Stirling peerage

38 INTRODUCTION.
evidence who Mr Lyltleton was, or that he ever
copied any inscription. Further, Mr Humphrys returns
to Ireland for support of the monumental inscription,
where his views are again promoted by the veracious
Mrs M'Blain, the value of whose testimony has already
been disposed of.
The residue of IMr Humphrys' evidence is on a par
with that which has been specially discussed. It is
all, as John of Antrim might have said, " mere blar-
ney;" and the acute and perspicuous note appended
by Lord Cockburn to his interlocutor in the process of
reduction, 20th December, 1836, (Appendix, No. III.)
affords a distinct view of the stratum whereon these
Chateaux en Espagne are based- The Officers of State
properly maintain that the whole writings are forged,
and that no monument or inscription ever existed.
After the very specific judgment of the Lord Ordi-
nary, it might have been prudent Iiad jNIr Humphrys
either reclaimed from it, resting his case on the same
material, or else succumbed quietly to the decision,
although adverse. But that hallucination which seems
frequently to attend claimants to dormant titles — Sir
Egerton Brydges, for example — impelled him, in No-
vember, 1837, to lodge a minute in process, narrating
the recent " discovery " of a variety of documents
" which tend very materially to strengthen the evi-
dence of propincjuity, in regard to the two descents
referred to by the Lord Ordinary," and which docu-
ments he desired might be tendered as evidence in the
case. This minute, with relative copies of the said
documents, forms Appendix, No. IV.
To this minute answers were given in for the Officers
of State, (Appendix, No. V.) in which they denied the
validity of these documents, objected to their being