The LORD ADVOCATE--My Lords, I hardly expected that such an objection would have been made at this time, as it has long been the universal practice to admit _socii criminis_ as evidence, and at the last trial in this Court such a witness was received without even an objection being stated. All the arguments on the other side could only affect the credibility of the witness, which properly belongs to the jury, and not the admissibility, which alone is before the Court. It is indeed true, and I am even surprised that the honourable counsel had not appealed to the authority, that Sir George Mackenzie has laid it down that _socii criminis_ could not be admitted as evidence; but upon what principle of law or reason Sir George formed that opinion I could never discover. Sir George Mackenzie, indeed, is an author by whom I never was much instructed. He is often contradictory, always perplexed, and in many instances unintelligible. But even supposing the law had so stood in his time, the Court and the practice have long since deviated from it. My Lords, the fact as stated by the Dean of Faculty is [Illustration: Lord Eskgrove. (_After Kay._)] erroneous in every respect. For although Ainslie in his first declaration did not accuse Brodie or any other person, and denied all knowledge of the crime, yet in the second declaration which he emitted before the Sheriff on the 14th of March, which I now hold in my hand, and would read did the forms of the Court permit me to do so, he in the most express terms charges both Brodie and Smith as being equally concerned in the crime libelled. And, my Lords, it will not easily be believed--indeed, the thing is incredible--that so respectable an officer of the law as the Sheriff of Edinburgh would ever have entered into such stipulations with Ainslie. But even had such transaction taken place before any inferior judge or magistrate, still that cannot deprive the public prosecutor of the evidence of this witness, for it will not be said that any such transaction passed between him and the witness, and therefore the objection ought to be repelled, reserving the credibility of his evidence to the jury. The DEAN OF FACULTY--My Lords, I offer to prove my assertion. The LORD ADVOCATE--My Lords, I am willing, if the Dean of Faculty and the Court consent to it, to hold the second declaration, emitted long before Mr. Brodie was apprehended, as the evidence to be delivered by Ainslie on this occasion. Lord ESKGROVE--No transaction of any kind can possibly take place where life and death are concerned; and, therefore, even although the counsel on the other side consent to such a proposal, the Court would not allow it. The LORD JUSTICE-CLERK--Dean of Faculty, do you say that my Lord Advocate has made a corrupt bargain with the witness to accuse Mr. Brodie upon condition of receiving a pardon? The DEAN OF FACULTY--No, my Lord; but I repeat my offer to prove a bargain to that purpose with the Sheriff.