Thus, then, gentlemen, the case would stand were it to be decided on the direct testimony of the witnesses on both sides weighed against each other. The circumstantiate proof, however, still remains to be considered, and I am free to confess that if it shall appear to you that these circumstances afford a chain of real evidence, either sufficiently independent of the direct depositions of Brown and Ainslie to prove the prisoner’s guilt, or so fully to confirm their testimony as to remove the cloud of suspicion that hangs upon it, as to convince you that they must be speaking the truth and the witnesses to the _alibi_ the reverse, your verdict ought to be against the prisoner. But I humbly maintain that not any of those circumstances nor all of them put together are sufficient to entitle the evidence of such witnesses to credit, when the life of a man is at stake, even if the proof of _alibi_ were out of the question, and far less in the face of that proof of _alibi_, which, if the witnesses have not deliberately perjured themselves, excludes even the possibility of the prisoner’s guilt. For I hope to show that there is not one of those circumstances, suspicious as they may appear, that cannot rationally be accounted for without supposing the guilt of the prisoner, Mr. Brodie; nay, that some of them are totally inconsistent with the supposition of his having been guilty of this offence, whatever other errors his fatal connection with these miscreants may have led him into. In considering the circumstantiate evidence, gentlemen, you are never to lose sight of the direct proof I had the honour just now of stating to you as to the _alibi_; and as each circumstance passes under your review, I entreat you to ask yourselves this question, whether it is so clear, so decisive, so totally irreconcilable with the possibility of the prisoner’s innocence as to make the suspicious testimony of those infamous witnesses outweigh the proof of _alibi_, founded on the depositions of persons liable to objections on no reasonable suspicion? The first circumstance founded on is the prisoner’s connection with the perpetrators of this crime. I readily grant that it is clear from the evidence that Mr. Brodie was in habits of too great intimacy with these men. I acknowledge that he appears to have been too deeply engaged in courses of gambling and dissipation in their company and society. That his association with such characters was dishonourable to the reputation of my client, I do not deny.