BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 363
but at that time a Bow Street officer of much repute), who, commencing his
investigations at Glasgow, and from thence carefully tracing the route of the
robbers in their progress to London, was soon able to connect a chain of
circumstantial evidence, well calculated to raise the hopes of his employers.
The case having been again postponed, the trial was ultimately fixed for the
11th of May 1820. The Court was crowded to suffocation at an early hour.
No civil case had ever created agreater sensation. The Judges were, the Lord
Chief Commissioner Adam, Lord Gillies, and Lord Pitmilly. Counsel for the
bank, Francis Jeffrey, Henry Cockburn, and James L’Amy, Esquires, and
James Smyth, W.S.,’ agent ; for Mackcoull, J. P. Grant and Archibald Alison,
Esquires; and Rlr. William Jamieson, W.S., agent. Mr. Cockburn‘was in the
act of addressing the Court, and detailing the leading features of the case, when,
to the astonishment of all present, Mackcoull appeared pressing through the
crowd, not stopping till he got close to Mr. Cockburn. Here he stood with
great composure, looking round with an arch grin peculiarly his own j and as
the speaker proceeded, he came so close that Mr. Cockburn feeling interrupted
by his presence, demanded that he should be removed to another part of the
Court. Mr. Jeffrey joined in the same request, when the pursuer took his seat
beside his own c~unsel.~
The identity of Mackcoull, as one of the three individuals who lodged in
the house of the late Mrs. Stewart, Glasgow, previous to the robbery of the
bank, and who posted their way to London immediately after its committal,
was fully established by the various witnesses produced, and many facts were
brought out tending to expose the whole plan of the robbery. Notwithstanding
the turn which the case had thus taken against him, Mackcoull continued
to walk about in Court, without betraying much uneasiness, and occasionally
entered into conversation with those around him ; but when he heard the name
of John Xcoltock, blacksmith in London, announced as the next witness, he rose
and attempted to get out of Court. This he found impossible, owing to the
hensity of the crowd ; and the instant he saw Scoltock, he changed colour and
sank down by the side of the wall in a kind of faint. He was then carried out
of Court, and did not again appear for some time.
The evidence of the smith at once established the guilt of Mackcoull beyond
the possibility -of doubt, and Mrs. Houghton White confirmed his testimony
Mr. Smyth, who had been repeatedly insulted on the streets by Mackcoull, at length brought
him before Mr. A. Sniellie, then a Police Magistrate. Mr. Smyth began his complaint by stating
that Mackcoull bad robbed the Paisley Bank to the amount of %20,000. The latter instantly interrupted
him in the host impudent manner, saying, “No, sir, that is not true, for the sum waa
E20,406 !” ‘‘ Then,” replied Mr. Smyth, “the less I lie.” Mr. Smellie bound him over to keep
the peace towards all his Majesty’s subjects, and in‘particular towards Mr. Smyth. It is believed
he kept his promise. * Afterwar& Sheriff of Lanarkshiie, and author of the valuable and popular Histories of the French
Revolutiou and Europe.
The behaviour of Mackcoull was impertinent in the extreme : he stared at the judges with
matchless effrontery. His agent, Mr. Jamieson, observed to him, that no man but himself could
have acted as he had done in Court. Mackcoull, it is said, felt miwh pleased at this compliment.