CHAPTER XXXIII.

_The Confessions of Burke--The Interdicts against the "Edinburgh Evening Courant"--Burke's Note on the "Courant" Confession--Issue of the Official Document--Publication of both Confessions._

Passing mention was made in a previous chapter of the confessions of his crimes made by Burke while he was in prison awaiting the time fixed for carrying out the final sentence passed upon him by the High Court of Justiciary, and it was then stated that the curious history of the second, or _Courant_, confession, must be reserved for the proper time. Part of that history has already been related, for it has been seen how, when the _Courant_ announced the Monday before Burke's execution that that document would be published in its columns on the following Thursday, the High Court granted interdict prohibiting the publication until the proceedings against Hare were concluded. The _Courant_ bowed to this decision, but promised at the same time to lay before its readers the interesting paper as soon as possible.

This, however, was only the beginning of the difficulty. In its issue of Thursday, 5th of February, the _Courant_ stated that the interdict granted by the High Court of Justiciary, on the application of Mr. Duncan M'Neill, as counsel for Hare, having expired on the Monday previous (the 2nd of February), the publishers fully intended to have inserted the confession by Burke in their paper of that day. But, unfortunately, they had been laid under a new interdict by the Sheriff, at the instance of Mr. J. Smith, S.S.C. This Mr. Smith was the gentleman who had applied to the Lord Advocate some weeks before for permission to visit Burke in prison for the purpose of receiving from him a full confession of his crimes, and who, on being refused, had unsuccessfully appealed to the Home Secretary. On Tuesday, 3rd February, this gentleman applied to the Sheriff, craving that the _Courant_ be interdicted from publishing the confessions of Burke. The application was founded upon an allegation that the document in the possession of the editor of the _Courant_ was intended by Burke to be delivered to Mr. Smith, and had been given by the condemned man to a fellow-prisoner named Ewart for that purpose. Ewart entrusted it to the care of Wilson, a turnkey, who had disposed of it to the editor of the _Courant_. By this means, it was alleged, the intention of Burke was defeated; and it was further stated that the night before his execution, in the presence of Bailie Small, Mr. Porteous, and Mr. James Burn, Burke signed a document authorising Mr. Smith to uplift from the editor of the _Courant_ the declaration now under discussion. This paper was in these terms:--"The document or narrative, which I signed for ---- Ewart, was correct, so far as I had time to examine it; but it was given under the express stipulation that it should not be published for three months after my decease. I authorise J. Smith to insist upon the delivery of the paper above alluded to from the _Courant_, or any other person in whose possession it may be; and, at the same time, I desire Bailie Small to be present when the papers are demanded and got up, and that they may be taken to the Sheriff's office and compared with my declaration made before the Sheriff, which is the only full statement that can be relied on." The Sheriff granted interdict, but on the following day a petition was presented on behalf of the _Courant_ praying for its recall. In support of this it was stated that Wilson, the turnkey, had disposed of the confession to the editor of that journal for a fair price, while the document itself had not come unfairly into his hands. The question of the right or power of a condemned criminal to bequeath property of any description was also raised, but was not seriously entered into. The Sheriff, however, did not see his way to recall the interdict, and said it was worthy of some attention whether the document given to Ewart was not to be published until three months after the death of Burke.

But whatever may have been the method adopted by the _Courant_ to obtain possession of the confession, it is at least certain that the document, though its publication for a time was laid under interdict, was not uplifted, and that it was ultimately issued to the public long before the period stipulated for by Burke. This was probably due to the fact that a new set of outside circumstances emerged which rendered it imperative that the private confession should be published if any profit was to be gained or enterprise shown. The Lord Advocate had given orders for the issue of the official confession to all the newspapers, and the competitors for the ownership of the other document were thus forced to come to a mutual arrangement.

On the 5th of February, the day on which Hare was liberated, the Sheriff addressed a letter to the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, in the course of which he said:--"As it is now fully understood that all proceedings of a criminal nature against William Hare have terminated, it has appeared to the Lord Advocate that the community have a right to expect a disclosure of the contents of the confessions made by William Burke after his conviction. I have, therefore, to place those confessions in your lordship's hands with the view to their being given to the public, at such a time, and in such a manner, as you may deem most advisable.... It may be satisfactory to your lordship to know, that in the information which Hare gave to the Sheriff on the 1st December last (while he imputed to Burke the active part in the deeds which the latter now assigns to Hare), Hare disclosed nearly the same crimes in point of number, of time, and of the description of persons murdered, which Burke has thus confessed; and in the few particulars in which they differed, no collateral evidence could be obtained calculated to show which of them was in the right. Your lordship will not be displeased to learn, that after a very full and anxious inquiry, now only about to be concluded, no circumstances have transpired, calculated to show that any other persons have lent themselves to such practices in this city, or its vicinity; and that there is no reason to believe that any other crimes have been committed by Burke and Hare, excepting those contained in the frightful catalogue to which they have confessed."

This action on the part of the Lord Advocate was simply a formal way of making the public aware of the contents of the confession, the Lord Provost being the official representative of the citizens of Edinburgh. He, in his turn, sent the document to the newspapers for publication. Of course, when the people read it they would be initiated into the secrets of the conspiracy engaged in by Burke and Hare, and the _Courant_ managers saw that it would forestall their confession, even though it was fuller in detail. There must have been a hasty consultation with Mr. Smith, for on Saturday, the 7th February, the two confessions appeared in that journal, accompanied by the following editorial note:--

"The interdict of the Sheriff on the publication of the confession and declaration of Burke, which has been for some time in our possession, having been withdrawn in consequence of a mutual compromise, we now publish this document, along with a declaration signed before the Sheriff, and sent by him to the Lord Provost for publication the day after he had pronounced an interdict against the _Courant_. It will be observed that the declaration before the Sheriff is dry and meagre in its details. The declaration which we publish is much fuller, and contains minute and striking circumstances which were never before laid before the public. The publication of this declaration and confession has been delayed by various proceedings; of which, however vexatious, we are not disposed to complain. The interdict of the Court of Justiciary being deemed essential to the ends of justice, we yielded an immediate and respectful obedience to this order. The first interdict by the Sheriff, at the instance of a private party, was granted as a matter of course; and that interdict, after our application to have it recalled, was continued by a well meant but erroneous judgment. However we might be disappointed by the decision, we did not conceive that we had any right to complain. But we certainly do complain, that, after the Sheriff had laid the declaration which we possessed under an interdict, he should, the very next day, have published, or sent for publication, another declaration. We complain of this the more, because the very ground on which he decided to continue the interdict against us was, that our interest would be less injured by delay than that of the other party by removing the interdict; and yet, in the face of this decision, he publishes a document which, for ought he knew, might be identically the same as ours, and by the publication of which our interest would not merely be injured, but utterly ruined. We certainly think that this is an extraordinary mode of procedure. A judge in the case first interdicts the publication of a certain confession or declaration, telling one of the parties that he cannot suffer much injury by the delay, and the very next day publishes a declaration by the same person, to the injury, perhaps to the utter destruction of any interest the party had in the matter at issue. We really think that the dangers of delay are here exemplified in a very instructive manner; for if we had known that the very paper, as we could judge, about which parties were at issue, would be published the next day by the Sheriff himself, how would this have strengthened our argument against the continuance of the interdict? Such are the facts of the case; considering them carefully, they certainly appear to be somewhat irregular; and the effect was certainly calculated to prejudice, nay, to ruin our interest, if the paper in the possession of the Sheriff had not been so meagre and unsatisfactory, compared with the declaration we publish."

The _Courant_ showed its annoyance at the turn affairs had taken, but while doing so it made every effort, and that successfully, to outstrip its contemporaries. Besides publishing the two confessions in full, it gave a _fac simile_ of the note in Burke's handwriting, appended to the document in their own possession, over which there had been so much dispute. There is one thing in favour of the _Courant_, or unofficial, confession, and that is the paper signed by Burke the night before his execution. He there testifies as to its accuracy, so far as he had had time to examine it. At the same time, in view of the many discrepancies between the two documents themselves, and what was brought out by subsequent investigation, it must be admitted that in many respects they are defective as records of the terrible series of crimes in which Burke and Hare participated.