Stirling peerage

STVLINO HIMSELF EARL OF STIRLING. 131
Application was made by the crown, that a scientific gentle-
man should be called in, to make certain experiments in
regard to these documents, to shew whether they had been
tampered with, or whether the ink in whicli they are written
was different in its composition from ordinary ink. I want
to know whether my learned friends have any objections to
lei him have these documents for the purpose of experi-
menting on them.
Mr Robertson. — I was not aware that any motion of this
kind was to be made to your Lordships.
The Court. — We have authorized experiments to be made
on the stomach of a person said to be poisoned, and what
objections can there be to allow the documents to be experi-
mented upon in a way not to injure them.
Mr Robertson. — I must oppose this motion. I do not
know the ground on which that is asked : nor do I know the
particular case to which you refer.
The Lord Advocate. — If you place the documents to be
operated on under the care of an oflBcer, can there be any
objection ?
Mr Robertson. — The proposal is, that two scientific gentle-
men shall take with them two of the documents, — my learned
friend said the charter and the map which contains all the
French documents, — charter No. 1, and French documents
on the back of the map, nine in number, in all ten documents.
The map and charter, that is to say, what contains nine
documents. A great deal of the evidence, some of which we
have already had, turns on the appearance of the document
itself, — on the shade and colour of the ink : we have already
had evidence on these ; we may have other evidence for the
prisoner. And I must say, that if you begin chemical expe-
riments on these documents, which may alter the appearance
of the documents, this appears to me to be a proposition
for which there is no authority, and which is not consistent
with the rules of justice, as applicable to such a case. They
charge us with the direct act of forgery of all these docu-
ments ; they are to prove the forgery. A great part of the
evidence, as yet, arises from the appearance of the documents
themselves. Certain I am, we are prepared with other evi-
dence on the appearance of these documents ; but how it is to
turn out if the whole appearance of the document is changed,
no man can tell : the very authenticity of the document may
be entirely obliterated by the experiments to be carried on.
Lord Moncreiff. You do not mean to say this is the first