West Port Murders: Or an Authentic Account of the Atrocious Murders Committed by Burke and His Associates; Containing a Full Account of All the Extraordinary Circumstances Connected With Them. Also, a Report of the Trial of Burke and M'Dougal. With a Description of the Execution of Burke, His Confessions, and Memoirs of His Accomplices, Including the Proceedings Against Hare, &c. — John Shaqi
West Port Murders: Or an Authentic Account of the Atrocious Murders Committed by Burke and His Associates; Containing a Full Account of All the Extraordinary Circumstances Connected With Them. Also, a Report of the Trial of Burke and M'Dougal. With a Description of the Execution of Burke, His Confessions, and Memoirs of His Accomplices, Including the Proceedings Against Hare, &c.Anonymous
History
West Port Murders: Or an Authentic Account of the Atrocious Murders Committed by Burke and His Associates; Containing a Full Account of All the Extraordinary Circumstances Connected With Them. Also, a Report of the Trial of Burke and M'Dougal. With a Description of the Execution of Burke, His Confessions, and Memoirs of His Accomplices, Including the Proceedings Against Hare, &c.
Of the extent of the impression thus produced, and the feelings thus
awakened, it was easy to judge from what was every where 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, was to disclose something which they had often
dreamed of, or imagined, or heard recounted around an evening’s fire,
like a tale of horror, or a raw-head-and-bloody-bones story, but which
they never, in their sober judgment, either feared or believed to be
possible; and hence, 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 any thing but justice.
As it was morally certain that a vast crowd would be assembled early
on Wednesday, arrangements were made on Tuesday, under the immediate
superintendence of Mr. Sheriff Duff, for the admission of jurymen by
the door which connects the Signet Library with the Outer House, and
also for the accommodation of the individuals connected with the public
press. One half of the Court, the narrow dimensions of which have been
often complained of, and in fact were never more seriously felt, was,
as usual on such occasions, reserved for the members of the Faculty and
the Writers to the Signet in their gowns.
So early as seven o’clock in the morning of Wednesday, a considerable
crowd had assembled in the Parliament Square, and around the doors
of the Court; and numerous applications for admission were made to
the different subordinate functionaries, but in vain. The regulations
previously agreed upon were most rigorously observed; while a large
body of police, which was in attendance, maintained the utmost order,
and kept the avenues to the Court unobstructed. The individuals
connected with the press were conducted to the seats provided for them
a little before eight o’clock; the members of the Faculty and of the
Society of Writers to the Signet were admitted precisely at nine;
and thus, with the jurymen impannelled, and a few individuals who had
obtained the _entrée_ in virtue of orders from the Judges, the
Court became at once crowded in every part.
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