Trial of Deacon Brodie

by Unknown

Now, to ascertain this point you have, in the first place, gentlemen, the evidence of Brown and Ainslie, and if they have sworn truth the prisoners must be guilty. To the admissibility of these witnesses there can be no objection. Were not evidence of this sort admissible, there would not be a possibility of detecting any crime of an occult nature. Had a corrupt bargain, indeed, been proved, by which they were induced to give their evidence, there might have been room for an objection to their admissibility. But no such bargain has even been alleged against the public prosecutor in the present case. And as to their being accomplices, this, gentlemen, is no objection at all. A proof by accomplices may display, it is true, a corruption of manners, which alone can render such proof necessary. But it is impossible to go into the idea that their testimony is therefore inadmissible.

Nor is there, in the present case, any reason to suppose that they were under improper temptations to give their evidence. Each of them was separately called upon by the Court, and it was explained to each of them that they ran no hazard unless from not speaking the truth, and that their being produced as witnesses secured them from all punishment, except what would follow upon their giving false evidence. Under such circumstances, you cannot suppose, gentlemen, that they would be guilty of perjury without any prospect of advantage to themselves, and merely to swear away the lives of these prisoners at the bar.

Their credibility, to be sure, rests with you, gentlemen; and if you find anything unnatural or contradictory in their evidence you will reject it. But there is nothing in it unnatural or contradictory. The principal objection was made against Brown, but his evidence is corroborated by that of Ainslie, and the evidence of Ainslie is again corroborated by that of Brown, and they are both corroborated by all the other circumstances deposed to. With regard to Smith, you have the best of all evidence against him, his own declarations, for it surely is not to be imagined that any man would criminate himself contrary to the truth. These declarations have been substantiated in your hearing, and where a corpus delicti is established, as in the present case, to which these declarations refer, there cannot be a doubt of their being the very best evidence, and therefore you can be under no difficulty of returning a verdict against him.

Gentlemen, to be sure these declarations are not legal evidence against Brodie. But they corroborate the evidence of Brown and Ainslie, who swear positively against him.

The evidence of Grahame Campbell likewise corroborates that of these witnesses. With regard to Mr. Brodie, she swears positively to his being present with them, dressed in an old-fashioned suit of black clothes. She seems, indeed, to be in a mistake about the prisoner’s having supped at Smith’s house that night, but the rest of her evidence is clear and explicit, and concurs precisely with what you have heard from the other witnesses.

The evidence of Brown and Ainslie likewise corresponds exactly with the deposition of James Bonar. Ainslie tells you that a man came running down the close, and it appears that when he opened the door Brodie set off with himself—and, indeed, to tell you the truth, I could not much blame him; and Mr. Bonar tells you that he went down the close at the very time when the robbery was going on, and that when he opened the door a man stepped out, of a description that exactly corresponds with the prisoner and the dress he had on that night.

It appears clear also, gentlemen, from the depositions of the sheriff-officers, that several articles were found upon the search in Brodie’s house, which Brown and Ainslie depose to have been used in the robbery of the Excise Office; a pair of pistols, a dark lanthorn, keys, pick-locks, &c., and many of these last such as never were employed by Mr. Brodie in the course of his business. So that no doubt can remain in your mind of the truth of the facts sworn to by these two men, which are all consistent with, and corroborated by the other evidence.

The crime with which these prisoners are charged, gentlemen, was committed on Wednesday, the 5th of March. Two persons were taken up for it, and Brodie absconded. It is established by the evidence that he went to London, was afterwards put on board a sloop at night, and carried to Flushing; and that, upon search being made for him, he was apprehended at Amsterdam and brought back to this country. Gentlemen, when a person who is accused of a crime flies from justice, it affords a strong presumption of guilt. An innocent man would not fly without just cause. The prosecution against him for using false dice could not be the reason of his flight. Nay, he tells you himself in his declaration that he absconded because Smith and Ainslie were taken up.

The papers found in the trunk, gentlemen, and the two scrolls, all which have been proved to be of Mr. Brodie’s handwriting, afford strong evidence against him. In one of the scrolls there is a fair and full confession of his direct accession to the robbery of the Excise Office. He says, “He never was directly concerned in any of their depredations, except the last fatal one.” This is even a confession of more than is charged against him, for it must mean that he was concerned, though not directly, in their other depredations. It is impossible, gentlemen, to mistake the meaning of this expression, or that it can apply to anything else than the breaking into the Excise Office.

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.