You have, in the first place, the evidence of Mr. Sheriff. This gentleman, no doubt, is brother-in-law to Mr. Brodie; and it may be said that this circumstance renders his evidence suspicious. But Mr. Sheriff, gentlemen, is well known to many of you as a man of character and reputation, as a person of unblemished conduct, in a rank of life equal to many of yourselves. And I appeal to you, gentlemen of honour as you are, whether any of you, judging of this witness, as you would wish to be judged of yourselves, would for a moment indulge the thought that even to save the life of his wife’s brother he would deliberately come forward to cast away his own soul? This gentleman deposes most expressly that he dined at Mr. Brodie’s house on Wednesday, the 5th of March, the day on which the Excise Office was broke into, in company with two ladies and another gentleman; that he staid there till about eight o’clock; that Mr. Brodie during all that time was never absent from his company; and that he even asked the witness to stay supper. Here is a direct contradiction to the evidence of Brown, who swore that Brodie called at Smith’s in the afternoon of that Wednesday. Which of the two, gentlemen, are you to believe? But it is needless for me to ask the question. Were even the former circumstances urged against the credibility of this man’s evidence not sufficient, you have him here convicted of the grossest perjury, if Mr. Sheriff is to be believed; for that gentleman has expressly sworn that they dined at a quarter past three o’clock, and that Mr. Brodie never left the company while the witness staid, which was till near eight o’clock. It was asked on the other side of the bar how Mr. Sheriff, at this distance of time, came to recollect so precisely that it was upon Wednesday, the 5th of March, he dined with Mr. Brodie? The answer is obvious. It was publicly known upon the Monday following, and the witness has sworn he knew it, that Mr. Brodie was accused of being concerned in the robbery of the Excise Office. Was it not then natural--nay, would not the contrary have been altogether incredible--that Mr. Sheriff, having only four days to look back, should be able to recollect in a matter that touched so deeply the character, and might affect the life, of so near a relation, that he dined with him that very day on which that felony was perpetrated? Which of you, gentlemen, could not at this time recollect where you dined last Saturday or Sunday, and the precise time at which you left the company? If, therefore, Mr. Sheriff is to be believed, and why he should not no reason can be suggested, the prisoner could not be present, as Brown and Ainslie have deponed he was, prior to the time Ainslie left Smith’s to go to the Excise Office; which Ainslie has fixed at a quarter before eight; nor could he be with them at Smith’s at all, as Brown swears they all left it a quarter of an hour after Ainslie, and immediately joined him at the Excise Office.