BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 26 1
from the great excitement in the public mind, was crowded to excess at an early
hour. Smith and Brodie only were indicted, the other two having become
“king’s evidence.” The trial commenced at nine o’clock in the morning of
Wednesday, and the jury were inclosed till six o’clock in the morning of the
following day. All the facts we have previously narrated were fully borne out
by the evidence, as well as by the declarations of Smith while in prison. An
attempt was made to prove an alibi on the part of Brodie, by means of Jean
Watt and her maid ; but the jury, ‘‘ all in one voice,” returned a verdict finding
both panels “ guilty.” They were sentenced, therefore, to be executed at the
west end of the Luckenbooths, on Wednesday the 1st October 1785. When
the sentence had been pronounced by the Lord Justice-Clerk, Brodie manifested
a desire to address the Court, but was restrained by his counsel. “His
behaviour during the whole trial was perfectly collected. He was respectful to
the Court ; and when anything ludicrous occurred in the evidence, smiled as if
he had been an indifferent spectator. His conduct on receiving sentence was
equally cool and determined.
During the whole period of Brodie’s confinement his self-possession and
firmness never forsook him. He even at times assumed a Macheath-like boldness
; and, with an air of levity, spoke of his death as a “ leap in the dark.” On
the Friday before his execution he was visited by his daughter, Cecill, about ten
years of age; and here “nature and the feelings of a father were superior to
every other consideration; and the falling tear, which he endeavoured to
suppress, gave proof of his feeling. He embraced her with emotion, and blessed
her with the warmest affection.” Brodie’s manner of living in prison was very
abstemious ; yet his firmness and resolution seemed to increase as the fatal hour
approached-the night previous to which he slept soundly for five or six hours.
On the morning he suffered he conversed familiarly with a select number of his
friends, and wrote a letter to the Lord Provost, requesting, as a last favour,
“ that as his friends, from a point of delicacy, declined witnessing his dissolution,
certain gentlemen (whom he named), might be permitted to attend, and his
body allowed to be carried out of prison immediately upon being taken down,”
-which request was readily granted.
The following account of the execution we give from one of the periodicals
of the day :-
“About a quarter past two the criminals appeared on the platform, preceded by two of the
Magistrates in their robes, with white staves, and attended by the Rev. Mr. Hardy, one of the
ministers of Edinburgh-the Rev. Mr. Cleeve, of the Episcopal persuasion, in their gowns, and the
Hay, Esq. (afterwards Lord Newton) ; Agents, Mr. Robert Donaldson, and Mr. Alexander Paterson,
Writers to the Signet.
For George Smith-John ‘Clerk, Esq. (afterwards Lord Eldin) ; ‘Robert Hamilton, Esq. ; Mr
iEneas Morrison, agent.
The jurymen were-Robert Forrester, banker ; Fbbert Allan, banker ; Henry Jamieson, banker ;
John Hay, banker j William Creech, Bookseller ; George Kinnear, banker ; William Fettes (after
wards Sir William), merchant ; James Carfrae, merchant ; John Milne, founder ; Dunbar Pringle,
tanner ; Thomas Campbell, merchant ; Francis Sharp, merchant ; James Donaldson, printer ; John
Hutton, stationer ; Thomas Cleghorn, coachmaker.
Smith was much affected.”
