_The Interest in the Trial--Public Feeling as to the Remit--Press
Opinions--Attack on Dr. Knox's House._
The news of the result of the trial spread rapidly. All the Edinburgh
newspapers gave lengthened reports of the proceedings--putting the
"affairs of State" to a side for once--and in those cases where the usual
publication day of a journal was on the Thursday, the day on which the
trial closed, second editions containing the verdict and sentence were
issued. The _Evening Courant_ was at the pains to obtain statistics of the
circulation of the newspapers. Between the Thursday morning and Saturday
night it was calculated that not fewer than 8000 extra copies were sold,
representing a money value of nearly £240. This was certainly surprising
when the high price charged for the journals is taken into account, and is
a testimony to the intense interest taken in the trial by the people at
large.
The result of the trial was received with mingled feelings. The liveliest
satisfaction was felt at the conviction of Burke; but the dismissal of
M'Dougal, and the probable escape of Hare and his wife through having
become informers, caused a great amount of discontent. The evidence given
by the two principal witnesses showed that they were as much guilty of the
offence as Burke himself, and an impression began to get abroad that Hare
was after all the leading spirit in the conspiracy, and that he had, as
the counsel for the defence had suggested, made Burke his last victim.
This strong dislike, or rather detestation, to Hare did not, however, have
a compensating effect by producing sympathy for Burke--the popular mind
was too deeply convinced of his guilt to think that he other than fully
deserved the doom that had been pronounced upon him. And the peculiar
feature of the matter was this, that while there was no need for the Lord
Advocate proceeding further against Burke in respect of the first and
second charges on the indictment, since he had been condemned on the
third, the great mass of the people pronounced an unmistakable verdict of
guilty against him for the murder of Daft Jamie; and the _Courant_ shortly
after the trial deepened the impression by stating that it was Burke
himself who enticed the poor natural into his den, though there is every
reason to believe that this was a mistake. The disappearance and cruel
fate of that unfortunate lad had perhaps more to do with the "prejudice,"
as it was called at the trial, against the two prisoners and their
accomplices than any other item in the case.
The _Caledonian Mercury_ of Thursday, the 25th December, the day on which
sentence was passed, had the following among other comments on the
proceedings of the previous twenty-four hours:--
"No trial in the memory of any man now living has excited so deep,
universal and (we may also add) appalling an interest as that of William
Burke and his female associate. By the statements which have from time
appeared in the newspapers, public feeling has been worked up to its
highest pitch of excitement, and the case, in so far as the miserable
pannels were concerned, prejudiced by the natural abhorrence which the
account of a new and unparalleled crime is calculated to excite.... At the
same time, it is not so much to the accounts published in the newspapers
which merely embodied and gave greater currency to the statements
circulating in Society, as to the extraordinary, nay, unparalleled
circumstances of the case, that the strong excitement of the public mind
must be ascribed. These are without any precedent in the records of our
criminal practice, and, in fact, amount to the realization of a nursery
tale. The recent deplorable increase of crime has made us familiar with
several new atrocities: poisoning is now, it seems, rendered subsidiary to
the commission of theft: stabbing, and attempts at assassination, are
matters of almost everyday occurrence; and murder has grown so familiar
to us, that it has almost ceased to be viewed with that instinctive and
inexpressible dread which the commission of the greatest crime against the
laws of God and society used to excite. But the present is the first
instance of murder alleged to have been perpetrated with aforethought
purpose and intent of selling the murdered body as a subject of dissection
to anatomists; it is a new species of assassination, or murder for hire;
and as such, no less than from the general horror felt by the people of
this country at the process, from ministering to which the reward was
expected, it was certainly calculated to make a deep impression on the
public mind, and to awaken feelings of strong and appalling interest in
the time of the trial. Of the extent to which this had taken place, it was
easy to judge from what was everywhere observable on Monday and Tuesday.
The approaching trial formed the universal topic of conversation, and all
sorts of speculations and conjectures were afloat as to the circumstances
likely to be disclosed in the course of it, and the various results to
which it would eventually lead. As the day drew near, the interest
deepened; and it was easy to see that the common people shared strongly in
the general excitement. The coming trial they expected to disclose
something which they had often dreamed of or imagined, or heard recounted
around an evening's fire, like a raw-head-and-bloody bones story, but
which they never, in their sober judgment, either feared or believed to be
possible; and they looked forward to it with corresponding but
indescribable emotions. In short, all classes participated more or less in
a common feeling respecting the case of this unhappy man and his
associate; all expected fearful disclosures; none, we are convinced,
wished for anything but justice."
This was the expectation of the public, but it was, unfortunately, not
altogether realised. True, the mystery attending the murder of Mrs.
Docherty had been cleared up, but owing to the legal objections nothing
had been said as to how Mary Paterson and Daft Jamie met their death. This
had operated against a proper disclosure in more ways than one. The
limitation of the indictment confined the informer's evidence, one-sided
though it undoubtedly was, to one crime, and prevented it being given in
the case of the others; and, further, that limitation did away with the
necessity of calling Dr. Knox and the other medical men whose names were
on the list of witnesses, and who were supposed to be mixed up in the
transaction. "Where are the Doctors?" was the question when the trial
closed without any appearance of them; and it was repeated out of court
with threatening emphasis. In the case which went to trial, and on which
Burke was condemned, there was really no need for them. The body had been
recovered and identified; there was no doubt as to the murder; the whole
subject of inquiry was--By whom was it committed? Had the other charges in
the indictment gone to the knowledge of an assize, the evidence of the
doctors and their assistants would have been required, for they, and they
only, could have spoken to the appearance and probable identity of
subjects supplied to them about certain dates, and supposed to be the
bodies of the unfortunate victims of the persons placed at the bar. Then,
they would have been indispensible; as it was, they were not needed, with
the result that public curiosity had only been whetted, not satisfied. And
a circumstance that helped to make this feeling all the more intense was
that the indictment, in so far as it related to the first two charges,
seemed to have been framed on information supplied by Hare; while the fact
that the Lord Advocate made them part of the libel, and intimated the
production of certain articles belonging to the two victims, gave more
than reasonable ground for the assumption that he was convinced he had a
good case, otherwise he would not have sought to lay it before a jury.
This fact, combined with the natural thirst for legal vengeance, gave the
public hope that the officers for the Crown would be able to put Hare and
his wife upon their trial for some crime other than any that were
mentioned in the indictment, but in the same series, and that by this
means the whole plot, with all relating to it, would be laid bare.
All these circumstances caused a strong feeling of discontent among every
class of the community, but especially among the lower orders, who seemed
to think their lives menaced by criminals of the stamp of Burke and Hare.
Much excitement consequently prevailed, but though disturbances were
feared by the authorities, no serious breach of the public peace occurred
until Sunday, 28th December. On that day a band of young men attacked Dr.
Knox's house in Minto Street, and they were only driven off by a strong
force of police after they had broken a great quantity of window-glass.