writing by resemblance are worth little—in a criminal case, nothing."[1]
One of the Logan letters which was alleged to have been written in July, 1600, specifies "extirpating of our names" as a necessary consequence of treason; whereas the abolition of a surname—a family or clan name—was introduced in November, 1600, by special parliamentary enactment in the case of the Earl of Gowrie and his brother. The recurrence of such a proceeding in 1603, in the case of the Clan Gregor, would be apt to make a person writing the Logan letters in 1608 forget that the extirpating a family or clan name was not a matter of course, and even forget that in July, 1600, it was unprecedented.
The writer of these letters never names any conspirator but the Earl of Gowrie and "M. A. R." [Mr. Alexander Ruthven], sometimes "Mr. A. his lo-brother," and in letter fourth to the Earl of Gowrie "M. A. your lo-brother." The letters, five in number, are all professedly written by Logan. The first, third, and fifth letters are "to. . . ." and all commence with the words "Right
- ↑ Best on Presumptions of Law and Fact, p. 233.
