A List of Publications on the Subject of or having Reference to the Trial of Deacon Brodie.
1. An | Account of the Trial | of | William Brodie, and George Smith, | Before the High Court of Justiciary | on Wednesday, the 27th, and Thursday | The 28th days of August, 1788; | For Breaking Into, and Robbing, | The | General Excise Office of Scotland, | On the 5th Day of March last. | Illustrated with Notes and Anecdotes. | To which is added, | An Appendix, | Containing Several Curious Papers Relative | To the Trial. | By A Juryman. | “Read this and tremble! ye who ’scape the laws.” Pope. | Edinburgh: | Printed for William Creech. M,DCC,LXXXVIII.
Quarto, pp. xii. + 125.
This, the first separate report of the trial, by William Creech, was published on 5th September, 1788, “handsomely printed in quarto, price 3s., stitched,” and contained three appendices. It was originally issued without the portrait of Deacon Brodie, but on 15th September was advertised for sale as “embellished with a full length portrait of Mr. Brodie by Kay, and reckoned a very striking likeness. Price, 3s. 6d., or without the engraving, 3s. N.B.—The former purchasers of the above account of this singular trial will be accommodated with the print at 6d. each on sending their copies to Mr. Creech’s shop. A few copies of the print may be had separate from the trial at 1s. each.”
The advertisement adds—“A most shameful and mean piracy of the above account of the trial has appeared. This may, no doubt, in some degree be reckoned a compliment, as it is but fair to infer that when people are to pillage they naturally wish to take what they think most valuable; but such a breach of good manners and such a barefaced invasion of the right of another ought to be exposed. Application has this day been made to the Lord Ordinary to interdict the sale of this pirated edition.” This intimation has reference to the reports of the trial respectively published by Stewart and Robertson, as aftermentioned.
2. The | Trial | of | William Brodie | Wright and Cabinet Maker in Edinburgh, | and of | George Smith Grocer there, | Before the High Court of Justiciary, | Held at Edinburgh on Wednesday the 27th, | and Thursday the 28th August 1788; | For breaking into the General Excise-office at Edin-| burgh on the 5th of March last. | Containing | The Evidence at Large for and against the Prisoners; | Accurate Statements of the Pleadings of the Counsel; | And the Opinions of the Judges on many | important Points of Law: | With the Whole Proceedings. | By Æneas Morrison, Writer in Edinburgh; | And Agent appointed by the Court to conduct the | Defence of George Smith. | Edinburgh: | Printed for Charles Elliot, Parliament Square; | and Sold by C. Elliot and T. Kay, No. 332 Strand, | London; and all Booksellers in Town and Country. | M,DCC,LXXXVIII.
Octavo, pp. viii. + 279.
Morrison’s report of the trial, which is much the most accurate and complete, was published on 6th September, 1788. The editor writes in his preface, “It was thought better to state the proceedings by way of dialogue, in the same manner as all the English trials are published, than in the form of narrative—the usual manner or collecting both the depositions of witnesses and the pleadings of counsel in Scotland.” This was an innovation which rendered the report more interesting and valuable than its competitors. An account of the trial by Charles Elliot, the publisher, had been announced, but it was arranged that Morrison should prepare it, Elliot furnishing him with his MS. and publishing the book.
It is interesting to know from a contemporary account that Deacon Brodie, while in prison after his sentence, “has read all the publications respecting his trial, and has given it as his opinion that Mr. Elliot’s account was the best.”
The advertisement states—“There will be published on Monday an appendix to this trial, which will be given gratis. Those who have already got copies may send for the appendix.” With regard to this appendix, Morrison has a note that he had originally intended publishing certain interesting documents in his report, but had been informed by a friend of Brodie’s “that Mr. Creech had engaged upon his honour not to publish anything in his account of the trial, either in the form of anecdote or otherwise, that did not occur in the course of the trial itself.” Creech, however, published some additional matter, and Morrison considered “he was entitled to put the purchasers of his account on a footing with those who had purchased Mr. Creech’s.” The three appendices given in the first edition of Creech’s report were therefore issued by Morrison, as above mentioned.