It will be recollected that the indictment embraced three distinct classes of alleged forgeries--the excerpt charter of _Novodamus_, the Le Normand packet, and the De Porquet packet. To establish the "using" and "uttering" of these instruments, evidence was given of their having been adduced, on the part of the prisoner, in the various Scottish courts in which he had from time to time asserted, and endeavoured to maintain his claims. Lord Cockburn's important judgment of the 10th December 1836 was also put in evidence, as were also the examinations of the prisoner, some of his correspondence, and the instruments charged by the indictments to be forgeries. Let us take these latter in their order; and-- I. THE EXCERPT CHARTER OF _Novodamus_ OF THE 7TH DECEMBER 1639. Was this a genuine or a forged document? The acute and learned scrutiny to which it was subjected elicited remarkable and most decisive results. We know a little more than was disclosed to the Court--namely, that the mysterious discovery of this "excerpt" was communicated to the prisoner from Ireland by his indefatigable agent, Mr Banks, on the 17th March 1829. All that was proved before the Court was, that the prisoner delivered it in that year to his law-agents, who immediately commenced proceedings in the Scotch courts to "_prove its tenor_." Let it be observed, that "this most suspicious scrap of writing," as the Solicitor-General styled it,[16] professed to be only an "excerpt" of a lost charter of King Charles I., dated the 7th December 1639--not an entire copy, but only "an abridged copy;" and the exigencies of the prisoner's case had required that _that_ identical excerpt should have been in existence at least as long ago as the year 1723,[17] since it bore an indorsement[18] by "Thomas Conyers," attesting its authenticity, dated the 10th July 1723. It will be impossible, however, to appreciate the force of the delicate but decisive evidence brought to bear upon this unlucky document, unless we have a distinct idea of the different stages of progress through which a royal charter would have to pass in the year 1639. They were explained at the trial by several learned and experienced officials; and we have taken some pains to clear away technicalities, and present their evidence briefly and popularly. The stages, then, through which a royal charter had to pass were three. [16] Swinton, p. 196. [17] _Ante_, p. 470, _et passim_. [18] _Ante_, p. 474.