The first testimony, therefore, which he gives in the matter is deliberately false. Is his after-information, or the evidence he has given this night, the better to be believed that it was wrung from him by the fear of death, or brought out of him by the hopes of life? It is vain to say that there is no proof that such means were used with him. There is real evidence that under these impressions he must have been when he delated Mr. Brodie. Well did he know that Mr. Brodie, from his unhappy connection with him and his associates, was suspected of being accessory to their guilt. He was not so blind as not to see that to the public prosecutor, whose duty it ever is to choose from various associates those whose situations make them the most striking examples of public justice, to accuse and convict such a person as Mr. Brodie was effectually to secure his own life. It was a situation too powerful to be overcome even by much more virtue than the witness could boast of, and, unhappily for Mr. Brodie, his connection with the witness in scenes of another kind, while it suggested the accusation, procured it credit. I cannot ask you to believe without evidence that such a plot was laid, nor am I entitled to charge it. But surely witnesses in such circumstances should not lightly be believed. And doing so may lead to consequences of the most dreadful nature, as every man, unfortunate enough to have been innocently, perhaps, the companion of villains, may thus by falsehood and treachery be made their substitutes to the offended laws of their country. Ainslie’s evidence, therefore, in such a situation, is not only suspicious, but altogether incredible. The evidence of Brown is, if possible, still more unworthy of credit than that of Ainslie. A more hardened and determined villain can hardly be figured. You saw, gentlemen, the manner in which he gave his evidence. He appeared more like a man rehearsing and expatiating upon the patriotic acts he had performed for the good of his country than a criminal unfolding the black history of his own iniquities. You have it in proof that he was not only accused but convicted of a former felony, and sentenced to be transported; that a presentment by the grand jury stands yet against him for another felony; and that he was banished for theft by a sentence of the Justices of Peace of Stirlingshire, proceeding on his own confession.