William Mackay, porter in the Canongate of Edinburgh, called in and sworn.

William Mackay — I was employed as a watch to guard the Excise Office when it was kept in Chessels’s Buildings, and upon Wednesday, the 5th day of March last, I went to the office at the usual hour, which was a little before ten o’clock at night. I found one of the leaves of the outer door open, and the passage door and the door of the cashier’s room also open; and upon making this discovery I went to Mr. Dundas, the housekeeper’s, and inquired of the maid who had been last at the office, as the doors were open. The maid answered John Duncan, the last witness, had left it about a quarter after eight o’clock. Mr. Dundas’s son, hearing me make this inquiry, asked what was the matter. When I told him that the door was broke open, he said, “Then, something worse is done.” Immediately Mr. and Mrs. Dundas and the whole family went into the office with me and examined the cashier’s room; we found all the desks and presses broke open, and the coulter of a plough, and two iron wedges, lying in the room; and we likewise found a spur in the hall, with part of the leather of it torn. Mr. Dundas immediately sent me for Mr. Alexander Thomson, the accountant. I found Mr. Thomson, and he returned with me to the Excise Office. [Here the witness was shown the coulter of the plough, the two iron wedges, and the spur.] These are the same articles which I saw in the Excise Office. [The counsel for the panels here repeated the objection against adducing the coulter and two wedges, as mentioned in the general objection and interlocutor before taken down.]