become so formidable, and the public infatuation had reached such a point, that it was difficult to determine what ought to be done.  Sir William Phips, no doubt, felt that it was beyond his depth, and yielded himself to the views of the leading men of his council.  Stoughton was in full sympathy with Cotton Mather, whose interest had been used in procuring his appointment over Danforth.  Through him, Mather acquired, and held for some time, great ascendency with the governor.  It was concluded best to appoint a special court of Oyer and Terminer for the witchcraft trials.  Stoughton, the deputy-governor, was commissioned as chief-justice.  Nathaniel Saltonstall of Haverhill; Major John Richards of Boston; Major Bartholomew Gedney of Salem; Mr. Wait Winthrop, Captain Samuel Sewall, and Mr. Peter Sargent, all three of Boston,—­were made associate judges.  Saltonstall early withdrew from the service; and Jonathan Corwin, of Salem, succeeded to his place on the bench of the special court.  A majority of the judges were citizens of Boston.