Smith was uniformly devout and penitent--relished the conversation of clergymen, and joined fervently in religious exercises. Brodie said, upon some of these occasions, that he was so much employed with his temporal concerns he could not attend to them; but, when his business was finished, he would hear the clergymen. He remarked that the best of men had not thought it improper to employ even their last moments in the concerns of this world; that he was standing on his last legs, and it behoved him to employ his time sedulously; that he was determined to die like a man, and recommended the same to his fellow-sufferers. At times, however, he conversed with the clergy, and joined in their devotions. His conversation upon these occasions was directed to the principles of natural religion, not to the doctrines of revelation. He lamented to a friend the impropriety of his first pursuits in life; that his inclinations at an early period led him to wish to go to sea; and though he did not possess much bodily strength, yet his courage and resolution were undaunted; that, instead of being in that disgraceful situation, his country might have looked up to him with admiration, and he might have been an honour to himself and family. In the course of this trial he appears to have been naturally mild tempered and humane, but without principles of conduct, and easily led to crime. He writes in his letters affectionately of his children. On the Friday before his execution he was visited by his daughter, Cecil, a fine girl of about ten years of age. The feelings of a father were superior to every other consideration, and the falling tears, which he endeavoured to suppress, gave strong proofs of his sensibility; he embraced her with emotion, and blessed her with the warmest affection. On the Sunday preceding his execution a respite of six weeks arrived for Falconer and Bruce, the two people condemned for robbing the Dundee Bank. The news made Brodie more serious for a little time than he had before been, and he expressed his satisfaction at the event, declaring that it gave him as much pleasure as if mercy had been extended to himself. On Smith observing, “Six weeks is but a short period,” Brodie, with some emotion, cried out, “George, what would you and I give for six weeks longer? Six weeks would be an age to us!” He made frequent inquiries about the alterations that were making at the place of execution, which his friends declined answering out of tenderness. He observed that the noise made by the workmen was like that of shipbuilders; but for the short voyage he was going to make he thought so much preparation was unnecessary. On being visited by a friend on the Sunday evening he, with great calmness and composure, gave the needful directions respecting his funeral, and acknowledged with gratitude the attention that had been paid him during his confinement.