The following quaint memorandum of the expenses of the commission
is minuted in the report, viz.:--

_Ye Acct of gr servts_

Charges 3 days a peis ourselves & horses 4.0.0.
Entertainment at Salem Mr. Pratts 1.3.0.
Major Sewals attendans & sendg notifications
to all Concerned 1.0.0.
-------
£6.3.0.

It is a grave error into which many modern writers have been drawn,
when alluding to Salem witchcraft, to lay the responsibility of that
dire delusion entirely upon Salem people, as if they alone were to
be held accountable for the dreadful occurrences of 1692. The laws
of England in those days, all the authorities of New England, and,
with but rare exceptions, all the people everywhere throughout the
civilized world, recognized witchcraft as a fact and believed it to
be a crime. The most learned men in England and in other countries
believed fully in witchcraft. Sir Matthew Hale had given a legal
opinion on the subject; Lord Bacon believed in witchcraft; and there
are strong reasons for thinking that Shakspeare and other great men
of the time of Queen Elizabeth and still later believed in it fully.
Cotton Mather, Judge Sewall, Peter Sargent, Lieutenant-Governor
Stoughton, all belonging to Boston, were the leaders in the
proceedings against the witches of 1692.

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