Stirling peerage

STYLING HIMSELF EARL OF STIRLING. 183
You found sulphuric acid in that paper, and sulphuric
acid in other old paper ? Yes.
Was there a difference in the nature of the colouring
matter in the old paper that you tried, and that which you
got from the Court ? I saw no chemical difference in the
colouring matter.
Had you applied the same tests to other old paper ? Pre-
cisely the same.
Juryman. — Would peat smoke give it its present colour ?
I am not prepai'ed to answer that. I never saw it tried.
Do you think it might ? It possibly might, and it might
not.
By Solicitor General. — Explain the process you followed.
I first used the ordinary tests, and found that all papers are
pretty nearly the same. I tried bleaching, and found it easier
than in some old papers, and not so easy as in others. I
macerated it, and boiled it, and satisfied myself by the usual
tests.
James Watson. Interrogated by Mr Innes. — You are
sheriff clerk for the county ? I am.
You are aware that a warrant was granted by the sheriff to
search for documents in the prisoner's house immediately after
his apprehension ? Yes.
Did you go in person to see it executed ? I did.
Did you obtain the prisoner's keys ? I found him in the
dining room at breakfast.
WTiat day ? 14th February.
Had you authority to get his keys ? One of the party, I
think, had authority to get them. I got certain keys from
the prisoner's wife and from his sons, and opened some of the
drawers, and a portable writing desk, and some other lockfast
places, and found some papers in them which I carried away.
Are these the papers ? (From 40 to 33 of productions,
being a correspondence between Mad. Le Normand and the
Earl and Countess of Stirling, from 1 7th October, 1838, to
4th February, 1839, inclusive.)
The Court. — Such of them as you found upon you must
read.
Mr Innes. — You saw markings in red ink on them ? Yes,
numbers.
Look at No. 40, a paper entitled, " Translation of M^"'
Le Normand's letter to the Earl of Stirling, dated 17th Oc-
tober, 1838," (No. 40 of Productions.) Look at 4L (The
2 U