Now, what does this amount to? Is it not a suggestion to the judges to look back into the proof, which is the whole province and privilege of the jury? If the judges, after a verdict, might look back into and consider the proof or any part of it in favour of the party accused, they might surely do the same thing to his prejudice, and in favour of the prosecutor. Is not this a mode of proceeding altogether incompetent? Is it not paving a way to make verdicts of no use, but our usurping a right to judge of the proof, independent of the verdict?--a proceeding which, I should think, is not only incompetent, but even criminal. Why did our ancestors establish the rules of proceeding which we have always observed? It was for the security of the lives and liberties of the subjects of this kingdom. The security handed down to us from our ancestors, we are bound to deliver unimpaired to our posterity. My Lords, if I have expressed myself warmly upon this occasion, I hope your Lordships will forgive me. I am so clear upon the incompetency of this motion, that, however clear also upon the merits, yet, for the reasons given, I am not at liberty to say one word upon them. The LORD JUSTICE-CLERK--I am clearly of opinion that it is not now competent to receive this objection, although the objection itself, were it received, is such as would have no weight with me. But I will not enter into its merits; it ought to have been stated in the pleading as a bar to the present trial; and the counsel for the pannels ought then to have brought forward whatever proof they had in order to prove the matter of fact. It is now impossible for the Court to review the evidence which has been led, and the objection must therefore be repelled. The Dean of Faculty then moved the Court to allow the plea upon the arrest of judgment to be entered upon the record, which was allowed accordingly, and an interlocutor pronounced in the following terms:-- The Lord Justice-Clerk and Lords Commissioners of Justiciary having considered the foregoing debate, they repel the plea offered in arrest of judgment. ROBT. M‘QUEEN, I.P.D. The LORD JUSTICE-CLERK--My Lords, you will now deliver your opinions as to the sentence to be pronounced against the pannels at the bar. Lord HAILES--My Lords, after the verdict of the jury, nothing remains for us but the melancholy task of pronouncing the sentence of the law. It is not left in our option what punishment to inflict, for the law has declared the crime of which these unhappy men have been convicted, capital. It is my opinion, my Lords, that the prisoners at the bar be carried back to the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, and that they be there detained, and that they be executed on Wednesday, the first day of October next.