With regard to the _alibi_, gentlemen, it is no doubt proved by the oath of Mr. Sheriff that he was in Brodie’s company from three o’clock of Wednesday, 5th March, till near eight at night, he having dined in Mr. Brodie’s house that day along with three ladies, and a gentleman whose name he does not recollect. But then this rests entirely upon his evidence, and though I do not mean to say that he has sworn falsely, yet he is not a witness _omni exceptione major_, above all exception, being the brother-in-law of Mr. Brodie. Besides that, gentlemen, allowing the evidence of Mr. Sheriff, he is still only a single witness, and even in civil cases a fact cannot be established by the evidence only of one witness, especially where it is not supported by any other circumstances. At any rate, the evidence is not inconsistent with the guilt of the pannel, for the Excise Office was broke into after eight o’clock, and Mr. Sheriff was in his own house in St. James’s Square about eight o’clock. As to the evidence of Jean Watt, who swears that Brodie came to her house that night at eight o’clock, you are to consider, gentlemen, that although, to be sure, she is not his wife, yet she is his mistress; and love is often as deeply rooted between persons of that kidney as between lawful man and wife. And, as you see, gentlemen, that either she must be mistaken as to the hour or that the witnesses on the other side must be wrong, you are to determine with yourselves whether the witnesses for the prosecution brought forward by the Lord Advocate, who has no interest but to get at the truth, or this woman, and her servant-maid who concurs with her, are most entitled to belief. And you can have no doubt but that the presumption is greatly in favour of the witnesses for the Crown, who can be influenced by no motives but those of public justice.