at once rendered to Dr. Thomson, in reference to the statement that he had supplied the medicine. On the 7th of January, the following letter was published in the "Courier;" the paper in which the only authorized announcements were made to the public.*[1]
"Sir—In the interesting and affecting account of the death of Mrs. George Maclean, which appeared in the 'Courier,' and which has been copied into various papers, there is a statement that I furnished Mrs. Maclean's medicine chest and introduced into it a bottle of Hydrocyanic (Prussic) acid. Assuming this to be true, you very properly state that the bottle was labelled with great care; and consequently, that every precaution had been taken to prevent any accident from an over-dose. Now, sir, it is true that I ordered the medicines in Mrs. Maclean's medicine chest, but none of these were Hydrocyanic acid; nor was any of that acid contained in any of the medicines in the chest.
"For my own satisfaction, I called upon Mr. Squire, the chemist and druggist to the queen, at the corner of Duke-street, Oxford-street. That excellent chemist supplied the drugs for Mrs. Maclean's use; and he showed me not only the list of those which he put into the chest, inserted in
- ↑ * The writer of these pages, having been, at the period referred to, the editor of the "Courier," takes this occasion to state, for the information of Mr. Maclean's friends, that the earlier announcements in that journal were made by him on his own responsibility, and without the concurrence or knowledge of his friend, the Rev. Mr. Landon. An allusion was made to letters, from which it might be inferred, that her spirit was not always so tranquil; of this allusion Mr. Landon knew nothing till he read it in print. It was a reference chiefly to her regrets at losing her only European servant.
