_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."
The trial was thus concluded, the court having sat, with certain intervals
for refreshment, from ten o'clock in the forenoon of Wednesday, the 24th
of January, until nearly ten o'clock next morning. Burke, it has been
seen, was cool and collected, his mind having been made up before the
judicial proceedings began as to how they were likely to end. About four
o'clock on Wednesday afternoon he asked one of the jailors near him when
dinner would be provided, and on being informed that the court would not
adjourn for that meal until about six o'clock, he begged to be given a
biscuit or two, as he was afraid he would lose his appetite before the
dinner hour. M'Dougal, however, was not so calm, and during the whole
course of the trial manifested an amount of anxiety as to her position not
shown by her companion.