Commentary
This report begins: 'The die is now cast, the sword of Justice has been bared and is about to descend on his devoted head. His days are numbered, the sixth day of March being the one fixed for execution.' The sheet was published by McIntosh & Co. of Edinburgh. E.T. Salt, an apparently well-respected and liked tailor, had killed his drunken wife, whose 'intemperance [was] constantly spoiling the harmony of the family'. After a prose introduction, there follows a poem about the condemned man in his cell. Following this there is a favourable character analysis of Mr Salt. The author is sympathetic to Salt's predicament throughout and ends by mentioning that a petition had been organise, to try to have Salt's sentence commuted. One 'lady of Edinburgh' is even criticised for not signing it.
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