The Sun.
London, England, 1829-01-17 00:00:00

WEST-PORT MURDERS.

It was mentioned in our last, that the Lord
Advocate had resumed the .inquiry into the
West-Port atrocities, and we repeat that there
is yet some chance that the 'homicide, Hare, may
expire by the !lairds ;of the common. executioner.
On Saturday last,.he was precognosced in his
cell, for at least two hours, by three official gen-
tlemen, but the -facts elicited or the result 'is
known only to theMselves. A strange rumour
has got into circulation that the mother of dalt
Jamie intends to step forward as the proses'utor
of Hare, and that she has retrined rin advocate
as senior counsel, who has certainly ever been
ready to start at the call of justice and hurnanity.
To say the least, the story is apocryphal. •If the
Lord Advocate, with- all his anxiety, knowledge,
power, and resources, cannot furnish evidence
.sufficient for the conviction of a jury, it is, not
,likely that this consummation, highly desirable
as it is, will be achieved by sn, other means.
We have already mentioned that Hare main-
tains a dogged. silence, but. sin Saturday there
has been a slight change it his conduct.
Yesterday he walked. a good deal its the
ward; he spoke at times to the other prisoners,
and even at times' " grinned horribly a gli4stly
smile" at their gesticulations; When he 1.7a5 in
the chapel on Sunday, his conduct was strictly
watched both by the debtors aid the other pri-
soners who had him in view. }le was particu-
larly remarked during the time that the Rev.
Mr. Robertson, was praying fervently for his
coadjutor in murder, Burke ; and while the mi-
nister lamented that such hideous crimes should
have been perpetrated in this our age, and itr the
bosom of ourenlightened city.; while- he prayed
that his repentence might be deep, sincere, and
in some degree proportionate to the atrocity of
4115life—Hare stood, as if hk face as well as

tar. t had been ossified, and
.neither coloured,
nor moved a muscle of his haggard countenance.

Little more will be said of lurke till his days
are ended on the scaffold. It •-ras already men-

tioned that he had declined :he visits of the
Rev. Mr. Min:hall, and he. dd not appear in
the chapel on Sunday last. Some people
,are of
opinion that he will end his infamous life by
suicide, and escape the gallows, bUt the governor
of the jail has made such judicious arrangement,
as renders this all but impossilie. A person is
constantly with him in his celi, and should he
make the attempt, his guardinn can almost in-
stantly command the assistance of two men.
But there are no grounds for believing that he
harbours the least hope or t4tight of escaping
the painful and ignominious death he so well
deserves.— Scoisnzan.

FALKIRK, JAN. 12.--The woman,
gal, who has acquired such ir,famous celebrity,
as the associate of Burke, is a native of the vil-
lage of Madiston, in the parish of Muiravo'nside,
Stirlingshire, about five miles south from Fal-
kirk. Her father was emp!oyed • there as a
miner, in digging ironstone for the Carron Com-
pany; and it appears that in her youth, she had
assisted him in his labour, hr, by some acci-
dent, common enough to people who work under
ground, she had the misfotture to get her thigh
bone broken, which has occasioned, ever since,
a small halt in her walk, scarcely perceptible,
however, to people who were not acquainted
with her. Those who knew her in her days of
innocence, represent her as a handsome good-
looking young woman. Her first public depar-
hire from the paths of virtue was an elopement with
a married man, her father's next door neighbour,
of the name of M'Dougal, whose name she has
retained ever since, but her own name is Helen
Dougal. Whether he died or deserted her, we
have not legned ; but before her connexion with
him, there was a rumour preralent -in- the vil-
lage, of a clandestine correspondence she had had
with another man ; and he and she raised an action
of damages against a mason lad for. circulating
the report of their criminality, to which he ,;tiad
,declared that he was an eye-ivitness. The con-
sequence was, that the poor mason lay in gaol
for some months, from his inability to pay the
fine and expenses arising from the prosecution,
he not being able to prove his assertion or
although he had, we believe the law does not al-

low proof to be adduced in such cases, 'hut
rather looks upon the offer as an aggravation of
the offence. When her connexion with Burke
commenced we do not know, but it is probable
it would be at the time when he was working on
the Union Canal, which passes within a short
distance of the village of Madiston. He and
she were there last summer on a visit to her re
lations, to whom, of course, he passed, as Ter
husband. Her father, no* a frail old man, 'un-
able to work; her mother and a brother, still re-
side at Wallacestone, near Madiston, and the
latter declares, that if she ever have the presump-
tion to enter his ,door, her reception will be
.more corresponding to her merits than her rela-
tionship to him. It would be gratifying if
Burke, now when he knows his case to be
utterly hopeless, and that he cannot add to his
infamy, would make‘ a Hi disclostire of, his
crimes, with, so far as he knows, the names of
his victims, as there. are many individnals)vho
have disappeared within these few years. in a
mysterious manner, and left their relations in a
state. of horrible anxiety concerning their fate.
We shall give-one instance Mr. Thomas
13allantyne, grocer in Falkirk, shut his shop 'one
Saturday night, a little before, 12 o'clock, in. the
latter-end of January, 1820. His house was
immediately above his shop; he had a' glass with
a friend in it afterwards. They sat till perhaps
nigh one o'clock on Sunday morning, and be has
never been seen or. heard of since. When. his
door was broken open, it was ascertained that he
had been in his bed, and that he had afterwards
dressed himself in his Sunday's clothes, but how
or where he had been dispm4ed of, is as yet-un-
known. It is, however, well known, that hewas
in the practice of supplying. the Irish labourers
on the Union Canal with - provisions, among
whom, it is said, this .Burke was one, who, it is
reported; was in -his-debt at the time to. the
amount of five pounds. Ballantyne'sneighbours
assert that drunken brawls frevently occurred in
his house, among his Irish customers, on Satur-
day nights. It would thereto) ebe satisfactory to
his friends if any person whol.as access to Burke,
would put the question dircAly to him, if he
could throw any light upon We singular disap-
pearance of that • individual.—Glasgow Free
Press.

The grass _land at Cyrci (auvs Captain
Beechey) is much infested by a dark-coloured centipede,
almost black, with red feelers and !egs; we usually found
half a dozen of thorn in taking up the mats in our tents,
and•hail great difficulty in killing tl em. Any part which
.ehaticed- to be separated from the •cst of the body would
-continue to run about as if not} Ii g had happened ; and
were the reptikeven divided in twenty pieces, each rut
Would travel aborit as if in seared• of the others, without
any cf them seertrifig to he the worie The only mode by
which we could kill them at ono was by ermhing the
head, which effectuslly destroyed life in every other part
instantaneously,