Historic%20Yorkshire

EUGENE ARAM. 161
had managed to concealin his cell. By immediate attention,however,
being paid to the wound,he was restored
sufficiently to endurethe journey to Knavesmire and was
there executed at the Tyburn. The verse we have mentionedis
as follows: —
Come,pleasing rest! Eternal slumber fall,
Sealmine, that once must seal the eyesofall;
Calm and composed,my soul her journey takes,
No guilt that troubles, and noheart that aches!
Adieu, thou sun! all bright,like her, arise.
Adieu, fair friends! and all that's good and wise.
After execution his body was hungin chains,and exposed
in KnaresboroughForest.
In spite of all that has been written concerning the
crime of Eugene Aram, and the many attempts which
have beenmade to palliate,or do entirely away with his
offence, we cannot find that there is anythingin his life
or character which entitles him to more sympathy or
considerationthan the ordinarycriminal, unless it be his
learningand literary acquirements. Bulwer Lytton may
insist that the crime of Aram was capable of palliation,
and that his guilt was not "vulgar," but crime cannot be
so dividedinto the vulgar and genteel. However, even
granting this distinction, he who would join in low dissipations
with such men as Houseman, Terry,and Clarke,
whowould,as he confesses,benotinfrequentlyintoxicated,
and who deliberately deserts his wife, cannot come under
any other heading than that of vulgar. It has been
frequently thought that Eugene Aram was a martyr to
the imperfection of the system of Englishcriminallaw,
but a due consideration of the case in all its bearings will
show that such a belief is entirely without foundation in
the actualoccurrences.
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