The DEAN OF FACULTY--My Lords, I likewise appear as counsel for William
Brodie, the prisoner at the bar. I admit that it is fair to mention the
facts which are to be insisted on in his defence; and therefore,
adhering to the general denial of the crime charged, we undertake to
prove that Mr. Brodie went, before eight o’clock of that night in which
the Excise Office is said to have been broken into, to the house of
Janet Watt, a person residing in Libberton’s Wynd, with whom he had a
particular connection, and that he remained in that house from the said
hour until about nine o’clock the next morning. This will be instructed
by the woman herself and by other unexceptionable witnesses.
Mr. ROBERT HAMILTON--My Lords, I appear as counsel for the prisoner
George Smith. No objection appears to me upon the relevancy of the
indictment, and the prisoner rests his defence upon a general denial of
the facts charged, having no exculpatory proof to offer.
The Court then pronounced the following interlocutor:--
The Lord Justice-Clerk and Lords Commissioners of Justiciary,
having considered the criminal indictment raised and pursued at the
instance of Ilay Campbell, Esq., His Majesty’s Advocate, for His
Majesty’s interest, against the said William Brodie and George
Smith, pannels, they find the indictment relevant to infer the
pains of law, but allow the pannels and each of them to prove all
facts and circumstances that may tend to exculpate them or
alleviate their guilt, and remit the pannels with the indictment as
found relevant to the knowledge of an assize.
ROBERT M‘QUEEN, I.P.D.
The Court were proceeding to select fifteen from amongst the forty-five
gentlemen summoned as jurymen, when it was discovered that some of the
witnesses had not come forward. In about half-an-hour they all arrived.
The Lord Advocate then moved the Court to inflict some fine on those
witnesses by whom the delay had been occasioned; but it being found upon
inquiry that the hour of cause, but no particular hour, was specified in
the citations given them, his Lordship, in respect that the hour of
cause was understood to mean ten o’clock, withdrew his motion, and the
Lord Justice-Clerk, to prevent similar delays, gave directions that in
time coming the citations given to jurymen and witnesses should bear a
specified hour at which their attendance is to be required.
Out of the above forty-five jurymen the following fifteen persons were
named to pass upon the assize of the pannels; and the pannels being
asked if they had any objections why they should not pass upon this
assize, and no objections being made on the contrary, they were all
lawfully sworn in by the following oath, five at a time:--
You swear by Almighty God, and as you shall answer to God at the great
day of judgment, that you will truth say, and no truth conceal, so far
as you are to pass upon this assize.
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