BISHOP, WILLIAMS, MAY,
&c. &c.
Whatever may be said of the great advantages arising to the community at large from the march of intellect, which has almost become a bye-word for derision, it cannot be disputed that daily experience teaches us, that in regard to the atrocity of crime, in its most appalling nature, instances have of late occurred of the most unexampled extent and magnitude, and which cover us with confusion and dismay. It would appear, in fact, that with the growth of the illumination of the mind, the degeneracy of the heart has increased, and that fresh sources of guilt have opened themselves, in proportion as the endeavours of the schoolmaster have been directed to their extinction. It is true, indeed, that murder is a crime which has been committed in all ages, and in all countries. It was, in fact, the first crime by which the human race exhibited their natural depravity. But the idea of reducing murder to a system was reserved as the distinguishing feature of the present century; indeed, blots more deep and foul appear to be attached to this era, than to any that have preceded it; and although we may boast, with some degree of justice, that in some instances it has its brighter spots, yet it is nevertheless a truth too melancholy to be questioned, that it has also its darker shades and its more appalling obscurations.
It is a trite axiom in politics, that private benefit must yield to public good; but it is not therefore a natural corollary, that private feelings are to be outraged, and the entire happiness of the social circle to be destroyed by the desperate acts of a gang of miscreants, who make a trade of human life, and murder the defenceless and unprotected, on the mere ground that it is contributary and indispensable to the interests and advancement of a particular science. Weak and imbecile must that government be, which, with the knowledge of the laws and customs of other countries in regard to the procuring of an adequate supply of human corpses for the purpose of instruction to the anatomical student, conjoined with the advice and experience of native talent, cannot devise some effectual measures for the remedy of an evil, which has of late years grown to such an alarming magnitude, as actually to alter the relations of society, and to establish a system of terror, at once inconsistent with individual happiness. The meritorious endeavours of Mr. Warburton during the last session of parliament were directed to this subject; but, with a most contradictory spirit of opposition, it was urged that the feelings of the inmates of a work-house, having no relations nor friends belonging to them, and who, at their death, would be huddled into a grave like so many dogs, were not to be harassed nor wounded; whilst, at the same time, the sanctity of the grave was to be violated,—the unprotected stranger in our land, perambulating our streets to earn his sorry pittance,—the wretched prostitute, discarded from her parents' house,—and, finally, the helpless decrepitude of age, were to be sacrificed by the inhuman butchery of the systematic murderers; and the legislature of the most enlightened nation of the earth (that is, which is boasted to be such) was to look dispassionately on, and wink at the enormity of the crime, on the plea that the interests of science demanded it. The detection of the atrocities of Burke, confessing, as he did, to nineteen murders, ought to have been sufficient to arouse the vigilance of an enlightened legislature to the enactment of those laws which would have put an effectual stop to a repetition of such a horrid system of murder, and have rescued the country from the onus of that disgrace which now lies so heavily upon it. On this point, however, the supineness of the government has been culpable in the highest degree; for to question its knowledge of the existence of the evil, were to suppose that it possesses no information of the dangerous acts of certain individuals, or that it was utterly bereft of the means of detecting them, and of bringing them to justice for the enormity of their crimes. We do not hesitate to declare that an organised system of murder has been and is still carrying on in the metropolis, which makes humanity shudder, which cannot be paralleled in any other civilized country of the globe, and which, unless the legislature will rouse itself, and inflict the same punishment upon the receiver of the stolen property as upon the thief, will, in a short time, go to undermine all the happiness of social life. It has always appeared to us a strange anomaly in the distribution of the laws of this country, why the purchaser or receiver of a dead body, which, from its very nature and character, must be stolen property, should not be subject to the same punishment as the individual who purchases a stolen handkerchief or a watch. It is possible, and very probable, that the purchaser of the latter articles does not know that it is stolen property; but if a resurrectionist presents himself at the door of the King's College, or any of the private dissecting rooms, bearing on his head a hamper containing the corpse of a human being, the purchaser then knows that the subject must be either murdered or stolen. If, then, according to the spirit of the laws of England, the receiver is equally guilty with the thief, where is the law that exempts the receiver of a stolen body from the full penalty of its infliction? We acknowledge that a difficulty may be here started, that it would not, perhaps, be practicable to establish a right of property in a corpse, and that, of course, it would not be possible for any individual to prosecute for the felony. But if such difficulty does actually exist, and we speak advisedly upon the subject, the legislature has it in its power to obviate it altogether by making the mortal contents of our cemeteries the property of the crown. Any person, therefore, abstracting any part of that property might be indictable for felony, and the receiver or purchaser of such property prosecuted as an accessory. The anatomical student will then undoubtedly exclaim against the government, and accuse it of having closed up the sources by which he is to perfect himself in the knowledge of the science. It will then become the aim of the legislature to discover other sources, which may yield to the student the necessary materials for his tuition, without inflicting so severe and incurable a wound upon the tenderest feelings of our nature, and giving support and encouragement to the horrid crime of murder.
It is to the foreign travellers in this country that we are principally indebted for a true and impartial history of our public and domestic polity. The proverbial partiality of an Englishman to his own country naturally renders him blind to its defects; but what must be the opinion of a foreigner of the civilization of this country, when he is informed that there are regularly established houses in this metropolis[1], sanctioned by a licence from the magistrates as public-houses, which are known as houses of call for the different gangs of resurrectionists, and where, if a human corpse be wanted by any of the colleges, hospitals, or private dissecting rooms, an application is sure to meet with success. The offer of a good price is held out—the chance is not to be lost—success is dubious, and perhaps hopeless, by the regular process of exhumation; and then the first wandering outcast, who appears to have nothing in the world nor on the world belonging to him, is decoyed away to some obscure habitation, where, as in the cases of Bishop and Williams, the darkness of night is expected to cover the horrid crime of murder.
Melancholy, however, and deplorable is the truth, that there is a set of earthly fiends, bearing the human shape of women, who are the secret panders of the resurrectionists, and who, for a trifling share of the booty, will co-operate with them in their murderous practices. We allude to the female keepers of the low brothels in the different parts of the town, and especially in the immediate neighbourhood of Wentworth Street, Spitalfields, the resort of the lowest class of prostitutes, where, if one of them be suddenly missed from her accustomed haunts, it is but the gossip of the moment; and, in certain cases, it is apparently so satisfactorily accounted for, that no further inquiry is deemed necessary; the practice adopted by the female wretch is generally upon the following plan:—Having selected her victim from the wretched horde, who appears to be the most destitute, or who will not tell that she has, or who, in reality, perhaps, has not any relations in the world, the information is given to the resurrectionist, who, under pretence of purchasing her favours, entices her away to some obscure place, where the work of murder is accomplished. She is missed by her companions, and the keeper of the brothel is questioned as to her knowledge of what has become of her. Ah! replies the wretch, it is a very bad business—she robbed a sailor of two sovereigns, and hearing that the police-officers were after her, she has thought it best for her to go out of the neighbourhood. It appears to all the inquirers that it is a very likely case, that the theft was committed; and it is equally natural that she should run away after it. The unfortunate creature is never seen again, and, in a very short time, it is forgotten that such a being existed upon the earth.
In the progress of this work we shall be able to expose many circumstances connected with this horrid traffic in human flesh, at which the human heart revolts, and which are of so hideous a character, that, were not our authority incontestable, we should treat them as fictions almost impossible to be realized in actual life; but when we state, that we know of the existence of human shambles, where the leg, or the arm, or the head of a human being, can be purchased with the same facility as a leg of mutton or a sirloin of beef, we may then with shame ask ourselves the question—Can this be England—the most enlightened, the most civilized country of the globe? We wish to speak with respect of the established authorities of the land, and we will continue to do so, as long as those authorities act with a due regard to the interests of the people, and to the preservation of general and individual happiness; but when we see such alarming evils carried on under the immediate observation, and, we will go further and say, with the knowledge and tacit concurrence of an efficient and powerful magistracy, we consider that we are only performing a part of that duty which we owe to our country, to excite the legislature, by all the means in our power, and all the information we possess, to a serious and solemn investigation of the whole case, and, by the enactment of some strong and penal laws, bring down the merited degree of punishment on the heads of the offenders, and thereby rescue the country from the odium and the disgrace which are at present attached to it.
With this preliminary matter, we shall enter upon the immediate subject of our history, reserving to ourselves the privilege of interposing our own comments on those particular parts of it, which appear to us as possessing the greatest interest and importance.
It was on Saturday night, the 5th of November, that four men were brought in custody to Bow Street Office, guarded by a strong body of police, charged upon suspicion with the murder of a boy, whose name was unknown. From the appearance of the body of the deceased, and from the fact that two of the prisoners were well known resurrectionists, the rumour almost instantly spread, that the unfortunate boy was burked by the prisoners; and the crowds which surrounded the office, and pressed forward to hear the examination, were far greater than were ever remembered on any former occasion. Several gentlemen belonging to the King's College were present.