CHAPTER XXIII.
The Last Stage of the Trial—Burke Sentenced to Death—The Scene in Court—M‘Dougal Discharged—Duration of the Trial.
The last stage of a long trial had now been reached. After the verdict against Burke there was only one course open to the judges, but still the attention of the audience was given most earnestly to the proceedings. Burke seemed callous, for he had felt certain of the doom that was about to be pronounced upon him. The Lord Advocate moved for the judgment of the court, and the Lord Justice-Clerk called upon Lord Meadowbank to propose the sentence.
Having briefly reviewed the facts of the case, as brought out in the evidence, Lord Meadowbank proceeded:—“Your lordships will, I believe, in vain search through both the real and the fabulous histories of crime for anything at all approaching this cold, hypocritical, calculating, and bloody murder. Be assured, however, that I do not state this either for exciting prejudices against the individual at the bar, or for harrowing up the feelings with which, I trust, he is now impressed. But really, when a system of such a nature is thus developed, and when the actors in this system are thus exhibited, it appears to me that your lordships are bound, for the sake of public justice, to express the feelings which you entertain of one of the most terrific and one of the most monstrous delineations of human depravity that has ever been brought under your consideration. Nor can your lordships forget the glowing observations which were made from the bar in one of the addresses on behalf of the prisoners, upon the causes, which, it is said, have in some measure led to the establishment of this atrocious system. These alone, in my humble opinion, seem to require that your lordships should state roundly that with such matters, and with matters of science, we, sitting in such places, and deciding on such questions as that before us, have nothing to do. It is our duty to administer the law as handed down to us by our ancestors, and enacted by the legislature. But God forbid that it should ever be conceived that the claims of speculation, or the claims of science, should ever give countenance, to such awful atrocities as the present, or should lead your lordships, or the people of this country, to contemplate such crimes with apathy or indifference. With respect to the case before us, your lordships are aware that the only sentence we can pronounce is the sentence of death. The highest law has said—‘Thou shalt not kill,—thou shalt do no murder;’ and in like manner, the law of Scotland has declared, that the man guilty of deliberate and premeditated murder shall suffer death. The conscience of the prisoner must have told him, when he perpetrated this foul and deliberate murder, and alike violating the law of God, and the law of man, he thereby forfeited his life to the laws of his country. Now that detection has followed, therefore, the result cannot be by him unexpected; and I have therefore only further to suggest to your lordships, that the prisoner be detained in the tolbooth of Edinburgh, till the 28th day of January next, when he shall suffer death on a gibbet by the hands of the common executioner, and his body thereafter given for dissection.”
Lord Mackenzie concurred, saying that the punishment proposed by Lord Meadowbank was the only one that could be pronounced.
The Lord Justice-Clerk then assumed the black cap, and addressing Burke, who had risen from his seat to receive sentence, said:—“William Burke, you now stand convicted, by the verdict of a most respectable jury of your country, of the atrocious murder charged against you in this indictment, upon evidence which carried conviction to the mind of every man that heard it, in establishing your guilt in that offence. I agree so completely with my brother on my right hand, who has so fully and eloquently described the nature of your offence, that I will not occupy the time of the court in commenting any further than by saying that one of a blacker description, more atrocious in point of cool-blooded deliberation and systematic arrangement, and where the motives were so comparatively base, never was exhibited in the annals of this or of any other court of justice. I have no intention of detaining this audience by repeating what has been so well expressed by my brother; my duty is of a different nature, for if ever it was clear beyond the possibility of a doubt that the sentence of a criminal court will be carried into execution in any case, yours is that one, and you may rest assured that you have now no other duty to perform on earth but to prepare in the most suitable manner to appear before the throne of Almighty God to answer for this crime, and for every other you have been guilty of during your life. The necessity of repressing offences of this most extraordinary and alarming description, precludes the possibility of your entertaining the slightest hope that there will be any alteration upon your sentence. In regard to your case, the only doubt which the court entertains of your offence, and which the violated laws of the country entertain respecting it, is whether your body should not be exhibited in chains, in order to deter others from the like crimes in time coming. But taking into consideration that the public eye would be offended by so dismal an exhibition, I am disposed to agree that your sentence shall be put into execution in the usual way, but unaccompanied by the statutory attendant of the punishment of the crime of murder—viz., that your body should be publicly dissected and anatomised, and I trust that if it ever is customary to preserve skeletons, yours will be preserved, in order that posterity may keep in remembrance your atrocious crimes. I would entreat you to betake yourself immediately to a thorough repentance, and to humble yourself in the sight of Almighty God. Call instantly to your aid the ministers of religion of whatever persuasion you are; avail yourself from this hour forward of their instructions, so that you may be brought in a suitable manner urgently to implore pardon from an offended God. I need not allude to any other case than that which has occupied your attention these many hours. You are conscious in your own mind whether the other charges which were exhibited against you yesterday were such as might be established against you or not. I refer to them merely for the purpose of again recommending you to devote the few days that you are on the earth, to imploring forgiveness from Almighty God.”
The sentence was formally recorded in the books of the court, with the addition that the place of execution was specified as in the Lawnmarket of Edinburgh, and the body of the deceased was ordered to be delivered to Dr. Alexander Monro, Professor of Anatomy in the University of Edinburgh, to be by him publicly dissected and anatomised.
The Lord Justice-Clerk then turned to Helen M‘Dougal and said:—“The jury have found the libel against you not proven; they have not pronounced you not guilty of the crime of murder charged against you in this indictment. You know whether you have been in the commission of this atrocious crime. I leave it to your own conscience to draw the proper conclusion. I hope and trust that you will betake yourself to a new line of life, diametrically opposite from that which you have led for a number of years.” An interlocutor of dismissal was pronounced, and M‘Dougal was free from the pains of the law, though she had still to fear the fury of an unappeased public.
The Edinburgh Evening Courant of Saturday, 27th December, thus described the appearance of the prisoners when the Lord Justice-Clerk addressed them:—“The scene was altogether awful and impressive. The prisoner stood up with unshaken firmness. Not a muscle of his features was discomposed during the solemn address of the Lord Justice-Clerk consigning him to his doom. The female prisoner was much agitated, and was drowned in tears during the whole course of the melancholy procedure.”