Macbeth.
EDINBURGH:
PUBLISHED BY THOMAS IRELAND, JUNIOR,
57, SOUTH BRIDGE STREET.
1829.
EDINBURGH:
PRINTED BY A. BALFOUR AND CO. HIGH STREET.
CONTENTS.
| Page | |
|---|---|
| Introduction | [1] |
| Narrative of the Officer who apprehended the Murderers, note | [4] |
| Trial of Burke and M‘Dougal | [9] |
| Indictment | [12] |
| List of Witnesses | [15] |
| List of Jury | [36] |
| Witnesses Examined | |
| James Braidwood | [36] |
| Mary Stewart | [36] |
| Charles M‘Lauchlan | [37] |
| William Noble | [38] |
| Anne Black or Connaway | [39] |
| Janet Lawrie (or Law) | [42] |
| Hugh Alston | [44] |
| Elizabeth Paterson | [45] |
| David Paterson | [45] |
| John Broggan | [47] |
| Ann M‘Dougal or Gray | [47] |
| James Gray | [50] |
| George M‘Culloch | [51] |
| John Fisher | [52] |
| William Hare (or Haire) | [53] |
| Margaret Hare (or Haire) | [62] |
| Dr. Black | [65] |
| Dr. Christison | [66] |
| Declaration of Burke, emitted 3d November | [67] |
| Do. do. 10th November | [71] |
| Do. do. 19th November | [74] |
| Declaration of M‘Dougal, 3d November | [75] |
| Do. do. 10th November | [78] |
| Verdict | [92] |
| Sentence | [95] |
| List of Counsel | [96] |
| Remarks | [97] |
| Behaviour of Pannels during Trial | [101] |
| Popular Excitement | [105] |
| Conduct of Burke in Lock-up-house | [108] |
| Liberation of M‘Dougal | [110] |
| Burke’s Conduct in Jail | [113] |
| Hare’s Behaviour | [116] |
| Burke’s and Hare’s Houses | [120] |
| Remarks on their Characters | [123] |
| Murder of Mary Paterson | [124] |
| Janet Brown’s Statement relative to the Murder of Paterson | [125] |
| Murder of Daft Jamie | [132] |
| Curious Rencontre between Daft Jamie and Bobby Auld | [133] |
| Legal Discussions relative to the Trial of Hare and the Socii Criminum | [137] |
| Memoirs of Burke, with particulars of all the Murders communicated by Himself | [170] |
| List of Murders committed by Burke and Hare | [201] |
| Town Council Proceedings | [212] |
| Confessions of Burke from the Caledonian Mercury | [216] |
| Preparations for Burke’s Execution | [221] |
| Removal to the Lock-up-house | [223] |
| Occurrences on the Street previous to the Execution | [227] |
| The Execution | [234] |
| Character of Burke | [247] |
| Occurrences after the Execution | [251] |
| Description of the Body | [252] |
| Riot at the College | [254] |
| Phrenological Development of Burke | [259] |
| Observations on the Head of William Burke | [262] |
| Remarks on do. | [267] |
| Proceedings against Hare | [272] |
| Memoirs of Hare | [306] |
| Hare’s Reception in Dumfries | [312] |
| Hare’s Appearance | [325] |
| Letter from the Sheriff to the Right Hon. the Lord Provost | [329] |
| Official Confessions of Burke | [331] |
| Confessions of Burke from the Edinburgh Evening Courant | [340] |
| Account of Helen M‘Dougal | [353] |
| —— —— Mrs. Hare | [355] |
| Popular Tumult | [361] |
LIST OF PLATES.
| Portrait of Burke, to face title | [frontispiece] |
| Ground Plan of Burke’s House | [36] |
| Portrait of Helen M‘Dougal | [97] |
| Burke’s House from the Back Court | [120] |
| View of Burke’s Execution | [237] |
| Portrait of Hare | [272] |
| Fac-simile of Burke’s Hand-writing | [352] |
| Portrait of Mrs. Hare | [355] |
THE WEST PORT MURDERS.
We have heard a great deal of late concerning “the march of intellect” for which the present age is supposed to be distinguished; and the phrase has been rung in our ears till it has nauseated us by its repetition, and become almost a proverbial expression of derision. But we fear that, with all its pretended illumination, the present age must be characterized by some deeper and fouler blots than have attached to any that preceded it; and that if it has brighter spots, it has also darker shades and more appalling obscurations. It has, in fact, nooks and corners where every thing that is evil seems to be concentrated and condensed; dens and holes to which the Genius of Iniquity has fled, and become envenomed with newer and more malignant inspirations. Thus the march of crime has far outstripped “the march of intellect,” and attained a monstrous, a colossal development. The knowledge of good and evil would seem to have imparted a fearful impulse to the latter principle; to have quickened, vivified, and expanded it into an awful and unprecedented magnitude. Hence old crimes have become new by being attended with unknown and unheard-of concomitants; and atrocities never dreamt of or imagined before have sprung up amongst us to cover us with confusion and dismay. No one who reads the following report of the regular system of murder, which seems to have been organised in Edinburgh, can doubt that it is almost wholly without example in any age or country. Murder is no novel crime; it has been done in the olden time as well as now; but murder perpetrated in such a manner, upon such a system, with such an object or intent, and accompanied by such accessory circumstances, was never, we believe, heard of before, and, taken altogether, utterly transcends and beggars every thing in the shape of tragedy to be found in poetry or romance. Even Mrs. Radcliffe, with all her talent for imagining and depicting the horrible, has not been able to invent or pourtray scenes at all to be compared, in point of deep tragical interest, with the dreadful realities of the den in the West Port. To show this, we shall endeavour to exhibit a faint sketch of the more prominent circumstances attending the murder of the woman Campbell or Docherty, as proved in evidence at the trial.
In the morning of a certain day in October last (the 31st) Burke chances to enter the shop of a grocer, called Rymer; and there he sees a poor beggar woman asking charity. He accosts her, and the brogue instantly reveals their common country. The poor old woman’s heart warms to her countryman, and she tells him that her name is Docherty, and that she has come from Ireland in search of her son. Burke, on the other hand, improves the acquaintance, by pretending that his mother’s name was also Docherty, and that he has a wondrous affection for all who bear the same euphonous and revered name. The old woman is perfectly charmed with her good fortune in meeting such a friend in such a countryman, and her heart perfectly overflows with delight. Burke, again, seeing that he has so far gained his object, follows up his professions of regard by inviting Mrs. Docherty to go with him to his house, at the same time offering her an asylum there. The poor beggar woman accepts the fatal invitation, and accompanies Burke to that dreadful den, the scene of many previous murders, whence, she is destined never to return. Here the ineffable ruffian treats her to her breakfast, and as her gratitude rises, his apparent attention and kindness increase. This done, however, he goes in search of his associate and accomplice Hare, whom he informs that he has “got a shot in the house,” and invites to come over at a certain time and hour specified “to see it done.” Betwixt eleven and twelve o’clock at night is fixed upon by these execrable miscreants for destroying the unhappy victim whom Burke had previously seduced into the den of murder and death; and then Burke proceeds to make the necessary arrangements for the commission of the crime. Gray and his wife, lodgers in Burke’s house, and whom the murderers did not think it proper or safe to entrust with the secret, are removed for that night alone: another bed is procured for them, and paid for, or offered to be paid for, by Burke. By and by the murderers congregate, and females, cognisant of their past deeds, as well as of the crime which was to be perpetrated, mingle with them in this horrid meeting. Spirituous liquor is procured and administered to the intended victim; they all drink mere or less deeply; sounds of mirth and revelry are heard echoing from this miniature pandæmonium; and a dance, in which they all, including the beggar woman, join, completes these infernal orgies. This is kept up for a considerable while, and is the immediate precursor of a deed which blurs the eye of day, and throws a deeper and darker shade around the dusky brow of night.