Broadside entitled 'Letter'

Transcription

LETTER.

A Copy of a Letter regarding that unfortunate
man, John M'Court, who is to be executed on
Monday week, for the murder of his wife. Janet
M'Lauchlane or M'Court; together with a mel-
ancholy Lamentation on the occasion, in which,
you have a serious warning to both husbands and
wives, to beware of Drunkenness and inordinate
passions.

The following is an article taken from an Edinbro' news.
paper of Thursday which shews the falsity of the current
report, that that ill fated man, John M'Court, declines taking
any food, and that on the contrary he appears to be truly
penitent and resigned to his deplorable fate.

We also Subjoin a short lamentation, shewing the state of
his mind, and containing a salutary advice to his fellow crea.
tures, warning them to Bridle their passions and abstain from
bad company and vicious habits, which too often,alas, leads
to an ignominious end.                                                         .

A report has been generally circulated that M'Court, who
is at present a prisoner in the Calton Jail, and who. has to
undergo the extreme penalty of the law for the murder of
his wife, Janet M'Lauchlane of M'Court, has put on a resolu
tion that he will starve himself to death, in order to avoid the
ignomy of a public execution. This assertion, we are informed,
through a channel where the utmost confidence may be re-
lied on, is altogether unfounded.    We are informed that in.
stead of attempting self destruction, he listens to his Rev.
attendants with the greatest earnestness.    Therefore, was
suicide attempted, the clergymen would doubtless diswade   
him from such an attempt.

It is lamentable in the extreme to reflect on the depravity
of this ill fated family. Three of M'Court's sons were
banished before they had obtained the age of twelve years,
the mother murdered by her own husband, and the husband
to. be executed for the murder of his wife. It appears that
M'Court and his wife had long lived very unhappilly together,
principally owing to her addiction to drink.

While her sons were children, she used to send.them to
the streets to beg in order to raise money to satiate her un-
hallowed cravings. If these ill fated boys proved unsuccess-
ful, she beat them most unmercifully ; they were therefore
obliged to steal in order to avoid a drubbing. Thus were
the sons of M'Court trained up to vice of every kind and at
last becoming by habit and repute thieves, they were found
by the laws of their country unfit subjects for home, and were
banished to a foreign land.

M'Court's wife, by every informatian we have been able
to learn, was an habitual drunkard, and was often found ly.
ing in her stair, and at other times carried home, when her
husband would do every thing   in his   power for her com,
fort.

LAMENTATION.

Come gentle readers listen all
To what I here narate ;
Take warning of my awful fall
Before it is too late.

With acking pangs within my
breast,
I tamely must submit;
O may my latter end be blest,
Although to die unfit.

Had she who suffered by my
hands
Lived sober, good, and mild,
I never would have broke the
bands,
Nor satan me beguiled

I ever used my utmost power
In happiness to live,
And even to my latest hour,
Her faults I will forgive.

Husbands be cautious how you
use
|The partners of your love,
Beware you do not them abuse
Or death like mine t'll prove.

Wives be ye also   on your
guard,
Your passions do not raise,
Of drinking   to excess   be
spared,
Also your maker praise.

.             - Forbes and Co,Printers,               

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