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that Charles once handled a scrofulous Quaker and made him chap.a healthy man and a sound Churchman in ajnoment; that, if- -^'-those who had been healed lost or sold the piece of gold whichhad been hung round their necks, the ulcers broke forth again,and could be removed only by a second touch and a secondtalisman. We cannot wonder that, when men of sciencegravely repeated such nonsense, the vulgar should believe it.

Still less can w r e wonder that wretches tortured by a diseaseover which natural remedies had no power should eagerly drinkin tales of preternatural cures: for nothing is so credulous asmisery. The crowds which repaired to the palace on the days ofhealing were immense. Charles the Second, in the course ofhis reign, touched near a hundred thousand persons. Thenumber seems to have increased or diminished as the king’spopularity rose or fell. During that Tory reaction which fol-lowed the dissolution of the Oxford Parliament, the press toget near him was terrific. In 1682, he performed the rite eightthousand five hundred times. In 1684, the throng was suchthat six or seven of the sick w r ere trampled to death. James,in one of his progresses, touched eight hundred persons in thechoir of the Cathedral of Chester. The expense of the cere-mony was little less than ten thousand pounds a year, andwould have been much greater but for the vigilance of the royalsurgeons, whose business it was to examine the applicants,and to distinguish those who came for the cure from those whocame for the gold.*

* See the Preface to a Treatise on Wounds, by Itichard Wiseman,Sergeant Chirurgeon to Ilia Majesty, 1670. But the fullest information onthis curious subject will bo found in the Charisma Basilioon, by JohnBrowne, Chirurgeon in ordinary to Ilia Majesty, 1684. See also TheCeremonies used in the Time of King Ilenry VII. for the Healing of themthat bo Diseased with the King’s Evil, published by Ills Majesty's Com-mand, 1686; Evelyn’s Diary, March 2S. 1684; and Bishop Cartwright’sDiary, August 28, 29, and 30. 1687. It is incredible that so large a propor-tion of the population should have been really scrofulous. No doubt manyMacaulay, History. V. 10

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