little that there was neither evidence nor shadow of evidence of the charge: it was only necessary to link Dr. Knox's name with the atrocities, and reasons enough would be found for the belief that he was the cause of them. If it appeared incredible, the reply was, that the villainies had actually been perpetrated by somebody, then why not instigated by him who had the greatest interest in the result? Besides, he was none too good for it, as judged out of his own mouth. Had he not replied to a medical student, when asked how he came to have so many Kaffre skulls in his museum: "Why, sir, there was no difficulty in Kaffraria; I had but to walk out of my tent and shoot as many Kaffres as I wanted for scientific and ethnological purposes." A passing joke was thus tortured into proof of a murderous disposition, and had its numerous believers. Again, Dr. Knox had said that "he could always command subjects." To which it was rejoined, "We now know what he meant—the West Port villains were in his pay." Thus by insinuation, perversion, and hinted suspicion, on the part of those who ought to have known better, and by a gaping credulity on the part of the mass of the people, the charges against Dr. Knox came to be believed by bare force of reiteration and association of ideas. The following specimen of the literature of the time embodies the whole logic of the case:
"Down the Close, and up the Stair,
But and Ben wi' Burke and Hare.
Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief,
Knox the man that buys the beef."
On no better grounds than this Dr. Knox was condemned by the press, slandered by his medical brethren, denounced by the clergy, and his life was sought by the mob. Relying upon his entire innocence, abhorring the crime that had been done as much as anybody, and deeply indignant at the charges that were brought against him, Dr. Knox preserved silence. We can now appreciate the dignity and self-respect which impelled him to this, but he calculated wrongly for himself. Silence cannot be comprehended by a stupid public or a clamorous mob. The people were infuriated that he had not been indicted along with the West Port murderers, and Knox had to bear the whole weight of the city's wrath, which was increased by covert enemies in every quarter, and still further heightened by the escape of Hare." Two months after Burke's condemnation, and his confession exonerating Knox from all blame whatsoever had been given to the world, Blackwood's Magazine, its 'Noctes Ambrosianæ' (March, 1829), written by John Wilson, Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, alias Christopher North, made every effort to blast the character of the anatomist. Literary ruffianism is too mild a term to apply to the foul words used by Wilson, who, not content with holding up Knox to public execration, rushed with the savagery of the war-whoop and tomahawk upon an unoffending
