THE GLASGOW MURDER.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 108, 30 October 1863, Page 6

THE GLASGOW MURDER.

(From the Dablin Warder*) , Our readers, no doubt, have a vi, recollection of the circumstances t tending the trial, conviction, <enten< and subsequent reprieve of \ M'l*achlan> for the murder of J« M«Pherson in Glasgow. It will be* membered that in consequence story, in some points- plausible," which this wretched wom'ati sought account for the circumstances in case that made most against her, < picion rested onthe old man Fiemii father to the gentleman in whose hot the murdered girl acted as a servai The less scrupulous of the Glasgt journals took; up the cause of 31 M'Lachlan, and. maintained her inn cence— or, at all events, tiiat the m D der was not actually committed by Be Mrs M'Lachlan's statement was conit dictory, and it was 'made at a tin which ought' alone to have sufficed destroy the assumption that it was tro nevertheless, such was the cxcii state of public feeling, and' so little al was Sir George Grey to resist a sent less clamor, that Mrs M'Lachlan, aft the solemn^, farceTof ' :^ fresh judic invest gatibn, ' was sent to ; Perth g instead ; - of being executed, and i stigma of 'a'teryible^i^icipn^was t) fastened upon the family of Flemi Under this suspicion'; they^haye sii been laboring, ;Sir GS;eorge Grey faavi put the matter in <such a position, the course which he took regarding 1 M'Lachlatt--that .there, was no pa bility of removing; ithat stigma by | legal procedure, the niin able prisoner on one occasion bet made something like an admission t! the murder was committed [ by 'her,; to a few days ago, the ; family *so i tured and libelled has had to con! themselves, as a source of consolaii with the fact that the intelligent reflecting p orliori of, the commuc acquitted old Fleming of any' share or knowledge of the crime; J Now, ho ever, Mrs M'Lachlan lias mad e approaches more' the character ol •♦confession," and it is but rrightt t it should have the utmost publicity,

The "additional documents" referi to the case that Have, been publisl comprise, first, an entry in a joui and memorandum by the Governbi the General Prison at Perth, of * took place at an interview on 10th J last between Mrs M'Lachlan and Dixon, her agent at the trial; a second, a note by Miss Hislop, Script reader in the- Perth prison, of a com sation held by her with the com These documents were furnished, » permission of the Secretary of Sti by the. Governor of Perth prison Messrs : Smith and Wright, the age of Mr Fleming, on the application the latter. In the account of the in! view between Mrs M'Lachlan and Dixon we find nothing remark* .except that here again she contradi herself, and falsifies a former stateme To Miss Hislop, however, she was m communicative, and that lady's not an interview with the prisoner conti

the following passage :- — " I said tol • I believe you to be the guilty pen and to me you seem to have acted i guilty person throughout. You i been guilty of a deed for which ought to have'ibeen hanged, as God never repealed that law he gave,! blood should answer for blood; bul a^yery mysterious providence your has been spared, and I would bese you to make early and earnest appl tion to Him whose blood cleanse th f all sin.' She looked at me and s « Well, Miss Hislop, I am obliged to for your honesty.' She sat silent fi miuute or so after this, and- then said, 'I had as little thought of it h an-hour before I left my own hous you have at this moment.' I sa believed it was not a premeditated tb but that one sin had led to another the deed was committed."

This acknowledgment appears

to be conclusive, and we really tl those journalists are going much bej their legitimate : province who *( still suggest that the old man, Flem may have been implicated in the cti The; words used by Mrs M'Lachlai Miss Hislop are just such as wouli employed by an individual in her cumstahces, in confessing the deed

lady who conversed with her in relation of a Scripture-reader. 1

Mrs M'Lachlan did pot admit as r to Mr Dixon, her agent,' does not prise us, as she, being an ign( person, may still suppose that a f ession of her guilt would be folli by the extreme penalty of the law, whicK'shf had been reprieved. Oi other hand, she may imagine that, an interval more or less protracted will be restored to her ehildrei

whom she seems attached, and that admissions would prejudice her cl of release. These motiyes will ciently account for her silence 1 those whona she ' feajri. ;. ' W ith Hislop, howeyer^ere was, not the reason for being guarded, and the ! tual exhortations of this kind lad] have, besides, tquched7hjeir ; Hi?irt tiiat, as it may, sne has inad'e^ di confession which in our mind rei all possible stain of suspicion fro character^ of W Mir^Mn^ and ielieye' %\w'^faißiily'ljfir.'Qrai.. * v he. mis* position in wnich they have been f for so long atime^ The admissii ■Mrs . M*LacfiJan;*we fiHdv arVreg as havinjg/.|^U/£.Big'n^aQce by tb informed and most scrupulous < Scotch journals. :■■■■'■■■