Lord Meadowbank. - The 29th of the month is the only day which the Court, consistently with its duties, can fix. Solicitor General.-There are but six Judges in the Court, and I can only have such a Court as there is now, and we must make some allowance in case of accidents. Lord Moncreiff-You have sufficient time for preparation,— three weeks from the time your counsel and agent left London for Paris. Lord Meadowbank.— Well, delay it till the 29th. Mr Robertson.—I do not mean to press the right, if I have the right, for a landed Jury. I shall take a common Jury. Solicitor General. - Your Lordship will pronounce the interlocutor with respect to the relevancy of the indictment, in respect of the prisoner having waived his privilege as a landed man. Mr Robertson. I do not know if I have the privilege. Lord Moncreiff Counsel declares that he does not mean to ask for a landed Jury. Solicitor General. The time of this delay, being created by the prisoner, is to be deducted from the time allowed for the running of the letters. Mr Robertson. Certainly. Lord Meadowbank. - There are a multiplicity of documents referred to, and it may be necessary for the Counsel for the prisoner to have copies made for themselves at the office; or it may be necessary for the Judges to attend at the office to make themselves masters of the purport of the documents before the trial. The Crown will have no objections, I presume, to furnish for the prisoner's Counsel whatever copies of the documents they may deem necessary. I mean to ask for copies of those papers, and it is proper that this should be done with the knowledge of the prisoner's Counsel, or to go to the office to inspect them. There can be no objections, I presume, to that? Mr Robertson. No certainly. The most of them are printed, a great many of them were printed for the civil case. Perhaps the Crown may make a reprint of the whole. Solicitor General.—I have no objections to make a reprint of whatever may be deemed necessary. Mr Robertson. A minute ought to be lodged on the part of the Crown, in regard to documents in the Register office, which we cannot bring here. Lord M'Kenzie. And also to give access to such docu ments to the prisoner's Counsel and agents at all convenient times. The following additions to the ordinary interlocutor were then read: 3d April, 1839. Thereafter, and in relation to the motion of adjournment made in the defences, to which the Public Prosecutor states no objection, the Lords continue the diet against the Pannel till the 29th day of April current, at 10 o'clock forenoon, and ordain all concerned then to attend, each under the pains of law, it being expressly declared, on the motion of the Solicitor General, and with the consent of the Pannel and his Counsel, that, as the motion for delay proceeded from the Prisoner, and was granted for his accommodation, the period of adjournment shall not be reckoned in the running of the letters of intimation. Farther, the said Lords ordain the Pannel, in the meantime, to be carried to and detained in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh. (Signed) A. MACONOCHIE. The names of the common Jurymen were called over, to prevent any mistake, and were summoned apud acta to attend on the 29th April. INDICTMENT. ALEXANDER HUMPHREYS or ALEXANDER, pretending to be Earl of Stirling, present prisoner in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, you are Indicted and Accused at the instance of JOHN ARCHIBALD MURRAY, Esquire, her Majesty's Advocate, for her Majesty's interest: THAT ALBEIT, by the laws of this and of every other well governed realm, FORGERY; as also the wickedly and feloniously USING and UTTERING as genuine, any FORGED DOCUMENT, knowing the same to be Forged; as also the wickedly and feloniously FABRICATING FALSE and SIMULATE WRITINGS, to be Used as Evidence in Courts of Law, and so using the same as genuine; as also the wickedly and feloniously USING and UTTERING as genuine FABRICATED, FALSE, and SIMULATE WRITINGS, knowing them to be Fabricated, False, and Simulate, by producing the same as Evidence in Courts of Law; are crimes of an heinous nature and severely punishable: YET TRUE IT IS AND OF VERITY, that you, the said Alexander Humphreys or Alexander, are guilty of the said crimes, or of one or more of them, actor, or art and part: IN SO FAR AS you, the said Alexander Humphreys or Alexander, having formed the fraudulent design of procuring yourself to be recognized as Earl of Stirling in Scotland, and of obtaining certain great estates or territories in North America and Scotland, with the pretended right of conferring the honours and bestowing the titles of Baronets of Nova Scotia, as being the representative, and entitled to the honours, privileges, and estates of William First Earl of Stirling, and of procuring loans or advances of money from ignorant and credulous persons, on the faith of your being entitled to those estates and privileges, as you falsely represented, (1.) you the said Alexander Humphreys or Alexander did, in pursuance of the said fraudulent designs, At some time and place to the Prosecutor unknown, wickedly and feloniously forge, fabricate, and simulate, or cause and procure to be forged, fabricated, and simulated, a document or writing in the terms set forth in the Appendix No. I. hereto annexed, or in similar terms; and which, being translated into English, is of the same or similar tenor, import, and effect, as the translation set forth in the Appendix No. II. hereto annexed, which forged, fabricated, and simulate document or writing was intended by you to pass for, and be received as, an ancient and authentic excerpt, or abridged copy or abstract, of an alleged charter of novo damus by King Charles the First, in favour of the said William First Earl of Stirling; and you did, then and there, forge and fabricate, or cause and procure to be forged and fabricated, on the back of the said document or writing, a certificate or docquet in the following or similar terms: -"Excerpt from the original charter to William Earl of Stirling, 7 Dec. 1639;" and you did, then and there, wickedly and feloniously forge and adhibit, or cause and procure to be forged and adhibited to the said certificate or docquet, the letters T. C. meaning the same to pass for, and be received as, the genuine subscription of Thomas Conyers of Catherlough in Ireland, or of some person to the Prosecutor unknown, or of a fictitious person: FURTHER, you, the said Alexander Humphreys or Alexander, having, on or about the 12th day of October, 1829, raised an action in the Court of Session against Dr John Watts and William Alexander Duer, in which compearance was afterwards made for His Majesty's Advocate for His Majesty's interest, for proving the tenor of the said alleged charter of novo damus; you did, within the Register House of Edinburgh, or within the Parliament House of Edinburgh, on the 18th day of January, 1830, or on one or other of the days of that month, or of December immediately preceding, or of February immediately following, wickedly and feloniously use and utter as genuine the said forged, fabricated, and simulate document or writing, having thereon the said forged and fabricated certificate or docquet and subscription, you well knowing the said document or writing, and certificate or docquet, and subscription, or one or other of them, to be forged, fabricated, and simulate, by then and there delivering the same, or causing the same to be delivered by the hands of Ephraim Lockhart, writer to the signet in Edinburgh, your agent, or some other person to the Prosecutor unknown, to John Morrison, then and now or lately Assistant-Clerk of Session at Edinburgh, or to some other person in the offices of the Clerks of Session to the Prosecutor unknown, in order to its being produced as an adminicle of evidence in the said action of proving the tenor; and it was so produced accordingly: LIKEAS, (2.) the said action of proving the tenor having thereafter been dismissed by decree, dated on or about the 4th day of March, 1830; and you having, on or about the 1st day of September, 1830, raised an action of reduction-improbation and declarator in the Court of Session against William Cuningham Cuningham Graham of Gartmore; and you having thereafter, on or about the 2d day of September, 1830, raised in the said Court another action of proving of the tenor of the same alleged charter of novo damus against the said William Cuningham Cuningham Graham of Gartmore, and the Officers of State, and others, you did, within the said Register House or said Parliament House of Edinburgh, on the 17th day of November, 1830, or on one or other of the days of that month, or of October immediately preceding, or of December immediately following, wickedly and feloniously use and utter as genuine, the said forged, fabricated, and simulate document or writing, having thereon the said forged and fabricated certificate or docquet and subscription, you well knowing the said document or writing, and certificate or docquet and subscription, or one or other of them, to be forged, fabricated, and simulate, by then and there delivering the same, or causing the same to be delivered by the hands of the said Ephraim Lockhart, or some other person to the Prosecutor unknown, to the said John Morrison, or to some other person in the offices of the Clerks of Session, to the Prosecutor unknown, in order to its being produced as an adminicle of evidence in the said last mentioned action of proving of the tenor; and it was so produced accordingly: And the said last mentioned action of proving the tenor was also dismissed by decreet, dated on or about the 2d day of March, and 2d day of July, 1833: LIKEAS, (3.) you, the said Alexander Humphreys or Alexander having, in pursuance of your said fraudulent designs, procured yourself to be served heir in general of William the First Earl of Stirling, by a service expede in the Court of the Bailies of the Canongate, and retoured on or about the 11th October, 1830, and likewise to be served heir in special of the said William Earl of Stirling, in certain lands, continents, and islands in North America, by a service expede in the Court of the Sheriff of Edinburghshire, and retoured on or about the 2d day of July, 1831, and likewise to be infeft in the said lands, continents, and islands, by a sasine taken at the Castle of Edinburgh, on or about the 8th day of July, 1831, in virtue of a precept issued from the Chancery, proceeding on the retour of the said special service; and an action of reduction-improbation having been raised against you and Thomas Christopher Banks, on or about the 16th day of January, 1833, at the instance of the Officers of State for Scotland, for reducing, inter alia, the brieves and retours of the said general service, and special service, and the precept of Chancery and infeftment following thereon; and the record having been closed, and the said last mentioned action of reduction-improbation having come on to be debated before Lord Cockburn, Lord Ordinary; and his Lordship having, on or about the 10th December, 1836, pronounced an interlocutor appointing the cause to be enrolled, which was accompanied by a note, intimating his Lordship's intention of decerning against you in the said last mentioned action of reduction-improbation, in terms of an interlocutor, the draft of which was lodged with the clerk along with the draft of a relative note, which intention so intimated was subsequently carried into effect by interlocutor pronounced on or about the 20th December, 1836, to which was affixed a note of the same date; and having stated in the said draft note, as also in the note affixed to the interlocutor of 20th December, 1836, that the evidence for proving your alleged pedigree was unsatisfactory, defective, and insufficient, especially as to two descents there specified; you, the said Alexander Humphreys or Alexander, having formed the fraudulent design of fabricating and producing forged, false, and simulate documents or writings, which might be received as evidence in the said last mentioned action of reductionimprobation, and might supply the defects pointed out by the Lord Ordinary, and otherwise support the allegations made by you in your defence; and having proceeded to Paris, you did, within the house situated in the Rue de Tournon, at Paris, then and now or lately occupied by Marie Anne Le Normand, bookseller or fortune-teller there, at some time or times between the 21st day of December, 1836, and the particular time or times being to the Prosecutor unknown, or at some other time and place to the Prosecutor unknown, wickedly and feloniously forge and fabricate, or cause and procure to be forged and fabricated, upon the back of an ancient map of Canada, a writing in the following or similar terms :- |