d
turned to a certain corner. He was immediately apprehended, examined,
admitted as evidence for the crown, and discovered the particulars of
the murder. The skeleton of Clarke being found exactly in the place
and manner he had described, Eugene Aram, who now acted as usher to a
grammar-school in the county of Norfolk, was secured, and brought
to trial at the York assizes. There, his own wife corroborating the
testimony of Houseman, he was found guilty, and received sentence of
death; notwithstanding a very artful and learned defence, in which he
proved, from argument and example, the danger of convicting a man upon
circumstantial evidence. Finding all his remonstrances ineffectual, he
recommended himself in pathetic terms to the king's mercy; and if ever
murder was entitled to indulgence, perhaps it might have been extended
not improperly to this man, whose genius, in itself prodigious, might
have exerted itself in works of general utility. He had, in spite of all
the disadvantages attending low birth and straitened circumstances, by
the dint of his own capacity and inclination, made considerable progress
in mathematics and philosophy, acquired all the languages ancient and
modern, and executed part of a Celtic dictionary, which, had he lived
to finish it, might have thrown some essential light upon the origin
and obscurities of the European history. Convinced, at last, that he had
nothing to hope from the clemency of the government, he wrote a short
poem in defence of suicide; and, on the day fixed for his execution,
opened the veins of his left arm with a razor, which he had concealed
for that purpose. Though he was much weakened by the effusion of blood,
before this attempt was discovered, yet, as the instrument had missed
the artery, he did not expire until he was carried to the gibbet,
and underwent the sentence of the law. His body was conveyed to
Knaresborough-forest, and hung in chains, near the place where the
murder was perpetrated.--These are some of the most remarkable that
appeared amongst many other instances of homicide: a crime that prevails
to a degree alike deplorable and surprising, even in a nation renowned
for compassion and placability. But this will generally be the case
among people whose passions, naturally impetuous, are ill restrained by
laws, and the regulations of civil society; which the licentious do not
fear, and the wicked hope to evade.

MAJORITY OF THE PRINCE OF WALES.

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