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THE COURT OF CACUS;
OR,
The Story of Burke and Hare.
BY
ALEXANDER LEIGHTON,
AUTHOR OF “CURIOUS STORIED TRADITIONS OF SCOTTISH LIFE,” ETC.
LONDON:
HOULSTON AND WRIGHT, PATERNOSTER ROW.
EDINBURGH: W. P. NIMMO, ST DAVID STREET.
1861.
EDINBURGH:
PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY,
PAUL’S WORK.
PREFACE.
I have not written this book,—narrating a series of tragediesunprecedented in the history of mankind, as well for the number of victimsand the depth of their sufferings as for the sordid temptation of theactors,—without a proper consideration of what is due to the public andmyself. If I had thought I was to contribute to the increase of a tastefor moral stimulants, said to be peculiarly incident to our age—and yet,I suspect, as strong in all bygone times—and without any countervailingadvantage to morals and the welfare of society, I would have desisted frommy labours. But, being satisfied that what has really occurred on thestage of the world, however involving the dignity of our nature orrevolting to human feelings, must and will be known in some way, whereverthere are eyes to read or ears to hear, nay, was intended to be[Pg iv] known byHim through whose permission it was allowed to be, I consider it abenefaction that the knowledge which kills shall be accompanied by theknowledge which cures. Nay, were it possible, which it is not, to keepfrom succeeding generations cases of great depravity punished for example,and atoned for by penitence, the man who tried to conceal them would beacting neither in obedience to God’s providence nor for the good of thepeople. We know what the Bible records of the doings of depraved men, andwe know also for what purpose; and may we not follow in the steps of theinspired?
But a slight survey of the nature of the mind may satisfy any one, notnecessarily a philosopher, that it requires as its natural food examplesof evil with the punishment and the cure. If it had been so ordered thatthere were not in the soil of the heart congenital germs of wickednessready to spring up and branch into crimes under favouring circumstances,which the complications of society are eternally producing, and that,consequently, all evil was sheer imitation, something might be said forconcealing the thing to be imitated, even at the[Pg v] expense of losing theantidote. Even in that case the “huddlers-up” would not be veryphilosophical or very sensible; religious they could n