The evidence of Grahame Campbell likewise corroborates that of these
witnesses. With regard to Mr. Brodie, she swears positively to his being
present with them, dressed in an old-fashioned suit of black clothes.
She seems, indeed, to be in a mistake about the prisoner’s having supped
at Smith’s house that night, but the rest of her evidence is clear and
explicit, and concurs precisely with what you have heard from the other
witnesses.
The evidence of Brown and Ainslie likewise corresponds exactly with the
deposition of James Bonar. Ainslie tells you that a man came running
down the close, and it appears that when he opened the door Brodie set
off with himself--and, indeed, to tell you the truth, I could not much
blame him; and Mr. Bonar tells you that he went down the close at the
very time when the robbery was going on, and that when he opened the
door a man stepped out, of a description that exactly corresponds with
the prisoner and the dress he had on that night.
It appears clear also, gentlemen, from the depositions of the
sheriff-officers, that several articles were found upon the search in
Brodie’s house, which Brown and Ainslie depose to have been used in the
robbery of the Excise Office; a pair of pistols, a dark lanthorn, keys,
pick-locks, &c., and many of these last such as never were employed by
Mr. Brodie in the course of his business. So that no doubt can remain in
your mind of the truth of the facts sworn to by these two men, which are
all consistent with, and corroborated by the other evidence.
The crime with which these prisoners are charged, gentlemen, was
committed on Wednesday, the 5th of March. Two persons were taken up for
it, and Brodie absconded. It is established by the evidence that he went
to London, was afterwards put on board a sloop at night, and carried to
Flushing; and that, upon search being made for him, he was apprehended
at Amsterdam and brought back to this country. Gentlemen, when a person
who is accused of a crime flies from justice, it affords a strong
presumption of guilt. An innocent man would not fly without just cause.
The prosecution against him for using false dice could not be the reason
of his flight. Nay, he tells you himself in his declaration that he
absconded because Smith and Ainslie were taken up.
The papers found in the trunk, gentlemen, and the two scrolls, all which
have been proved to be of Mr. Brodie’s handwriting, afford strong
evidence against him. In one of the scrolls there is a fair and full
confession of his direct accession to the robbery of the Excise Office.
He says, “He never was directly concerned in any of their depredations,
except the last fatal one.” This is even a confession of more than is
charged against him, for it must mean that he was concerned, though not
directly, in their other depredations. It is impossible, gentlemen, to
mistake the meaning of this expression, or that it can apply to anything
else than the breaking into the Excise Office.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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