Stirling peerage

84 TRIAL OF ALEXANDER HtlMPIlRYS, OR ALEXANDER,
[Part of No. 4 of Inventory of Productions.]
EXCERPTS from LETTERS from Mu Eugene Alexander to
the Eakl op Stirling.
London, April 22c?.
26.
My dear Father,
I have your 24.
At 1/4 to seven to-night I write a few hasty lines to say, that
I received . . . new evidence yesterday, and ever since have
been so occupied as not to be able to do any thing — not write a
letter. It contained four documents, and a beautiful portrait of
John of Antrim. I shall write on Monday full particulars.
Your affectionate Son,
(R. 24th.) E.
London, April 23d, 1837.
No. 27.
My dear Father,
You will receive my 26 of yesterday with the
great news of the new evidence. I now proceed to give you full
particulars. I received your last (24.) on Friday morning, and
went to Golden Square to see W. Pearson and Angela. It was
on m}' return home that I called at De Porquet & Co. about
2 o'clock, when the young man at the counter said, that they had
received a packet by the 2d post about an hour before 1 called,
which he put into my hands. It was directed to Messrs De Por-
•quet & Co. 11 Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London. They
had opened it, and found the following note, with another packet
addressed ' The Right Hon"' the Earl of Stirling. The Note was
as follows in a Lady's hand without disguise. ' Mrs Innes
Smyth's Compliment,' &c. (here the note is copied.) 1 took the
packet, with the cover, and note to De Porquet, just as they
received it, in my pocket. Upon getting home, and taking off the
cover to De Porquet, I read again the note, and examined the
packet addressed to you. I sat to consider what I would do. It
all at once struck me that I would go before a magistrate or some
other public functionary, to have his testimony of being present at
the breaking of the Seal. I then went to Mr Lockhart (who is
living close by me, having taken lodgings in Surrey Street) and
consulted with him. He highly approved of my idea, and advised
me to go to our Sol" Fennell and Vaux, and ask them, as English
lawyers, whether it was the proper mode of proceeding to go to a
magistrate. I saw Fennell ; and, after long debating, he said that,
never having had any thing similar to it before, he really did not
know what to advise. It was too late that night to get any thing