Collection and abridgement of celebrated criminal trials in Scotland

462 Pages·2010·14.8 MB·English

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Collection ann ^uit^^tmmt
OF
CELEBRATED
CRIMINAL TRIALS
IN SCOTLAND.
FROM A.D. 1536 TO 1784.
WITH
HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL REMARKS.
BY
HUGO ARNOT, ESQ. ADVOCATE.
Quac scelerum fades, O virgo, effare, qwhmve
Urgentur poenis ? Quis tantus plangor ad auras?
GLASGOW:
PRINTED BY A. NAPIER, 43, TBONGATE.
1812.
Mc/FV
474.
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PREFACE.
JL HE Criminal Records of a Country are an historical
monument of the ideas of a People, of their manners
and jurisprudence: and in the days of ignorance and
barbarism, they exhibit a striking, but hideous picture
of human nature. The records of Scotland, in parti-
cular, present such a frequent display of the extrava-
gance of the human mind, as amuses the fancy after
the wearisome detail of form, and the disgusting re-
presentation of guilt.
While those materials gratify curiosity, they also af-
ford useful information. They show what bitter fruits
are produced under the gloomy climiate of a tyrannical
Government, and a superstitious Priesthood; and they
afford us ample ground of consolation, when we con>-
pare those bitter fruits with the blessings which we en-
joy under a free government, and in an enlightened age.
To present these Trials unabridged, v.'ould be to fa-
tigue the reader with tedious rubbish; and to deliver
them without illustration or remark, would be to de-
prive them of that fund of entertainment and inform-
IV
PREFACE.
ation which they ought to possess; But the manner
in which I thought it adviseable to publish them has
laid me under certain disadvantages, viz. the necessity
of delivering my own opinion upon a variety of diffi-
cult and important cases; and of undergoing no incon-
siderable degree of labour.
In the course however of my search, into volumin-
ous, obscure, and mutilated Records, I derived great
benefit and satisfaction, from the polite and cheerful
assistance afforded me by the Gentlemen in all the
Public Offices which I had occasion to consult; and in
particular from that of Mr. Depute Clerk of
NORRIS,
Justiciary, and of the Messrs. Keepers of
ROBERTSONS,
the Records in the General Register, whose judicious
and liberal aid greatly alleviated the trouble of my work,
And if it shall be honoured with the public approbation,
I shall think myself amply recompensed for the toil of
a long and laborious research.
1
EDINBURGH,
1st Aug. nS5. I