and Controversies which have been printed respecting this interesting traveller, I must say there is one thing with which I have been exceedingly dissatisfied. Not one person, that I know of, has ever accounted satisfactorily for these birds being invisible in their migrations to Europe or Africa. We hear or see a few solitary accounts, such as those of Adamson and sir Charles Wager, about their settling on the masts of ships; but these prove little, and, by their infrequency, are rather calculated to excite suspicion; and have, certainly, produced little conviction upon those who contend that some species (at least) of swallows abide in England all the year. The objection, you see, which perpetually recurs, is this, - -"If these birds do really leave us, how comes it that their transits should not have been clearly ascertained by the ocular testimony of observant and distinguished men, ages ago? How happens it that we should only have the fortuitous accounts of obscure and common individuals?" There are other exceptions to migration, taken by the objectors to whom I allude, such as the testimony of people who assert that swallows have been fished up out of water, or found in caves, hollow trees, &c., and restored, by warmth, to animation but, really, Mr. Editor, it appears to me that all this nonsense may be ended at a single blow, by reference to the works of Pennant, and the writings of those eminent anatomists, Messrs. John Hunter and Bell: I shall not, therefore, notice any other than that which appears to me the grand, and very plausible objection; and this will introduce, very naturally, my own opinion,― formed, as far as I know myself, upon observation and reason, and, certainly, not gathered from the deductions of others. Every observant man must have remarked how different are the motions of swallows, when about to disappear, from mortals, they can wing their way under the direction of an unerring guide. Yes when, during the equinoxial gales, we see the lower clouds flitting over the disk of the sun or moon,-the waves of the sea uplifted, and the oaks of the forest bending before the blast,-we see, also, the fleecy strata high above the tempest, quiet and unruffled; and may assure ourselves that, in ethereal space, still higher, the pretty harbinger of the spring sojourns. How elevated, sweet, and consoling, are the reflections which naturally arise out of this hypothesis, in the mind of that man who delights to look through “nature up to nature's God." To me, at least (partial as I am to good analogies) these pure and peaceful tracts, with their lovely and innocent travellers, are emblematic of that upper and better world, to which the holy and the virtuous ascend when the warring elements of this life are felt no more; and, in the instinct and formation of the swallow, with the means provided for its safety by a beneficent Creator, I am reminded of the assurance that "not even a sparrow falleth to the ground without his permission" by whom "the very hairs of our heads are numbered." Not to trespass much further upon your columns, permit me to observe how well my observations coincide with the account of king James's hawk, at p. 274. If, in ethereal space, a bird of this kind could fly, in a short time, to the Cape of Good Hope,-much less wonderful would it be for a swallow, under like circumstances, to reach Africa. Sun rises sets Twilight ends h. m. 3 27 5 30 6 30 8 33 what they are at other times.-They call April 3. Day breaks Wall-flower flowers generally, though flowers on old plants are often out much earlier. Blue houndstongue flowers abundantly, There are seven pillars of Gothic mold, A sunbeam which hath lost its way, For in these limbs its teeth remain, THE PRISONER OF CHILLON. A drawing of the dungeon of Chillon was taken on the spot, in 1822, by W. A. D., jun., who obligingly communicated it to the Year Book for its present use. On the pillar to the right is Lord Byron's name, cut deep with a knife by himself before he wrote his poem. Until now, a view of this place has not been published. Near this castle Rosseau fixed the catastrophe of his Eloisa, in the rescue of one of her children by Julia from the water; .he shock of which, and the illness produced by the immersion, caused her Leath. It appears, from the notes to "the Prisoner of Chillon," that the castle of Chillon is situated between Clarens and Villeneuve, which last is at one extremity of the lake of Geneva. On its left are the entrances of the Rhone, and opposite are the heights of Meillerie and the range of alps above Boveret and St. Gingo. Near it, on a hill behind, is a torrent; below it, washing its walls, the lake has been fathomed to the depth of 800 feet (French measure); within it are a range of dungeons, in which the early reformers, and subsequently prisoners of state, were confined. Across one of the vaults is a beam, black with age, on which the condemned are said to have been for merly executed. In the cells are seven pillars, or rather eight, one being half merged in the wall; in some of these are rings for the fetters and the fettered in the pavement the steps of Bonnivard have left the traces-he was confined here several years. François de Bonnivard, son of Louis de Bonnivard, lord of Lunes, was born in the year 1496; he was educated at Turin: in 1510 his uncle, Jean Aimé de Bonnivard, surrendered to him the priory of St. Victor, a benefice of considerable importance adjoining the walls of Geneva. Bonnivard eminently deserved the appellation of great for rectitude and strength of mind. He united nobleness of purpose, wisdom in counsel, and courage in execution, with variety of knowledge and vivacity of spirit. In endeavoring to secure the liberty of Geneva, he feared not the frequent loss of his own. He surrendered his ease, and expended his wealth, in endeavours to insure the happiness of his adopted country, and was cherished as one of her most zealous citizens. He served her with the intrepidity of a hero, and wrote her history with the truth and simplicity of a philosopher and the warmth of a patriot. In 1519 Bonnivard, then three and twenty years of age, announced himself the defender of Geneva, in oppositior to the bishop and the duke of Savoy. The duke being then about to enter Geneva, at the head of 500 men, Bonnivard justly anticipated his resentment, and endeavoured to retire to Fribourg; bur was betrayed by two men who accompanied him, and was sent by order of the prince to Grolée, where he was kept prisoner for two years. He seems to have escaped from that confinement, and to have been arrested in his flight by thieves, who robbed him at Jura, and replaced. him in the hands of his enemies. duke of Savoy ordered him to be shut up in the castle of Chillon, where he remained without being interrogated unti. the year 1536 he was then liberated by the Bernois, who had invaded the Pays de Vaud. The Bonnivard, on regaining his liberty, had the pleasure of finding that Geneva was free, and had adopted the principles of the Reformation. The republic hastened to testify her gratitude for the wrongs ne had suffered in her behalf. He immediately received his citizenship, and was presented with the house formerly occupied by the vicar-general, and a pension of 200 gold crowns was assigned to him. In the following year he was admitted into the council of 200. After having labored to render Geneva free, Bonnivard endeavoured to render her tolerant. He allowed time to the ecclesiastics, and the people of the country, to examine the propositions he submitted to them, and succeeded by the mildness of his principles; for he preached the charity of christianity. Bonnivard's manuscripts remain in the public library, and prove that he was wellread in the Latin classics, and was learned both in theology and history. He zealously cultivated the sciences, for which he believed that Geneva would at some time become famous. In 1551 he gave his library to the state, as the commencement for its public library. Among the books are some of the most rare and beautiful editions of the fifteenth century. In the same year he constituted the republic his heir, on condition that she should employ his wealth in maintaining the foundations of the projected college. There is reason to suppose that Bonnivard died in the year 1570, but on account of a deficiency in the necrology, from July 1570 to 1571, the date cannot be exactly ascertained. SONNET ON CHILLON. Eternal spirit of the chainless mind! And thy sad floor an altar-for 'twas trod, BYRON. April 4. On the 4th of April, 1823, during the Taunton assizes, intense curiosity was excited by the appearance of the names of three females in the calendar, on a charge, under lord Ellenborough's act, of maliciously cutting and stabbing an old woman, a reputed "witch," with intent to murder her. The grand jury ignored the bill on the capital charge, but returned a true bill against the prisoners, Elizabeth Bryant the mother, aged fifty; Eliz. Bryant, the younger, and Jane Bryant, the two daughters, for having maliciously assaulted Anne Burges. Mr. Erskine stated the case to the jury. The reputed witch, Ann Burges, a fine hale-looking old woman, sixty-eight years of age, of rather imposing gravity, deposed that, on the 26th of November, she went to Mrs. Bryant's house, and "I said, Betty Bryant, I be come to ask you a civil question; whether I bewitched your daughter?'-She said, Yes, you have, you have bewitched her for the last twelve months;' and she said she was ten pounds the worse of it, and she would be totally d-d if she would not kill me. They all came out together, and fell upon me. The little daughter drew out my arm, and held it whilst one of the others cut at it. The eldest of them said, Bring me a knife, that we may cut the flesh off the old wretch's arms.' They tore my arms all over with an iron nail." The old woman described the manner of the outrage. She was ill from the wounds on her arm. A woman who accompanied her came in and dragged her away, and cried out murder, as loud as they could, and a mob assembled in the street, round the door: they did not interfere, but exclaimed that the old woman, on whom the prisoners were exercising their fury, was a witch. The mother, and the elder daughter, held the witness as she struggled on the ground, whilst the younger daughter, with the first instrument that came to her hand, a large nail, lacerated her arm in a dreadful manner. This was done for nearly ten minutes, the mob standing by nearly the whole of the time: and the old woman was rescued only by the vigorous efforts of her companion. She did not doubt that if a knife had been in the way, when she presented herself at the door, she would have been murdered. Cross-examined." Do not the people of Wiviliscomb (truly or falsely, I don't say) account you to be a witch? The old woman (with great agitation)— "Oh dear; oh dear! that I should live to be three score and eight years old, and be accounted a witch, at last. Oh dear! what will become of me?" "Well, it is very hard, certainly; but do they not account you to be a witch? " It was some time before the old woman could answer intelligibly that she had never been accounted a witch in her life (God forbid !) by any one, before the prisoners circulated it about the town that she was, and that she had exercised her infernal influence over one of them. She always tried to live righteously and peaceably, without doing harm to any one. She was greatly afflicted at the injurious supposition. An apprentice to Mr. North, a surgeon at Wiviliscomb, deposed that, on the night in question, the prosecutrix came to him. He found her arm dreadfully lacerated. There were fifteen or sixteen incisions upon it, of about a quarter of an inch, and others an eighth of an inch deep, and from two to three inches and three inches and a half long; she bled very severely; witness dressed her arm, and, as she was healthy, it got well fast; but she was ill for more than a month, in consequence of the attack. The counsel for the prisoners said he did not mean to deny the fact of the assault, but he wished to show the infatuation under which they had acted. Mr. Erskine said he could adduce evidence which would show the gross delusion under which the prisoners had labored; and he was perfectly willing that they should have any benefit that they might derive from it. An old woman, Elizabeth Collard, was then called, who said she was an acquaintance of the elder prisoner, and met her on the morning of the day of the assault, not having seen her before for a long time. The witness said, we were talking about our troubles, when she told me that her troubles were greater than mine, or any body's troubles, for they were not mortal troubles. She said her daughter had been bewitched for the last twelve months, and that she had been to consult old Baker, the Devonshire wizard, about her case, who had given her a recipe against witchcraft, and said that blood must be drawn from the witch to break the charm; she said that old Mrs. Burges was the witch, and that she was going to get blood from her. "She was in such a way, that I thought she would have gone immediately to Mrs. Burges, to have drawn blood, but I advised her not, and to let old Baker punish her, if she really was the witch." Mr. Justice Burrough." Who is old Baker?" Witness." On! my lord, he is a great conjuror, the people say. He is a good deal looked up to by the poor people in these parts Mr. Justice Burrough.-"I wish we had the fellow here. Tell him, if he does not leave off his conjuring, he will be caught, and charmed in a manner he will not like." The witness resumed." I pitied the woman, she was in such a world of troubles; and, besides that, she has had a great many afflictions with her family, but she appeared to feel the bewitching of her daughter very deeply. I asked how the witchcraft worked upon her, and she told me that, when her daughter was worked upon, she would dance and sing, just as if she was dancing and singing to a fiddle, in a way that there was no stopping her, before she dropped down, when the fiend left her. Whilst the fit was upon her, she would look wished (wild or frighted), and point at something, crying, there she stands! there she stands! (the witch). I felt for the daughter, very much. Her state is very pitiable, my lord." Mr. Rodgers addressed the jury, in behalf of the prisoners. He said, that to attempt to deny that a verdict of guilty must be given against the miserable females at the bar would be to insult the understandings of the intelligent gentlemen in the box. His observations would be rather for the purpose of showing the unfortunate delusion under which the prisoners had been actuated; the infamous fraud that had been practised upon them; their miserable afflictions; and to induce the jury to give, with their verdict, a recommendation of mercy to his lordship. Mr. Justice Burrough said that course could not be allowed, if the fact were not denied. Any observations in mitigation might be addressed to him after the verdict. The jury found all the prisoners guilty. Mr. Rodgers, in mitigation of punishment, begged his lordship to consider the delusion by which the unfortunate prisoners had been actuated. Mr. Erskine said he should not say a word in aggravation of punishment. He was instructed by the prosecutors to state that they should feel fully satisfied with any sentence that might have the tendency of preventing the future operation of the belief, in those places where its greatest influence was exercised. Mr. Justice Burrough said, if such a fellow as Baker lived in Devonshire, or in any part of the country, and pursued such practices as were ascribed to him, there was a very useful act of parliament, recently passed, which provided for the punishment of such offences; and his lordship hoped the magistrates of the county would prosecute him, and bring him to punishment. His lordship then addressed the prisoners, and sentenced each to be further imprisoned in the county gaol, for the space of four calendar months. The following are copies of the recipe and charm, against witchcraft, which Baker gave to the poor dupes : |