Excerpt from Burke and Hare
For the text of this report of one of our most famous trials I have consulted the following authorities: (1) The official record of the proceedings in the Books of Adjournal of the High Court of Justiciary, Edinburgh; (2) Trial of William Burke and Helen M"Dougal, edited anonymously by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, and published by Robert Buchanan; and (3) the report of that trial contained in West Port Murders, published by Thomas Ireland. Of these two contemporaneous accounts, both of which, as described in the Bibliography, were issued at Edinburgh immediately after the trial, that of Buchanan, being the more correct and complete, has been in the main adopted, after collation of the evidence as therein reported with the version published by Ireland. The opinions of the judges and the speeches of counsel as given by Buchanan, having been for his edition "by them most obligingly and carefully revised," arc here reprinted.
It has unfortunately been found impracticable, from the publishers" point of view, to include in the ordinary edition of this book the elaborate judgments delivered in the proceedings taken against Hare subsequent to Burke"s trial, which were published by Buchauau in a supplementary volume, and also were specially revised by the judges for the occasion. These contain a luminous and learned review of the law relating to the admission of socii criminis as witnesses in the Scottish Courts, and the effect of such admission upon the question of their own liability to punishment The extent and nature of these proceedings make them practically a separate trial, and regard being had to their purely legal interest, as well as to the fact that the substance of them is sufficiently stated in the Introduction, it has been thought better to print them at length only in a limited edition. This expansion of the work to two editions is to me personally regrettable; but for its necessity the present conditions under which books are produced must be blamed, rather than excess of subject-matter or the intemperance of the Editor. In respect of accuracy, however, I dare without usurpation assume the honourable boast of Buchanan, that a full and authentic record of this remarkable case is now presented.
Throughout the text I have retained the contemporary punctuation, which differs from that in current use; partly because punctuation, as Mr. Weller said of the value of experience matrimonially acquired, is a matter of taste, and also because to my mind the older fashion helps to preserve the true flavour of the period.
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