VI. Forming the inscription on the tombstone of John of Antrim,[39] whom it stated to be "the best of husbands, the most indulgent of fathers; as a friend warm, sincere, faithful; a man of such endowments, &c.; and universally respected for his piety and benevolence." But what was vastly more to the purpose, as far as concerned his descendants, he was also the only son of the Hon. John Alexander! who was the _fourth_ son of William Earl of Sterline! and "married Mary, eldest daughter of the Rev. Mr _Hamilton_ of Bangor," by whom he had issue a son, _John_, who "at this present time is the Presbyterian minister at Stratford-on-Avon, in England." There could not be a doubt as to these facts, seeing that a certain "W. C. Gordon, junior," of Stratford-on-Avon, certified, on the margin of a copy of the inscription, that it "was a faithful copy!" Here, however, occurred a somewhat disagreeable fact. The figure "7" in the date, "Oct. 6th, 1723," was originally a figure "8" [_i. e._ 1823] "made into a 7." This swore Mr Lizars; on which "_a juryman_ asks, Has there been an _erasure_?--_A._ No. It has been a different figure, corrected, and made into a 7. _Lord Meadowbank._--Look at it again, Mr Lizars. Are you sure it has not been a blot? _The witness_, (having carefully examined the document with a glass.)--No, my lord, it, has been decidedly a figure. There are both the top and middle of a figure here, my lord." [39] See it _in extenso, ante_, p. 486. Such were the documents indorsed on and attached to the map of Canada; and a perusal of them suggests a few questions. _First_, According to them, the original charter of the 7th December 1639 was, in the year 1702, in Acadia, "in the archives there." How did it get thither, and why was it sent? According to another part of the prisoner's case before the Lord Ordinary, the first Earl, grievously dejected by the death of three of his sons, and fearing, from the declining health of two of the survivors, that his honours might, at no distant period, pass to a collateral branch of the family, obtained the new charter in question in 1639. This charter conveyed large estates in Scotland as well as in America: "but," as Lord Meadowbank observed, "while the former were within reach, and easily accessible, those in Canada and the State of Maine, being" [_then_, _i. e._ "in 1639, the original grants having been made in 1626 and 1628] "in the hands of the French, were altogether out of the reach of the grantees. In these circumstances, you are required to believe that the Earl, in place of retaining this charter in Scotland, and getting it recorded and perfected _there_, where he might have got something by it, carried it to Canada, and had it recorded, where he could get nothing; and where, except as a matter of curiosity to men like Monsieur Mallet and his friend Lacroix, it was altogether a piece of waste paper.... I again put it to you, is it credible that, if the Earl had really got such a