Gentlemen, you have heard various objections stated by the prisoners’ counsel against the admissibility of the evidence of Brown and Ainslie, and therefore I will in the first place call your attention to the other evidence, against which no objection has or can be made, and which is, in my opinion, sufficient in itself to establish the guilt of the pannels; and I shall afterwards speak to the evidence of these two men. The first circumstance which you have in evidence, and to which I call your attention, is the intimate connection between the prisoner Brodie and the other three, Smith, Ainslie, and Brown, who have all confessed themselves guilty of the crime charged; it is admitted by himself in his letters and declaration, and is confirmed by the evidence of Smith’s maid, who said that she had seen them often together in her master’s house; his being often in company with them, gambling with them in different houses, and particularly in Clark’s, a house which, from what we have heard of it this day, ought for the good of society to be razed to the ground or built up, as houses infected by the plague are in times of pestilence. In the second place, gentlemen, the prisoner was in company with these men on the very night in which the robbery was committed. This is proved by the testimony of Smith’s maid, Grahame Campbell, a witness who it is not pretended had any temptation to perjure herself. She tells you that Brodie came to her master’s house that day in the dusk of the evening; that they were in the upper room all together, and had some cold fowl and herrings; that Brodie was then dressed in an old-fashioned black coat; that she mentioned this circumstance to her mistress; that he went out with Smith, Brown, and Ainslie; and that when he came back later in the evening, he had then changed his dress and had on light-coloured clothes. These are all circumstances highly suspicious, and they would have been likewise sworn to by Smith’s wife, if she had been allowed to be examined; but that is unnecessary, as the facts the witness has deponed to are all probable in themselves, and they are corroborated, to the extent I have mentioned, by the other evidence, and also by Smith’s declarations, which last I do not mean to found upon as evidence against Mr. Brodie, but it is a curious fact. In the third place, gentlemen, you will observe that the Excise Office was robbed upon Wednesday, the 5th of March. On the Friday night following, information was given to the Procurator-Fiscal by Brown; on the Saturday, Smith and Ainslie were apprehended and committed to prison. And what happens? Brodie goes to the prison to visit them, but is denied access. Is it possible to suppose that a gentleman in Mr. Brodie’s situation would have done this had he been innocent? No, gentlemen, it is not to be supposed.