The Sun.
London, England, 1828-12-29 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE LONDON JOURNALS.

(FROM THE MORNING CHRONICLE.)

When the secret history of the recent negotia-
tions, on the subject of Catholic Emancipation,
becomes better known, it will be found that the
violence," mentioned by the I)uke of Welling-
ton
in his Letter to the Catholic Prima.e, is by
no means confined to that class of persons who
are seeking relief from the exclusions and dis-
abilities under which they labour. The greatest
obstacle his Grace has to encounter is found in
the (honest perhaps, but certainly pertinacious)
hostility of one of his colleagues. The Right
Hon. Gentleman alluded to
.has latterly given
way to an impetuosity quite at variance with his
constitutional and habitual smoothness of de-
meanour, and once or twice has even used ex-
pressions, which, addressed to a more irritable
Premier, must, in all probability, have been
followed by a political; if not a personal, estrange-
ment. We are not disposed to ;Mach extreme
importance to this uncompromising spirit of hos-
tility in the quarter alluded to. We consider the
Secretary as a rrson of moderate capacity, and
verylaudable industry ; in short, as par Negotiis
reque supra—as one whose assiduity would for-
ward a project, much more effectually than his
opposition would- retard it.
The extraordinary trial at Edinburgh, of which
a long Report, taken from the Edinburgh Cou-
rant, will be found in another part of this Paper,
discloses scenes for which few of our readers are

prepared. A set of hardened wretches, of both
sexes, l ave been systematically murtteri ass people,
God knows for how long a period (for though
three cases..pnly are included in the indictment,
yet, from the cautions given to the accomplice
Hare not to answer certain questions, it is pretty
clear that the business, is of long standing), and
selling them to the anatomists. The manner
in which an old Highland woman was decoyed
and came by her death, is very fully detailed io
the evidence of Hare, Lhe accomplice, and his
wife. She had come to Edinburgh to make in-
quiries respecting her son and- Burke having
fallen in with her, pretended to be of the same
name, invited. her to his house,- and gave her
drink. Hare. says that Burke, with whom he
was in a public-house, " told him to go down
to see the shot he had got, that he was going to
take to the Doctor's ; that there was an old
woman there be had got off the street ; and he
had left some whisky to drink, and wished wit-
ness to go down and see how they were coming
on. Witness understood.by a- shot' that Burke
was going to murder her." He afterwards
describes the manner of the murder. The old
woman having been thrown down, Burke got
On the top of her, " and laid himself down upon
her, with his breast on her head. She cried,
but not loud ; but he held in her breath, and
she only moaned a little after. He put one
hand on her nose and mouth, and the other un-
der her chin ; he continued this for ten or fif-
teen minutes ; he said nothing while doing this ;
he then got up from the woman, who did not
move after." Mrs. Hare " saw Burke on the
woman, but could not say whether on her mouth
or breast ; had some previous reason of suspi-
cion ; had sewn a little trick of it done befbre."
These recitals are very appalling. The men,
Bioko and .Hare, are both Irishmen ; Helen
.iidaoougai is a Scorchwoman ; the country
,of
Hare's wife is not mentioned. As the Irish
form no small proportion of the necessitous po-
pulation of Scotland, there is nothing sur-
prising in their being the actors in this revolt-
ing business. There are in all countries to
be found individuals prepared fsr the corn-,
mission of ail manner of crimes ; and the
temptation afforded by the high price of dead
bodies in Edinburgh suggested to them the
horrid expedient of converting the living into the
dead. The medical schools must be supplied
with bodies, except we are prepared to say that
they ought to practise without knowledge ; and
so long asthe brutal indifference of the Legislature
,(for what other term can we apply to it ?) to
the means of alleviating the sufferings to which
human nature is incident leaves medical men no
other rpsooroe than to deal with men who must
violate the law in some way or other, and so
long as twelve guineas are given for a body, such
as have been brought to light in Edin-
burgh were to have been expecte'd. All the
churchyards have long been watched by armed
men, .and the wretches who supply the schools
istith bodies, almost always thieves by profession,
and who stre punished as criminals when de-
tected in ex.t)uniating, find the raising bodies
both attended With more danger to their own
lives, and more laborious than the obtaining
them by murder. We trust that a lesson will be
derived from this disclosure. Let the Legisla-
ture free the worst description of criminals from
the temptation now held out to them of em-
bruing their hands in blood, by opening an easy
means to Medical Schools of obtaining what
they must have. Where there is a will there is
a way.