The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Volume 2

by Walter Scott

  NOTE K.--CHILD-MURDER.

  The Scottish Statute Book, anno 1690,CHAPTER 21, in consequence of thegreat increase of the crime of child-murder, both from the temptations tocommit the offence and the difficulty of discovery enacted a certain setof presumptions, which, in the absence of direct proof, the jury weredirected to receive as evidence of the crime having actually beencommitted. The circumstances selected for this purpose were, that thewoman should have concealed her situation during the whole period ofpregnancy; that she should not have called for help at her delivery; andthat, combined with these grounds of suspicion, the child should beeither found dead or be altogether missing. Many persons suffered deathduring the last century under this severe act. But during the author'smemory a more lenient course was followed, and the female accused underthe act, and conscious of no competent defence, usually lodged a petitionto the Court of Justiciary, denying, for form's sake, the tenor of theindictment, but stating, that as her good name had been destroyed by thecharge, she was willing to submit to sentence of banishment, to which thecrown counsel usually consented. This lenity in practice, and thecomparative infrequency of the crime since the doom of publicecclesiastical penance has been generally dispensed with, have led to theabolition of the Statute of William, and Mary, which is now replaced byanother, imposing banishment in those circumstances in which the crimewas formerly capital. This alteration took place in 1803.