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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1. Robert Forrester, banker. 2. Robert Allan, banker. 3. Henry Jamieson, banker. 4. John Hay, banker. 5. William Creech, bookseller. 6. James Carfrae, merchant. 7. John Kinnear, banker. 8. William Fettes, merchant. 9. John Milne, founder. 10. Dunbar Pringle, tanner. 11. Thomas Campbell, merchant. 12. Francis Sharp, merchant. 13. James Donaldson, printer. 14. John Hutton, stationer. 15. Thomas Cleghorn, coachmaker. |
The jury being impanelled and furnished with pen, ink, and paper, and copies of the indictment being laid before them, the Court ordered the counsel for the prosecutor to proceed to the evidence.
At this stage, before the evidence was led,
Mr. Wight—My Lords, I likewise attend your Lordships on the part of Mr. Brodie, and although there does not appear upon the face of this indictment any sufficient ground for an objection to the relevancy of it, yet there are some particulars of which I consider it my duty to take notice; and, in order to save time and trouble to the Court, I propose to do it now rather than hereafter.
The law of this country has been very careful to give unhappy men in the situation of the prisoners every opportunity of preparing for their trials; they are allowed fifteen days after being served with their indictments; they are furnished with a list of the witnesses’ names and designations who are to be adduced against them; and the declarations, writings, and articles to be used in evidence in the course of the trial are particularly specified. The present indictment, though not irrelevant, is perhaps laid in the most vague and general manner I have ever seen. Here there are certain letters and declarations founded on, and other articles, such as a gold watch with a chain, and seal, and key, a chest or trunk containing various articles, a five-pound bank-note, an iron coulter of a plough, &c. These are mentioned in so vague a manner as not to distinguish them from other articles of the same kind, consequently in such a manner as not to give the pannels proper opportunity of preparing for their defence. This is the more inexcusable that all of these articles admitted of a more accurate description.
[Here Mr. Wight was interrupted by the Court.]