Chapter XV: Part 15

SIR,--I have to apologise to you for not answering sooner your
letter of the 7th current, complaining of the notice taken of
Mr. Swanston in the Trial of Burke at present publishing by me.

In answer to it, and your second of yesterday, I have to state,
that I am very sorry that Mr. Swanston should feel at all
injured by what has been said of him, and though my information
as to what is stated of him was from the best authority,[8]
still I would not wish in the smallest degree, even by
implication, to injure his feelings or his character, and I
shall be ready to insert in the shape of a note, in the number
about to be published, any statement you and he may wish to
make, such statement not to be inconsistent with what is due to
myself in such a matter.

Your threat of damages is too fanciful to require from me any
serious answer. I am, Sir, your very obedient servant.

(Signed) THOMAS IRELAND, JUN.

To JOHN JOHNSON, Esq.
4, Grove Street, Edinburgh.

* * * * *

_Edinburgh, 11th Feb. 1829._

SIR,--I am favored with your letter of this date, in answer to
my letters of the 7th and 10th inst. And in answer to it I have
to inform you that the summons of damages to which I formerly
alluded is now in the press with the intention of being served
upon you to-morrow. I shall, however, this moment send for Mr.
Swanston and shew him your letter; but I conceive that although
it is very proper to put a note in any new edition which you
may throw off to the purport you mention, still it will not
be a whitewasher of the injury which the previous publication
has already done. With regard to the action of damages, I can
assure you that the notion of it did not originate with himself,
but with his acquaintances who first read the publication, and
pointed out the injurious tendency of it last Saturday, when
I first wrote you on the subject. He felt the effects of it
before this, but he did not know a reason then to which he could
attribute a _____[9]. I am, Sir, your most obedient servant,

(Signed) JOHN JOHNSON.

Mr. THOMAS IRELAND, Jun.
Bookseller and Publisher, 57, South Bridge, Edinburgh.

* * * * *

_Edinburgh, 12th Feb. 1829._

SIR,--With reference to my letter to you last night, I have
now to inform you that I have since seen Mr. Swanston, to whom
I read your letter of the 11th inst., and he desires me to
say, that as you propose no definite pallinode of the injury
which he has sustained, of which you seem to think lightly, he
has no farther observation to make, because, were he to make
any specific proposition, it would be inconsistent with the
view which you take of the matter, and therefore it is quite
clear that the parties could not meet each other to the mutual
satisfaction. I am, Sir, your most obedient servant,

(Signed) JOHN JOHNSON.

THOMAS IRELAND, Jun. Esq.
Bookseller, 57, South Bridge, Edinburgh.

* * * * *

_Edinburgh, 13th Feb. 1829._

SIR,--I think it very unnecessary to return any particular reply
to your two last letters.

Since you will not condescend to say what would satisfy Mr.
Swanston, I shall publish in the forthcoming number of the work,
your first letter of the 7th, and my answer of the 11th.

If you wish any thing further inserted, you can let me know in
the course of to-morrow forenoon. I am, Sir, your very obedient
servant,
(Signed) THOMAS IRELAND, Jun.
To JOHN JOHNSON, Esq.
4, Grove Street, Edinburgh.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The following narration has been taken down from the lips of the officer who apprehended Burke and his accomplices:--

“On Friday, the 31st of October, a little elderly woman was seen begging about the West Port: she entered the shop of Mr. Rymer, adjacent to Burke’s house, for this purpose, when Burke was there purchasing whisky. He seems to have immediately fixed upon her as a fit subject for his atrocious purposes, and endeavoured to decoy her into his power. He asked her name, and what part of Ireland she came from; and upon receiving her answers, replied that he was from the same place, and that she must be a relation of his mother, whose name was Docherty. He then promised to give her breakfast, and they left the shop together, and were seen to enter Burke’s house. She was afterwards seen in the house at different times during the day; and two lodgers, Gray and his wife, were sent to Hare’s house to make room for her, under the pretence that she was a friend from Ireland. They were afterwards seen making merry, drinking and dancing in company with Hare and his wife, first in the house of Ann Connaway, and afterwards in Burke’s. During the night, a great noise of quarrelling and cries of murder were heard in Burke’s house; but the neighbours, knowing that two men and three women were in the house, and having frequently heard similar uproars, did not think much of it, nor interfere. One of them, however, had the curiosity to look through the key-hole, when he saw M‘Dougal holding a bottle to the mouth of Campbell, swearing at her for not drinking, and pouring the whisky into her mouth. Then all was quiet for a little. Shortly after, the noise again commenced, which was again succeeded by silence. At this time, that is, between 11 and 12 o’clock, it is presumed the horrid deed was perpetrated.

“In the morning, M‘Dougal, who passed for Burke’s wife, accounted for the absence of Campbell, or ‘the little old woman’ as they called her, as well as for the noise, by saying that she had, during the night, made too free with her husband, Burke, and that she had kicked her out of the house: and this seems to have allayed any suspicions. In the morning, the lodgers Gray and his wife returned to Burke’s; but upon Mrs. Gray attempting to search about the bed, and the straw under it for some articles she had left, she was ordered by Burke with an oath, ‘to keep out from them.’ Burke afterwards left the house, desiring Broggan a carter who was there to sit on a chair close to the straw until he returned. Broggan, however, followed him in a short time, and MacDougal who appeared to be in liquor, started up from the bed asking for her husband, and afterwards quitted the house, leaving Gray and his wife sitting in it. Mrs. Gray then commenced searching for her child’s stockings and cleaning the house, and from the suspicions which had been excited by Burke’s conduct, she examined the straw and found the murdered body, which her husband pulled out, and which they immediately recognised to be that of Campbell. On going up the stair, they were met by M‘Dougal, whom Gray informed of the body being found. She affected to pass it off as if the woman had died in consequence of a drunken frolic, and attempted to bribe them into silence by offering them the ominous sum of _ten pounds_. She invited Gray and his wife to take a dram in a neighbouring public-house, where she, along with Hare’s wife, hurriedly left them, and upon their return to the house, in two or three minutes, they called the people next door to come in, as they wished to show them something; but upon examination the body was gone. They immediately lodged information at the police office, and a party of policemen were sent, but notwithstanding the most diligent search that could be made, the body could not be found, nor the parties implicated. At this time a servant girl who lived near informed them that she had seen Burke and his wife, Hare and his wife, and the porter M‘Culloch, going up the stair, the porter carrying a tea-box with the top stuffed with straw; and that she laid her hand upon it and found it soft. Upon the return of the policemen, sometime afterwards, Burke came in, it is supposed to get some things previous to escaping. He was pointed out by Gray, and immediately seized. He seemed to wish to laugh it off, under the pretence that it was the lodgers who wished to do him an ill turn, saying that he defied all Scotland to charge him with any thing wrong, Mrs. Burke then came in, crying that she heard the police were after her husband about the old woman, but that it was all a drunken spree, and used a great many capers and dry laughs. She was also immediately taken into custody, and both were conveyed to the police office.

“There was still no tidings of the body, when it was suggested that the dissecting-rooms should be searched; and Lieutenant Paterson and Serjeant-major Fisher went on Sunday morning for that purpose. They were informed by Paterson, Dr. Knox’s man, that they had only received one body, which was shown them, but from their not having seen Campbell they could not identify it. Gray and his wife were sent for, who soon recognised it, and after procuring a warrant it was conveyed to the police office.

“Early on Sabbath morning instructions were received to apprehend Hare and his wife, and a party proceeded to his house about eight o’clock, and were informed that they were both in the house and in bed. Upon informing them that Captain Stewart wished to speak with them upon the subject of the body that had been found in Burke’s, Mrs. Hare, laughing, said, that the Captain and the police had surely very little to do now to look after a drunken spree like this, repeatedly jeering and laughing. Hare then said to her that he was at Burke’s and had a dram or two, and likely they might be attaching some blame to them, but he did not care for Captain Stewart, and they had better rise and see what he had to say.--They were both conveyed to the police office, and immediately lodged in separate cells.”

[2] Several benevolent individuals have interested themselves in the behalf of Gray and his wife, and as it may be gratifying to the hearts of many to relieve the virtuous in distress, the publisher of this will most cheerfully receive subscriptions for Gray’s behoof; and the public are earnestly intreated to mark their sense of this poor man’s upright and correct conduct when surrounded with tempters and temptations to which a less manly and honest nature might have yielded!

[3] As every thing relating to the ruffian Burke, may be interesting at present, we add the following particulars about him, during his residence in the parish of Peebles.

He, and Helen M‘Dougal, resided in that burgh in the years 1825 and 1826, and part of 1827.

I find, says our correspondent, that he is a native of Armagh, in the north of Ireland, that he was a Roman Catholic, was a labourer, and employed in working on the roads and in cutting drains.

He made considerable pretensions to religion, as I recollect on my first visit to his house he had one or two religious books lying near him, which, he said, he read, being at that time confined by a sore leg. He seemed a man of quiet manners, and, on my questioning him about his country and profession, there appeared a mystery about him. Since he has gained a guilty notoriety, I have made inquiries among his neighbours about his character, and, I am informed, that he was an inoffensive man, but that he kept suspicious hours. On the Saturday night and Sabbath days, his house was the scene of riot and drunkenness with the lowest of his countrymen.

When he left this place, he owed the woman from whom he rented his room, between forty and fifty shillings. He was then going to the harvest, and promised to return and pay the rent, which he never did. On application being made to him afterwards, in Edinburgh, for payment, he sent word to the woman to meet him at the head of Eddlestone water, a wild and desolate part of the road leading from this place to Edinburgh. The meeting was to be at ten o’clock at night, when he would pay her. Recent disclosures have fully proved for what purpose such a meeting was to take place.

[4] This is a mistake, it was the body of a man, as will be seen in the previous memoir.

[5] This also is a mistake, it was Hare who committed the murder alone, when Burke was in the country.

[6] Mr. M‘D. does not appear to have seen our copperplate engraving, which is allowed to be an excellent likeness.

[7] Here, in justice to the proprietor of Broggan’s house, we may correct the mistake committed in page 200. That gentleman never received the rent, and never applied for it. It is needless to state, that the inadvertent error conveyed no imputation on him.

[8] The statement regarding Mr. Swanston, was given by Janet Brown, who was along with Mary Paterson.

[9] A word here not legible in original.

Transcriber’s Note:

1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been corrected silently.

2. Page 229: The verb had been omitted in the sentence. The word “acted” has been inserted silently. (The Police ... (acted) under the conduct of Captain Stewart and his Lieutenants.)

3. Where appropriate, the original spelling has been retained.

4. Superscripts are represented using the caret character, e.g. D^r. or X^{xx}.