On the Friday before the trial Smith, who appears to have abandoned all hope of an acquittal, wrote a letter to the Board of Excise, saying “that he was not to give them any trouble, for he would plead Guilty.” He also prepared a written statement, which it was his intention to have read to the Court, but he was dissuaded from this course by his agent, Mr. Morrison, and finally decided to take his chance and plead not guilty. In this remarkable document--a copy of which is contained in the Appendix--Smith gives, _inter alia_, the following list of “such robberies as my accomplices and myself had determined to commit, had we not been timeously prevented:-- “1. On Dalgleish & Dickie, watchmakers. 2. On White & Mitchell, lottery-office keepers. 3. On a rich baker near Brodie’s Close--the name forgot. 4. The Council Chamber, for the mace. 5. The Chamberlain’s Office, for money. 6. Forrester & Co.’s, jewellers. 7. Gilchrist & Co.’s, linen drapers. Besides these, and as depredations of greater magnitude-- 8. The Bank of Scotland (or Old Bank) was to have been broke into. 9. The Stirling stage coach, carrying a thousand pounds to pay the Carron workmen, was to have been stopped and robbed. 10. Mr. Latimer, Collector of Excise for the Dalkeith district, reported to have generally from one to two thousand pounds, was to have been robbed.” This comprehensive catalogue of the gang’s prospective arrangements was, doubtless, perused with much interest by the intended victims, and the rich baker must have congratulated himself on escaping the attention of his respectable neighbour. The only one of these contemplated robberies, towards the accomplishment of which any steps would seem to have been taken, was that of the office of the City Chamberlain. We read in Smith’s third declaration that “a false key was made by Brodie for the purpose of opening the door of the Chamberlain’s cash-room of the city of Edinburgh; the declarant and Brodie had frequently been at the door of the Chamberlain’s Office, in order to take the impression of the keyhole; that Brodie showed the declarant the said key after it was made; and Brodie told the declarant that it did not answer”--which was fortunate for the City Chamberlain. But the laudable intention which Smith, since his apprehension, had evinced “of making a clean breast” was not destined to gain for him any temporal advantage. [Illustration: George Smith at the Bar. (_After Kay._)]