Volume 1

Letters to the Right Honourable Lord Mansfield. From Andrew Stuart, esq. [On the Douglas Peerage Cause.] / [Andrew Stuart].

  • Andrew Stuart
Date:
[1773]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Letters to the Right Honourable Lord Mansfield. From Andrew Stuart, esq. [On the Douglas Peerage Cause.] / [Andrew Stuart]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    56/208 (page 12)
    C « ] / The judgment mu ft be employed in difcerning the truth or falfehood of the capital affertions, by attending to the credibility and confiftency of the different parts of the ftory, as told by the witnefs himfelf, and to the ve¬ racity and charadler of the witnefs in other refpedts 5 fe- condly, by comparing the capital affertions with the ac¬ counts received from other witneffes, who could not be ignorant of the fame fadts, if true ; and laftly, by bring¬ ing the whole to the tell of a comparifon, with the known and admitted fadts in the caufe. To purfue, at prefent, thefe three branches or modes of inveftigation, would carry me into too extenfive a field, and might prove tedious both to your Lordfhip and to myfelf: it may the more eafily be difpenfed with, as fo wide a range is, in this cafe, totally unneceffary for the purpofes of convidtion. The two laft of the three branches above-mentioned, will be more than fufficient for this purpofe, and therefore to thefe I (hall confine myfelf, though it is with fome re¬ luctance I leave behind me fuch inviting materials as thofe pointed out in the firft branch, where there is ample fubjedt for gaining a vidtory, upon the ground alone of the incredibilities and inconfijlencies in the capital ftory afferted by Menager, and upon the falfehoods and cha¬ radter of this witnefs, in other refpedts. The materials there, are in fucb abundance, that, to do juftice to that branch alone, would confume much time, and might perhaps damp the attention, before arriving at thofe proofs of Menager’s falfehood, which are free from the poflibility of cavil, and which are of fuch a nature, as to be palpable and convincing to every mortal, whether accuftomed to the rules of evidence or not. In \ 1