intervention or direction of a person high in office; but he does not consider himself at liberty to be more particular, because he can only form a supposition on the subject, though he believes it to be correct: That he wrote a letter to Mr Thomas Thomson, clerk of Session, stating that he believed that, if a commission was granted to examine evidence in France, he could prove in whose possession the map was before Mademoiselle received it; but he declines to mention names at present, because he is only making inquiries That Mademoiselle le Normand did not say whom she suspected to have had the map previously to her getting it. being shewn five letters, addressed to Lady Stirling, dated 11th June, 13th August, 30th November, 1838, 8th January, and 4th February, 1839, declares, That they are letters from Mademoiselle le Normand to Lady Stirling: That they all came by post, except the one dated in January, which his son Charles brought with him from Paris. They were in his house when he was taken into custody That the markings on the back are in his hand-writing, and shew the dates of his receiving and answering them, and the numbers within parentheses denote the numbers of the letters which he has written to Mademoiselle le Normand since he came from France. And being shewn another letter to Lady Stirling, dated 9 January, 1839, declares, That it is a letter from Mademoiselle le Normand to Lady Stirling, and is a letter which he gave to his agent Mr Lockhart. And being shewn translations of letters bearing to be from Mademoiselle le Normand to the declarant, dated 26th September, 17th October, and 26th November, 1838, 9 January, 1839, and 8 November, 1837; and translation of a letter from her to Lady Stirling, dated 18th October, 1837, declares, That Lady Stirling and he received from Mademoiselle le Normand the letters from which those translations were taken; and the translations were taken for the use of counsel, and were in his repositories when he was taken into custody. And being shewn copy of a letter from Mademoiselle le Normand to the declarant, dated 19 April, 1838, declares, That he received the principal letter from Mademoiselle le Normand. Interrogated where are the principal letters from which the translations and the copy before referred to were taken, declares, That he supposes they must be either in his house or in the hands of Mr Lockhart: That his papers are in confusion in consequence of his having frequently turned them over in looking for different papers: That after a letter from Mademoiselle le Normand was copied or translated for the use of counsel, the original was laid aside as of no farther use, and little care was taken of it, especially as Mademoiselle le Normand's hand is very difficult to be read; and the declarant's attention being called to the letter of 8th January, 1839, declares, that it was delivered to him by his son on his return from France in its present form. And being interrogated with regard to the meaning of the following passage: Seulement ⚫ on a decouvert l'homme du quai. On vient le faire partir pour l'Ecosse. Il declare que voila 18 mois il a vendu une carte du • Canada a un Anglais qui plusieurs fois est venir chez lui. On lui a dit le reconnaitrez vous. Je le crois,' declares, That his son and friends had been making inquiry for a man of the description referred to, who was alluded to by the Lord Advocate at the declarant's examination in the Court of Session, under the name Leguix, and Mademoiselle communicates the information, that such a person had been discovered: That the declarant never heard of such a person until he was alluded to by the Lord Advocate at the declarant's examination. And his attention being drawn to the letter of 4th February, 1839, declares, That the marking on the back of it, Monsr. T.' is a marking by him, to put him in mind that he had received a letter from Monsieur Triboul by desire of Mademoiselle le Normand, communicating some similar information; but he does not know where that letter is now. And his attention being drawn to a passage about the middle of the first page of that letter, declares, That that passage merely contains an intimation of reports, which Mademoiselle le Normand had heard of persons boasting in Paris that he should be arrested, and a caution to the declarant's wife, as a friend, to destroy any papers which might be prejudicial to the declarant's interest; and declares, That that is a very natural caution for a French woman to give, because the seizure of papers is a very common step of procedure in France, when proceedings are instituted against any person. But he did not think it possible that such a proceeding, or criminal proceedings of any nature, should be instituted against him in Scotland; and, therefore, he treated the intimation with levity, being conscious of his innocence: That neither he nor his family, in so far as he knows or suspects, destroyed or put away any papers or correspondence connected with the law-suit, or with Mademoiselle le Normand's assistance in the matter; and he has no suspicion of Mademoiselle le Normand having done so. And being shewn a paper entitled, Extrait ⚫ de l'acte sous seing privé entre Mele Marie Anne Le Normand, 'auteur libraire, proprietaire et Alexander Comte de Stirling,' declares, That it is in his hand-writing, and was made in Paris from the agreement between him and her long before the map was discovered; and he thinks about the beginning of his last residence there. Interrogated, declares, That he was at Boulogne, and other towns in the coast of France, in eighteen hundred and thirtyfour, but he was not in Paris; and he declares, That although he did not see Mademoiselle le Normand between eighteen hundred and fifteen and eighteen hundred and thirty-six, and although Lady Stirling saw her only in eighteen hundred and twenty-two, the two ladies carried on a friendly correspondence by letter, and Mademoiselle thought proper to make remittances from time to time to accommodate Lady Stirling; declares, That he does not think the correspondence on that subject has been preserved; and, if it had been, he did not think it would have been proper to produce it. Declares, That he has not given any money to Mademoiselle le Normand since the recovery of the map; but he sent a small sum of ten or twelve pounds sterling by his son, Charles, to her, to reimburse her for trifling advances she had made in procuring articles for him. Declares, That he has purchased prints of portraits in a shop on the Quai Voltaire; but he does not know by whom it is kept: That he did not purchase or inquire for a map of Canada when in France, and did not employ any person to do so for him, and does not know of any person having done so. And being interrogated, and being shewn a copy of an address, bearing to have been issued by the declarant to the inhabitants of Nova Scotia and Canada, of date 28th October, 1831, declares, That he issued an address about that time which was printed; and a copy of it was sent to the Government of this country, and he did so by the advice of counsel, or other professional men; but he cannot say whether the copy shewn him be a correct copy of that address: Interrogated, declares, That he opened an office in Parliament Street, London, to receive offers for the purchase of lands in Canada; but he does not remember whether that was mentioned in the address. Interrogated, declares, That he does not recollect whether, when he was in France, he wore hair on his upper lip. The writings shewn him in the course of this examination are marked as relative hereto. And all this he declares to be truth. AT EDINBURGH, the sixth day of March, eighteen hundred and thirty-nine years, In presence of George Tait, Esquire, Sheriff-substitute of Edinburghshire, COMPEARED ALEXANDER EARL of STIRLING, at present a prisoner in the gaol of Edinburgh; and the caution at the commencement of the declarations emitted by him in presence of the Sheriff-substitute, on the fourteenth and eighteenth days of last February, being repeated, and those declarations being read over to him, and he being interrogated whether he adheres thereto, he declares, That, by his agent's advice, he declines to answer any questions. And being interrogated whether he knows that a process or processes of proving the tenor were raised before the Court of Session at his instance against the Officers of State and others in eighteen hundred and twenty-nine, or eighteen hundred and thirty, declares, That he declines to answer any questions. And being shewn a paper purporting to be, Excerpt Carta de Novodamus Willielmi Comitis de Stirling Comitatus de Stirling,' &c.; and being interrogated whether he was ever in possession of that paper, and whether it was produced for him in either of the processes of proving the tenor before referred to, or authorized it to be so produced, declares, That he declines to answer any questions. The paper referred to is marked as relative hereto. And being interrogated whether he ever saw that paper before, and whether he knows how it was obtained, declares, That he declines to answer any questions. And the declaration being read over to him, and being interrogated whether it is correctly taken down, declares that it is. HIGH COURT OF JUSTICIARY. MONDAY, APRIL 29, 1839. THE COURT MET AT HALF-PAST TEN O'CLOCK. PRESENT. LORDS MEADOWBANK, M'KENZIE, MONCREIFF, COCKBURN. Counsel for the Crown.- ANDREW RUTHERFURD, Esq. Lord Advocate; JAMES IVORY, Esq. Solicitor General; COSMO INNES and ROBERT HANDYSIDE, Esquires, Advocates Depute; DAVID CLEGHORN, Esq. W.S. Agent. Counsel for the Pannel. PATRICK ROBERTSON, ADAM ANDERSON, and JOHN INGLIS, Esqs.; HENRY MAXWELL INGLIS, Esq. W.S. Agent. The pannel took his place at the bar, accompanied by Colonel D'Aguilar, Deputy Adjutant General to the Staff in Ireland. Colonel D'Aguilar remained with him during the whole period of the trial. The indictment having been read, to which the pannel pled "Not Guilty," the following jurymen were sworn to pass on the Assize: Robert Hogue, dentist, Hill Street. Adam Burn, coach-lace-maker, Dublin Street. Thomas Young, merchant, Bank-house. 5 George Hogarth, accountant, Torphichen Street. Thomas Malcolm, pianoforte-maker, Drummond street. James Torry Douglas, general agent, John's Place. 10 Robert Gray, farmer, Badpark. John Gilbert, pawn-broker, Coatfield-lane. |