Historic%20Yorkshire

160
EUGENE ARAM.
bones ? "
In conclusion, he adduced many instances
where circumstantial evidence and king's evidence had
been found to be false after beingaccepted in important
trials.
The summing up of the judge,it has been said, rather
resembled the utterance of a blood-thirsty prosecutor
than that of an impartial judge,and could have but one
interpretation — the gallows. Accordingly, Aram was
found guilty and condemnedto be hung. It is remarked
that he must have been an inordinately vain man;
otherwise, that when death would be the sure result of
failure,he would not have worked out a defence so devoid
of passion and so full of logic and learning. After his
convictionhe wrote to a friend a letter in which he confessed
the justice of his sentence, and he also confessed
to the clergyman who attended him that he was really
guilty of the murder of Clarke. He says in this letter
that his onlyprovocation for the deed was that offered by
the prospectof " filthy lucre;" but he excused himself to
the clergymanin a totally different manner, namely, that
he imagined Clarke had intrigued with Mrs. Aram.
Bulwer Lytton, in his novel entitled " Eugene Aram,"
which affords a lustre to Aram's character which the
reality did not substantiate, gives a third reason for the
murder, namely,the obtaining of money to carry out a
gigantic scientific discovery. While Aram lay in confinement
in York Castle, previous to the last expiation of his
crime, he wrote a somewhat lengthy poekn, which,
although not of sustained excellence,is rich in indications
of a refined culture. Other shorter pieces also
engaged his attention, and among others six lines of
poetry, composed the evening before his execution,and
which concluded a fanciful apology for his attempted
suicide;for on the morning appointedfor the execution,
when awakened for the removal of his fetters, he was
found tobe toomuchenfeebled toarisewithoutassistance.
Uponhis condition being investigated,the wardersfound
that a vein in his arm had been opened with a razor he