THE GLASGOW MURDER.

Otago Witness, Issue 621, 24 October 1863, Page 6

THE GLASGOW MURDER.

(From the Dublin Warder ) Our readers, no doubt* have a vivid recollection of the circumstances attfnding the trial, conviction, sentence, and subsequent reprieve cf Mrs M'Lichlan, fjr the murder oi Jessie M'Pheraou in Glasgow. It will be remembered that in consequence of a r tory, in some po'nta plausible, by which this wretched woman sought to account for the circnmstanccs in the case that made most against her, suspicion rested on the old man Fleming, father to the gentleman in whose house the murdered pirl act.d as a servant. The less scrupulous of thr Glasgow journals fook up the cause of Mrs M'Lachlan, and maintained her innocence- or, at all events, that the murder was not actually committed by her. Mrs M'Lachlan's statement was coutradictoiy, aud it was made at a time

which ought alone to have sufficed to destroy the assumption that it w s true ; nevertheless, such vras the excited state of public feeling, and so iittle able was Bir George. Grey to resist a senseless clamour, that Mrs M'Ltichlan, pftcr the solemn firce of a fresh judicial inve?tigat : on, was S3nt to Perth jail instead of being executed, and the stigm3 of a terrible suspicion was thus fastened upon the family of Fleming. Under this suspicion they have since been laboring, Sir George Grey having put the matter in such a position, by the course which he" took regarding Mrs M'Lachlan,— that there was no pos ibiiity of removing that s'.igma by any legj.l procedure. Although the miserable prisoner on one occasion before made something like an admission that the murder waa committed by her, np to a few days ago the family so tortured and libelled has had to content themfehes, as a fourcof consolation, with the fact that tbe intelligent and reflecting portion of the community acquitted eld Fleming of any share in or knowledge of the crime. Now, however, Mrs M'Lachlan has' made what approaches more the character of a "confession," and it is but right that it should have the utmost pub-

The referring to the ense thritrhave been published coinurite, first, an entry in a journal and memorandum by the Governor of the General Prison at Ptrth, of what took place at an intetview on ICth July last between Mrs M'Lachlan and Mr Dixon, 'her a^enfc at tire trial ; and, seconJ, a note by Miss Hislop Sc.-ipture-iea'lcr in tbe Perth prison, of a conversation hrldby her with the convict. These documents weie furnished, with permission of the Secrctaiy of State, hv-the G >vernor of Perth prison to Messrs Smith and Wright, the agents of Mr Fleming, on the application of tbe latter. Iv the account of the interview between Mrs M'Lichlau and Mr Dixon we find nothing remarkable, except that hare again &he contradicts hetself, and falsifies a former statement, 'lo Miss Hisiop, however, tbe was moie communicative, and that lady's note of an interview with the prisoner contains the Nlowino: passage : — "I sail to hsr, 'I believe you to be the L-uilty pcis n, and to rcc you s^ern to have acted as a guiliy person throughout. You have be^n cuiity ot a" tieed for which jou onsjht to have been hanged, as G-'d bus never repealed that law he n.ive, that hood hoald answer for blood ; but by ii very mjsferioas providence your life has been spared, and 1 would bes ech jou to mi'.e early and eirne&t applicatioj to Him whose blood e'eanseth from nil sin.' i^ht looked at me mid sii I, ' Well, Misb Hi slot), lam obliged to jou for jour houe&ty.' She sat silent fjr a minuie or so after this, aud then she said, ' I ha ! as Httl ■ thought of ir half an Inur before I left my own house gs you have at this moment.' I said I believed it was cot a premeilitited thing, bat that one sin had led to another til. the deed was cominit'ed.'"

This acknowledgment appears t3 us to be conclusive, and we really think those journalibls are goinc; much beyond their legitimate province who would btill suggest that the old m-in, Fleming, may have been implicated in the crime The words used by •Vvs M'f achlan to Mi-,s Ilislop are ju'-t such as would be employe I by amndividuil in her circumstances, in. confessing the deed to a lady who conversed with hrr in the relation of a Scripture-reader. That Mrs M'Lichlan did not admit as much to Mr Dixon, her agent, does not surprise us, as she, being an ijrnorant person, miy still suppose that a confesbion of her guilt would be followed by the extreme penalty of the law, from which she bas been reprieved. On the other hand, she may imagine thar, after an interval more or less protiaets 1, she will be restored to her children, to whom she seems i.ttached, and that any admissions w uld prejudice her chance of release. These motives will su'iiciently account for her silence before those whom she feus. With Miss llislop, however, there was not the same reason for being guarded, and the Scriptural exhortations of this kind lady nuy have, besides, touche I her heart. Be that as it may, she has made a distinct confession which in our mind removes all possible stain of suspicion from the character of old Mr Fleming, and must relieve his family from the miserable position in which they have been placed for so long a time. The admissions of Mrs M'Lachlan, we find, are regarded as having this significance by the best-informed and most scrupulous of the Scotch journals.