It is not my duty to report
the trial for any newspaper; I will therefore spare myself
more than the most general references; but the facts
undoubtedly were that a safe in the strong room of the
bank had been opened between certain hours on a certain
night and its contents abstracted; that young Ormiston,
cashier of the bank, was sleeping, or supposed to be
sleeping, upon the premises at this time, during the
illness of the junior whose usual duty it was; and that
the Crown was in possession of certain evidence which
would be brought forward to prove collusion with the
burglary on the part of the defendant, collusion to cover
deficits for which he could be held responsible. In a
strain almost apologetic, Mr Cruickshank explained to
the jury the circumstances which led the directors to
the suspicion which they now believed only too regrettably
well founded. These consisted in the fact that the young
man was known to be living beyond his means, and so to
be constantly visited by the temptation to such a crime;
the special facilities which he controlled for its
commission and, in particular, the ease and confidence
with which the actual operation had been carried out,
arguing no fear of detection on the part of the burglars,
no danger of interference from one who should have stood
ready to defend with his life the property in his charge,
but who would shortly be seen to have been toward it,
first, a plunderer in his own person, and afterward the
accomplice of plunderers to conceal his guilt.
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