John Duncan, door-keeper to the Excise Office, Edinburgh, called in and sworn.

John Duncan — I have been in that office for thirty-seven years. The doors of the Excise Office, when it was kept in the Canongate, were usually locked by me about eight o’clock at night, and I carried the key immediately thereafter to the housekeeper. A watch was set to guard it about ten o’clock, and the night watchman went away about five in the morning. I remember to have locked the door on Wednesday, the 5th of March last, about a quarter after eight o’clock in the evening, and I gave the key to one of Mr. Dundas, the housekeeper’s, maid-servants. The cashier’s room lay within the outer door, which I had locked, as before mentioned, and it had a double door.

Cross-examined by Mr. Clerk, for George Smith — Pray, sir, was the Excise Office kept in one or in two houses?

John Duncan — The Excise Office was kept in a large house; but there was likewise a small house fronting and adjoining the great one, in which Mr. Broughton’s office and the Register of Seizures were kept. There was no communication from the one to the other without going out to the open air, and the whole were in one court, inclosed by a parapet wall and iron rail.