Broadside entitled 'An account of a barbarous and cruel Murder'

Transcription

An account of a barbarous and cruel

MURDER

Committed on the body JAMES PARK, late bleacher.

Pollock Shaws, by Robert Mitchell, changekeeper at Strabung

on Wednesday the 10th of October I792.

HOW lamentable must it be to the feel-
ings of the human heart to hear of
of an account of the following
murder committed in this vicinity,
after hearing of so many crimes of the deep-
est nature so recently committed. This age
boasts of, it's refinement, but, I cannot see
wherein it lies; it be not as an eminent poet
expresses it, Refined in the ways of Hell. In
no period prior to this, has Glasgow and it's
neighbourhood, exhibited such a black list
of the most attrocious crimes wantonly and
daringly committed (and many of, them too with
impunity) as it has done for these last six years,
and alas! there appears but little signs of any
amendments!

On Wednesday the 10 th of Ocober 1792;
as James Park was going home from Glasgow,
to his bleachfield at Pollockshaws; he went
into the housc of Robert Mitchell, innkeep-
er at Strabungo to get a refreshment, and
having forgotten a bundle in that house, he
turned back after he had been some way upon
the road from the house, when he missed the
bundle; in order to inquire for it, Mitchell
denied that he had left it there, and Park af-
firmed that he had; upon which some alterca-
tion arose, when Mitchell seizing a peck-weight
with which he sold meal, and struck Park so
severely upon the head that he expired in
the greatest agony in a few minutes after.

It is to be wished that no more of these
shocking barbarities may pass unpunished,
which has of late been too much the case, the
utmost exertion of the law is necessary to curb
this growing evil among us; for murderers,
are dangerons persons in society. and if they
pass unpunished, no person can be safe; nor
are Judges capable of bringing them to their
deserts unless they are assisted in their inqui-
ries by those who know the truth, and those
persons who know murders. and do not
come-forward and give their evidence of all
they know about them, become guilty of the
blood of the murdered, along with them be-
cause they acknowledge that they do not hold
it a crime worthy of punishment whereas the
word of God says. Num. xxxv. 20. Whoso
killeth any person, the murderer shall be put to
death by. the mouth of witnesses: but one witness
shall not testisy any person to caufe him to die.
Verse 31. Moreover ye shall take no satisfac-
tion for the life of a murderer. which is guilty
of death; but he shall surely be put to death.

XIx. 2I, And thine eye shall not pity; b[]
life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth,
hand for hand, foot for foot, and again, xv, ii.
7. The hands of the witnesses shall be first u[]
on him to put him to death, and afterward
the hands of all the people; so thou shalt put
evil away from among you. Since Scripture
so plainly points out our duty, I need say no
more; but conclude with some observations
by another hand upon a similiar occasion.

It was a proverb among our ancestors.
That the crime of murder would not hide,
The many recent examples of daring and hor-
rid murders that have been committed in this
country without the murderers being brought
to punishment for their horrid offences, would
almost seem to destroy the force of this pro-
verb. The fault must surely lie somewhere,
either by the carelesness of those who are en-
trusted with the important office of bringing
them to punishment, or, in the people not be-
ing at the pains to make the necessary enquiry
into the circumstances of the matter to detect
the guilty person, and give the proper evi-
dence against them to lead to a conviction.
It has more than, once occurred, that a shoc-
king murder has been committed in this town
and neighbourhood, and sometimes no enqui-
ry was made at all for the perpetrator, ar o-
ther times, a person accused, examined, and
put in jail, then found bail to answer in fix
months, in the usual form, and no more
was heard of the matter. In the name of
God, do you not all know, that the guilt of
that blood which is innocently shed, is requi-
ed at large? and how must it fare then with
those who wilfully screens a person suspected
of murder from justice; surely he is equally
guity with the shedder of blood.

You will say you thought the person not
guity, why then did you not convince a
Judge and Jury of his innocence? and there
by satisfy the people at large, that farther
enquiry might have been made; for the real
murderer; for I am fully persuaded, that
were every person in their proper stations ac-

tive in discovering and punishing them, not
one murderer out of a hundred could possibly
escape, not is it any mercy to them to spare
them; for their conscience is still such an ac-
cuser of them. that their lives are imbittered,
and they can never live happy until they are
detected and brought to punishment.

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