Why is it impossible to produce it?—I will tell you why. After the letter was returned to me, I took no further notice of it. I put it into a drawer; but I know no more than his Lordship what is become of it; I looked for it on the Thursday morning before I came, but I could find no scraps of it. I was not able to find it.
Then you were wholly unable to find it?—I was.
By Lord Ellenborough.—Did you search diligently to find it?—I did, indeed, my Lord.
By Mr. Marryatt.—Are you convinced there was no name to it?—I am.
Are you acquainted with Mr. Church’s hand writing?—I have seen his writing, and I have seen it written in a different hand: not always alike, but sometimes very different: not to say exactly two different hands, but such a difference in the same hand writing, that you would hardly think it was the same. I have seen it so different, at times, that I should not at all times think it was the same.
Upon receiving the letter in question, whose hand writing did you believe it to be, and state it to be?
Mr. Gurney.—I submit to your Lordship, that this is not a legal question.
Lord Ellenborough.—It is not evidence of the fact: but it is a proper question to refresh her recollection, as to whether she did not receive a letter which she believed to be the hand writing of the defendant.
By Mr. Marryatt.—Whose hand writing did you think that letter to be?—I rather think it was Mr. Church’s, but I could not be positive, as there was no name to it.
Do you now believe that letter to be Mr. Church’s writing.—I cannot say whether it was or was not. It is not in my power.