Part 31
As none of my relations can stand being present at my dissolution, I humbly request that your Lordship will permit ---- to attend, it will be some consolation in my last hour; and that your Lordship will please give orders that my body after be delivered to ---- and by no means to remain in goal; that he and my friends may have it decently dressed and interred. This is the last favour and request of
Your most obedient, but most unfortunate, WILL. BRODIE.
About eleven o’clock the chains which had been on Mr. Brodie’s legs since his condemnation were taken off. He was then visited by a few select friends, with whom he conversed with the greatest composure.
About one o’clock he ate a beef-steak and drank some port wine, and during this last repast he made some ludicrous remarks to Smith.
At two o’clock the guard marched up and surrounded the place of execution, at the west end of the Luckenbooths, and soon after the captain on duty informed the magistrates, in the Council Chamber, that all was ready. The magistrates then put on their robes of office; with white gloves and white staves, and followed by the clergymen in black gowns and bands, proceeded from the Council Chamber to the prison, attended by the proper officers.
At two o’clock a message came from the magistrates that they were in waiting, upon which Mr. Brodie said he was ready. He accordingly went downstairs, insisting that Smith should go first. Upon passing the room that Bruce and Falconer were in he took his farewell of them through the grate of the door, observing that, as His Majesty had given them a respite of six weeks, he did not doubt but he would at last grant them a pardon. When he entered the west stair a glass of cinnamon water was given him by some of his friends, with whom he still conversed most familiarly.
The magistrates reached the scaffold about ten minutes after two. The two senior magistrates only attended, as the other two gentlemen in the magistracy happened to have been on the jury of the unfortunate criminals; and in this singular case it was certainly a very becoming delicacy to excuse their attendance.
About a quarter past two the criminals appeared on the platform. When Mr. Brodie came on his scaffold he bowed politely to the magistrates and the people.
Brodie, at the first view of the immense multitude of spectators and the dreadful apparatus, said, “This is awful!” On passing a gentleman he asked how he did, and said he was glad to see him. The gentleman answered he was sorry to see Mr. Brodie in that situation. Brodie replied, “It is _fortune de la guerre_.”
Brodie had on a full suit of black, his hair dressed and powdered; Smith was dressed in white linen with black trimming. They were assisted in their devotions by the Rev. Mr. Hardie, one of the ministers of the city, and the Rev. Mr. Cleeve, of the Episcopal, and Mr. Hall, of the Burgher persuasion. They spent some time in prayer, with seeming fervency. Brodie knelt, laying a handkerchief under his knees. He prayed by himself, nearly as follows:--“O Lord,-I acknowledge Thee as the Great Ruler of the world; although I lament much that I know so little of Thee, This much, however, I know, that Thou are a merciful God, and that, as I am a great sinner, Thou wilt have mercy upon me, through the merits of Thy Son Jesus Christ. O Lord, receive my soul! Into Thy hands I resign it. Amen.”
When the devotions were over the great bell began to toll at half-minute pauses, which had an awful and solemn effect. When the executioner proceeded to bind his arms, Mr. Brodie requested that it might not be done too tight, as he wished to have the use of his hands, at the same time assuring his friends that he should not struggle. The criminals put on white night-caps; and Smith, whose behaviour was highly penitent and resigned, slowly ascended the platform, raised a few feet above the scaffold, and placed immediately under the beam where the halters were fixed. It is said Brodie tapped Smith on the shoulder, saying, “Go up, George; you are first in hand.” He was followed by Brodie, who mounted with alertness, and examined the dreadful apparatus with attention, particularly the halter designed for himself, which he pulled with his hand. It was found that the halters had been too much shortened, and they were obliged to be taken down to alter. During this dreadful interval Smith remained on the platform trembling, but Brodie stepped briskly down to the scaffold, took off his night-cap, and again entered into conversation with his friends, till the ropes were adjusted. And though the dreadful moment of death was thus prolonged, he did not complain, but apologised himself by saying that it was on a new construction, and wanted nothing but practice to make it complete. He then sprang up again upon the platform, which was raised much higher than on former executions, but the rope was still improperly placed, and he once more descended, showing some little impatience, and observed that the executioner was a bungling fellow, and ought to be punished for his stupidity--but that it did not much signify.
Before he ascended the platform the last time he was addressed by his fellow-sufferer, George Smith; they then shook hands, and parted. Having again ascended, he deliberately untied his cravat, buttoned up his waistcoat and coat, and helped the executioner to fix the rope. He then took a friend, who stood close by him, by the hand, bade him farewell, and requested he would acquaint the world that he was still the same, and that he died like a man. Then pulling the night-cap over his face, he folded his arms, and placed himself in an attitude expressive of firmness and resolution. Smith (who during the interruption, had been in fervent devotion), soon after the adjustment of the halters, let fall a handkerchief as a signal, and a few minutes before three o’clock the platform dropped, and they, were launched into eternity, almost without a struggle.
The crowd of spectators within the street, in view of the place of execution, it has been calculated, could not have been less than 40,000, great numbers having come from all parts of the country. Luckily no accident of any consequence happened, which was much to be feared from the greatness of the crowd. One of the city officers fell from the platform to the top of the building where it was erected, and was considerably cut and bruised, but we hear not dangerously.
Brodie neither confessed nor denied the crime for which he suffered. To a gentleman who visited him the day before the execution, he said he thought it was hard to suffer for such a paltry sum, and appealing to Smith, he said, “George, it was not more than four pounds a piece.” Smith answered he did not think it was so much, but he (Brodie) should know, for he counted the money.
Smith, with great fervency, confessed in prayer his being guilty and the justice of his sentence.
Much anxiety was shown that Brodie’s body might not be detained in prison, and after the magistrates retired a vein was opened. It is said other means of recovery were used after it was taken away, but the neck was found to be dislocated.
Thus fell William Brodie, a just sacrifice to the laws of his country, and whilst we lament his fate we cannot but admire that impartiality, that integrity with which justice is administered; for however great, respected, or exalted the culprit, it affords no shield to protect from punishment or save from disgrace. This feeling would here suggest to bury with his bones his crimes, his follies, and his errors; and whilst we profit by his example, we cannot but lament how improperly those abilities were applied which might have done an honour to himself and family. His untimely fate claims the tribute of a tear, for if those who possess fortitude, courage, benevolence, and humanity claim our admiration, such was William Brodie.
APPENDIX XVI.
THE OLD EXCISE OFFICE.
(From the _Daily Review_ of 24th January, 1873.)
One after another houses rich in historical associations and of a character that rendered the Old Town of Edinburgh remarkable, are being swept away by our Improvement Trustees. Their disappearance, while undoubtedly required for the sake of the sanitary welfare of their neighbourhoods, must excite in the minds of many a twinge of regret on several accounts; and as in the case of remarkable men, we cannot suffer their removal from the places that knew them so long to take place without directing attention to their distinctive features and history.
A tenement that would be a fit subject for antiquarian research is being levelled with the ground at present in the Nether Bow. It was one of the finest specimens of a class of houses which extended nearly the whole length of the High Street in former times--having wooden fronts projecting four or five feet in front of the masonry, thus giving the erection a more pasteboard appearance than the labourers who pull them down find to be in reality the case. While glass was still a luxury, and light to be enjoyed had to be sought for outside the dwelling, the old Edinburgh citizen, when building his house, took care to erect in front of its windows a wooden balcony, resting on sturdy pillars, that rose to the edge of the roof. Thus a piazza was formed on the ground floor under which the wares of the shop-keepers of the period were exposed, and a series of galleries above, where the burghers would step out from their houses of an evening to enjoy the air, and particularly the light, while watching the passers-by below, and where their children would play when the rain made the street not so agreeable for that purpose. In course of time, when glass came generally into use, the front of these balconies was boarded up and pierced with windows, and in many cases the shops below advanced a step, so as to keep flush with the frontage above. Hence the singular appearance of many of these tenements. Of this class was the old Excise Office. Its front was somewhat ornamental. Neat wooden pilasters divided the windows from each other. At its eastern corner, immediately below Baron Grant’s Close, an outside stair that projected into the street before the alteration we describe led to a spiral stair, over the door leading to which was the pious inscription, “Devs Benedictat,” and the date 1606. From this it would seem that the building was anything but new when taken possession of by the Hanoverian Excisemen. It is probable that it lodged more gentle persons and people who were held in better estimation than the officials that were regarded as the detested fruit of the Union. They took possession of the premises soon after that event in our history, stuck up the Royal arms on the face of the building, and set themselves to levy duty on the merchandise that entered the city by its principal gate, the Nether Port, the then direct avenue from the neighbouring seaport. Since George the Second’s reign the Excise Office has had many a shift, and the building in Nether Bow many other strange occupants. While the character of the latter has been steadily declining, the prosperity of the Excise has been as uniformly increasing. The office was shifted to a more commodious house in the Cowgate, pulled down subsequently for the southern piers of George IV. Bridge; then to a house in Chessel’s Court, in the Canongate, where the notorious Deacon Brodie committed his great robbery; next to Sir Lawrence Dundas’ mansion in St. Andrew Square; afterwards to Bellevue House, in Drummond Place, since pulled down; and subsequently to where it is now. Two closes passed underneath the old Excise Office tenement; one was Baron Grant’s Close, and the other Society Close. The Baron’s fame has not descended to these days, and his name only lives on the wynd that once was his. But the other close has had rather a remarkable history. On its west side there was a curious old house with the following inscription over its main door:--“R. H. Hodie mihi eras tibi cur igitur curas.” The date was obliterated by time. A curious turnpike stair led to the flats above. The tenement was the property of Aleson Bassendyne, the famous old Scottish topographer, who issued, in 1574, a beautiful folio Bible. The close at first bore his name; subsequently it was called after a Baron of Exchequer belonging to the house of Panmure, and last of all Society Close, from the circumstances that in a large stone mansion which the judge occupied, at the foot of the close, was afterwards housed the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge founded in 1701, and erected into a body corporate by Queen Anne. There were many other buildings in the narrow wynd of great age and much interest, but they have been swept away. Now that these buildings have been removed, the obstruction presented to the traffic of the street by John Knox’s house and church is more observable. But we would suffer much greater inconvenience ere we consented to the removal of the house of our venerable Reformer.
APPENDIX XVII.
AN ACCOUNT OF THE PROCEEDINGS AGAINST JOHN BROWN _alias_ HUMPHRY MOORE AT THE OLD BAILEY IN APRIL, 1784.
Humphry Moore was indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 5th of February last, twenty guineas, value £21, and four pieces of foreign gold coin called doubloons, value £14 8s., the property of John Field, in the dwelling-house of John Brown.
The material circumstances of this case, as they appeared in evidence, were as follow:--The prosecutor, John Field, was walking along James Street, Convent Garden, when a person unknown joined company with him, and soon afterwards picked up a purse which was lying at a door. The prosecutor was persuaded to go to a public-house with him, being told that he was entitled to half the contents. From one end of the purse the stranger produced the following receipt:--“Feb. 2. 1784.--Bought of William Smith, one brilliant diamond-cluster ring, value £210, and received at the same time the contents, in full of all demands, by me, William Smith;” and from the other end he pulled out the ring itself. In the course of the conversation the prisoner entered the room, praised the beauty of the ring, and offered to settle the division of its value. Upon the stranger’s lamenting that he had no money about him, the prosecutor said that he had forty or fifty pounds at his lodgings at Chelsea. “That sum will just do,” said the prisoner. A coach was immediately called, and all three were drawn to the prosecutor’s lodgings. The prosecutor and stranger went into the house, leaving the prisoner at the Five Fields, and they afterwards joined him at the Cheshire Cheese. The prisoner said, “I will give you your share of the ring if you will be content until to-morrow.” The prosecutor put down twenty guineas and four doubloons, which the stranger took up and carried away, leaving the ring with the prosecutor, and appointed him to meet next day to have the money returned and £100 for his share of the ring. The prosecutor attended the next morning at the place of appointment, but neither of the parties came. The ring was of a very trifling value.
The jury were of opinion that the prisoner was confederating with the person unknown for the purpose of obtaining the money by means of the ring, and did therefore aid and assist the person unknown in obtaining the twenty guineas and four doubloons from the prosecutor. They accordingly found him guilty of stealing, but not in the dwelling-house subject to the opinion of the twelve judges whether it was felony.
* * * * *
Mr. JUSTICE WILLES (after stating the indictment and the circumstances that appeared in evidence, proceeded thus)--This matter was submitted to the opinion of all the judges, the first day of last Michaelmas term, except Lord Mansfield, who was absent, and they all agreed in the distinction between the parting with the possession and the parting with the property; that in the first case it was a felony, and in the last case it was not. Nine of the judges were of opinion that in this case possession only was parted with, it being merely a pledge, till the supposed value of the ring was delivered. Two of the judges thought that the doubloons were the same as money, and were of opinion it was a loan, and was a parting with the property; but nine of the judges were of opinion it was felony, and the judges could not distinguish this from the following case of the King and Patch. The prisoner was indicted for stealing a watch and some money. He picked up a ring and a purse in the street, and, pretending he had found it, offered to divide the money with the prosecutor, and opening the purse there was a ring and bill of parcels, stating the ring to be a diamond one, of £147 value, and a receipt for that sum. Different modes were proposed for the distribution; at last the prisoner asked the prosecutor if he would give him his money and watch and take the ring? Two other men that were in company took up the watch and money, and the prisoner got the prosecutor out of the room, under pretence he had something particular to say to him, and the two men ran away with the watch and money. The prosecutor was uneasy, and the prisoner said he knew the two men. The prisoner was apprehended, and the ring was found to be of the value of 10s. only. It was objected by the counsel for the prisoner that it was not a felony. But Mr. Justice Gould, Mr. Baron Perryn, and Mr. Justice Buller held it should be left to the jury to say what was the intention of the prisoner to get the money and watch, for if the whole was a scheme of the three men, it was felony, according to the case of the King and Peers, where a horse was hired for the day by two men who went directly and sold him; and Mr. Justice Gould left it to the Jury whether the prisoner and the other two men were not all in concert together. Upon the whole, therefore, of your case the majority of the judges are of opinion that you are guilty of the felony, and not merely of a fraud, and that judgment must be passed upon you accordingly.
* * * * *
Mr. RECORDER--Humphry Moore, when upon your trial I reserved this case; it was not from any doubt of your guilt, but doubting whether it was of that kind to support the indictment. That doubt has been submitted to the opinion of all the judges, and a great majority of them have concurred in opinion that the indictment was sufficiently supported, by the circumstances given in evidence against you. I never entertained any doubt that the offence of which you was clearly proved to be guilty, was deserving of as high a punishment as any felony committed under similar circumstances. If, therefore, no doubt in point of law had occurred I should have passed sentence upon you, to be transported for seven years. No reason occurs to me now for changing that opinion of your offence, but as the necessity of laying your case before the judges has occasioned some delay since your conviction, I shall take care the term of your transportation shall be computed accordingly. Therefore the sentence of the Court is, that you, Humphry Moore, be transported beyond the seas, for the term of seven years from the time of your conviction, to such place or places as His Majesty, by the advice of his Privy Council, shall think fit to direct or appoint.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See Appendix I., Note 1.
[2] See Appendix I. note 2.
[3] See Appendix I. note 3.
[4] See Appendix I. note 4.
[5] See Appendix I. note 5.
[6] See Appendix I. note 5.
[7] See Appendix I. note 6.
[8] See Appendix I. note 7.
[9] See Appendix I. note 8.
[10] See Appendix I. note 9.
[11] See Appendix XVII.
[12] See Appendix I. note 10.
[13] See Appendix I. note 11.
[14] See Appendix I. note 12.
[15] See Appendix I. note 13.
[16] See Appendix I. note 14.
[17] See Appendix I. note 15.
[18] See Appendix I. note 16.
[19] See Appendix I. note 17.
[20] See Appendix I. note 18.
[21] See Appendix I. note 19.
[22] See Appendix I. note 20.
[23] See Appendix I. note 21.
[24] See Appendix I. note 22.
[25] See Appendix I. note 23.
[26] See Appendix I. note 24.
[27] Now the Head Office of the Royal Bank, St. Andrew Square.
[28] See Appendix I. note 25.
[29] The title of this member was Sir Nun and Abbess.
* * * * *
Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:
I am informed, are £50 per cent. dearer in America than here.=> I am informed, are 50 per cent. dearer in America than here. {pg 155}
be said that this cricumstance renders his evidence=> be said that this circumstance renders his evidence {pg 187}
was born on 5th January, 1759,=> was born on 5th January, 1719, {pg 226}
hatto & Windus=> Chatto & Windus {pg 237}
shall lead to a discoving=> shall lead to a discovering {pg 253}
to transporation seems strongly=> to transportation seems strongly {pg 272}
with him on their own own business=> with him on their own business {pg 260}