Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 September 1893 — Queer Verdict of Scotchmen. [ARTICLE]

Queer Verdict of Scotchmen.

The literary forgery case which recently occupied the attention of a judge and jury in Edinburgh is interesting, not only for the nature of the crime, but for the peculiar recommendation of the jury. Alexander Howland Smith was convicted of fabricating munuscripts and letters and disposing of them as genuine. There were letters purporting to be those of Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and other famous men, which the defendant said he obtained among the waste paper of a lawyer’s office. High authorities in literary affairs declared the documents to he spurious. The jury found the defendant guilty, accompanying the verdict with the statement that they, by a a majority vote, “recommend the prisoner to mercy on the ground that his was an unusual crime and because of the easy facility of disposing of the spurious documents afforded him.” Apparently if he had committed any ordinary crime and had been successful only by great efforts in obtaining money for the letters, he might have received a much longer term of imprisonment than one year, which he will be compelled to undergo. Some persons of weak understanding are so sensible of that weakness as to be able to make good use of it.—RochefoucaabL