214 M U R 
extreme, Fahrenheit’s thermometer being often at 99°, 
and in winter a fire is hardly ever neceflary. At Murcia 
there are no inns, the want of which is a ferious inconve- 
ence on the road from Madrid to Carthagena, and on that 
from Catalonia and the kingdom of Valencia into An- 
dalufia. It is ninety-fix miles fouth-fouth-weft of Va¬ 
lencia. Lat. 37. 57. N. Ion. i. 20. W. 
MUR'CIA, f in botany. See Myrtus. 
MURCIELA'GOS, two fmall Philippine-iflands, near 
the north coaft of Mindanao. Lat. 9.13. N. Ion. 122. 28. E. 
MUR'DER, f. [mopSopi, mop^ep, Sax. murdrum, law 
Lat. the etymology requires that it (hould be written, as 
it anciently often was, murther ; but of late the word itfelf 
has commonly, and its derivatives univerfally, been .written 
with d. Dr. Johnfon. —The etymology of the Sax. mojv'S, 
whence moja'Sojt, and of the M. Goth, maurthr, require 
murther; but murder has alfothe authority of the Su. Goth. 
mcrd, the Teut. moot'd, and the old Fr. murdre. Todd.'] 
The add of killing a man unlawfully ; the adt of killing 
criminally.—The crime of murder is punifhed with death 
in almoft all nations. Chambers. 
Blood hath been filed ere now, i’ the olden time, 
Ere human ftatute purg’d the general weal ; 
Ay, and fince too, murders have been perform’d 
Too terrible for the ear. Shaliefpeare's Macbeth. 
Slaughter grows murder when it goes too far. 
And makes a maffacre what was a war. Dmjdcn. 
Murder, or Murther, in law, is thus defined, or rather 
defcribed, by fir Edward Coke: “ When a perfon, of found 
memory and difcretion, unlawfully killeth any reafonable 
creature in being, and under the king’s peace, with ma¬ 
lice aforethought, either exprefied or implied.” 
1. It mud be committed by a perfon of found memory and 
difcretion: for lunatics or infants are incapable of commit¬ 
ting any crime; unlefs in fuch cafes where they fliow a 
confcioufnefs of doing wrong, and of courfe a difcretion 
or difcernment between good and evil. Thus, lord Hales 
ordered a boy of ten years of age to be hanged, who had 
burnt a child to death in a cradle. In the Gentleman’s 
Magazine for May 1748, there is a curious cafe of mur¬ 
der committed by a boy of that age; but we have not 
been able to difcover what became of the criminal after¬ 
wards. We fhall copy the paragraph -, as it fufficiently 
fhows the “ malice aforethought,” and the “ found me¬ 
mory and difcretion,” in the precautions he took to efcape 
detedlion. 
On Monday, May 16, William York, a boy ten years 
old, was committed to Ipfwich goal for the murder of 
Sufan Mayhew, a child about five, who was his bed-fel¬ 
low in the poor-houfe belonging to the parifti of Eyke. 
He confeffed that, a trifling quarrel happening between 
them on the 13th, about ten in the morning, he ltruck 
her with his open hand, and made her cry: that, flue 
going out of the houfe to the muck-hili oppofite to the 
door, he followed her with a hook in his hand, with an 
intent to kill her; but, before he came up to her, he fet 
down the hook, and went into the houfe for a knife : he 
then came out again, took hold of the girl’s left hand, 
and cut her wrift all round, and to the bone, with his 
knife; and then threw her down, and cut her to the 
bone juft above the elbow of the fame arm: that after 
this he fet his foot upon her ftomach, and cut her right 
arm round about and to the bone, both on the wrift 
and to the elbow : that he then thought Jhe ivould not 
die, and therefore took the hook, and cut her left ham 
to the bone; and, obferving Hie was not dead yet, 
(truck her about three times on the head with the hook 
broadways, and then found (lie was dead. His next care 
was to conceal the murder; for this purpofe he filled a 
pail with water at a ditch, and wafhed the blood off the 
child’s body; buried it in the muck-hill, together with 
the blood that was fpilt upon the ground, and made the 
muck-hill as fmooth as lie could; afterwards he vvaflied 
the knife and hook and carried them into the houfe, 
M U R 
wafhed the blood off his own clothes, hid the child’s 
clothes in an old chamber, and then came down and got 
his breakfaft. When he was examined, he (bowed very 
little concern ; all he alleged was, that the child fouled the 
bed in which they lay together, that Jhe ivas fulfil/, and 
that he did not like her. 
2. Next, it happens when a perfon of fuch found dif¬ 
cretion unlawfully killeth. The unlawfulnefs arifes from 
the killing without warrant or excufe: and there muft 
alfo be an adtual killing to conftitute murder; for a bare 
affault, with intent to kill, is only a great mifdemeanor, 
though formerly it was held to be murder. 
3. The perfon killed muft be a reafonable creature in 
being, and under the king's peace, at the time of the kill¬ 
ing. Therefore to kill an alien, or an outlaw, who are 
all under the 'king’s peace or protedlion, is as much mur¬ 
der as to kill the moft regular-born Englifhman; except 
he be an alien-enemy, in the time of war. 
4. Laftly, The killing muft be committed with tnalice 
aforethought, to make it the crime of murder. This is 
the grand criterion which now diftinguifties murder from 
other killing; and this important point we have already 
fully difcuffed and explained under the article Homicide, 
vol. ix. p. 261. 
MUR'DER, interj. An outcry when life i§ in danger: 
Kill men i’the dark! where be thefe bloody thieves? 
Ho, murder ! murder ! Shaliefpeare's Othello. 
To MUR'DER, v. a. To kill a man unlawfully.—If he 
dies, I murder him, not they. Dryden. —To deitroy ; to 
put an end to : 
Can’ll thou quake and change thy colour, 
Murder thy breath in middle of a word, 
And then again begin, and flop again? Shaliefpeare. 
MUR'DERER, f One who has filed human blood un¬ 
lawfully; one who has killed a man criminally.—Thou 
doll kill me with thy fallehood ; and it grieves me not to 
die, but it grieves me that thou art the murderer. Sidney. 
—The very horror of the fadl had ftupefied all curiofity, 
and fo dilperfed the multitude, that even the murderer 
himfelf might have efcaped. Wotton. 
With equal terrors, not with equal guilt, 
The murderer dreams of all the blood he fpilt. Swift. 
A fmall piece of ordnance, in (hips of war; called alio a 
murdering-piece.—A cafe-fhot is any kind of fmall bul¬ 
lets, nailes, old iron, or the like, to put into the cafe, to 
flioot out of the ordnances or murderers. Smith's Sea 
Grammar, 1627. 
MURDERER’S BA'Y, a bay on the weft coaft of Sta¬ 
ten Land, or New Zealand; fo called by Tafman, in com¬ 
memoration of fome of his crew being murdered there by 
the natives, in December 1642 ; between Cape Farewell 
and Rocky Point. Lat. 40. 49. S. 
MUR'DERESS, )'. A woman that commits murder.— 
Art thou the murderefs then of wretched Laius ? Dryden. 
Diana’s vengeance on the vidtor Ihowm, 
The murderefs mother, and confirming fon. Dryden. 
MUR'DERING-PIECE, f. A fmall piece of ordnance. 
—The fmall cannon, which are, or were, ufed in the fore- 
caftle, half-deck, orfteerage, of afliip of war, were within 
a century called murdering -pieces. Malone. 
And, like a murdering-piece, aims not at one, 
But all that Hand within the dangerous level. Beau, and FI. 
MUR'DERKILL, a town of North America, in the 
Hate of Delaware: lixteen miles fouth-fouth-eaft of Dover. 
MUR'DERMENT, J'. The adt of killing unlawfully. 
Not in ufe. —To her came meffage of the murderment. 
Fairfax 
MUR'DEROUS, adj. Bloody; guilty of murder; ad- 
didted to blood : 
Upon thine eye-balls murderous tyranny 
Sits in grim majelty to fright the world. Shaliefpeare. 
MUR'DER- 
